Purify dirt water to drink...

[Maya]

I have found out two different products with what you are able to drink directly from a raiwater pool or even toalett.... that is interesting. One is a straw and the other one is a bottle. I also know there are ways to make seawater so you can drink it... anyone here who could give me some links to seawater cleaning???

[MorningStar]

Good question! I would like to know about the seawater too.

One thing I was reading was to use purifying tablets in water and then to use a purifier to get the taste of the tablets out, plus that's double protection.

[Maya]

I have found these sites about making dirtwater drinklable:

WATER FILTER SYSTEM, Frontier Straw at SURVIVAL SOLUTIONS

WATER FILTER, Frontier Pro Ultra Light System at SURVIVAL SOLUTIONS

The Lifesaver Bottle

Vestergaard Frandsen : LifeStraw®

Interesting.. I wonder which is the best?? Straws are easier to carry..

[AngelaBarbara]

I know that katadyn makes one that looks like a sport water bottle. Looks like it would be convenient for travel or work. They sell them on Amazon. I'm not sure if it would filter out salt or not, but I'm guessing it would, since it filters out other minerals and bacteria.

I guess one could call the manufacturer and ask.

[john doe]

I know that katadyn makes one that looks like a sport water bottle. Looks like it would be convenient for travel or work. They sell them on Amazon. I'm not sure if it would filter out salt or not, but I'm guessing it would, since it filters out other minerals and bacteria.

I guess one could call the manufacturer and ask.

I have a couple of those, I don't kow the specs, but they seemed to one of the better ones out there. I believe the claim is they filter 99.9% of cryptosporidium. Some filters claim everything except crypto. If you live in the Salt Lake area, go to Recreation Outlet, sometimes they have incredible deals on survival gear.

[Warren2173]

If you're wanting to remove the salt out of salt water, Im afraid your only choices are:

Distillation, Or the Process of Reverse Osmosis.

There are portable Desalinators but these are not your average Camping/Preparedness filters. These are portable R.O. pumps and I believe they run about $1000.

There are three basic categories of pathogen that can be found in untreated water:

The first is protozoa. Protozoa include the well-known Giardia, and the not-so-well-known Cryptosporidium, or Crypto for short. These two have been detected in 90% of U.S. surface water and very common in Canada. Protozoa are the largest organisms of the three categories, ranging in size from 1-16 microns. They are more resistant to disinfection by iodine or chlorine than either bacteria or virus, but can be effectively filtered.

Giardia is relatively large and easy to catch, but Crypto is smaller, "more likely to pass through units which depend upon filtration for parasite removal. To know whether or not a filter will protect you against Crypto, find out if it's been tested with Crypto and proven to remove 99.9% of this organism.

The second category is bacteria. Bacteria include such commonly-known organisms as Campylobacter, E. coli, Vibrio cholera, and Salmonella. Bacteria are intermediate-sized organisms, ranging from 0.2 to about 10 microns. They respond well to disinfection, and can be effectively filtered by any filter that is proven to remove 99.9999% of bacteria.

The third category is viruses. Commonly known viruses include Rotavirus, Hepatitis A, Norwalk, and Polio. Viruses are truly tiny; they range in size between 0.02 and 0.085 microns, which makes them extremely difficult to filter. Viruses respond well to disinfection, and can be effectively inactivated using a purifier proven to remove or inactivate 99.99% of virus.

One of the few filters good enough to Qualifiy as a " Purifier " without using any further chemical treatment to disable viruses is The folowing one.

Independent Certification to EPA Microbiological Guide Standard

First Need XL Water Purifier from REI.com

Edited September 1, 2008 by Warren2173

[Warren2173]

You can live for weeks without food but, only 3-days without water!

More than you ever wanted to know about water purification.

Water Treatment FAQ, Version 2.2 by Patton Turner

Edited September 1, 2008 by Warren2173

[wy0mn]

Watercone® The Product

Seems a great idea, although you could probably fabricate one large enough to be practical.

Edited October 10, 2008 by wy0mn
none

[dalepres]

I have found out two different products with what you are able to drink directly from a raiwater pool or even toalett....

I'm not aware of any circumstance or any product that would make drinking toilet water a good or safe idea. Would you care to share what it is that you found?

[LeSellers]

For water, not necessarily purification (although that's what it's all about in the end), I suggest CAWST.org.

They have free plans for a water treatment device that will clean virtually any source of "natural" water you might find. It is not portable (weighing in a hundreds of pounds), but it can treat enough water so your neighbors won't have to kill you to get clean water. (Whether they kill you for your food is a different matter.)

The plans are 5,819KB, so it's easier to download from their site than for me to send them, but I will if anyone is interested and can't get the plans directly from them.

Click "Education and Training Resources" under the "Services" tab to find the plans. Then click Biosand filter knowledge base and download biosand filter construction manual.

The whole site is a good resource for water, and for all kinds of sanitation subjects: toilets and washing clothes, etc.

This is on my gotta do it list for the coming summer.

Lehi

Edited November 24, 2015 by LeSellers

[Guest]

After looking at Warren's post #6 (which was good) I wouldn't waste my time or money on many of the gimmicks out there.  It is much easier to use makeshift methods that are just as good or better.

 

1) The lifestraw, while a good design, is of poor manufacture.  The result is a fantastic product that can't be used.  I had two and both had manufacturing defects that made it impossible to suck up water past a certain level.  I never got a single drop of water out of the straw.  But the filtration system is theoretically sound.  They just can't manufacture it for so cheap and have it actually work.

 

2) For distillation, instead of the water cone, you do the bucket within a bucket and some plastic sheeting.  I believe a similar method is in the Army Survival Manual.  Much cheaper, easy to put together, easy to operate.

 

3) Most solids can be filtered out by using three or four coffee filters nested into one another.  Then you just need to treat for bugs -- Chlorine.  Then let it sit for 8 hours to let the Cl evaporate out.  It may not taste good.  But it will be fit to drink.  Except for the most extreme of circumstances, this will work just as well as any other filtration system except for RO.

 

4) RO really has no equal.  There is no other system that will do what it can do.  But because of the expense -- and the fact you have to replace the filters so often, it is not ideal for most applications.

 

For more data on what is required for water purification use the Army water manual  TBMED577

[NightSG]

As long as you're staying in one area and the temperatures aren't too cold, solar stills are hard to beat.  Sure, they're slow, but once built, all you have to do is continue providing dirty water.  Several small ones or a couple of large ones should be able to provide plenty of drinking water, and basic sand filtration will handle bathing water if your source isn't clean enough for that already.

For a large solar still, a hoop house is a pretty good starting point; figure out a way to catch water at the sides, and a big shallow pool of dirty water in the middle should evaporate effectively.

[pwrfrk]

After reviewing this thread for usable info I found that it is lacking in a very serious area- chemical.  Namely pH.

If the water is too acidic it will contain (at the least) metals, some of which you don't want in your body.

If the water is too basic (alkaline), it will contain nonmetals and metallioids. 

This is a serious concern as in some areas water heavy in zinc, sulfur, cadmium or calcium (for example) are not potable, but plants do just fine.  You drink the water and keep drinking because you're thirsty, but your body cannot use the water because of the "dissolved solids".  You have to precipitate those out.  In the past where I used to spend a lot of time, there was water, but the predominant dissolved solid was gypsum with higher than normal levels of cadmium and calcium.  I used instant tea with lemon to change the pH.  Filter the water getting rid of the floaters, then pout it into a cup lined with 3-4 coffee filters.  Add the instant tea mix and stir.  I would find a grey particulate precipitate and fall to the bottom.  Wait 10 minutes and remove the filters.  Then sip it.  It was far more potable than without.  "Gypy water" has a history in Utah, for certain.

I realize the LDS normally does not drink tea, but under the circumstances where you need to filter the water, because you have nothing else, I do not see it as an issue.