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WestTexas · 08-21-2006, 04:27 PM

Here's my take on water....

There's the Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. The good is water that is both potable and tastes good. The bad is the water that is neither. And the ugly is water that is potable but probably looks or tastes bad.

So how do you get to Good? For the most part, I've always used a hand pump filter like an MSR EX type pump, coupled with iodine treatments when I feel it's necessary (getting moreso than it used to be).

Why? Well, this type of pump has at least a ceramic filter and a carbon filter, some add an additional .2 micron cartridge filter. The combination of these two or three filters will filter out basically all of the bacterial-type nasties and chemicals, and give you clear, good tasting water.

But what about virals (the nasties we can get from icky stuff like human solid wastes, etc)?

Iodine has pretty much been the standard treatment for this, if you can deal with the bad taste. Some iodine kits add a second liquid which tries to neutralize the iodine taste (never really worked for me).

So here is what I do:

- If I'm pretty confident that the water is free of virals (or I'm willing to accept the risks), I'll just toss the intake hose from my MSR into the creek or pond and start pumping to fill my hyrdro bladder or nalgene bottles. To be honest, this is what I do about 95% of the time. (And I've done that in some pretty icky looking east Texas streams and ponds!)

- If I'm not confident, or it's the end or beginning of the day, I'll first use a collapsible water container and fill it up at the water source (pond, creek, etc). Then I'll throw my iodine into it. Now I've got viral-free water, that probably still doesn't look or taste good. So now I pump it through the MSR and the two or three stage unit will both clean up the water and the carbon will remove the bad taste.

Using that second method of iodine first, then pumping, will give you water that is pretty much free of particulates, bacteria, viruses and bad-taste. At least what is humanly possible while on the trail.

You can also boil, which is great for cooking, but for drinking I hate the taste of boiled water.

If I'm not packing in a lot of water, I'll pretty much plan for a couple of hours a day for filtering water and filling bottles / hydration bladders.

If you've got two or three folks hiking in a group, filling up that bigger collapsible water container at the water source and treating it with iodine one time, and then having each person pump what they need out of it, works really well.

Rgds,
WestTexas

08-21-2006, 04:27 PM	#6
WestTexas Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 37	Re: Filtering water Here's my take on water.... There's the Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. The good is water that is both potable and tastes good. The bad is the water that is neither. And the ugly is water that is potable but probably looks or tastes bad. So how do you get to Good? For the most part, I've always used a hand pump filter like an MSR EX type pump, coupled with iodine treatments when I feel it's necessary (getting moreso than it used to be). Why? Well, this type of pump has at least a ceramic filter and a carbon filter, some add an additional .2 micron cartridge filter. The combination of these two or three filters will filter out basically all of the bacterial-type nasties and chemicals, and give you clear, good tasting water. But what about virals (the nasties we can get from icky stuff like human solid wastes, etc)? Iodine has pretty much been the standard treatment for this, if you can deal with the bad taste. Some iodine kits add a second liquid which tries to neutralize the iodine taste (never really worked for me). So here is what I do: - If I'm pretty confident that the water is free of virals (or I'm willing to accept the risks), I'll just toss the intake hose from my MSR into the creek or pond and start pumping to fill my hyrdro bladder or nalgene bottles. To be honest, this is what I do about 95% of the time. (And I've done that in some pretty icky looking east Texas streams and ponds!) - If I'm not confident, or it's the end or beginning of the day, I'll first use a collapsible water container and fill it up at the water source (pond, creek, etc). Then I'll throw my iodine into it. Now I've got viral-free water, that probably still doesn't look or taste good. So now I pump it through the MSR and the two or three stage unit will both clean up the water and the carbon will remove the bad taste. Using that second method of iodine first, then pumping, will give you water that is pretty much free of particulates, bacteria, viruses and bad-taste. At least what is humanly possible while on the trail. You can also boil, which is great for cooking, but for drinking I hate the taste of boiled water. If I'm not packing in a lot of water, I'll pretty much plan for a couple of hours a day for filtering water and filling bottles / hydration bladders. If you've got two or three folks hiking in a group, filling up that bigger collapsible water container at the water source and treating it with iodine one time, and then having each person pump what they need out of it, works really well. Rgds, WestTexas