Water Filters

Personally, I am looking at the HyperFlow for my water filter as well. While I am not looking at it for filter the type of water you are going to be filtering, I think that it will behave just fine in normal stream water.

I have few questions for you actually. First, is this water stagnant or running? Are you thinking of filtering from a pool in a cow pasture? Secondly, is it necessary to filter that type of water?

Just psychologically, I would not want to drink that type of water. Remember that if you do use the HyperFlow, they rate their liters per filter using cleanish water. Your liters per filter might drop to levels that would not be acceptable to you if you constantly filtered that type of water.

Currently there are areas that I hike that are dry so I have to set off with all the water I need for the trip. If it has been raining recently there are small soaks and pools that have obviously been used by a lot of mammals including horses and cattle that are now wild. There are other areas that skirt rural land so dams are accessible. As I own a farm myself I know that cows will stand in water and drink and s**t at the same time.
I understand that a filter will have reduced flow the more it has to filter and the life of the filter will be reduced. I have no issues using 'recycled' water for drinking as long as it has been treated. Just think of all the things that live in your local reservoir.
My main concern is that it would be safe to drink.
Darren

Consider a bunch of paper coffee filters followed by a Steripen Adventurer. The paper will remove the visible, and the Steripen will kill anything left.
If you are going to use a few farm dams, figure on using a number of filters!
Do remember, any filter with a reasonable through-flow will NOT take out bacteria or viruses!! Many of them are only cosmetic. But the Steripen does work best with clear water.

.

Roger,
I'm planning to hike along a river that has commercial chicken farms upstream about 50 miles, but the rangers in the state & national parks along the river in my area tell me the water is contaminated with animal waste and pesticides. My other option would be small stagnant pools of swampy water, but since the swampy pools lie next to the river, I assume it's the same water and not spring fed. I'll be filtering water for 4 people (including 2 kids). I was planning on using the Katydn Hiker filter I already have, followed by some chemical to treat any viruses.

First, is the Hiker a filter you'd recommend for this type of water ? I hear using the Steripen would be very slow for 4 people.

Second, my wife is very intolerant of cholorinated water's taste (and I assume she'd hate iodine taste even more). Since there are 4 people I need a chemical that works reasonably fast, but doesn't taste bad. What chemical would you recommend ?

Third, do you think I'd be better off drawing water from the river, or the swampy pools alongside the river ? My thinking is that the swampy pools must filter some of the bad stuff out of the river water since there is several yards of dirt between the riverbank and the swampy pools. However, the swampy water if full of algae and I don't see any minnows or anything else alive in the swampy pools.

Carrying several days of water isn't really an option for me since the kids are 8 and 10 – which means I'll be carrying water for 2.5-3 people depending on how much water I can get my wife to carry ;)

Thanks.

Check out this forum… it might answer a lot of your questions about filtering.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/xdpy/forum_thread/11812/index.html

greetings john
i would listen to the rangers filters and steripen will not remove pesticides maybe your family can share the load and carry water to risky in my opinion i would ask the rangers more questions on what exactly is in the river take care

I have been doing some searching and found this http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/xdpy/forum_thread/6447/index.html.
What I’m now considering is cutting the top off a platypus 1l then make a cone out of thin plastic film orikaso style then punching heaps of holes in it. This would form a support for the coffee filter papers. This cone would sit in the top of the platy then I can tip the water in it though the filter. Once complete I can put the steripen and treat it. There would be about 800mls in it. As I like small as well as light this would all pack flat and probably only weigh about 200 gms or so.
The filter would take out the big lumps, the steripen would kill every thing and I should be left with slightly murky dubious tasting safe water. Perhaps my old standby water treatment a satchel of powdered tang would help.
Any thoughts?
Has anyone tryed the muv? how does it compare to the steripen? What would be nice is if the light was on a short lead to allow it to be lowered into a 1l bottle
Darren

I just orderd the mUV. They said that it would ship on Monday. I will test it out and post the observations as soon as I can.

I got the aquastar Muv a week ago.
First impressions are very good. I love the fact that it is lighter than aquamira (the 2 bottles) and about he same as a bottle of Klearwater, which is what I use.
Plus….and this is a BIG plus it kills everything!
including cyrpto in 1 minute 15 seconds! Hows that for fast and light. Its a little bulkier than a bottle of klearwater and bout' the same as aquamira. Not a big deal to me it can still fit in a pocket though Ill probably keep it in a pack pocket. Fifty bucks aint that bad. Very competitvie with filters. The only weakness I see is the top 'plug" that is not water proof so you have to be carefull not to let the top get submerged when using wide mouth bottles, but I can live with that considering the speed and ease of use this thing has.

Hi John

> commercial chicken farms upstream about 50 miles
Yuk.
However, the water can get fairly oxygenated in 50 miles, so not all hope is lost.

> water is contaminated with animal waste and pesticides.
OK, this is totally different from most other situations. Frankly, I think you are battling it a bit here (as you know), but it may be possible.
Step 1: Coffee filter or similar to rid of the visible lumps. This is good for the two following steps. If the water is clear, you can skip this step.
Step 2: Activated carbon filter to get rid of the chemicals. But for peace of mind, use a new cartridge. The Hiker cartridge does contain activated carbon as far as I can remember – please check. This will remove large protozoa and bacteria, but it will NOT remove viruses. These are a serious problem for the kids.
Step 3: Steripen Adventurer (or mUV) to kill everything left, without giving the water a chlorine or iodine taste.

This is definitely belt AND braces, but you have your wife and kids with you.

The Hiker filter is a good unit – I have two, but it won't stop viruses, and I would worry slightly about them. But pumping a lot of water can be a bit slow and tiring. Well, that's what fathers are for. :-)

The Steripen takes 90 seconds for 1 liter. OK, that takes time, but it is a LOT faster than chemicals, and a bit more reliable as well. It does not leave any taste, unlike chemicals.

Remember that you do need to get the chemicals out of the water, and carbon does that, but you don't need to UV all your water. For instance, any water you are going to boil can just be carbon-filtered.

River or swamp? I think I can promise you the river water might taste better, especially if there is any turbulence like small rapids etc. The presence of plain algae in the swamps is not a serious problem however: in many cases it just means there was some nutrient in the water, plus some sunshine. If it smells OK it may be the same as the river – but treat it the same too.

I suggest each of you carry one of those 1.25 L fizzy mineral water PET bottles (rocket base) of water – the kids too, and you carry the Hiker and the Steripen/mUV. Take time out as needed to filter more. With young kids it can't be a race.

If the water smells a bit … try tea and coffee!

Hi Darren

> I should be left with slightly murky dubious tasting safe water
UNLESS there are any agricultural chemicals around. See previous posting about that.

While I have the Steripen, I can't see that the mUV would be much different.

Cheers

Roger
The areas I’m thinking of are steep grazing country. There is a much lower chance of chemicals than crop country. Herbicides like roundup have nil withholding in cattle and as they take affect about 7 days from application I could see if it’s been around. It is more usual to burn bracken and bladey grass in spring to encourage young edible shoots.
I rank water in 3 categories. Water you believe is safe (you take a chance and drink untreated), water that appears safe but you suspect may be a bit dodgy ( this would be the normal realm of water purification for most people), and water you know is bad.( this is the area I am looking at).
Once I get some feedback on the muv I will make my decision then I will do some trials around my farm and the hills here. I can then report back from my hospital bed. Ha.
Seriously though I’m just looking for a solution for a few specific areas and the walks are 2 nights max. From past experience it takes at least 24 hrs before you’re in trouble.
Darren

Hi Darren

It's all about risk management. Yes, it can take up to 24 hours for the bugs to really get going, but I have spent 24 hours unconscious (or d**n near) after drinking out of the top end of the Nattai AFTER using a Katadyn ceramic filter. Virus load from the upstream Mittagong STP … I didn't know.

The Hiker (carbon core) followed by UV will I think guarantee 100% safety.

Cheers

A couple of follow-on comments.

The Hiker cartridge does, indeed contain granular activated carbon but not a whole lot. If you suspect organic chemical contamination in your source water, pump slowly (the Hiker has a high flowthrough rate) to increase carbon contact time and maximize adsorption. For anybody unfortunate enough to routinely need to use such water, I'd make a DIY carbon unit sized for the job. It wouldn't be too difficult using off-the-shelf parts.

For non-organic chemical contamination, ClO2 will deal with some, but certainly not everything, I especially don't know about metals. Nitrates, commonly associated with fowl and livestock, will remain in the water after treatment.

The mUV is a slick little device that I like a lot–when it's working. I tested it for BGT last year, first using a prototype then, early production units. All three eventually failed to charge. I hope to get one last one to test, to prove to myself that it's now reliably ironed out. Don't know whether that's in the cards.

Rick is right. You can actually get activated carbon filter elements themselves. They are sold for use in kitchen filters for taking all the nasties out of the town water supply – metals, chlorine, etc. You need to go to a different suppliers for them: I doubt that companies like Katadyn make them for the portable walking filter units.

No, chemicals like ClO2 will not take out metals. No chance.

Cheers

^^^SPAM^^^

"As I own a farm myself I know that cows will stand in water and drink and s**t at the same time."

I grew up on a farm in the Wimmera drinking, bathing and swimming in that water – after a trip to PNG it turned out that I was largely resistant to giardia ….