Water filters???

Just wondering what company makes the best water filters, regardless of price.
I've long had a good eye towards MSR's products, as they seem welldesigned.
Any input from the pros?

------------------
Regards
Joshua "Kage" Calvert

"Move like Water, strike like Thunder..."
 
W

Walks Slowly

Joined
Dec 3, 1999
Messages
40
I know this doesn't answer your question, but I have pretty much given up on water filters. They clog too easily. You have to sit there and pump for what at least *seems* like an awful long time. They are bulky to pack and carry. They drip on your other gear. They are relatively expensive. Their only advantages, it seems to me, are that the water they produce does not taste like iodine, and you do not have to wait twenty minutes before you can drink the water.

What I use is a little glass vial with iodine crystals and water in it. I carry the vial in a small leather case I made for it, with a thong that can either go around my neck or hang from my backpack. One capful of water will kill protozoa, bacteria, spores, and viruses in a liter of water. Then I fill the vial with water again, and I am ready for the next use. It will last forever -- or at least what is as good as forever when you're my age. The two disadvantages are that the water it produces tastes like iodine, and I have to wait twenty minutes before I can drink the water.

The first is not a problem for me. I really don't mind the taste; in fact, I have come to find it somewhat reassuring. Since I am not drinking the water constantly over a long period, I do not worry about excessive iodine intake. And remember that, if you want a filter that kills viruses, it has to have an iodine impregnated matrix anyway. Finally, if the taste bothers you, ascorbic acid -- that's right, vitamin C -- will take away the iodine taste. Pour a little orange juice in the water and you won't taste the iodine.

OK, I do have to wait twenty minutes. :-) And I do have to remember to rinse the screws on my water bottle with the treated water.
 
I am in 100 percent agreement with everything Walks Slowly posted. Matter of fact, I have come to enjoy the taste of iodine. A few coffee filters to get the large chunks out (if necessary) and iodine beats water filters everytime in my opinion. It also packs up smaller and lasts a lot longer...and there's no moving parts.

Jeff

------------------
Randall's Adventure & Training
jeff@jungletraining.com
 
The Polar Pure works real well, but I find the bottle a bit bulky. I use a little glass vial I found, just a bit less than 1" x 3". I can carry it easily around my neck on a thong. You can get iodine crystals at most drug stores, I would guess. You can steal them from a kid's chemistry set. I guess you could even break open the Polar Pure bottle. I believe Chris Nyerges sells sets of small bottles and iodine crystals for around six bucks. Yup, I found it. Here it is : http://www.self-reliance.net/ogs4.html. Definitely worth it, because it will last forever.

As Jeff knows, there are places in the Amazon where the river water is *clearly* polluted with human waste, and where a filter would not work, because the water is too silty to be pumped. Only iodine will work, after you filter out the big stuff through your handkerchief. You close your eyes, hold your breath, and drink. :-)
 
I'm also in agreement. I love the taste of Iodined water. At first, I was totally neutral about it. But after some of my horror stories, I have come to really love it... it tastes like... LIFE! You know you're desperate when you can't afford to wait the 20 minutes (only happened once).

My only problem with Iodine tablets is that it is a limited resource. In a survival situation, you will have to eventually find an alternative. That is the advantage of a water purifier.

What are these Iodine crystals mentioned? Are they different from tablets? How is it "they will last forever?" My tablets are one per quart of water. I can easily drink 2.5 gallons of water a day out in nature, which is 10 tablets. Therefore I can survive a month on 300 tablets. Anything more long term and I would be in trouble.

Opinions?
 
LtUSMC,

Iodine crystal like the ones used in the Polar Pure bottle are "the real Mccoy" just a pure crystal form of Iodine not the Tetraglycine Hydroperiodide that they use in the small pills like "potable Aqua" and then such a "pill" only contains 16.7% of the above stuff.

The PURE Iodine crystals in a bottle like Polar Pure "dissolve" verry slowly and only a tiny little bit when you fill the bottle with water, because the water gets saturated with Iodine just up till the saturation point (Chemical wisdom
wink.gif
) and you use that to pour into your poluted water.

This way a small bottle of polar pure will provide enough Iodine solution to clean several thousand gallons of poluted water.

So forget about the "pills" get Iodine crystals and your settled for life.

Best scouting wishes from Holland,

Bagheera

------------------
 
Ahh... I think I get it now.

So what you're saying is that you keep a little container permanantly filled with Iodine crystal(s), therefore keeping that water saturated with Iodine. Then you add that water to the unclean water. And this is enough Iodine to clean out the dirty water? The earlier poster said he carried a 1" by 3" vial. I think there are 2.54cm in an inch, so that would be roughly 40mL of water.

Is adding 40mL of Iodine saturated water enough to purify a liter of water?? That's a ratio of 1:25!

Also, how long does the process take? Is it 20 minutes for the 40mL to purify the 1L? And how long does it take the 40mL to become saturated? Is it also orange in color, or is that just the cheap additives from the Iodine tablets I'm used to?

Thanks! I'm excited by this idea.
 
Polar pure is a good thing (I have several bottles stored in vehicles, house, bug-out-bag, etc.). One bottle will treat about 500 gallons. The one good thing about polar pure over a plain bottle with iodine crystals is there is a crude thermometer that tells how many cap-fulls of saturated solution to use per quart of water. The amount of iodine that is absorbed by the water in the bottle (soluability) depends on temperature. I think polar pure trys for a dosage rate of 4ppm which is enough but not too much to cause problems. The bottle has a collar inside to keep raw iodine crystals from being poured out with the saturared solution. Drinking an iodine crystal is very bad medically so the collar feature (and the temp guage) makes the bottle worth its bulk. You could replace the iodine crystals if the original are used up. The bottle is the special item. That is my chemical treatment option.

My water filter is a Katadyn Combi filter. It is a high quality ceramic filter with an optional charcoal prefilter cavity. The replacable charcoal is only good for 30-50 gallons but the ceramic element is good for thousands of gallons. I use the charcoal if there is any chance of chemical/pesticide contamination otherwise I leave the charcoal "chamber" empty. The charcoal is ordinary aquariam "activated charcoal" and is excellent for absorbing nasty chemicals. The ceramic element is more likely to be cracked than worn out from cleaning it; I've got an extra ceramic element. I have an adapter to use the filter on a normal household faucet for those times when local "boil orders" are issued. No pumping required since municipal water pressure pushes water through the filter. I could also dip into the several hundred gallons of water I keep stored in 55 gallon water barrels. My response depends on the situation.

REI (www.rei.com) has a good comparison of different water filters although their prices are high. Check ebay if interested in a katadyn filter. Several dealers were selling them at wholesale or less (probably bought a bunch for Y2K and they didn't sell). I bought the combi filter, extra element, and faucet adapter for $150 total; the combi filter itself normally sells for $160-200.

slayer

[This message has been edited by Slayer (edited 08-24-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Slayer (edited 08-24-2000).]
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top