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Water purification for day hikes

Anonymous Wed 19 Aug 2015 22:21:05 No.575934 View View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>575935 >>576160 >>579258 >>579786 >>580656

Just started going /out/ and already I'm interested in reducing how much water I need to carry for day hikes.

I was looking into getting a LifeStraw, is this a good idea? It's pretty cheap and light, and I don't have the kit for boiling water or performing any other purification methods.

Just fill a bottle with water from a stream, then pour into cup and suck through LifeStraw when thirsty. Right?

So yeah any advice or other methods/kit welcome.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Aug 2015 22:24:36 No.575935 Report

Quoted By: >>575937 >>575944 >>575946 >>575981 >>576174 >>576691

>>575934
Save yourself some trouble and get the sawyer mini instead.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO sawyer mini.png, 84KiB, 370x136

Anonymous Wed 19 Aug 2015 22:30:43 No.575937 Report

Quoted By: >>575981

>>575935
+1

but buy a couple extra squeeze bags, too, because the filter's awesome, but the bags are cheapy shit and the seams blow.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Aug 2015 22:41:27 No.575944 Report

Quoted By:

>>575935
+2

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Aug 2015 22:48:31 No.575946 Report

Quoted By: >>575948

>>575935
OP Here. I was actually just in the middle of watching a review of that product when I paused to update this thread. Thanks, Seems the thing to go for then.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Aug 2015 23:07:18 No.575948 Report

Quoted By:

>>575946
Just remember that with filters like this you want to prefilter any visually dirty water through a bandanna or something to improve the longevity of your filter, though you can just drink out of dirty water if you need to.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 Aug 2015 00:21:15 No.575981 Report

Quoted By: >>575983

>>575937
>>575935
i seen this is the store and holly schitt i was impressed. first, it's a measly $20 for 100,000 gallons (so if it's hot where you are and you need a gallon of water a day you can only go /out/ 100,000 days) and also, even though i'd seen pitchers and reviews on youtube etc, I was seriously impressed with how small it is. it's about the size of my dick and prepares water for drinking like 40x faster.

i'm going on a 3-day gruel this autumn and I entirely plan to buy one of these nignogs before I go.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 Aug 2015 00:39:44 No.575983 Report

Quoted By: >>575989 >>576175

>>575981
100000 days=274 years

mine has seen some serious slop, but just backwash it with clean water, and when you get home run through a little bleach solution, and it's good to go again.

but like i said before, buy some extra bags. i like the 32 oz, myself.

supposedly if you roll the bags from the bottom they last longer, but half the time i get too lazy and just squeeze them like the fucking hulk, which stresses the seam around the neck, causing it too fail.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 Aug 2015 01:02:28 No.575989 Report

Quoted By:

>>575983
yeah I was seeing that rolling the bags is the way to go. apparently it also attaches to standard plastic/water/soda bottles as well. so having one of those crunched flat could do the job quite well too. in any case, whichever filling method is used the little thing is quite a good value

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 Aug 2015 07:12:55 No.576160 Report

Quoted By: >>576163 >>576242 >>578370 >>579374

>>575934
waterpurification, how about you put some crystals on your belly or use a magnetic bracelet. Since dawn of men water was fine just the way it is. But recently someone found a way to make a shitload of money.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 Aug 2015 07:27:55 No.576163 Report

Quoted By: >>576172

>>576160
Go see a doctor. Or do you not do that because it wasn't around at the dawn of man?

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 Aug 2015 07:39:06 No.576172 Report

Quoted By: >>576231

>>576163
last 3 times I went there, they told me to wait it out. Not sure how your question is related.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 Aug 2015 07:40:54 No.576174 Report

Quoted By:

>>575935

The only way to fly now.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 Aug 2015 07:43:05 No.576175 Report

Quoted By:

>>575983

I like how they screw onto plain old disposable drink bottles, which I use to drink out of on the trail. Also useful that you can rig them up inline with bladders and shit.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 Aug 2015 10:08:10 No.576231 Report

Quoted By: >>576264 >>576274

>>576172
>3 times I went there
I think we see a pattern that goes-back to the other guys point about ways water can be safer now

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 Aug 2015 10:42:31 No.576242 Report

Quoted By: >>576266

>>576160
>Since dawn of men water was fine just the way it is

Sometimes. Do you think virus's and other bacteria didnt exist back then? The industrial revolution happened and waterways were polluted by chemicals, pesticides and other contaminants. Fertilizers on fields which get washed into waterways also cause un-natural, harmful bacterial blooms....but ya know...water is just fine the way it is.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 20150412_144227.jpg, 3MiB, 3264x1836

Anonymous Thu 20 Aug 2015 11:17:46 No.576249 Report

Quoted By: >>576256 >>576261

I have the lifestraw go bottle. It's a water bottle with a lifestraw built it. Fill the bottle, screw the lid on, you're good to go. The lifestraw works well and the bottle is nice. The straw and bottle together are $30.

I looked at the sawyer and really liked what I saw, at least what is advertised. I read an article about independent testing on the sawyer. When it was brand new it worked as advertised, but after a year of light use the filter no longer worked well and let something like 40% more stuff through... I'll see if I can find the link.

One cool thing about the lifestraw, when you buy one, they donate more lifestraw equipment for developing countires for water purification. The lifestraw has been rigorously tested and works as advertised with no loss of filtration. It's designed to stop flowing water once it reaches it the end of its lifespan. So yes it filters less than the sawyer before it's spent, but according to what I read the Sawyer continues to flow water well after its filter has been comprised.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 Aug 2015 11:42:15 No.576256 Report

Quoted By: >>576261 >>576546

>>576249

Here's the article that first talks about UV filters, then goes into the Sawyer later on.

http://indefinitelywild.gizmodo.com/uv-water-purifiers-are-bullshit-and-so-are-some-filters-1704387492

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 Aug 2015 12:06:57 No.576261 Report

Quoted By: >>576268

>>576249
>>576256
the article references a study using their Sawyer PointOne filters. They're set up in a gravity system, cleaning water for a Honduran village. The people conducting the study did not perform any maintenance or cleaning on the filters, but the villagers claimed that they had followed all cleaning instructions.

Basically, the conditions in which the filters were not working as promised were vastly different from what a person using them to backpack would be. If nothing else, backwash and sanitize your damn filters!

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO url.jpg, 7KiB, 275x183

Anonymous Thu 20 Aug 2015 12:12:27 No.576264 Report

Quoted By:

>>576231

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 Aug 2015 12:16:32 No.576266 Report

Quoted By:

>>576242
not sure h-what you are planing, but good luck drinking that reactor water with that fancy straw of yours

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 Aug 2015 12:18:35 No.576268 Report

Quoted By:

>>576261
I agree, the study is not entirely relevant to a backpacker... most backpackers are not going to use their filter for 1 year constantly.

Still, I like the idea that the lifestraw is self limiting. Once it has filtered it's max, it no longer will flow. The sawyer will flow indefinitely, even if it's not actively filtering.

I would never fault someone for buying a sawyer. I might own one myself. I still prefer the lifestraw, simply because of the nice convenient water bottle. Everyone will have different preferences.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 Aug 2015 12:30:45 No.576274 Report

Quoted By:

>>576231
should've pointed out it was not related to water. Never had problems with that.
I broke my foot nail kicking the door, can't remember what the other visits were about, probably too long ago.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 Aug 2015 21:09:57 No.576470 Report

Quoted By: >>576478 >>579417 >>580355

iodine tablets.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 Aug 2015 21:27:28 No.576478 Report

Quoted By:

>>576470
>slow
>tastes gross
>relying on consumables that expire

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 Aug 2015 23:59:47 No.576546 Report

Quoted By:

>>576256

Interesting. Yeah I thought the Sawyer would be prone to mechanical failure at some point. Regardless the minis are so cheap they're basically disposable.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Aug 2015 07:24:08 No.576691 Report

Quoted By:

>>575935

I have platypus gravity filter and sawyer mini with gravity set up.

By far the wight saving makes the sawyer the light back packers choice.

I really like the platypus though. It filters water way faster and you can back flush it with each use just by raising the bag higher then the filer.

When I got out with friends with out filter I take the platypus otherwise if it just me and one other the sawyer.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Aug 2015 15:17:52 No.576821 Report

Quoted By: >>576939 >>578378

From the amazon review:

>Both products utilize hollow fiber membrane technology to filter water. The difference, IMO, is a matter of trust. LifeStraw is produced by Vestergaard, a reputable company dedicated to to providing health solutions around the world. LifeStraw products have been proven in the field and have been subject to rigorous end-of-life testing. Sawyer, on the other hand, was recently reprimanded by the National Advertising Division, which recommended that Sawyer discontinue certain claims for its filtration products (Google it). Sawyer has since ceased using a claim that the Mini has a "1,000,000 gallon" capacity, but even their new, "100,000 gallon" rating is not backed up and appears instead to be marketing hype. The LifeStraw filter, by contrast, publishes a conservative 1,000 liter rating (264 gallons) that has been verified by independent testing. There is additional concern over the potential for damage to the Mini's membrane as a result of the pressurized back flushing process that would render the filter ineffective. I personally like the versatility of the Sawyer product but I don't support companies that play fast and loose with product specifications. I hope this helps

http://www.amazon.com/Sawyer-Products-Water-Filtration-System/dp/B00FHRADQ2

Anyone have any insight on this?

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Aug 2015 18:50:28 No.576939 Report

Quoted By:

>>576821
Well I needed a filter quick so I already bought the Mini. Didn't break the bank though so if after a while it needs replacing I won't cry over it.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 24 Aug 2015 03:56:21 No.578370 Report

Quoted By: >>579407

>>576160
Actually people in the middle ages almost only drank a low-alcohol beer variety that acted as part of their food too because they had learned to be terrified of any water they had access to.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 24 Aug 2015 04:05:18 No.578378 Report

Quoted By:

>>576821
>insight
its obvious, really.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO BearGrylls-main.jpg, 271KiB, 840x472

Anonymous Mon 24 Aug 2015 04:50:34 No.578414 Report

Quoted By:

>MFW you can suck on my life straw

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 25 Aug 2015 06:02:53 No.579258 Report

Quoted By: >>579265

>>575934
What's the flow like on the sawyer mini? Say I'm looking to fill an 16oz bottle, how long am I looking at it taking?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 25 Aug 2015 06:10:53 No.579265 Report

Quoted By:

>>579258
a minute or two, depending on how hard you squeeze and how big your hands are.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 25 Aug 2015 07:28:12 No.579310 Report

Quoted By:

go to the pharmacy and get a small bottle of iodine.
you can either drop it in suspicious water or use it on wounds.
makes the water taste funny, but better that than getting the shits

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 25 Aug 2015 07:34:48 No.579318 Report

Quoted By: >>579325 >>579349

I know filters like lifestraw filter parasites but what about viruses? Would you need to further treat with bleach or something to make sure it's completely safe or is it good to go as is?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 25 Aug 2015 08:08:30 No.579325 Report

Quoted By:

>>579318
Yes, I got a virus through a sawyer. Puked and couldn't keep anything down for a day, felt like shot for a week.

That would be terrible out in the wild.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 25 Aug 2015 09:50:31 No.579349 Report

Quoted By:

>>579318
Get one of them Katadyn pump filters, they have appearantly been proven to keep viruses out

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 25 Aug 2015 11:14:01 No.579374 Report

Quoted By:

>>576160
Plenty of water born pathogens. What a strange thing to give a shit about man. Fuck off.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 25 Aug 2015 12:45:50 No.579407 Report

Quoted By: >>579621

>>578370
That's not true at all. People in the middle ages drank from wells, springs, and streams, which were unlikely to be contaminated. Access to fresh water is a major determinant of where settlement occurs.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 25 Aug 2015 13:21:56 No.579417 Report

Quoted By:

>>576470
Micropur are better than iodine. They don't taste bad (doesn't taste at all if you wait ~30mins) and they get rid of Cryptosporidium. Good emergency thing to take a couple, since they weigh like nothing.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 25 Aug 2015 20:39:08 No.579621 Report

Quoted By: >>580049

>>579407
Even before the pollution of all fresh water in the world, water has always been contaminated with bacteria.
All water was filtered in some way or another back then. Only the Native Americans and Tribal Africans have regularly drank from streams, and even then, they frequently get diarrhea until their body can resist the toxic waste from bacteria.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 25 Aug 2015 23:43:52 No.579786 Report

Quoted By: >>579859

>>575934
Steripen seems to work pretty damn good for me. USB chargeable, but it has a pretty long life from one charge anyway & I'm rarely away from mains power for more than 7 days, and even in that instance I can charge it from a powermonkey.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 26 Aug 2015 01:43:36 No.579859 Report

Quoted By: >>579863

>>579786
the USB version is best for people who plan to pair it with a solar charger. then they can plug the steripen directly into the panel, without carrying an additional charger to charge batteries that would eventually make their way into the steripen.

personally, since I plan to resupply every week or so anyways, I use the old AA battery steripen so that I can pick up replacements in town if need be.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 26 Aug 2015 01:58:43 No.579863 Report

Quoted By: >>579887

>>579859
Well yeah, but likewise with the USB you could just charge it from mains or a computer when you get to town.

I'm personally phasing out interchangeable batteries from my setup. One you have a solar charger and/or battery bank, you want everything to be USB rechargeable. Then you've effectively got no ongoing costs, and with a solar charger you can get elec for free innawoods forever, no matter how isolated you are which is a nice feeling.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 26 Aug 2015 02:42:21 No.579887 Report

Quoted By: >>579907

>>579863
yup, what you've got going is a very popular strategy these days. which panel do you use?

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 26 Aug 2015 03:26:03 No.579907 Report

Quoted By:

>>579887
Powermonkey Extreme - the old version without 12V capability. Pretty happy with it, not the lightest in the world. Good battery capacity, enough to completely charge an S5 3-4 times. Can stick the whole thing hooked up to phone in a snap-seal bag and leave out in the rain to charge the phone/solar simultaneously even if it's bucketing down.

The only fault I've found with it that the cable input/outputs on the battery unit have these little plastic flaps that are supposed to click shut (and I believe thus create a waterproof seal), but they have warped somehow and now unclick themselves. I don't know what would happen if water gets in there, probably not much but nevertheless its a bit of a shame. Got it 2nd-hand for about $80/AUD.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 26 Aug 2015 06:02:08 No.580009 Report

Quoted By:

It kinda depends on where you're at and your water source. If you're in place like fucking southern california where water sources are 1/2 inch deep...your options change.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 26 Aug 2015 07:42:14 No.580049 Report

Quoted By: >>580193 >>580254

>>579621
That's not true at all. Well or spring water is purified by processes very similar to a slow sand filter, and does not support bacterial or parasitic life. Many people nowadays with wells do not filter or treat their water at all, to no ill effect. Stream water will always have some bacterial life, but in numbers small enough that it won't bother you. Waterborne disease was uncommon, usually only arising during warfare, when large numbers of people were forced to live in close quarters with poor hygiene and poorly sourced water.

As for filters, well, I'd be amazed if you could come up with any example of a pre-Modern water filter that was used on a regular basis.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 26 Aug 2015 07:56:19 No.580050 Report

Quoted By:

If you need one of these straws you shouldn't be in the fucking bush lol people spend years in their house and when they do they think they can live for months an years in the bush you need to gragley expose your self to the bush let your immune system do its job and lern how to find water the proper way so to all the doomday prepers how long do use think this straw is going to last for aye lol

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 1427001186112.jpg, 25KiB, 600x321

Anonymous Wed 26 Aug 2015 08:55:37 No.580065 Report

Quoted By: >>580273

anyone try this?

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 26 Aug 2015 16:57:08 No.580193 Report

Quoted By:

>>580049
>pre-Modern water filter

depending on the local geology, there are natural filters in wells and springs. when your water comes trickling up through a solid slab of limestone or whatever it's gonna be pretty fucking clean.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 26 Aug 2015 17:11:56 No.580198 Report

Quoted By:

lifestraw is a meme

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO virus.png, 902KiB, 1024x768

Anonymous Wed 26 Aug 2015 19:22:36 No.580243 Report

Quoted By: >>580348

OP here

I bought the Sawyer mini.

Went on a day hike with friends in the UK Cotswolds on saturday. Found a nice, very clean looking stream. Filtered some water for all of us as nobody had enough water with them.
24 hours later and we are all violently throwing up. Knocked me out for two days.

Maybe I contaminated our water some other way, maybe I wasn't careful enough, but either way I have lost trust in the sawyer mini. First time using it and that happens. Just shows that the 'lol you don't need to filter water' crowd might be talking out their asses.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 26 Aug 2015 19:30:14 No.580254 Report

Quoted By:

>>580049
>all water sources were filtered in some way or another
I already mentioned that.
I'm aware that well water is naturally filtered

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 26 Aug 2015 20:10:24 No.580273 Report

Quoted By:

>>580065
That's neat, if it works.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 26 Aug 2015 22:57:01 No.580348 Report

Quoted By: >>580639

>>580243
I don't know the area, but water sources can be contaminated with chemical pollutants. no filter will deal with them reliably.

check your map: was your water supply downstream of a settlement, industrial site, farm, or mine?

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 26 Aug 2015 23:09:37 No.580355 Report

Quoted By:

>>576470
Gross. I'd rather carry a ton of extra fuel and boil all my water than use iodine.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 27 Aug 2015 11:16:04 No.580639 Report

Quoted By: >>580650

>>580348
The whole area is farm land so it is possible, however it definitely felt like a virus, but I can't be sure, never purposefully poisened myself with industrial chemicals to test the effects before.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 27 Aug 2015 11:39:47 No.580650 Report

Quoted By: >>580659

>>580639
No filters can prevent viruses, only bacteria are filtered.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 27 Aug 2015 11:48:44 No.580656 Report

Quoted By:

>>575934
Check out the Renovo Trio, 0.5 Microns, so twice the filtration of the Sawyer mini.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 27 Aug 2015 12:02:06 No.580659 Report

Quoted By:

>>580650
Not true. Sawyer has a filter with a smaller pore size (0.02 micron) that removes virusses. That still doesn't filter out chemicals. A carbon filter might filter out some of those. As a rule, don't drink water near farms or factories.

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