Water Purification for my BOB

[FLUFF]

Looking for a small water purifiction set up for my BOB. Water is heavy and I need a way to refill on the go. I have heard of a water bottle with a filter set up that can filter the water when you drink,
Anybody have any leads ??

[Mudinyeri]

Purification tablets, chlorine or iodine drops?  Those are the smallest water purification setups I can think of.

If you want a pump/filter, I have the Katadyn Hiker and am very happy with it.

[SS_N_NE]

Search the web for Lifestraw. Light weight and filters 1000 liters of water.

[GreyGeek]

Katadyne Pocket Water Microfilter from Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Katadyn-8013618-Pocket-Water-Microfilter/dp/B0007U00YE/ref=pd_sim_sbs_sg_19&tag=651998669-20

It's expensive but it has a 20 year warranty and that unit will filter 13,000 gallons. That's enough to supply 4 gallons of water per day to one person for almost nine years.

There are other less expensive choices in the "What others have chosen" bar near the bottom of the page.   I purchased a hand held microfilter four years ago for a "rainy day".  It cost $80, filters to .5 microns, the ceramic filter can be scraped to renew flow speed, and it will do about 5,000 gallons.

[pfinn]

Iodine tabs are small, light, and proven.

[CitizenClark]

Looking for a small water purifiction set up for my BOB. Water is heavy and I need a way to refill on the go. I have heard of a water bottle with a filter set up that can filter the water when you drink,
Anybody have any leads ??

I have three portable water sanitization/purification systems:

1) Steripen Adventurer: battery-operated UV lamp that quickly sterilizes water in your 1L or .5L Nalgene bottle or other similar water carrier; water has to be fairly transparent in order for the device to work properly; cloudy water requires pre-filtering

2) Hanging water filter bag: uses a ceramic filter assembly and gravity to filter water that you pour into the bag; heavy and bulky, but requires less effort than a pump-operated filter

3) Frontier Emergency Straw: annoyingly slow, but super light and very compact; I keep one in my field jacket pocket next to other survival gear, as a last resort method for getting clean drinking water; not useful for rendering water safe for food preparation, etc.

[Gary]

Iodine tabs are small, light, and proven.

Good call!  They also protect / support your thyroid.

[wusker]

After years of backpacking in the Sierra's I gave up along time ago on water filters they just takes up extra room and you are already carrying fuel for your cookstove so i just boiled all my water. With a good msr whisperlite international II ( or any other whitegas compatible stove) you can boil tons of water for very little fuel cost. On average I would carry in 2 32oz canisters of white gas on a 7 day backpacking trip and use maybe come home with 3/4 of a bottle left over. nice thing about most of the GOOD cookstoves is they will burn anything, kerosene, white gas, gas, even deisel fuel.

[Husker_Fan]

If you are really looking at a BOB or 72 hour kit, I think iodine tabs are the way to go. They are light and won't take much space. You don't need a filter bag or pump for a 72 hour kit and, while I have and love them for week long canoeing trips, they are more bulky than you need for a BOB.

[GreyGeek]

iodine tabs are the way to go.

If the water isn't clear (scummy pond water, muddy creek or river water, soil runoff, etc..., the  Iodine could be consumed by the biodegradables before it kills all the pathogens.  A filter would be helpful to have along just incase.

[FLUFF]

I am looking for a water bottle of sorts that I can scoop up some water from a creek, drop in some iodine tabs and keep on moving. When I stop for a break I can suck down some clean water.
I have seen the life straw but bending over sucking from the side of the creek doesn't seam like a good idea. There might be gator's !!!

[Mudinyeri]

I am looking for a water bottle of sorts that I can scoop up some water from a creek, drop in some iodine tabs and keep on moving. When I stop for a break I can suck down some clean water.
I have seen the life straw but bending over sucking from the side of the creek doesn't seam like a good idea. There might be gator's !!!

As GreyGeek mentioned, "scooping" is problematic.  You would at least want to filter the water with a cotton bandana or shemagh to get out the big stuff.  A pump filter, like the Katadyn Hiker that I suggested, is an even better alternative.  If you're pulling water from a pond or slow-moving creek that has high potential for dangerous contaminants, you may also want to treat the filtered water - especially if your filter is just a bandana or shemagh.

[pfinn]

If the water isn't clear (scummy pond water, muddy creek or river water, soil runoff, etc..., the  Iodine could be consumed by the biodegradables before it kills all the pathogens.  A filter would be helpful to have along just incase.

You can always filter through a few layers of t-shirt to get it good enough... not going to work for sewage treatment ponds or anything like that, but running water should be fine.

[LM4202]

Katadyne Pocket Water Microfilter from Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Katadyn-8013618-Pocket-Water-Microfilter/dp/B0007U00YE/ref=pd_sim_sbs_sg_19&tag=651998669-20

It's expensive but it has a 20 year warranty and that unit will filter 13,000 gallons. That's enough to supply 4 gallons of water per day to one person for almost nine years.

A coworker brought his BOB to work every single day and he has that exact same filter.  He showed it to me and its pretty light and compact.  I'll probably get one of those this year.

[MissMichella]

I used a steri-pen when I lived in the jungle for 4 months.  It came with a water bottle that had a filter cap, and the uv light killed the rest of the parasites (or so they claimed).  I never got sick, and the water was pretty gross down there.

[unfy]

Steri-pen's look interesting.... although I have questions about viability of battery stuff for a BOB.

Depending on battery selection looks like ya can get a fair amount of uses as well.

I've always been a fan of a small recirculating wood camp stove (that can possibly also hold an alcohol burner) and iodine tablets... simply for compactness and the fact you should already have the stove etc.

Steri-pen looks like it'd be an acceptable addition ? One of the better things I do happen to like about MM's post is the mention of actual long term testing / use.  +1 on that for sure.... "DID good" says a lot more than "SEEMS good".

Also - I didn't know they made such a thing heh.  Learning something new every day!

[CitizenClark]

I used a steri-pen when I lived in the jungle for 4 months.  It came with a water bottle that had a filter cap, and the uv light killed the rest of the parasites (or so they claimed).  I never got sick, and the water was pretty gross down there.

I didn't live in the jungle, but I took my Steripen to Ecuador for two weeks and used it when I wasn't in a big city (basically everywhere I went except for Quito and Guayaquil). I wasn't drinking from muddy hoofprints or anything, but I stayed healthy FWIW.

[MissMichella]

The Steripen does have it's downfalls...the battery did last a long time, but it would be something you'd have to check on periodically for a BOB.  I was using mine while backpacking through Venezuela, and most water sources were terribly contaminated.  The Steripen didn't help with the taste of the water.  I ended up using a pump filter first and then the Steripen if the water source wasn't clear and moving.  A pump filter, boiling, or tablets aren't going to remove or kill all of the parasites, viruses, bacteria, etc. that will be present in heavily contaminated water, so I liked the claims made by the Steri-pen makers.  Bye-bye flukes and giardia lambia.

[EricF517]

I have been using a First Need for a while now backpacking.  I absolutely love it.  Never had a problem with it yet and been using it for years. 

[Mudinyeri]

Drop by my preparedness seminar at the Members Meeting tomorrow for a discussion of water purification as well as other preparedness topics.