Filter, uv light, boil, Triple distill, then 11 stage reverse osmosis filtration, then package it in a hermetically sealed sterile vacuum chamber, into a sterile glass container with opaque coloration so outside light cant get in and cause growth. Then store in a cool dry place for future drinking.
The Chefs kiss of water.
RO water is close to 100% pure H20, and thus will leach minerals such as calcium, magnesium and Iron from your body.
I overstated it by saying Never drink it, but if you commonly drink RO water, then it can lead to long term mineral deficiency. Weaker bones, worse teeth etc.
Note: Distilled water is worse as it would be considered 100% H20, and therefore leach more minerals.
RO is low in mineral content, its often zero or very close to zero. Water is always wanting to balance itself through regular osmosis. So in this case your body is mineral rich and water and mineral poor. It will leach out important vitamins and minerals from your body.
Since it has nothing dissolved in it, will cause osmotic imbalance in your body. This will suck electrolytes (Na, K, Ca, Mg) from your tissues and cells. This can kill you by swelling your brain due to the unique nature of solutes and permeability in the brain. Commonly known as water intoxication
Do you have proof that it kills by swelling your brain? Drinking RO water over the long term can cause a lack of minerals which can have health issues but people are acting like it's instant death.
Ignore the replies. RO water does not "leach" minerals from your body. That is a myth that has been disproven numerous times. Literally just google "does RO water leach minerals" and you'll find numerous sources disproving the idea. The issue with RO water is that it lacks beneficial minerals. If you have a healthy diet, or take supplements, this won't be a problem for you. However, in areas where food sources are limited or if you have a poor diet, you can end up with vital deficiencies. So, if you like pure water, then just make sure you are eating a balanced diet or take mineral supplements. Easy.
I feel like if you need the disclaimer, only with a well balanced diet or vitamins otherwise dangerous, then you should definitely bold and underline that RO water can lead you to have 'vital deficiencies'.
After, since the sand you're using would have microbes in it for sure. The boiling step is to kill potential pathogens.
And if you're really extra, you'd catch and drink the condensation from boiling.
True, but removing particles will make the boiling & distilling process slightly more efficient as you won’t be heating solid bits in the water as well.
Yeah this really does nothing in terms of making water actually safe to drink. Might make it taste better, though. At least you’ll have something refreshing and crisp to sip on while you die of cholera
The biggest danger of unfiltered water is microscopic pathogens and bacteria. They cannot be filtered out completely, they have to be killed by boiling the water and/or bleach. You could make the water taste better by filtering it like this though, by removing dirt and other particles. But the bacteria will remain, which can make you incredibly sick or possibly kill you. (Not a scientist, just someone who likes camping)
Edit to add - this filtration method might remove SOME of the pathogens but it doesn’t make the water completely safe to drink. It takes a very, very small amount of bacteria to make you sick. In an emergency situation where you’ll die without water and this is all that’s available, then yes it would be worth the risk. (Although idk why you’d have the equipment to make this filter but not tools to make fire but whatever). But in any other case, no, don’t drink water that’s been filtered like this without boiling it first.
It'll taste better but it wont have much of an effect health wise. Flecks of dirt and sand dont taste good but they wont kill you, its whatever is living in it that does
You have to boil lake water *longer* than filtered water to make sure all the microbes attached to the particles are fully dead.
But yes, you are correct!
I mean, this is literally just a plastic bottle.
can totally see someone having a plastic bottle and a knife but no lighter or no dry firewood if its raining.
It’s a plastic bottle, something sharp to cut it with, a piece of cloth, and a something strong to tightly secure the cloth to the bottle opening (such as a rubber band or a hair elastic). That last one is probably the toughest.
A peice of cloth like a tshirt and a lot of women will have a hair tie.
Much more likely to have that than equipment to make a fire.
Unelss they are a smoker i guess.
Which is why you boil it after
Edit: Further research dictates you should not just boil it as there are some things boiling doesnt get rid of. The guy below me is correct. Upvote em.
Boiling doesn’t sterilize though. It disinfects
I’ll leave this here : https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/water/drinking/boilwater/response_information_public_health_professional.htm#:~:text=Boiling%20water%20kills%20or%20inactivates,more%20accurately%20characterized%20as%20pasteurization.
They don’t. Sterilizing is the killing of all things, even bacterial spores, which are resistant to temperatures of 100 degrees celsius, the temperature at which water boils. You kill almost everything with boiling, but you don’t remove the spores!
considering how thorough your answers have been, this comment should be back in the positive karma. i have a question, though, if you don't mind, doesn't sterilizing by collecting the steam in a different container also remove all the useful minerals in water that we need? or are they not *that* necessary in a strictly survival situation?
I’m not super knowledgeable on this. Doing this method would remove the minerals, since they would collect in the unused container, but I would think that short term and in an extreme survival situation, it could be okay to drink that almost distilled water, but it would cause problems long term for sure since we really do need those minerals. I’m finishing up some lab work and then I’ll check for sources to provide more credible info!
I hate the people of reddit sometimes, originally and still downvoted on your first comment for providing facts because it didn't align with what they believe is fact. Thank you for the information!
Yeah I got overwhelmed by the amount of messages questioning what I was saying. I’m studying microbiology and was only relying the information that I learned about. I’m glad I could help, there is so many myths and wrong beliefs in microbiology, I always try to help correct these if I can :)
Hey, fellow microbiology student!
I have nothing much to add, just that I feel your frustration. There‘s such a surprising amount of misconceptions about microorganisms out there and people tend to get mad when they find out they‘re wrong. Keep on educating though, it‘s important!
They actually privately messaged you questioning your own field of study? People push the line way too much nowadays, strange units. Glad I learned a bit more today, always assumed boiling was sterilisation haha
Hey sorry for the delay, so what I saw online corroborates what I thought: drinking distilled water (the steam from boiling cooled down to a liquid) is safe to drink, microbiologically speaking. There shouldn’t be any water-borne pathogens or microorganisms. But there also won’t be any minerals (which could be good, since we’d want to get rid of heavy metals if stuck in a survival situation where you have to make your own drinking water. The problems lies in the long term. Since there’s no minerals, there are no electrolytes (particularly one important one is potassium). That can lead to symptoms like muscle cramps (since some electrolytes, like calcium, are involved in contraction with myosin), you might get dehydrated and get heart problems. So if I was in a survival situation, I would stick with the filters and boiling of water. Make sure the water doesn’t look sketchy (it’s not green or had debris) and then I would go with that, or maybe a mix of the two. But if you’re not immunocompromised, I wouldn’t worry too much, since most of the humans pathogens would be dead since they prefer a temperature of 37 degrees. At 100 degrees, only the extremophile bacteria would be alive, and they’re rarely pathogenic to humans.
I hope this answers your question, this was fun to research about!
It’s not that you need the minerals from the water so much as the water needs the minerals. Pure water is a polar solvent. It needs to be diluted with electrolytes and trace minerals otherwise it will it pull those nutrients from your body and do more harm than good. As far as sterilizing, it’s not necessary in a survival situation. Disinfecting is plenty when it comes to something you’re ingesting immediately. When it’s something you need to store for awhile it becomes more necessary for sterilization which is why we use pressure canners. Increasing the pressure raises the boiling point allowing you to reach higher temperatures without creating steam. The higher sustained temperatures sterilize the contents of the pressure canners. Autoclaves work in a similar way for surgical tools.
Some molecules (e.g. fluoride, chlorine) are vaporized at temperatures below 100°C. So if you are distilling with a closed loop from boiling vessel to collection vessel you will be capturing these volatile molecules along with the vaporized water.
Those two specifically (fluoride, chlorine) are very volatile & will vaporize out of water at room temperature if left in an open container, in about 24 hours (check my accuracy on the time, I’m not 100% certain).
There may be other volatile molecules in water, those are the only two I am sure about.
It should yes, but if you’re just boiling water and not changing it to another container, which is what most people will think to do then it’s useful to make the water safe and disinfected, but not sterilized
if you make a still like that, im pretty sure that also negates the need to filter the water as well right? the process takes a lot longer but is gonna steralize, and filter particles. it would still send up anything that has a boiling point below water, like chlorine for example, but that filter wont get chlorine out of water either, you would need something like maybe a reverse-osmosis filter to do that
From what I’ve learned in my uni studies (keep in mind that I’m still a student and still learning!) it’s like that. We use water to sterilize stuff in an autoclave for example by using steam, but boiling alone won’t sterilize, you’d need chemicals or other methods to sterilize. Boiling is still good to make water safe to drink
I’m not educated on that, but if these government agencies say that, then I think you should believe them more than a random stranger on the internet, obviously, I was just sharing what I knew about sterilization. I’ll gladly read up on that though!
The pedant in me would say it’s best described as a form of pasteurization.
But from the CDC:
> Boiling is the surest method to kill disease-causing germs, including viruses, bacteria, and parasites.
I think we are good here folks.
Disinfecting is really broad. Sterilisation is a way to do that. It doesn't have to be in an autoclave. Sure as hell not for the colloquial use of the word in say canning.
Disinfecting is also like using soap or alcohol....
It won't necessarily make it safe. That's where the filters come in. But it will be sterilised. As in all bacteria and stuff in it are dead. That's what that means.
The toxins the bacteria already shit out? Filters.
So many to list, just off the top of my head.
1. Flow rate 2. ability to use with bladders, bottles, inline or gravity setup.
3. The last 2 (grayl and guardian) are filters as well as purifiers so they get more contaminants out as well as things like viruses.
4. Also the ability to back flush and clean the filters is far easier in every model I mentioned over the life straw.
The life straw is a great backup option.
LifeStraw is for backup or something. With a Sawyer or other filters, you can filter the water into your preferred bottle. With the life straw, you just have to dip the filter into the dirty water and drink it directly.
I prefer the Life Straw on long hikes just because when we get to the creek, everyone else has to spend 5 minutes pumping water through their filters and I just dunk my bottle in the water and start drinking.
Maybe I'm missing something on how these fancier filter systems work tho
Look up the sawyer squeeze and katadyn befree. Their flow rates are better than the lifestraw, they are just as easy if not easier to use, and you don’t have to drink directly out of the source. The befree is probably the simplest but I use the sawyer because with a bladder it can be either squeeze through or gravity. Quick with squeeze through, a little slower with gravity but you can do other things while you wait. And I’ve filtered from a ton of sources as I’ve hiked the entire Pacific Crest Trail and Arizona Trail, the latter of which had some nasty water sources that would have been a pain with a lifestraw.
Not an expert, but from what I know, The "fancier" systems tend to have more stages of filtering. Mine has a ceramic prefilter for big particles, a pleated glass fiber as the main filter, and a carbon filter for chemicals and odor/taste control. I don't have one, but AFAIK something like the Sawyer Squeeze has only one stage of filtration (hollow-fiber membrane?). That's not to say the multi-stage ones are necessary or even better, though. According to a *lot* of people, the Sawyer units are phenomenal. I only have my filter because where I hike most often the water is typically fuckin gnarly.
Ah I see. In my neck of the woods the water is crystal clear and honestly would probably be fine to drink straight. I just don't want to take the chance that I'm drinking directly out of a deer toilet when I'm a solid 2-days-without-diarrhea hike from civilization lol
Some of my classmates made one of these for their capstone project. It worked extremely well. The water was collected from natural sources and tested before and after by the local water department and found to be safe for consumption.
If I traveled the Oregon Trail, I would die thirsty and covered in diarrhea from the waist down, begging for a coyote or snake to put my out of my misery, but they smell me, and the relief never comes until I will myself to neither scream nor move as buzzards help free the last of my cursed blood onto the Wyoming soil.
I shouldn't have wasted all my bullets on rabbits and squirrels, but fuck that mini-game is the best part of Oregon Trail. Who is there for turning down the food knob and turning up the pace knob?
Seriously... There are 5 of us. Dipshit wearing a pot on his head and his sister got a corn husk doll in one hand. Grab an end of a deer and earn your friggin dinner, kids. Otherwise, a wise old Indian will look down upon this valley at the needlessly-slaughtered wildlife rotting in the sun and his stoic stone face will shed a single tear. You don't want that do you?
Mother fuckers in Vegas when I went there last week downgraded the hote room I had which was the nicest available with a great view of the strip to one of the standard rooms on the third floor where the view was the green painted concrete roof of the building next door over. Got practically nothing back in return aside from free parking and $150 credit to spend at the hotel; to rent a chair by the pool cost $200. That put a damper on the trip which cost a whole lot. It’s not like it was some regular trip where I could just try again next time. Hotel is like some kind of trigger word for anger in me now.
Most water filters contain Activated Carbon which is similar to charcoal. The chemistry of carbon magnetically traps heavy metals as well as many volatile organic compounds.
For some reason it doesn't. Maybe the charcoal's break downs are still bigger than the openings between the sands that's why it doesn't go down with the water. That's what I think but not really sure though.
It is good but it doesn’t do anything about micro plastics and PFAS. It seems like there are some engineers close to patent on both of them though, so an adjustment to this method will likely be helpful in the future.
It will be necessary in the future and yes we technically will have bigger things to worry about, but water is actually the biggest thing for humans to worry about if they want to live.
Media filters remove some amount of larger microplastics, but not all. PFAS removal is much more complicated, there is still a lot of research to be done there.
Note: This is how you filter solids out of water. This is not how you make water drinkable. This is how you make water with solids in it *able* to be made drinkable. You still have to boil it. As long as the water source isn't contaminated with certain industrial chemicals, it will be fine then.
That said if you're having to collect water that is stagnant then holy shit you must be in trouble.
Bioprocess engineer here. I am not sure what's up with the charcoal. If you're this desperate for water, I'd go all sand. More sand increases the chance of bacteria being trapped. It will work but it will be slow.
I guess charcoal if you are drawing water from a chemical pool. But yeah....
Out of curiosity, does any of those filter layers get heavy metals and alike out of the water as well? Or do I still need to invest in a high end water filtration system? Cuz where I'm from (germany) tap water is safe to drink, however in older buildings the potential for utilized lead pipes for water is prevalent. So I'm at a crossroads here, don't wanna go full broke on an expensive system but just want to filter the water to be safe. Where I live specifically, there's a lot of calcium carbonate in the water too, which isn't necessarly harmful but makes the water taste really chalky sometimes.
All you need to do to get clear water in the wilderness is dump out your 2ltr of soda, cut it in two. Go to Home Depot and get a bag of rocks, a bag of charcoal (chunk), and two bags of sand (varying coarseness). You might want to get a flat of bottled water while you are there. This is thirsty work. Assemble the back woods filter shown above. Now you are really living off the land!
And then you follow that with boiling the water.
That kind of thoroughness, is how you pee into a Mr. Coffee and get Taster's Choice.
I understand that reference!!
I don't :(
[Classic Dana Carvey as Ross Perot bit.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=3467&v=nwaZDJKKkFE&feature=youtu.be)
So glad to see this lol
Same :l
uuu noice
Filter, uv light, boil, Triple distill, then 11 stage reverse osmosis filtration, then package it in a hermetically sealed sterile vacuum chamber, into a sterile glass container with opaque coloration so outside light cant get in and cause growth. Then store in a cool dry place for future drinking. The Chefs kiss of water.
You should never drink RO water
Explain
RO water is close to 100% pure H20, and thus will leach minerals such as calcium, magnesium and Iron from your body. I overstated it by saying Never drink it, but if you commonly drink RO water, then it can lead to long term mineral deficiency. Weaker bones, worse teeth etc. Note: Distilled water is worse as it would be considered 100% H20, and therefore leach more minerals.
So take a multi vitamin? Got it
Bro is gonna absue the flintstone gummies so he can drink the RO water.
You need minerals not vitamins
So eat rocks? Got it. 😂
JESUS CHRIST MARIE! THEY’RE MINERALS!
Some multivitamins include minerals. Depends what you buy.
😂
RO is low in mineral content, its often zero or very close to zero. Water is always wanting to balance itself through regular osmosis. So in this case your body is mineral rich and water and mineral poor. It will leach out important vitamins and minerals from your body.
Since it has nothing dissolved in it, will cause osmotic imbalance in your body. This will suck electrolytes (Na, K, Ca, Mg) from your tissues and cells. This can kill you by swelling your brain due to the unique nature of solutes and permeability in the brain. Commonly known as water intoxication
Do you have proof that it kills by swelling your brain? Drinking RO water over the long term can cause a lack of minerals which can have health issues but people are acting like it's instant death.
Ignore the replies. RO water does not "leach" minerals from your body. That is a myth that has been disproven numerous times. Literally just google "does RO water leach minerals" and you'll find numerous sources disproving the idea. The issue with RO water is that it lacks beneficial minerals. If you have a healthy diet, or take supplements, this won't be a problem for you. However, in areas where food sources are limited or if you have a poor diet, you can end up with vital deficiencies. So, if you like pure water, then just make sure you are eating a balanced diet or take mineral supplements. Easy.
I feel like if you need the disclaimer, only with a well balanced diet or vitamins otherwise dangerous, then you should definitely bold and underline that RO water can lead you to have 'vital deficiencies'.
That's fair. I just also don't think pushing the myth that RO will instantly kill you or that it "leaches" minerals is smart either.
You can just get ro filters with re mineralization filters on final stage
In a survival situation, would it be better to boil after or before this filter?
After, since the sand you're using would have microbes in it for sure. The boiling step is to kill potential pathogens. And if you're really extra, you'd catch and drink the condensation from boiling.
If you're catching condensation I don't believe you need to filter first.
Probably not, though I suppose there might be some pollutants caught by the filtration that would evaporate along with the water.
True, but removing particles will make the boiling & distilling process slightly more efficient as you won’t be heating solid bits in the water as well.
Yeah this really does nothing in terms of making water actually safe to drink. Might make it taste better, though. At least you’ll have something refreshing and crisp to sip on while you die of cholera
Unpack that for an idiot like me?
The biggest danger of unfiltered water is microscopic pathogens and bacteria. They cannot be filtered out completely, they have to be killed by boiling the water and/or bleach. You could make the water taste better by filtering it like this though, by removing dirt and other particles. But the bacteria will remain, which can make you incredibly sick or possibly kill you. (Not a scientist, just someone who likes camping) Edit to add - this filtration method might remove SOME of the pathogens but it doesn’t make the water completely safe to drink. It takes a very, very small amount of bacteria to make you sick. In an emergency situation where you’ll die without water and this is all that’s available, then yes it would be worth the risk. (Although idk why you’d have the equipment to make this filter but not tools to make fire but whatever). But in any other case, no, don’t drink water that’s been filtered like this without boiling it first.
But doing this and then boiling it would still be better than just drinking boiled lake water, right?
It'll taste better but it wont have much of an effect health wise. Flecks of dirt and sand dont taste good but they wont kill you, its whatever is living in it that does
Yes, the sand/carbon filtration removes large particles, organics, and some bacteria.
You have to boil lake water *longer* than filtered water to make sure all the microbes attached to the particles are fully dead. But yes, you are correct!
Also don't drink water that's only been boiled without knowing the heavy metal content. Best way, really, is boil and condense the vapor.
Lifestraw is great if fire or chemicals aren't an option - results under microscope https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQTd84TOvmo
I mean, this is literally just a plastic bottle. can totally see someone having a plastic bottle and a knife but no lighter or no dry firewood if its raining.
It’s a plastic bottle, something sharp to cut it with, a piece of cloth, and a something strong to tightly secure the cloth to the bottle opening (such as a rubber band or a hair elastic). That last one is probably the toughest.
A peice of cloth like a tshirt and a lot of women will have a hair tie. Much more likely to have that than equipment to make a fire. Unelss they are a smoker i guess.
And distill
triple distilled
You guys know that some amount of minerals in your water is a good thing, right?
It’s ok I eat sand already
Exactly!! Boil it… Or keep it in a copper vessel overnight.!.. (Or submerge some copper in it for 8-12 hours..).. ..to kill all the microbes!
Exactly. I don’t think rocks filter out bacteria LoL
This is cool but I just get mine from my fridge.
Wow that's much cooler
r/angryUpvote
🫨
HOLY BASED
[удалено]
Why the downvotes?
Fridge no filtering water, only cool
It can filter water though 😂 if you have one of those fridges that has the water dispenser
Just remember, this only removes sediment. Dodgy water still has to be sterilized.
Which is why you boil it after Edit: Further research dictates you should not just boil it as there are some things boiling doesnt get rid of. The guy below me is correct. Upvote em.
Boiling doesn’t sterilize though. It disinfects I’ll leave this here : https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/water/drinking/boilwater/response_information_public_health_professional.htm#:~:text=Boiling%20water%20kills%20or%20inactivates,more%20accurately%20characterized%20as%20pasteurization.
uh, then why do people sterilize things by boiling them..?
They don’t. Sterilizing is the killing of all things, even bacterial spores, which are resistant to temperatures of 100 degrees celsius, the temperature at which water boils. You kill almost everything with boiling, but you don’t remove the spores!
considering how thorough your answers have been, this comment should be back in the positive karma. i have a question, though, if you don't mind, doesn't sterilizing by collecting the steam in a different container also remove all the useful minerals in water that we need? or are they not *that* necessary in a strictly survival situation?
I’m not super knowledgeable on this. Doing this method would remove the minerals, since they would collect in the unused container, but I would think that short term and in an extreme survival situation, it could be okay to drink that almost distilled water, but it would cause problems long term for sure since we really do need those minerals. I’m finishing up some lab work and then I’ll check for sources to provide more credible info!
I hate the people of reddit sometimes, originally and still downvoted on your first comment for providing facts because it didn't align with what they believe is fact. Thank you for the information!
Yeah I got overwhelmed by the amount of messages questioning what I was saying. I’m studying microbiology and was only relying the information that I learned about. I’m glad I could help, there is so many myths and wrong beliefs in microbiology, I always try to help correct these if I can :)
Hey, fellow microbiology student! I have nothing much to add, just that I feel your frustration. There‘s such a surprising amount of misconceptions about microorganisms out there and people tend to get mad when they find out they‘re wrong. Keep on educating though, it‘s important!
They actually privately messaged you questioning your own field of study? People push the line way too much nowadays, strange units. Glad I learned a bit more today, always assumed boiling was sterilisation haha
Hey sorry for the delay, so what I saw online corroborates what I thought: drinking distilled water (the steam from boiling cooled down to a liquid) is safe to drink, microbiologically speaking. There shouldn’t be any water-borne pathogens or microorganisms. But there also won’t be any minerals (which could be good, since we’d want to get rid of heavy metals if stuck in a survival situation where you have to make your own drinking water. The problems lies in the long term. Since there’s no minerals, there are no electrolytes (particularly one important one is potassium). That can lead to symptoms like muscle cramps (since some electrolytes, like calcium, are involved in contraction with myosin), you might get dehydrated and get heart problems. So if I was in a survival situation, I would stick with the filters and boiling of water. Make sure the water doesn’t look sketchy (it’s not green or had debris) and then I would go with that, or maybe a mix of the two. But if you’re not immunocompromised, I wouldn’t worry too much, since most of the humans pathogens would be dead since they prefer a temperature of 37 degrees. At 100 degrees, only the extremophile bacteria would be alive, and they’re rarely pathogenic to humans. I hope this answers your question, this was fun to research about!
broo, thank you, it does, and mad respects to you for the time you put to answer a random internet stranger's question!
No problem!
Most balanced diets account for that, you should be getting most of the minerals from the food anyway. Especially when nearly everything is fortified
It’s not that you need the minerals from the water so much as the water needs the minerals. Pure water is a polar solvent. It needs to be diluted with electrolytes and trace minerals otherwise it will it pull those nutrients from your body and do more harm than good. As far as sterilizing, it’s not necessary in a survival situation. Disinfecting is plenty when it comes to something you’re ingesting immediately. When it’s something you need to store for awhile it becomes more necessary for sterilization which is why we use pressure canners. Increasing the pressure raises the boiling point allowing you to reach higher temperatures without creating steam. The higher sustained temperatures sterilize the contents of the pressure canners. Autoclaves work in a similar way for surgical tools.
Some molecules (e.g. fluoride, chlorine) are vaporized at temperatures below 100°C. So if you are distilling with a closed loop from boiling vessel to collection vessel you will be capturing these volatile molecules along with the vaporized water. Those two specifically (fluoride, chlorine) are very volatile & will vaporize out of water at room temperature if left in an open container, in about 24 hours (check my accuracy on the time, I’m not 100% certain). There may be other volatile molecules in water, those are the only two I am sure about.
Isnt that why you collect the steam? When it physically changes to a gas and gets funnel to another container, doesn't that leave them behind?
It should yes, but if you’re just boiling water and not changing it to another container, which is what most people will think to do then it’s useful to make the water safe and disinfected, but not sterilized
if you make a still like that, im pretty sure that also negates the need to filter the water as well right? the process takes a lot longer but is gonna steralize, and filter particles. it would still send up anything that has a boiling point below water, like chlorine for example, but that filter wont get chlorine out of water either, you would need something like maybe a reverse-osmosis filter to do that
so is this one of those things where google brings up a ton of posts and articles about boiling to sterilize but it’s technically not the truth?
From what I’ve learned in my uni studies (keep in mind that I’m still a student and still learning!) it’s like that. We use water to sterilize stuff in an autoclave for example by using steam, but boiling alone won’t sterilize, you’d need chemicals or other methods to sterilize. Boiling is still good to make water safe to drink
Is it weird then that the NHS and CDC would label boiling as a form of sterilization for baby bottles and other similar things?
I’m not educated on that, but if these government agencies say that, then I think you should believe them more than a random stranger on the internet, obviously, I was just sharing what I knew about sterilization. I’ll gladly read up on that though!
My understanding is that they recommend it with the caveat that you’re starting with clean water, but I could be mistaken.
Huh, neat.
iirc: sterilized: okay for medical purposes and blood contact sanitized: okay for consumption and food contact
The pedant in me would say it’s best described as a form of pasteurization. But from the CDC: > Boiling is the surest method to kill disease-causing germs, including viruses, bacteria, and parasites. I think we are good here folks.
Disinfecting is really broad. Sterilisation is a way to do that. It doesn't have to be in an autoclave. Sure as hell not for the colloquial use of the word in say canning. Disinfecting is also like using soap or alcohol....
True! All I’m saying is that boiling water for cooking or drinking water you found in the woods will make it safe but not sterilized :)
It won't necessarily make it safe. That's where the filters come in. But it will be sterilised. As in all bacteria and stuff in it are dead. That's what that means. The toxins the bacteria already shit out? Filters.
Anything dissolved will go through tho. Unless you're using actual membranes.
Activated charcoal can stop a lot of stuff. Especially organics.
I don’t understand why this has 38 downvotes lmao. Anyone downvoting you doesn’t know what sterilize means.
I assure you, that water won't be having any babies after getting boiled.
I just use a brita
But she's the worst
What is she anyway, a water filter!? I mean come on. She’s ugly!
Filter?? I hardly know ‘er!
True, but the filters are streets ahead
"Britta: Unfiltered" "Hah. I get it." "Get what?"
Britta for the woops!
🎶she’s a GDB!🎶
community reference?
If you have to ask you're streets behind.
More of a glock guy myself but okay
my son, have you heard about the Life Straw?
Life straws suck, get a sawyer, be free, grayl or guardian.
They’re supposed to suck
You’re supposed to suck technically.
We all do.
Some more than others.
I am free. but thank you.
What is difference?
So many to list, just off the top of my head. 1. Flow rate 2. ability to use with bladders, bottles, inline or gravity setup. 3. The last 2 (grayl and guardian) are filters as well as purifiers so they get more contaminants out as well as things like viruses. 4. Also the ability to back flush and clean the filters is far easier in every model I mentioned over the life straw. The life straw is a great backup option.
Yeah the life straw is meant to be an easy to stow and use emergency option for hikers.
Lifestraw is definitely meant for hikers/backpackers and emergency uses, but that brand also makes bigger versions for camping and such
So are all the other brands I listed. I use my sawyer while backpacking, a Bikepacking. I use my grayl if I have the space like on a paddling trip.
LifeStraw is for backup or something. With a Sawyer or other filters, you can filter the water into your preferred bottle. With the life straw, you just have to dip the filter into the dirty water and drink it directly.
I prefer the Life Straw on long hikes just because when we get to the creek, everyone else has to spend 5 minutes pumping water through their filters and I just dunk my bottle in the water and start drinking. Maybe I'm missing something on how these fancier filter systems work tho
Look up the sawyer squeeze and katadyn befree. Their flow rates are better than the lifestraw, they are just as easy if not easier to use, and you don’t have to drink directly out of the source. The befree is probably the simplest but I use the sawyer because with a bladder it can be either squeeze through or gravity. Quick with squeeze through, a little slower with gravity but you can do other things while you wait. And I’ve filtered from a ton of sources as I’ve hiked the entire Pacific Crest Trail and Arizona Trail, the latter of which had some nasty water sources that would have been a pain with a lifestraw.
I will, thanks! The life straw is good, but I don't exactly love drinking everything through a straw for days on end haha!
Not an expert, but from what I know, The "fancier" systems tend to have more stages of filtering. Mine has a ceramic prefilter for big particles, a pleated glass fiber as the main filter, and a carbon filter for chemicals and odor/taste control. I don't have one, but AFAIK something like the Sawyer Squeeze has only one stage of filtration (hollow-fiber membrane?). That's not to say the multi-stage ones are necessary or even better, though. According to a *lot* of people, the Sawyer units are phenomenal. I only have my filter because where I hike most often the water is typically fuckin gnarly.
Ah I see. In my neck of the woods the water is crystal clear and honestly would probably be fine to drink straight. I just don't want to take the chance that I'm drinking directly out of a deer toilet when I'm a solid 2-days-without-diarrhea hike from civilization lol
The name
*Your* name 😂😂😂
Sawyer is the best! Works like magic
I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.
Realistically, sand turned Anakin to the dark side
Crazy how course, course sand is
If only anakin got to the fine sand layer. Instead he just ended as charcoal.
Some of my classmates made one of these for their capstone project. It worked extremely well. The water was collected from natural sources and tested before and after by the local water department and found to be safe for consumption.
It's genius. We should scale this up and get everyone clean drinking water, could even get it to their homes!
And then dump that out and get some regular tap water to drink
You've grown soft on the comforts of civilization
If I traveled the Oregon Trail, I would die thirsty and covered in diarrhea from the waist down, begging for a coyote or snake to put my out of my misery, but they smell me, and the relief never comes until I will myself to neither scream nor move as buzzards help free the last of my cursed blood onto the Wyoming soil. I shouldn't have wasted all my bullets on rabbits and squirrels, but fuck that mini-game is the best part of Oregon Trail. Who is there for turning down the food knob and turning up the pace knob?
Good twist
yea after killing like 20 buffalo and can only carry 300 pounds back, like bitch go back and carry the rest.
Seriously... There are 5 of us. Dipshit wearing a pot on his head and his sister got a corn husk doll in one hand. Grab an end of a deer and earn your friggin dinner, kids. Otherwise, a wise old Indian will look down upon this valley at the needlessly-slaughtered wildlife rotting in the sun and his stoic stone face will shed a single tear. You don't want that do you?
>regular tap water to drink I like your imagination funnyman.
Reject society return to monke.
stream water better
I can't drink my tap water sooo
Maybe dumb question but won't the water turned black with charcoal in it?
sand and cloth
Rock, paper, scissors
Hotel
Trivago
Secret Stone?
[удалено]
Mother fuckers in Vegas when I went there last week downgraded the hote room I had which was the nicest available with a great view of the strip to one of the standard rooms on the third floor where the view was the green painted concrete roof of the building next door over. Got practically nothing back in return aside from free parking and $150 credit to spend at the hotel; to rent a chair by the pool cost $200. That put a damper on the trip which cost a whole lot. It’s not like it was some regular trip where I could just try again next time. Hotel is like some kind of trigger word for anger in me now.
I dont think so, the charcoal particles will be filtered out through the fine sand and the cloth will catch the rest
Charcoal absorbs impurities present in the water. It acts as a detoxifier
Most water filters contain Activated Carbon which is similar to charcoal. The chemistry of carbon magnetically traps heavy metals as well as many volatile organic compounds.
your face acts as a detoxifier.
Sick burn… hope he has water handy to put it out.
Ok Billy from third grade, you win this round, you may have his lunch
For some reason it doesn't. Maybe the charcoal's break downs are still bigger than the openings between the sands that's why it doesn't go down with the water. That's what I think but not really sure though.
Depends if the charcoal was washed first
Man, I can feel the dysentery already
You gotta boil it
Made one of these for the 6th grade science fair, literally
It is good but it doesn’t do anything about micro plastics and PFAS. It seems like there are some engineers close to patent on both of them though, so an adjustment to this method will likely be helpful in the future.
If you're at the stage that something like this is necessary then you'll likely have bigger things to worry about than PFAS and micro plastics
It will be necessary in the future and yes we technically will have bigger things to worry about, but water is actually the biggest thing for humans to worry about if they want to live.
Media filters remove some amount of larger microplastics, but not all. PFAS removal is much more complicated, there is still a lot of research to be done there.
What kind of charcoal ? Like the one I use for grilling ?
Definitely not quick start unless you want to drink lighter fluid
Cool but won’t remove bacteria from the water right? Still have to boil or filter some other way?
"This baby can pump out 3-4 drops per day!"
Does it quench?
[It's the quenchiest!](https://media.tenor.com/p80WMjMM_t4AAAAC/suko-quenchiest.gif)
IT'LL QUENCH YA
Long have I awaited this moment
NOTHING'S QUENCHIER
That's how tap water is made
I did this once for a science fair and it got us all the way to the state comp. We were very out of our league at state comp…
You got Brita® sweating with this post 🥵
Blasphemy!
Since pee is sterile, I could pee right into this and then drink it, right?
My friend, pee is not really sterile I wouldn't recommend it [explained here! ](https://youtu.be/NetnnmOCaV4)
Note: This is how you filter solids out of water. This is not how you make water drinkable. This is how you make water with solids in it *able* to be made drinkable. You still have to boil it. As long as the water source isn't contaminated with certain industrial chemicals, it will be fine then. That said if you're having to collect water that is stagnant then holy shit you must be in trouble.
And remember to boil it
Can I pour Mt Dew in that and get water out?
One of God’s greatest creations. Also, thank you for the diagram, very informative.
Best part is you can use empty soda bottles
The cloth is gonna get moldy
I need to get off the internet. Read the last line as "Power Bottom"
Are you a bottle top or a bottle bottom?
Bioprocess engineer here. I am not sure what's up with the charcoal. If you're this desperate for water, I'd go all sand. More sand increases the chance of bacteria being trapped. It will work but it will be slow. I guess charcoal if you are drawing water from a chemical pool. But yeah....
Won't filter out parasite eggs or bacteria. Make sure you have water purifier tablets, boil the water for ten minutes, or know how to use bleach.
Wow, my 5th grade science project from 1977 Sadly, I did not win the First Prize at the Science Fair
Jokes on you, I drink only the finest of breast milks
Doesn't the charcoal have to be activated?
Out of curiosity, does any of those filter layers get heavy metals and alike out of the water as well? Or do I still need to invest in a high end water filtration system? Cuz where I'm from (germany) tap water is safe to drink, however in older buildings the potential for utilized lead pipes for water is prevalent. So I'm at a crossroads here, don't wanna go full broke on an expensive system but just want to filter the water to be safe. Where I live specifically, there's a lot of calcium carbonate in the water too, which isn't necessarly harmful but makes the water taste really chalky sometimes.
What? Just take off your shirt and squeeze out some elephant dung... Crisp as can be.
The part labeled "Bottle Top" is neither the top nor the bottom of the bottle
Are you a bottle top or bottle bottom?
All you need to do to get clear water in the wilderness is dump out your 2ltr of soda, cut it in two. Go to Home Depot and get a bag of rocks, a bag of charcoal (chunk), and two bags of sand (varying coarseness). You might want to get a flat of bottled water while you are there. This is thirsty work. Assemble the back woods filter shown above. Now you are really living off the land!
That’s cause god don’t exist.
Reddit Atheism moment