Aquamira

[Swamp Hunter]

Anyone use Aquamira water filters?

[Dallas]

Thanks, that makes sense. I will have to give it a try sometime.

Gary M said:

Dale,

Fresh water has about 5 ppt (parts per thousand) salt. Human fluids are about 9-10 ppt. Salt water is like 32 ppt. or more in hypersaline Florida Bay. Drinking straight sea water will do you in, and uncomfortably. I'm sure you can find all kinds of info on-line, but I'd say "No" there is not any "saltwater" that would be safe to drink. Some will just kill you faster than other... I think "brackish" water is around 15 ppt.

Vivian

Most tablets are forms of chlorine dioxide - an oxidizer that "purifies" water without the taste of bleach or iodine. I guess they work or they could not sell 'em. I would have to wonder how long you need to treat the water though, probably for many hours. It would be faster to boil it.

Dallas,

To distill you need to get the water boiling then have the steam collect under some surface that will then drip into a container. There are many cute ways to do this but I like the tea pot as it focuses the steam into my upside down cup (with a handle!). It then drips into my bowl. Let the water boil hard for a minute or so before you start to catch it and you will get very good tasting water. The salt stays in the tea pot and all the dead critters too.

Besides, I like to have a nice cup of tea for breakfast (in the winter) and I can then wash up with a nice hot cloth with the rest of the water in the pot. Hot (boiling) water is the best way to disinfect your dishes before your pack 'em too.

Full disclosure: I do not routinely distill camp water. I carry good water for my tea, etc. Its just good to know I have the option of making safe water if I need to... without carrying anything extra.

[Swamp Hunter]

Sorry l meant brackish. I realize you cannot drink saltwater but I always wondered if you ever drink low percentage brackish. I will try to find the answer online. Thanks. 

 

found this: http://ask.metafilter.com/158682/How-Much-Seawater-Can-You-Safely-D...

[Swamp Hunter]

Im still looking for the answer. Found this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3ABrackish_water

 

So I think it's clear 0.05% salt water would be safe to drink. On the other extreme, we know 3.0% salt w/v is close to seawater and is definitely not safe to drink. So the answer is that it really depends; the cutoff from "safe to drink" to "not safe" takes place somewhere in the brackish water spectrum.

 

 

 

 The temptation to drink seawater has always been greatest for sailors who have expended their supply of fresh water, and are unable to capture enough rainwater for drinking. This frustration is described famously by a line from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:
"Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink."
Although it is clear that a human cannot survive on seawater alone, some people claim that one can drink up to two cups a day, mixed with fresh water in a 2:3 ratio, without ill effect. The French physician Alain Bombard claimed to have survived an ocean crossing in a small raft using only seawater and other provisions harvested from the ocean, but the veracity of his findings was challenged. In Kon-Tiki, Thor Heyerdahl reported drinking seawater mixed with fresh in a 40/60% ratio. A few years later another adventurer named William Willis claimed to have drunk two cups of seawater and one cup of fresh per day for 70 days without ill effect when he lost his water supply. [10]

[vivian]

Gary, your reply has made me do some more research. Adding chemicals to remove bacteria and/or boiling is the only way to make the frontier pro filter work in the backcountry. I found that Sawyer makes a real light and similar to use filter , the Sawyer Squeeze it comes with a million gallon guarantee! I don't know if I believe the claim but do like the pore size of 0.1 makes it capable of removing bacteria as well. Not worth playing around with a filter that does not filter out bacteria.

Filter Pore Size

Sawyer Squeeze Filter 0.1
Frontier Pro 3

[Kim Gass]

Most of us in the northern latitudes are fine with filters that have a 2 micron pore diameter. In the tropics the standard is 1 micron.

Consider the Steripen

http://www.steripen.com/

[Gary M]

If y'all want to get technical, a 0.45 micron filter is the laboratory standard for capturing common bacteria for analysis... OK for bacteria, but not virus.

Another problem is that some critters (like Giardia - a common freshwater pathogen that gives ya some serious runs) is not a hard body, but more like jellyfish that can squeeze through sub micron pores.

Another thing to watch for is the 1 micron spec on most inexpensive filters is "nominal" not "absolute"... big difference... Google that.

Viv - the product you found that specs at 0.1 micron should be very good, but once again I question how long it will take to filter enough water to make a drink. I have other concerns too. To be NSF certified, all water purification point -of-use products must be tested and documented at 2X their claimed capacity - so that one would require 2 million gallons. Cost prohibitive for such a product.

Again though remember that salt, down here, is actually a larger concern.

Sometimes old school is just better - not often, but in this case it is IMHO.

[Swamp Hunter]

In Calvin Stones "Forty Years in the Everglades" he explains how the early pioneers and explorers obtained drinking water. I believe he never carried water himself. The method was called "scratching out a well" and this was the preferred method of obtaining safe drinking water.

They didnt have water filters.  We never had water filters. All that was needed was to dig a hole and scoop out the water with a cup. The water will filter in and repeat. The water that filters back in is safe to drink and this is how it was done. A solution hole may also work. A more permanent water supply was made by pounding a pipe in the ground and using dynamite. I have done this myself. I think the NPS would prefer you use a filter or a scratch well.

 

The sand and pourous limestone will filter the water. I kinda think the grass will also filter to some extent. Maybe I will scratch out a well and then use the filter?

There is no doubt that salt is a larger concern for those on the coast.

[vivian]

Thanks again Gary.  Absolutely the best way is to boil water but when backpacking it's not easy to do this while on the trail. Where I am going, saltwater is not going to be a problem, (BWCA) so that is not a worry for me.

Dale, I agree that some of the best water I've tasted was from the Big Cypress area.  I just don't trust that it is clean anymore due to the high concentration of people, chemical runoff from farms, etc.  And I have tried scratching out a well and it does work very well especially if you go into a cypress dome.

Here is some more info for those interested:

http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/travel/backcountry_water_t...

[Kim Gass]

You have to think of the speed of filtration with various pore sizes.  I don't do BWCA as Quetico is easier for me to get to..and what everyone uses is 2 micron filters. There are loads of types and brands to choose from.

Some people drink right out of the lake. The water moves on the surface and the UV exposure is the same principle as the steripen. So they dip out a ways, not in quiet water.

http://bwca.cc/tripplanning/waterfiltration.htm

Of course you are still going to filter, but the biggest risk IMO is improper hand washing. Humans are a big vector for Giardia in the stool too

http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/giardia/gen_info/faqs.html

[Swamp Hunter]

I need to read up but I think Im in more danger eating at Pollo Tropical. Thanks everyone.

[Kim Gass]

Oh, my! The little palm trees are all the way to Nashville! When they reach me they ought to be frosted with snow on the fronds.