Water purification tablets

eth0

Are they any good or only a gimmick? Was thinking of buying a pack for when I'd be going camping and things.

Grizzly 45

They are good if you like drinking water that tastes of chlorine !!
You need to get the twin treatment,the steriliser and neutraliser .
By and large ,you'd be better off getting one of the little portable filtration pumps.They are expensive but will purify any kind of water,even in some cases saltwater.

fodda

What's wrong with boiling?

H.O.T.A.S.

I use a Katadyn Hiker Pro when out. Nice piece of kit and good for 750 litres (depending on the water you are filtering) small, compact and fast flowing.

Can be picked up for approx €80 with spare filters around €30~40



Cheaper side of things are the Life Saver cholrine dioxide tablets. Cost around a €5 per pack and take around 30mins to work but as mentioned by Grizzly they do leave a chlorine taste in the water

Hibrion

I find the chlorine tablets alright to be honest. They are super easy to pack and weigh nothing and the taste is ok if you ask me.

Grizzly 45

Until you run out of them that is.Or they get wet and useless.:)
They are fine if you are getting a regular resupply of them[like a military unit]But once they are gone in a survival situation they are gone.
You can use two teaspoons of bleach[prefably the unsencted kind] to 20 litres of water as well.So if you are a good mathematican,figure the ratio out to your canteen of water.;)
The filter pump systems are great too,until a part gives up or whatever at the most inconvient moment.Either have the necessary replacement bits to hand or figure out how to improvise a large filter.
Next to fire proably the most important skill for survival.

Hibrion

I agree, if you have time to set up a large scale filter and boil all you're water this is the best option. The only thing you really need here is enough layers of the right kind of stuff.

But for a short trip or while on the move, I prefer the tabs. Any of the lightweight filtration systems that actually work are waaay overpriced.

But hey, there are guys who survived the jungles of Vietnam by drinking unprocessed water from running streams so anything you can do to purify/filter it is going to be of benefit.

krissovo

Tabs are fine and if anything used on their own improve the taste of water from a military spec plastic water bottle.

If using them you need to either fill the container from FAST flowing water or you need to do some form of basic filtering. A piece of silk or non stretch cotton will remove a fair amount of particles from the water.

The best option is to boil it and use tabs for emergencies.

Hibrion

krissovo wrote: »

Tabs are fine and if anything used on their own improve the taste of water from a military spec plastic water bottle.

This couldn't be more true! Anything improves on that.

CamperMan

these are handy for small amounts of water http://cart.berkeyfilters.com/sportberkey.aspx

and we use one of these http://cart.berkeyfilters.com/bigberkey.aspx with 4 elements in it http://www.berkeyfilters.com/berkeytech.htm

We use these in Ireland and in Germany and have done for a number of years, especially with the state of the tap water in Ireland and frequent water stoppages and boil notices!

Doc Ruby

I use a platypus water bag with cloth over the top to collect the water, going to one of these, an Aquamira frontier pro:



they actually screw together so its a watertight seal, then gravity drip or squeeze into the kelly kettle for boiling. You could just suck the water out of whatever with the purifier but I prefer to be sure.

kildare.17hmr

Hibrion wrote: »

I find the chlorine tablets alright to be honest. They are super easy to pack and weigh nothing and the taste is ok if you ask me.

i agree, used to use them when boiling was not an option. Keep them in a zip lock bag and they stay dry