premac mwp water purifier

[Mike8472]

I bought one of these on ebay. It was brand new in british army stores bag. I have never used a premac before but herd a few people praise them

It looks like it had been in storage for a long time. It had a spare iodene cartrige with it that had brown staining around it in the plastic ziplock bag. The bag was sealed and couldnt see any moisture in it.

My question is this:- do you think the cartrige will be ok to use and why is there the staining in the bag?

 

[bikething]

Iodine is sneaky stuff.... I've got a bottle of Polar pure (used) that is stored upright in a ziplock bag, and the inside of the bag is also stained brown - don't know if it's moisture leakage or vaporisation caused by changes in temperature causing pressurisation of the contents and seeping out

Shouldn't the MWP have 2 cartridges? one is a filter, the other the iodine resin? (I'll have to dig mine out, but I think one is blue and the other black.. or is that just the end caps?)

When i bought mine it came with a test kit comprising a test tube and a pack of tablets. You fill the tube with filtered water and pop in a tablet then wait. If the water turns pink then the filter is working. My filter spends most of the year in storage so I test it before i head off on a trip with it.

 

[Mike8472]

Yes it has two a charcoal and a iodine. It came with the two cartriges installed and a spate set in ziplock bag.

 

[m.durston]

the brown staining will be from the iodine crystals inside the cartridge. i got one off ebay 18 months ago with exactly the same staining in the bag as you described.
i read somewhere that you are supposed to filter about 2-3 lires through a new set of filters cos the iodine concentration will make the water look like an alcoholics urine sample lol after this the water will have a yellow/brown tint to it but will be perfectly safe.
last time i went camping to prove the system worked i filtered water that had allsorts of things swimming in it and drank it afterwards with no ill effects.
also a top tip with these is to wrap a piece of stockings/tights type material round the end of the little intake filter to stop all the mud and crap blocking it up.

 

[Sniper]

Had one for years and I swear by it, crackin bit o kit. MDs suggestion of a mesh end covering is a goodun, I use a bit of sponge to do the same thing.

 

[hogstable]

I had one of the earlier ones, bought it in 1987 and phoned up PreMac to ask about the shelf life in about 1996. Phoned up Pre Mac and they said it would have gone past its use by date but very helpfully sent some Iodine testing tablets to see if there was enough Iodine released for it to work. May be worth asking them if you hold onto them for a while.