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Water to go

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Armleywhite

Armleywhite

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Apr 26, 2008
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www.motforum.com
Not sure how many have come across this? Bought one a few months ago and have given it a bit of a bashing trying it out. Nowt to write home about really, but a cracking way of getting good clean water from most sources with little or no prep. First time I tried it, I tried it on my allotment with water from my water butt. Tasted like tap water and no resulting stomach upsets, so I went further. I filled it from the collective tin bath on the plot which is full of nasty's that you really wouldn't consider drinking from without a good filter and boil scenario. Nope, tasted like tap water and no upset tum tums.

Lets turn up the heat a bit I thought. I went in the local woods and looked for a pool of standing water that looked like ink had been spilled. It was black as the proverbial ace of spades and stunk like..... well you can imagine. Filled the bottle, took a drink... No smell and tasted, again, like tap water. Cracking...

So now, it's my first thought when going anywhere I need a bottle of water. Short walks, long walks, trips away camping etc etc etc, you get the piccie.

For mere filtering when boiling water I go for the usual millbank bag. But for good clean filtered water on the go deffo the Water to go bottle.
 
The only thing I don't like about my W2Go is that the bottle is rigid so you can't really squeeze it to aid in drinking from it, or more usefully, to use it to fill a mug or pot with filtered water. I find you have to suck on it to get the water out.

Think that's purposeful to avoid pushing water through the filter with too much force and making it less efficient ?

Was thinking of trying to find a softer bottle to attach the lid and filter to, but may not be a good idea....
 
I picked up one very cheap last year and found it good. The only frustration with it has been mentioned by Paulm. I would like it better if the water flow was just a little better.
 
Paulm said:
The only thing I don't like about my W2Go is that the bottle is rigid so you can't really squeeze it to aid in drinking from it, or more usefully, to use it to fill a mug or pot with filtered water. I find you have to suck on it to get the water out.

Think that's purposeful to avoid pushing water through the filter with too much force and making it less efficient ?

Was thinking of trying to find a softer bottle to attach the lid and filter to, but may not be a good idea....
Click to expand...
http://drinksafe-systems.co.uk/products.php

The travel tap on this one does exactly that , so you can use to wash out wounds , clean teeth etc.
Pull tops are better than fliptops , and this system seems better value and more efficient than the water to go ones...
Replacement cartridge filters are less than £20 and will do you 1600 Ltrs.
Made in England by an English company too..


No affiliation, just a happy customer
 
Last edited:
Research and testing credentials were the main factors for me to considering this particular brand.

I extensively researched to see which system would have the evidence to back up their claims of 99% removal , including removing specifically chemical runoff , heavy metals etc.(as I often source water near farmland)
This system came up with the testing done in 4 different countries including , importantly for me , testing here in the UK by the national laboratory and the environment agency.
Sales to the Red Cross and peace keeping forces worldwide also helped trust the system .

A few other systems did have good credentials but either failed to remove certain chemical contaminants and trace metals or ,did all those things, but fell short on the price of each replacement cartridge filter .
400 gallons of purified water for less than £20 is a good deal , believe me .

Also the automatic shut-off valve system, when filter is no longer efficient was a good selling point for me as a foolproof method for getting it right. Plus with kids I didn't want to take chances.

More information about the tests and procedure on their front page and here:

http://drinksafe-systems.co.uk/worldwide-testing.php
 
Only after all the research did I invest in these and tried them out.
I've drank out of rivers, ponds, troughs all over the countryside here , and taps and fountains as well as streams and rivers in Morocco , Portugal and Spain .
We have never been sick from drinking from these dodgy sources , neither me or the family.
So that's how I know it works .

I'm sure there are lots of other systems that work too , as the OP pointed out , so I guess it comes out of research, personal choice and trust for the brand .

Research and experience
👍


Again , I have no affiliation or interests in the brand. I'm just a happy customer sharing my positive experience with it.👍
 
Janne said:
How do you guys know the resulting clean water is truly clean and potable?
Stomach tells you?
Click to expand...

Pretty much. Just about all the filter systems ever made do require a certain faith. I use an Aquapure Traveller and have never had a problem, but I have usually had access to pretty clean water to start, not stagnant mud puddles. From what I have heard filters work until they are blocked with sediment (Sawyer have a system for back washing, but performance does fall off and is never as good as when new). The usual reasons for people getting sick when using a filter is that they either cross contaminated and got untreated water around the drinking spout, or the filter element (usually a ceramic) cracked. Ceramic elements crack when they are dropped, or frozen. The Sawyer, which uses fine ceramic "straws" is prone to cracking when frozen, its hard to get the water fully out of the element. I protect my Traveller by taking it to bed with me, that way I have drinking water through the night, and nothing freezes.

The proponents of UV and chemicals like to point out that they don't have the problems of uncertainty, if the water is treated, they can more easily clean all parts of the water bottle, and the UV will kill everything in the open. Aron Snyder over on Gritty Bowman / Kifaru did a good extended field test of the UV pen system and reckoned that it was the most reliable system for what he was doing. He drank from elk wallows and all sorts of nasty spots, but did point out that UV leaves all the larvae floating in the water :p. Stuart out in Borneo isn't so sold on the UV systems in the jungle because the environment tries to kill all electrical systems. He likes chemicals since the water out there quickly blocks ceramic filters. UV is fast, chemicals in cold water take time and may not agree with everyone.

Each environment and time of year will favour different systems.
 
Leshy said:
http://drinksafe-systems.co.uk/products.php

The travel tap on this one does exactly that , so you can use to wash out wounds , clean teeth etc.
Pull tops are better than fliptops , and this system seems better value and more efficient than the water to go ones...
Replacement cartridge filters are less than £20 and will do you 1600 Ltrs.
Made in England by an English company too..


No affiliation, just a happy customer
Click to expand...

that looks the dogs mate, a bit of a step up from the water to go as is reflected by the price but it's not a huge different tbh
 
"Never drink downstream from the herd."
I can't imagine drinking run-off below any agricultural land.
No matter how much effort has gone into cleaning it up.
I'll travel elsewhere. Tarp runoff in the rain, yes.
Worse, there are grazing leases up in the mountains here.
If it isn't a spring (lots of those), we don't try any water.
 
Robson Valley said:
"Never drink downstream from the herd."
I can't imagine drinking run-off below any agricultural land.
No matter how much effort has gone into cleaning it up.
I'll travel elsewhere. Tarp runoff in the rain, yes.
Worse, there are grazing leases up in the mountains here.
If it isn't a spring (lots of those), we don't try any water.
Click to expand...

as Europe is quite densely populated, I was trained to check the map for farms and so on, upstream from where I was. Any farm within 10 kilometers or so - water potentially unsafe as the human sewage and animal runoff could have ended up in the stream.

I have drunk unboiled or unfiltered water from marsh ponds, usually with the result of blocked intestines. ( opposite to diarrhea) apparently the acidity and peat remains have that effect. I had to resort to this many times during winter, as the streams were frozen and snow covered, and I did not carry enough meths for a quick melt.

We used to use the filters from gas masks to filter dubious water during the warm period ( water in liquid state).
Those filters were (are) superbly made to extremely high specs.

That is why I would be a little bit cautious using these modern filtering methods. Have used a Brita filter system when I lived in UK, and quite a high % were faulty.

Nothing is more debilitating than a case of diarrhea!
 
Well, this place is really thinly populated. Far and away more livestock than people.
Learn to recognize the appearance of the fresh water filamentous green alga = Spirogyra sp.
This genus is your best global indicator of "elevated nutrient levels."
So even mountain water is spring water or nothing.
Usual sign of a good one is that somebody has been digging and built a bit of a walled pool with slate slabs
and no Spirogyra.

Giardia parasites from what _looks_ like a clean stream= "Beaver Fever" can lay you out for many weeks.
Boiling in mid summer is a necessary evil.
 
We are licky in Scandinavia. No nasties live in the water. The largest risk is a deceased tourist upsteam.
Here in Cayman ( tropics) I would not touch natural water, even boiled, unless it was a total catastrophy.
Our tap water is reverse osmosis seawater.
 
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