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Advice on water filter systems

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mikedefieslife

Tenderfoot
Apr 8, 2014
59
0
EU
I'm soon to be off in some very remote and isolated places. At times I'll be 3 days ride from civilisation, and can only carry so much bottled water. This led me to look at water filters.

It's on thing that I just don't know anything about.

I'll probably carry some water purification tablets in my emergency stash but have also been considering the the Water to go system (available on-line or in Boots).

It looks pretty simple, filters 200l per cartridge and seems to be very well tested.

What are your thoughts?
 
If I'm using a filter and not sterilisation I would always go reverse osmosis pump. Filters particles and bacteria BUT and it's a big but wouldn't filter waterborne viruses. Same as survival straws. By all means use the filter, but I would boil or chemically sterilize it too
 
My advice is always use chemicals or boil, as contaminating water isn't particularly difficult, and just a little juice from something rotting I'd enough to ruin your time. As for the water to go it seems pretty handy as it attemts to remove all the chemicals and sediments. Remember that in Spain you can't drink the tap water purely because you are not used to the minerals there in!
 
The thing that interested me about the water to go system is that it does filter virus and has been highly tested (The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and BCS Laboratories)
 
petrochemicals said:
My advice is always use chemicals or boil, as contaminating water isn't particularly difficult, and just a little juice from something rotting I'd enough to ruin your time. As for the water to go it seems pretty handy as it attemts to remove all the chemicals and sediments. Remember that in Spain you can't drink the tap water purely because you are not used to the minerals there in!
Click to expand...

I drank the tap water in Spain when I was there earlier this year. No problems.

Morocco, was a different story. Bottle water all the way.
 
I've become very attached to my Lifesaver bottle, filters everything out i have drank water wherever i find it with it and i've not once been ill, never seen the Boots one, do you have a link?
 
Just had a look at the water to go systems, nice and cheap if they really work that's a bargain
 
Very quick summary - hope it is useful....

Water contamination can be simply divided into 3 categories:

• Particulates
• Biological (Bacteria, viruses, parasites, etc)
• Chemicals and heavy metals

The standard methods of water treatment are as follow:

• Straining
• Boiling
• Distillation
• High efficiency filtration
• Chemical treatment
• Reverse osmosis

Particulates can be removed by collecting water careful without disturbing the sediment - or if the water is turbid, by simply straining through a cotton T shirt, sock or specialist device like a millbank bag.

Biological contaminants , from a practical point of view could be considered in terms of their size as particle size ultimately affects the efficacy of the ‘shop bought’ filtration systems.

1 to 2 microns and bigger can be filtered out by devices like those made by lifestraw, Sawyer, katadyne & MSR. These types of filter are affective against most bacteria and parasites such as ecoli, salmonella, cryptosporidium etc

Virus are commonly sub 1 to 2 microns and, in general, filtration systems struggle to remove them.

Chemical treatment such as Chlorine dioxide tablets are affective against most viruses (as well as bacteria and protozoa) and so where there is high risk of viral infection or you want to sterilise large quantities of water (e.g. 30 litres) quickly, they are very useful. Don’t taste great, but effective.

Boiling is affective against viruses, bacteria & protozoa but not chemicals or particulates

Chemicals and heavy metals are not filtered out using ‘ceramic’ and ‘fine pore’ filtration systems, however those using activated charcoal do have some ability to remove a wide range of chemicals – even some in solution.
In practice however if you are not drinking from the same source for very long you are unlikely to be adversely affected by chemical pollutants (unless their concentration is exceptionally high).

It is good practice to combine a couple of techniques together in areas where water quality is suspect e.g. filter out the sediment using a T shirt and then boil/treat with chlorine dioxide tablets.

My choice for an exped? Bearing in mind I don’t know where you are going or how many you are treating water for)

1. Cotton T shirt
2. Sawyer filter or katadyne / MSR pump filter
3. Boil

I recommend you watch MCQbushcraft’s latest video - it should answer many questions regarding kit
 
Water to go is great - the only 'but' is that you fill the bottle and then drink from it - it's not really suitable for a lot of people for cooking, cleaning or drinking - you can squeeze the water out but it takes for ever and it's not what the bottle is designed for. If they've designed one which is intended for these things then it could be great - I've used it all over the world to great effect.
 
Some good youtube clips there and some good advice.

I'll be headed to South America. In particular the Bolivian Altiplano, Chilian Altiplano and then into Patagonia. Obviously I won't be filling up from laguna colorada, Laguna Verde, or Laguna Blanca :)

Thinking more about tap water from hotels hostels, and streams and lakes when up in the andes.

I'll be on a motorcycle and doing some hard offroad (in terms of time, not so technical), so space and weight need to be limited. Bearing in mind that in some areas I'll have to carry an additional 15 litres of fuel.

Lizz said:
Water to go is great - the only 'but' is that you fill the bottle and then drink from it - it's not really suitable for a lot of people for cooking, cleaning or drinking - you can squeeze the water out but it takes for ever and it's not what the bottle is designed for. If they've designed one which is intended for these things then it could be great - I've used it all over the world to great effect.
Click to expand...

Yeah filling the bottle you drink from isn't great if in a dirty stream since at least one of your hands will be covered in contaminate crap and where are you going to wash it, and the outside of the bottle is going to be permanently dirty. Of course you can use a separate container to fill from streams.
 
mikedefieslife said:
Some good youtube clips there and some good advice.

I'll be headed to South America. In particular the Bolivian Altiplano, Chilian Altiplano and then into Patagonia. Obviously I won't be filling up from laguna colorada, Laguna Verde, or Laguna Blanca :)

Thinking more about tap water from hotels hostels, and streams and lakes when up in the andes.

I'll be on a motorcycle and doing some hard offroad (in terms of time, not so technical), so space and weight need to be limited. Bearing in mind that in some areas I'll have to carry an additional 15 litres of fuel.



Yeah filling the bottle you drink from isn't great if in a dirty stream since at least one of your hands will be covered in contaminate crap and where are you going to wash it, and the outside of the bottle is going to be permanently dirty. Of course you can use a separate container to fill from streams.
Click to expand...

If the water is reasonably clear you may want to consider one of the UV sterilisers like the Steripen quick, easy and safe. I haven't heard much about reverse Osmosis for an expedition. I have hand pumps in some rafts, it's pretty heavy and it takes an hour to make a litre and needs lots of looking after not really what you want on a holiday. The lifesaversytems bottles are really good for more extreme conditions but a pain to drink from and heavy.
 
The honest answer is "It depends".

Where are you going? This will dictate to you what the best options are for water treatment.

In areas where I am reasonably happy that there is no chemical contamination (i.e. no industrial/agricultural runoff), I am happy to use a sawyer mini to filter everything.

If there is a risk of viral contamination, I will add an Oasis Chlorine dioxide tablet post filtration.

If the water is very cloudy, I have a billbank[1] bag as a pre filter stage before it goes through the sawyer.

I am pondering adding an activated carbon stage post sawyer filter to deal with a certain amount of chemical contamination.

Where you are going and what the expected weather is going to be will also dictate your options. In Kent today, even tho I'm just mooching around at home, I've drunk in excess of 5 litres of water. When you get to those quantities, some of the mechanical systems become a right pain.

Good luck.

J

[1] Millbank bag clone made by Bilmo-P1 of this parish.
 
Motorbike trip, suggesting you'll be on roads/tracks, which in turn suggests you'll be in populated areas (may be sparsely populated and isolated, but with road access anyways).

South American Andes, when high up and out of towns the streams will generally be reasonable quality.

Hmm.

Yeah, I'd say the simple cheap bottle filter is the way to go, it will also be nifty and discreet to use on the move and in guest-houses, etc.

As a back-up and when you're in the bush, take some normal chlorine tablets or the more effective chlorine diox tablets and consider locally buying a pack of cheap paper coffee filters.

I'd also recommend one or two fold-up 2-litre Platypus bottles to stash your overnight water when camping, it reduces your packed bulk and is the only 'taste-free' flexible bottle that I've found.

http://www.backpackinglight.co.uk/hydration/PB103-4.html
 
I've got a 3l hydration pack that used in Morocco (with bottle water). Bizarrely riding off road there I never drank more than 2 litres whilst riding, and that was 35c plus and some 8 hour rides. That being said I drank a lot before leaving and a lot afterwards.

I bought the water-to-go bottle, I figured I can use it at home (I don't like the Norfolk tap water) and when out playing sport (as I needed a sports bottle anyway). Turns out I don't like it. It doesn't hold 750ml since they didn't account for the filter. I'm not convinced by the almost flat filter threads and the flow rate is slightly slower than lifesaversytems.

Going to stick with it and see how I get on for a month. It'll have paid for itself by then anyway as I normally drink bottled water here.

In terms of tablets, is chlorine diox a winner?
 
People have always got sick from mineralised water, for ages, that's why springs where soo venerated and semi holy. Diox tabs are faff free, Diox liquid is a two part system, a bit quicker more faff, and when they leak you loose everything, not just 6 tablets, good stuff though. I am going to move to a britta filter and chemicals as I can not be hygenic enough to be satisfactory and I always worry about water, after having had water sewage poisoning, very very ill indeed.

The best purification is brewing beer from a good source, it clears the crap out of it and kills the nasties. The monks where very clever!
 
mikedefieslife said:
In terms of tablets, is chlorine diox a winner?
Click to expand...

Yeah, the chlorine dioxide tablets are more effective against cysts, etc.

I believe they may also be healthier than chlorine tablets.

I've used iodine and chloramination chemical methods in the past and I get chlorine tablets free at work, but chlorine dioxide tablets are my preferred option.
 
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