Sweet Water Viral Stop used alone?

[cat morris]

Anyone use the Sweet Water Viral Stop drops alone(without the Sweet Water filter) for purifying water? The active ingredient is sodium hypochlorite so for health reasons I wouldn’t want to make a habit of it, but I have a bottle that came with my filter & want to use it as quick, emergency purification.

Any thoughts about that?

[paul johnson]

b/f i learned of AqM, I bought some from LLBean.

objectionable chlorine taste as one would expect from NaOCl (bleach). i don’t use it. use AqM instead.

if your filter has a 0.2micron absolute pore size, then you would only need the “drops” to take care of viruses, more specifically Hepatitis A virus. Viruses due to their extremely small size are “non-filterable”.

[Richard Matthews]

Sweet Water viral stop is a 3.5% concentration and normal household bleach is a 6%. Very little advantage over bleach.

I mostly use a Hiker filter, but when I use chemicals I alternate iodine and bleach. You are supposed to add bleach until you can smell the bleach, but not taste it. I like it because I can vary the treatment based on my judgement of the water. 1 to 5 drops of bleach per quart.

[cat morris]

After some research it seems Sweet Water Viral Stop is simply very expensive($10 a small 6 oz. bottle) household bleach!

Aqua Mira or Mircropur appear to be a much safer chemical, using chlorine dioxide.

However, I have this on hand & want to use it alone without a filter. Sounds like it will kill everything, just like bleach.

When I do use my sweet water filter, which is on most trips, I don’t use the ViralStop with the filter since I have no concern about viruses in my water sources.

[paul johnson]

Bleach may not kill tape worm eggs – you should verify this from a more reputable source than myself. However, your filter will have NO trouble at all removing the eggs from any infected water sources.

[cat morris]

Thanks for the info! But now I not only have to be concerned re brown bears for this trip into Denali but also tapeworms from the wolves & coyotes! It’s a good thing to be aware of & I’ll take my water filter then ask the rangers.

[Bill Fornshell]

If tape worms and what ever the other thing was is that bad and unless you are using a lot of water why not just boil it? I think that kills everything living in water.

[paul johnson]

Indigenous to certain areas. May not be an issue in Denali. I don’t know. Specifically, ask the Rangers about Hydatid tapeworms or Echinococcus granulosus (one of at least two in the genus which can be a problem for humans). These tiny critters are the real bad boys of the tapeworms.

A rolling boil for AT LEAST 2 MINUTES is the minimum recommended boiling time to kill tapeworm eggs.

Some spore forming bacteria can survive even longer periods of boiling, but we generally are NOT concerned about these little buggers since they are generally found in soil and not water. I won’t get more specific here unless someone wants me to.

This is very fuel inefficient. Depending upon how long you are planning to be there, the wt. of your filter (11oz? 16oz?) may end up weighing less, initially, than your extra fuel – of course this is just until you consume some of the fuel. Also, you can drink immediately, rather than turning a water stop into a more complicated boiling operation.

The filter has one other advantage. What would happen if you ran out of fuel? Perhaps a leak, or a spill. Now, if boiling is the only means you have with you for purifying water, AND IF “tapes” are an issue, how would you purify the water?

Your filter will work fine if you have an absolute 0.2 micron filter. Actually, I believe a bit larger pore size will work also, but 0.2 micron is a common size for some ceramic filters.

Normally, I would just use Aqua Mira to purify the water. However, if tapeworms are a potential problem, then I would first filter b/f treating with AqM.

Hope this info helps.

[cat morris]

Rangers in Denali were not aware of the hydatid tapeworm presence there & had a great trip using using viral stop. We got caught in a frigid blizzard so it was nice not to have to pump. However, hate the chlorox taste & after much research seems like Aqua Mira is the safest for our bodies so will switch to that next year.

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