Using a milbank, Advice needed please...

[Still Waters]

Ok thanks abushcrafter

It was the waste of money part that confused me.

A 3 minuite boil is what i was tought and to err on the edge of caution.

Thanks for the link and i can understand the frugal use of wood/fuel and water in a survival situation.

 

[wingstoo]

Good link, but in an emergency situation or indeed a Bushcraft situation how many of us actually carry a thermometer to take a reading of how hot our pot of water actually is?

I do however wear a watch, and know what a rolling boil looks like, so I can combine the two...

LS

But I guess I could use the thermometer in my First aid kit

 

[abushcrafter]

how many of us actually carry a thermometer to take a reading of how hot our pot of water actually is?

we all do ???????? your hand ,put it in water if it is burnt then the germs are dead :yelrotflm uppy_dog :yikes:

 

[wingstoo]

we all do ???????? your hand ,put it in water if it is burnt then the germs are dead :yelrotflm uppy_dog :yikes:

Now there's a good idea, stick your hand in a container of hot water...

I can put my hand in water a lot hotter than most as I am a plumbing and heating engineer and as such used to hotter water, now what about someone who works in an office...

Not really such a good idea to be honest, I would just go for the rolling boil, much better idea even if it does burn a bit extra fuel.

LS:BlueTeamE

 

[Still Waters]

After watching some extras on a ray mears dvd today even he reccomends a rolling boil for a few minuits.

on a wood fire its not going to go out as soon as you remove whatever recepticle your using to boil your water.
I can understand using more fuel if using a gas/liquid fuel stove though.

In a survival situation i personally would have a fire going for warmth, light etc etc so the fuel would not just be to boil water but serve other purposes and continue to have more fuel/wood added to it as the time passed.

A ikky stomache will stop you performing the most simple of tasks so i would rather leave the water boiling a while longer.
And if worried about wasting water i would manafacture/bodge a lid of some sort so the steam would condense an drop back into the recepticle.

The reason i put in my post about not chucking the first lot of water away from the millbank bag but returning it is to preserve the valuble source of water you have obtained.

Im sure a rolling boil for 3 mins would not lose as much water as you would discard from the millbank bag once it has dropped to the line.

There are many other ways of looking at frugal fuel use whilst "out bush" it all comes down to physics and chemestry in its simplest form.

Want to use less fuel whilst boiling water?

The best way is utilising a lid hence the great sales of crusader lids on this forum.
(great bit of kit by the way although i dont own one)

 

[nickg]

All you need to do is GET the water to a rolling boil not KEEP it there. The bugs are killed at much lower temperatures that 100C The majority of them are dead at around 70-80C The fact that the water is at a rolling boil is simply an indicator that ALL the water in the pot has achieved the required temperature, continuing the process will not make the water any more sterile.

Cheers
Nick

 

[Ahjno]

After watching some extras on a ray mears dvd today even he reccomends a rolling boil for a few minuits.

Think that's just because it's easy to remember, every thread about water on the forum that pops up you'll find this 'rule of thumb'.
I think it has mostly to do with the fact water cooks faster on higher altitude, although it's nowhere near the sealevel 100'C boiling point, hence the water isn't hot enough to kill all nasties in the water. Spreading the advice to keep it on a rolling boil for a few minutes makes that less people get sick :tongue-ti , just because they followed this simple rule.

EDIT:
Posted before I read this link http://www.survivaltopics.com/survival/how-long-do-you-need-to-boil-water/
Makes sence ... Therefor I reckon that if the info on that website can be taken as standing and correct facts, I'll stand corrected in advance

 

[andy_e]

The other thing to remember is that not everything is killed at 100C, which is which many autoclaves operate at 121C, achieved by taking the pressure up to 15psi. Not practical in the field, unless you take a pressure cooker with you, so the point of a rolling boil is that it's good enough for killing most things.

 

[nickg]

The other thing to remember is that not everything is killed at 100C, which is which many autoclaves operate at 121C, achieved by taking the pressure up to 15psi. Not practical in the field, unless you take a pressure cooker with you, so the point of a rolling boil is that it's good enough for killing most things.

The best info that ive found seem to think that there are two WATER BOURNE pathogens that resist temperatures above 100c but they are extremely rare and found in eastern asia.
I cannot find the info now to quote definitively but I'm quite sure that neither of these were considered especially hight risk (ie deadly toxic etc). The chances are really really remote that you will find them in enough concentration to suffer ill effects. ( it may have been RM who told me that on a course 2 years ago)

Cheers
Nick