Water boil "how long to be safe"

texastonydobbs

texastonydobbs

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I am always hearing different amounts of time that water needs to be boiled to kill disease organisms. Recently I perused various publications put out by the government and trusted health organizations. What is glaringly obvious is they disagree on the length of time water should be boiled to make it safe to drink.

Common water boiling times that are stated include:

“Boil water for 10 minutes” is a common statement
“5-minutes of boiling” is also frequently heard
“Boil the water for 20 minutes”. Would there be any left?
“A rolling boil for 1 minute”. Is it enough?
“When at high altitudes you need to boil water for twice as long”
Modern filtering devices and the chemical treatment of water come in a poor distant second to the ancient and almost foolproof method of boiling water to make it safe to drink.Which of the above statements are true? None. That’s right. Following any of the above advice for the boiling times of water is a big waste of fuel (and a waste of water if you are short on water cannot afford to lose any to evaporation).

Throughout the world whole forests have been cut down for firewood in order to boil drinking water. Hikers and mountaineers have used up precious fuel boiling water for inordinate amounts of time. In a survival situation you cannot afford to waste valuable resources and energy. With all the bad advice around, many thousands of trees and other fuels and a huge amount of effort have been wasted.
Correct Water Boiling Time
whole forests have been cut down for firewood in order to boil drinking waterThe correct amount of time to boil water is 0 minutes. Thats right, zero minutes.

"According to the Wilderness Medical Society, water temperatures above 160° F (70° C) kill all pathogens within 30 minutes and above 185° F (85° C) within a few minutes. So in the time it takes for the water to reach the boiling point (212° F or 100° C) from 160° F (70° C), all pathogens will be killed, even at high altitude."



"What is not well known is that contaminated water can be pasteurized at temperatures well below boiling, as can milk, which is commonly pasteurized at 71°C (160°F)...".



What is not well known is that contaminated water can be pasteurized at temperatures well below boilingThe fact is, with a water temperature of 160 to 165 degrees F (74 C) it takes just half an hour for all disease causing organisms to be inactivated. At 185 degrees this is cut to just a few minutes. By the time water hits its boiling point of 212 F (100 C) - plus or minus depending upon pressure or altitude - the water is safe. Even at high altitudes the time it takes for the water to reach a rolling boil and then cool means you can safely drink it.

Lacking a thermometer to measure water temperature, you only need to get your water to a rolling boil. By that point you know the water is hot enough and that the disease organisms in your water were destroyed quite some time earlier. End of story, turn off the heat. Stop wasting fuel. Let the water cool down. Your water is safe to drink!
 
Good post. I'm very interested to hear what the others have to say here.
 
Thanks ,I to am interested ....to hear..nothing worse than contaminated water and getting sick or the drizzling sh*ts because of unsafe water ....
 
I learned about this a decade ago... and have never had a problem with water using this process.... The boil for ten, twenty... whatever minutes is just a gross over exageration stemming from an "old wive's tale" so to speak. It is basic science and biology, brutha!

Ps.... Throw a little black charcoal from the fire in there too.. you won't taste it and it removes many chemical polutents and detoxifies the body in the process.

Rick
 
excellent post, i will keep this in mind in the future. i know that it will save me plenty of time sitting around waiting for water to be clean enough to drink...
 
+1, get it to a rolling boil to be safe. I have seen recommended times of a half hour. Thats 30x the fuel! Mac
 
The Wilderness Medical Society, and many other medical associations, are constantly changing their opinions about this. You need to assume the worst-case scenario in survival. I disagree completely with the assessment they gave above. I fully agree with what Marty Simon says on his site:

" Water Purification

Recently it has come to my attention that a lot of schools are teaching that to purify water it is only necessary to bring the contaminated water to a boil and then it is safe to drink. I completely disagree with this. A couple of years ago Cornell U. in New York did a paper on Giardia and the findings were that some Giardia cysts could live up to 9 minutes at a rolling boil. I wouldn't want to take the chance. That's why I recommend the 10 minute boil. If you can bring it to a boil then go all the way. Getting sick in a survival situation can be a killer.

UPDATE: Recently I read a new study dated September 5, 2006 that stated there are some highly toxic spores that can survive extended boiling but if you boil the water for 10 minutes with a lid on the pot you can kill these spores. By leaving the lid on you increase the temperature above 212 degrees. Please be careful, do not have a tight fitting lid as this can create too much pressure and you could have serious burns from steam pressure."

You can find this excerpt here:
http://www.weteachu.com/newsletter.htm

Also, Cryptosporidium is even more resilient than Giardia.
 
You're welcome, Tony. If you wait a week between readings, the same organizations release a new study contradicting the findings of their last week's study.

Always plan for the worst possibility. Murphy's Law always rears its ugly head at the worst times. Never when it's easy.
 
And for this very reason...(that certain bacteria can even live after boiling) I simply carry a water purifier or a purification straw. :D
 
What can you believe?.....

I was told that once water reaches the boiling point it remains at the sterilizing temp long enough to kill anything.... but I also realize that there are creatures in the sea, that live in the boiling waters of volcanic springs.

I haven't had a problem... but I may just be lucky...

Web searches are futile.... too contradictory as Brian pointed out.

What the hell is with Giardia and Cryptosporidium??? those resiliant bastards!!!!!
 
When the late, great Errol Flynn was working on one of his last films, "The Roots of Heaven," in Africa, he notes in his autobiography that all the cast and crew got sick from drinking the local water--except himself, as he only drank Smirnoff vodka.

Moral of the story--you may die of dehydration, but you'll die smiling.

Sorry for the thread drift. This has been a fascinating discussion that brought out the coyote in me.
 
TIZWIN said:
When the late, great Errol Flynn was working on one of his last films, "The Roots of Heaven," in Africa, he notes in his autobiography that all the cast and crew got sick from drinking the local water--except himself, as he only drank Smirnoff vodka.

Moral of the story--you may die of dehydration, but you'll die smiling.

Sorry for the thread drift. This has been a fascinating discussion that brought out the coyote in me.
Click to expand...

No worries, I enjoyed your post! :thumbup:
 
A thread drift is good from time to time.....breaks up the "do I boil for 10 minutes or 30 minutes with or without lid scenario"... LOL !
 
In the dental field they always taught 10 minutes to sterilize instruments in boiling water. In modern sterilizers that use pressurized steam the kill time at the boiling point is 3.5 minutes but it takes both the temp. and the pressure to kill. When you don't have the pressure you do it ten minutes.

Chemical pressurized sterilizers like the Chemiclaves are still a 3.5 minute kill time under pressure. Of course the total time in cycle for both steam and chemical sterilizers is more than 3.5 min. They take a while to build up to temp. and pressure and that can make the entire process longer than boiling them in water but with a shorter kill time once its up to the right temp. and pressure. Hope that all makes sense.

STR
 
Magnussen said:
What can you believe?.....
What the hell is with Giardia and Cryptosporidium??? those resiliant bastards!!!!!
Click to expand...

Here's the thing. Take into account mutation of so many bacteria and viruses. I've seen studies showing that the anti-bacterial hand-gels and laundry-detergents are making things worse: large enough amounts are showing up in streams, etc., and the overuse is making bacteria mutate into stronger "versions."

The whole boiling scenario will be constantly in flux, and as the germs mutate and become more resistant, the rules for us will also have to change.
 
There are bacteria, spores, and viruses that can survive autoclaving. 30 minutes at 120C and 18psi above atmospheric pressure.
 
In the past I have always used a combination of boiling/filter/purification tabs. It sounds like alot but its quite simple. I use the filter to get the water out of the fast moving part of the river/stream. Then I put the tabs in the bottle and go hike some more. When it comes time to cook my food(usually dehydrated) I boil the water so I can eat. The water to drink cold would be cleaned 2x and the food/tea/coffee water would be cleaned 3x. It might be too redundant but its not really that hard and I would rather enjoy the outdoors then be constantly running for a tree to hide behind. I realize that carrying a filter might be too heavy for some so the process would lose one filter method but would still be overly safe.

As far as how long to boil the water I usually did it for 5-10 minutes but I guess I'm gonna start doing it for 10.
 
I use Polar Pure when I can't boil because I must stay on the move to stay one-step ahead of two-legged threats.

I use Polar Pure AND boiling otherwise.
 
great thread. I've always boiled water for "a few minutes", never really taking the time to determine exactly how many minutes it has been boiling, and I've never had a problem. But here's the thing, I only boil water if I have a camp or cooking fire already going, otherwise it gets filtered. The only time I've ever been sick from drinking water was because of iodine that was left in by one of my old filters, found out i'm pretty sensitive to iodine.
 
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