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Larger quantity water purification

kf4zht

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Looking to add a small GTFO kit to the camping trailer. Just in case I need to get off grid quickly and survive for at least a month. Water is a big open item. I have an onboard 15 gal tank and plan on adding a small 12v pump to be able to pull from streams.

Right now I have one of the gravity filters that works decent, but I would really like some tablet option that I can just toss in and take care of the whole tank. Also in case I get a bad fill at a campsite. I don't want to eff with a bunch of filters, UV sterilizers, etc. Too much plumbing to have issues

So what's out there. My google fu is lacking, all I can find are the little 1 qt at a time stuff, grey/black water treatments and stuff that looks promising but only seems to work in europeland

Ideally - Dry tablet/power, long expiration, can handle 10-15 gal at once, not too nasty to drink.
 
I think it would be preferable to have a filter on the input side that can handle pressure (vs gravity).

For your tablet idea, there may be something designed for that from the foreign aid worker side of things.
 
Ok, did some more digging on this. Its amazing how little hard information there is out there. The prepper like the gravity filters, but they fail on portability and space needed. Most of the little tablet things are 1 qt per tablet.

The little tablets are iodine based. Advantage is they have little taste and can purify the water in 5 minutes. Chlorine is another option that works better in larger quanties but liquid presents long term storage on transport issues. A leak can screw up a lot of stuff around it. NaDCC seems to be a good option. Downside is time, it takes at least 30 minutes to work, up to 2 hours in colder temperatures. In my case that is fine, I have a backup more rapid filter option.

Finally found one sold here in the US - Ef-Chlor Amazon.com

Looks like the company is out of India, and if anyone knows about crappy water quality its them. NaDCC based and at least one of their listings showed the following info - seems to be based on not trusting a well
Deep well water - 2mg/Liter
Shallow well water - 3mg/liter
Clear River Water - 5mg/liter
dirty water - filter it first

So my 15 gal tank is about 55 Liters. Assuming if this is needed I'm going to treat it at ~5mg, so somewhere around 275mg. Looking at their chart Products - Ef-Chlor they 400mg tablet has 240mg available chlorine. Right in the range and the chance of the tank being 100% empty are low.

What I don't know is how accurate the shelf life of 3 years is. Will there be actual breakdown of efficiency or is that just there to satisfy regulations. Per this page it is good for 5 years in strip packs Chlorine (NaDCC) - Akvopedia
 
I've used everything under the sun for water filtration.

Currently I use the Platypus Gravityworks for portable needs. It's simple, light and I can carry up to 12L of water if needed. Nice if water is a hike from the campsite. I filter one bag at the source and fill the dirty bag to filter in camp once the first clean one is empty.


I also used a fixed system for my RV. It's pretty caveman, but it cheap and effective. A simple 20 micron home filter then a 5 micron. That gets all the floaties, and then some. That's mainly to keep the pump and lines clear. Then I dose with the correct amount of bleach. Only downside is I can't "top off", just have to wait till I drain the tank.
 
I've used everything under the sun for water filtration.

Currently I use the Platypus Gravityworks for portable needs. It's simple, light and I can carry up to 12L of water if needed. Nice if water is a hike from the campsite. I filter one bag at the source and fill the dirty bag to filter in camp once the first clean one is empty.


I also used a fixed system for my RV. It's pretty caveman, but it cheap and effective. A simple 20 micron home filter then a 5 micron. That gets all the floaties, and then some. That's mainly to keep the pump and lines clear. Then I dose with the correct amount of bleach. Only downside is I can't "top off", just have to wait till I drain the tank.
I think my next step is a 12v pump with a filter canister. Probably somewhere around 20 micron. Like you said, enough to keep the floaties and crap that I dont want in the main pump. The tablets are basically a solid bleach, I have really bad luck with bleach containers leaking or breaking over time
 
Shelf life is real. It's an oxidant just like bleach. It loses life over time. I know water treatment, but portability isn't my thing.
 
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