Somewhere in the middle of Oregon.

Friday, April 29, 2016

Affordable Water Purification Reviews

 Here in the 'Great West' I have the privilege of living in a state where being prepared is not only thought about extensively, it is heavily practiced. People, for whatever reason, in this half of the United States seem to put a great deal of effort into preparing for a would-be catastrophe or disaster.

Having grown up in a culture where having a long term food supply stored away was pretty normal, I started my own food storage supply when I started my family. It's just something that you do here. So, on occasion, I feel the need to refresh and replenish and add new things that I hadn't thought of or maybe gotten around to before. (I said that I always have stored food....I never said I was good at it) So my storage and food supply are definitely lacking, but while shopping for some basic items to add, I thought I would do a couple of how to posts on some simple items and why they are important.

Whether you're preparing for an apocalypse, a massive earth altering incident such as an earthquake or tornado, or just because you feel like you need to be a chipmunk, here are a few things to think about.

Water is first and foremost when it comes to basic survival. As a survival instructor, we taught that you can survive 3 weeks without food (give or take...and some can survive longer for sure), but only an average of 3 days without water. These numbers vary greatly on the conditions, how much energy you are exerting, how much extra weight or fat content you have on your body to start with, etc. But it's a good general guide. Point is, you need water, and if it's not fresh, you need to be able to boil or filter it.

One thing you should know about me is that I am extremely bargain/value oriented. I don't buy cheap junk and expect it to perform well, but I look at the overall benefits and value of an item as well as what I plan to use it for, whether or not it's a logical investment, how durable it is (I'm pretty hard on things), warranty if applicable, how hard it is to use, and cost comparison to other items in it's class. Recently I purchased a couple of water filters to try out and here is a quick review on them in order of my findings.

Number 1:




Sawyer puts out this filter which a friend recommended. At about $20 it can filter up to 100,000 gallons of water......yes.....that is not a typo.....100,000 gallons. It beats EPA standards removing 99.99999 % of all bacteria. It's lightweight, compact, comes with it's own little cleaning kit, and doesn't get much better. In an entire year, my whole family does not use that much water including watering are yard and garden. For the price, it's probably more than you'll ever need.

Number 2:




Similar to the Sawyer, Versa makes one that is half the price and nearly identical, but only does 20,000 gallons. It also does not come with the container or cleaning unit, and I don't believe it can be washed out and reused, however, 20,000 is more than I will use in a years time personally as well, so I bought these for quick escape kits. In a situation where you have to evacuate and all you have is what you can grab, I have a small lightweight pack full of bare necessities, and this is one of the necessities.

Number 3:



Since I hike all the time, it makes sense to carry something that holds water because you can't simply always be where the water is when you're in the high desert or back country. Clear Flow has all the same great cleaning qualities as the other two but in a bigger package. Still light enough to throw in my day pack and haven't had any problems with leakage. It does 1000 liters, which is not nearly as much as the Sawyer or Versa, but still a viable option.

With survival products being all the rage these days, there are countless other options on the market to try, and there are many reasonably priced. There are also some that seem a bit overpriced, yet do the same thing in the end. Do your homework before you buy, and look at things like practical uses. Why are you getting it? Is it something that you will be putting in an emergency survival kit just in case, or something that you will use on weekly outings in the woods? How efficient is it, .01, or .001? There is a big difference in the sizes of particles between those two numbers. If you go with something that cleans all but .01 size particles, there could be some things swimming around in your cup that you may not see.

Of all the things you need to survive any situation, water has to be at the top of the list. Find a way to carry it, store it, purify it, and heat it. When you have these basics, you have less to worry about.