Distilled Water and Filters

Seems like they should issue everyone in MI with a filter every 3 months or so.

Santa Barbara’s water is possibly less toxic than Michigan’s but is likely a lot harder. The water here is so terrible nobody drinks it. It tastes bad. It wrecks your plumbing and your bathroom. It leaves orange stains on everything. It even looks a little orange in the back country sometimes. To top it off, they have mine tailings from an old mercury mine right in the reservoir. Cinnabar tailings. I’m sure that’s perfectly safe.

I have never had problems with my BeFree, even after a winter of dry storage. I do as described on their website – put a chlorine dioxide tab in a liter of tap water, run it through the filter, and let it dry. It’s good to go the next spring.

We have fluoride in our water and it’s pretty hard water. That doesn’t seem to affect it. This summer we got a lot of silt in the filter, so I spent some time flushing that out. I prefilter through a cloth if I am using a really nasty water source, like a tundra puddle with lots of wigglies. Which sound better though than mine tailings water!

I could agree on the fluoride if this country had dental coverage for all children, and toothpaste was free. The poor pay the price when it’s not added to municipal water. Chaffing it up a bit here.

Distilled water is a better solvent than tap water because the driving force for the first few ions to jump into solution is the difference of the logarithms of the concentrations.  A pure salt would have a concentration of 1 and the log of 1 is 0.  Brackish water, say 1% saline, would have a concentration of 0.01 and the log of that is -2.  The difference between 0 and -2 is 2. And more salt wouldn’t dissolve into that water very quickly.

But Sierra snow melt might be 1 ppm in salt.  0.000001 the log of which is -6.  A difference of 6.  And it would dissolve solutes more quickly than tap water does.  “Corrosion” (actually dissolution) rates in metal pipes at Hetch Hetchy are high due to this effect.

And for distilled water, with concentrations below a ppb or pp-trillion, the difference would be 9 or 12 or higher.

So there is a theoretical basis for using distilled water to remove residual chemicals from a filter element.

Lacking distilled water, I’d consider flushing with dilute vinegar and then rinsing with tap water.

Karen, How do you flush your BeFree filter? It does improve the flow, I take it?

I don’t think fluoride should be put in drinking water but I don’t have a lot of passion one way or the other

CLR can be used to remove those orange stains

Even after a year I doubt the inside of the hollow fibers will dry out.  Maybe inside the housing/outside the hollow fibers, especially if you shake it out first.  Maybe for aesthetics I’ll let the outside dry off which takes one day so it doesn’t grow stuff there.  Then put in plastic bag for next trip.

When I first use the filter I’ll run a little water through it to clear anything out.

Interesting David, that’s like the Detroit water supply where they started using more pure water which then dissolved the lead and other stuff off the inside of the pipes.

I don’t know what folks are thinking using CLR in a BeFree water filter. The CLR container says wear gloves and don’t get it on your clothes!

http://clrclean.com.au/faqs/can-clr-be-used-on-clothes-or-fabric/

Cleaning the BeFree with distilled water is a good idea.

As the BeFree instructions state…..

“Do not filter any substance or liquid other than fresh water through your Katadyn BeFree™ or the EZ-Clean Membrane™ may become damaged or contaminated.”

https://www.katadyn.com/downloads/katadyn/manuals/filters/manual_befree_usa_en.pdf

if you have hard water and put bleach into your filter it will form those orange deposits

I don’t think vinegar will help

Maybe distilled water?  warm?  let it sit for an hour?

CLR may be the only way to remove them.  If you flush well it will remove any residue.  Maybe better to just get a new one.

Spoke too soon.

“So I rinsed both a Be Free and a Squeeze with distilled water before storing for a week.  (Both filters have previously locked up after a week of storing/drying.)”

Recently took out my BeFree filter in preparation for a trip.  Had been stored for the winter after receiving the distilled water rinse described above.

Over a period of several days I tried hot water, vinegar and soaking.  Best I could do is restore the filter to a flow rate of about 8 ounces per minute and that required constant firm hand pressure.  If I didn’t squeeze the filter hard the best I could get out of it with gravity alone was slow drops.

So what did I do?  I ordered another BeFree filter.  It worked great when I first bought it and others have better luck with keeping it unplugged so I’m still hopeful that I can make it work.

A solution of distilled water and white vinegar (probably 1:10 -1:20 solution) has worked fine for me for all manner of hard water mineral issues. I would choose this solution (pun intended) over CLR or just distilled water. I do run a little bleach solution as a backflush when I get home from a trip, but then I rinse it out again with clean distilled or RO water. I’ve been using the same filter for years, probably a couple hundred gallons, so I am definitely not a power user. A light vinegar solution is (to my non-scientific mind) a little more preferable to drink than a bleach or CLR mix that might be left over in the filter.

Nice refresher on the subject. Seems that everyone has a different approach based on their personal experience and local water makeup, but wouldn’t you think Katadyn would spell out the best way to do it?

This forum has smart people sharing possible solutions, but shouldn’t the company do the work to come up with the most effective care and maintenance for their product? Or do they want people to purchase more frequently instead? I’m guessing more hikers abandon the filter if it doesn’t work for them as opposed to making it an annual purchase like some have admitted. Then again, the flow rate is enviable.

Robert,

I agree with the points/questions you addressed.

Yes, Robert, you would think that a supplier would know best, BUT, when the vast majority of complaints about a system failure come after trying the manufacturer’s suggestion, then other solutions tend to be entertained before giving up on/tossing the product.

Hydroblue states their filters can be soaked in vinegar without damage. I would guess that most of these types of hollow fiber filters are made from the same or similar polymer (PTFE in the case of Hydroblue) with similar construction techniques, and so similar tactics could be employed to the same end.

https://www.hydrobluemem.com/product/water-straw-filters/

Vinegar works with calcium deposits – had to soak my Sawyer after back-flushing and storing above freezing for the “winter” (or what passes for it here).

Was testing it out and no water came out.  Online problem #1 with backflushed Sawyers not working is calcium, … then remembered the glass “kettle” in the kitchen basically had a film of calcium on its bottom that required rinsing with vinegar repeatedly (actually had to scrape parts of it).  Figured same water and I let the Sawyer “air dry” in the desert sun to prevent mildew.

Anyways it worked.