Light and Easy Water Filtration for the Lazy Backpacker

The sawyer 3 in 1 filter is designed to go in the hydration bladder hose and normal suction on the bite valve will fill your mouth coickly. Unlike the platapous carbon filter it will filters out everything but viruses. All you have to do is stop fill your bladder, repack the bladder into your pack and go. The Sawyer 3 in 1 weighs 3 ounces.

Hi everyone, I'm looking for some knowledge and or help.
I used some leftover silnylon seconds to make a water bag for a gravity filter, and almost immediately after filling with water it begins to "weep" out of the fabric. I understand it is only water resistant and not water proof but I was wondering if this is common and just due to the weight of the water pushing out or did I get a bad run of silnylon?

Most silnylon isn't waterproof

"Shield" from thru-hiker.com is better

You could put silicone diluted with mineral spirits 10:1 and it would make it pretty waterproof, but then it would probably contaminate your water

I wonder if fabric in general is safe for water? Not designed for that. Any fabric might contaminate your water.

Maybe better to use water bag.

This is the direction I'll go, at least it will be an easy switch over. Thanks for the speedy reply.

Thanks Steven. I just ordered the Sawyer three way filter. It's time to replace the ULA/Seychelles filter – its heavy and has done its job long enough. I didn't like the squeeze system's looks. I know many do fine with it. This will definitely be a safer bet than the platypus carbon filter. Sawyer lists the weight @ 1.8 oz. well see about that. My ULA bag is silnylon and has never had a weeping problem. I still want to try and make a cuben replacement. But don't have the tools to add the trim and grommets needed for the drawstring. I think it would get pricey too. Will probably just keep the ULA until someone produces a cuben option or offers to build me one for cash or trade.

Randy:

Carbon as a slight affinity for metals, but not much. I've looked mostly at Arsenic (flavor of the local water and something I encounter in various spots in the Far- and Mountain-west USA) and carbon does reduce it a bit, but the % removal is small even in large-capacity carbon vessels (one-day residence time) that I use for work.

For metals, typically we use an ion-exchange resin. It is highly effective, and occurs quickly, but I'm not aware of a small-scale version. If one posed as an engineer doing a feasibility study and talked Westates or Calgon or some other vendor out of a pound or two, you'd be set for life but often they want you to send them many liters of the water and they conduct a bench-scale test to generate design specs.

Other options for metals are distillation and reverse osmosis. Either of which you might do for drinking water at home or cruising on a sailboat but never while backpacking.

I'd note though, that a microgram of infectious stuff breeds in your body and can make you quite sick from one exposure. While cancinogens and toxics are dose-related – more exposure is worse, less exposure is less risk. If you live in Fallon Nevade – TREAT YOUR WATER FOR ARSENIC!!!, but if you are just passing through, you'll have 1/365 x 1/70 the risk of a life-long resident.

UL for metals (and sorry, this is a campsite technique, not while hiking): a pinch of baking soda to raise the pH (acidified water dissolves MUCH more metal) and a pinch of alum (which can be bought cheaply in small quantity in very well-stocked bulk food / spice departments of health food stores). The alum allows all sorts of stuff to flouculate (clump together) and sink or rise in a water. The alum is edible – it is used in some cooking. It is amazing to compare side-by-side Colorado River water with and without alum for settling times – there's an easy 10-fold difference AND the alum-treated water is MUCH clearer of silt, metals, etc. Then skim the scum off the top and decant the clear liquid without disturbing the sediments on the bottom. Biological matter will also have tended to sink or rise, so the clear liquid will have a MUCH lower biological load, but while this would greatly reduce your bio exposure, it shouldn't be considered 99.99% effective like a good filter would be. (Your filter, will however, go MUCH longer between cleanings if you settle out the crud first).

Dave,

Could you tell us more about alum? There seem to be many alums. Which one do you recommend? How long does the process take (like 50% is 5 minutes, 80% in 20 minutes…) How much alum per liter? Alum seems like a good solution for me, since I use a siphon from a 3 liter water bag. Thank you.

TZ

This recent thread and my own curiosity prompted me to revive this older thread:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=67849

I'm curious to know whether anyone's tried using a ceramic element in a gravity flow system. I'm looking for something that's not necessarily UL, but low maintenance, will filter 5 months of water for 4 cyclists, and will take a beating.
I've considered MSR autoflow systems but the number of filters we'd go through deters me from that option. I'm also reticent to pick up a carbon filter for the same reasons.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Matthew

The life of any water filter is somewhat dependent on the initial clarity of the water and whether you use a prefilter (to catch the big stuff).

I've seen a new ceramic filter rendered almost useless within two quarts of water, simply because the water was grimy and there was no effective prefilter. If you know what you are doing, you will learn the quick filter cleaning method for yours.

–B.G.–