Water Filters in the UK ?

[Silverclaws]

Does anyone filter water they drink out on the trail in the UK ?

Why ?

I must admit I don't, but mostly i walk on the moors and mountainous areas where a refill taken from fast moving streams well if anything is in it like the proverbial dead sheep further up stream it will be well diluted by the time it gets to me, but I always take water from fast moving stuff.

Lowland, well that's a bit iffy unless a large expanse of water coming off the hills, but still if anything is in it it will be well diluted.

Near to people well go and ask for a bottle of water from a tap.

But, I have a couple of water filters, one a MSR waterworks and the other my old pre-mac purifier, I have had them years and both have been used, mostly when the water authority informed everyone to boil what came out of the tap following heavy rain.

So collecting water in Britain from anywhere other than a tap, do people filter their water supplies ?

 

[tiger stacker]

Very rarely here in scotland, always been boiled or from fast moving.

 

[EarthToSimon]

I used to drink straight from a steam near where I used to camp, then found out about half a mile up that it comes out of a sewage plant. Never got ill or anything but I wouldn't recommend it.

always take all my water with me from home now

 

[Shewie]

If I'm anywhere near civilisation then yes, if I'm up high or away from farms/run offs etc then I don't tend to bother.

I carried a filter on a 200 mile coast to coast in May and used it once at Glen Affric

Edited to add, 99% of the water I take gets boiled too

 

[Teepee]

I never drink fresh water sourced in the unless its passed through my inline purifier or boiled. I'd rather not risk a bout of illness.

I have done a couple of times when coming down from the snow, feeling dehydrated and just drunk it but its an exception.

 

[Retired Member southey]

I will always boil or use a chemical filter without exception and use a particle filter if I seem it nessesary.

 

[Shovel]

Giardia is not fun. Fever, vomiting, headache, etc. Maybe it's only a problem in the Us, but I would always filter or boil water first.

 

[kiltedpict]

I guess I've been lucky- I've always just taken water from fast flowing streams, but then it's always been high in the Caingorms....

 

[TinkyPete]

Yes to filter and/or boiling, to get ill out in the wilds is not only madness but can be very dangerous as well especially if soloing. most British streams and rivers carry nasties so unless you are at the spring or source site always treat water in some way. Even puri-tabs can be relatively effective at most nasties and weigh hardly anything so no excuses.

 

[crosslandkelly]

The only water I don't filter is tap water. You just can't take the chance. Oh my wife has just reminded me, we filter the tap water. Cheers.

 

[cbr6fs]

Another one that always filters water here, had too many poorly tummy's over the years to drink water straight from it's source now.


I also always to try filter the water then bring it to a rolling boil, that's not always possible though unfortunately.

 

[spandit]

I used to drink straight from a steam near where I used to camp, then found out about half a mile up that it comes out of a sewage plant. Never got ill or anything but I wouldn't recommend it.

always take all my water with me from home now

Isn't that cleaner than most water anyway?

 

[santaman2000]

Giardia is not fun. Fever, vomiting, headache, etc. Maybe it's only a problem in the Us, but I would always filter or boil water first.

I never filtered water here either when I was younger. Our hosehold tap water came from an unfiltered well untill I was about 8 or 10. Not so sure I would chance it now though. Not that the water has changed, just me.

 

[SCOMAN]

I always treat water, nowadays I use a steripen. Trail magazine a number of years ago did an article in conjunction with Leeds Uni(I think). They looked at water from high to low, the reporter had always used water straight from streams up high for the reasons already suggested. When the lab results came in he was shocked to see all of the water contaminated too some extent. If I remember they put it down to the intensive farming of years and years. Dartmoor was always bad, I treated and purified down there after a bad batch of water and explosive results

 

[Teepee]

I guess I've been lucky- I've always just taken water from fast flowing streams, but then it's always been high in the Caingorms....

After my last trip up Ben Macdhui, seeing all the used bogroll tucked into shelter walls, its made me think about how clean the streams up there really are on the popular peaks. I was a bit shocked TBH

 

[monkey spanner]

I filter it in the Millbank bag & boil the hell out of it.
I normally carry 2Lt, and collect the rest on site, except in the height of summer, when the stream's dries out, mind you I don't like the heat, I much prefer autumn/winter/spring camping.
I live way down south, Kent, & the area has been in intensive use for thousand's of year's.

 

[udamiano]

surface water tends to be more problematic than well water, run off from the surrounding land directly joins the water in it journey to wherever, underground water has usually gone through many laters of soil, rock, sand, etc. and its that micro-filtration as well as natural dilution of minerals and other such things which tend to kill of a lot f the protozoa.
However, and this is the big thing to remember. About 90% of the natural water in the UK is contamination in one form or another, this contamination can be by a protozoa such as Gardia, a virus, or mineral and metal caused by natural means.

Some type of contamination require prolonged and constant exposure to have any harmful effects on your average 'healthy' human, some however do not and can cause quite acute and sudden symptoms, and others lie dormant for years without the host being aware, and then suddenly flare up later in life.

My personal recommendation is this. Choose your supply carefully, water at higher altitudes tends to have less in the way of farmland contamination than lowland sources, the water should be pre-filtered if required to remove any larger debris, then filtered using a small mesh carbon filter, and then finally boiled before considered safe to drink.

Why a carbon filter?

Chemical treatments and fine mesh filters remove viruses and protozoa (be careful of chemical filters effectiveness in removing protozoa, See WHO paper with regards to this) but do not perform well in the removal of heavy metals and chemicals in solution, boiling your water before filtration only removes the volatile of these chemicals while concentrating those remaining as your initial solution loses water due to evaporation. Activated Carbon traps these chemical compound and heavy metals within its structure, but looses if effectiveness due to saturation fairly quickly, and as thus these type of filters need replacing fairly regularly.

Boiling water !

This tends to remove volatile compounds that have boiling points lower than that of water, and can be quite effective form of sterilisation against biological contaminates, as long as the process is done long enough to have effect ( a couple of minutes at rolling boil is usually enough, although this varies with altitude), However as remarked above heavier less volatile elements and compounds that have boiling point higher than water are not effected and remain in solution, due to the boiling effect the source water is less diluted due to loss of water vapour due to evaporation, and therefor any contaminates that are still in solution become more concentrated.

Pre-filter.

This just helps extend the life of your water filter by removing lager debris from the source.


I hope this helps

D

 

[Dave]

I never filtered water here either when I was younger. Not so sure I would chance it now though. Not that the water has changed, just me.

+1. I always used to drink water from streams and rivers in the Dales on walks without filtering, and never got sick. I rarely do it now though. I filter with a pump and often drop a chlorine tab in as well.

 

[salad]

I use an msr miniworks filter all the time and I think it is great , I have used it a lot in the UK and plenty of other countries as well ,
I have used it in clean running mountain streams and dodgy murky looking forest ponds in eastern europe and I have never been ill whist I have been drinking the water filtered from it .

I do sterilise it by boiling the ceramic filter every now and again to keep it in good order and will probably replace the ceramic filter next year as mine is getting a bit old and thinner from repeated scrubbing after use .

Heres me filtering away a few weeks ago

 

[Chrisf]

I have the larger and smaller katadyn filter but got sick of carrying these around. I normally just boil now as I don't like the chloride based purification and cannot get iodine in the UK. No point in carrying the katdyn as you still need to use a chemical for virus protection if taking water from anything but the highest stream.

Really like to know how people have got on with the steripens. I looked at these but they all get terrible reviews regarding reliability. Tried the MSR thing that makes a purification solution out of salt, but it's rubbish, takes ages and water tastes salty, so not recommended.

Regards Chris