phishi and I pulled water with mine from a swamp puddle in middle TN. No probs. We did use a bandana around the pre-filter as the water was so slimy that it kept loading up the Ceramic filter. Solid piece of kit. Too heavy for hardcore backpackers but I like the ruggedness myself
Katadyn for field....Berky for home/retreat. I can't stress enough how much faith I put in the British Berkfeld.I urge everyone who doesn't have one to make the investment. About $250. Could be the most important survival item you can have. www.berkyfilters.com
I use this one which is almost the same as the berkey. Only reason I chose this one is that when I bought it, I didn't of the Berkey. Twice when I have lost my well pump, we pulled water out of my spring fed creek and used it exclusevly. Same goes for power outages. This thing will last forever and as such, I don't store water. http://www.aquarain.com/
When I was dating my wife she lived in a major city.I can't stand city water.I set up my Berky at her house and filtered all of her tap water.It makes the best tasting coffe or tea you can imagine.We had family and friends of hers raving about "my" tea. I have a large pond and a running creek at my place and I don't have to worry about water. I am investigating and plan on purchasing the new "black" filters. It's one piece of my survival equipment that I wouldn't ever want to be without. here is an interview with the inventor of the Berky.Good info. I can't get the specific file to link.Scroll down the page to "Jim Shepherd" "Pure water for the Tribulation" http://www.prophecyclub.com/streaming_audio.htm
pre water treatment tip hi all , just as a handy hint to save you guys some money , its allways best to use a water filter obviously but the more you use the filter and the more C**P it removes from the water the shorter the life expectancy of the filter , we were allways issued with the milbank water filter bag , its basically a sock ! all you do is turn it inside out , soak it , turn it inside out again and then fill her up with water , let the suspect water filter through into a container , hub cap , ammo tin etc and then give it the works with the water filter , this will prolong the life of the element of the water filter you are using , allways worked and still works for me , theres some handy gadgets on issue like the BCB water filter straw which is in service with a few armed forces throughout the worl , allways remember the best source of water is free or fast moving , i allways use the water which physically "looks" the cleanest etc , still water with weeds and rotting leaves etc in it is a bit more dubious , still , if push came to shove you could allways construct a sand and/or pot ash filter , they work great too , never been a fan of iodiene or chlorine as it makes the water taste like C**P , appart from that , if your still in doubt you can allways get the biggest vessel you can find and boil the hell out of it , when needs must...... dave
ALS brings up a good point. Pre-filter the water or at least let it settle for some time in a container before trying to use your expensive filter. I used my PUR filter in really brackish water once to show somoene it would work. It did, but soon there after, it started to clog and always had a mucky taste after that, even with the charcoal and iodine filters. Eventually replaced a filter that should have had several hundred gallons of life in it.
filters hit the nail on the head there sniper ! the dirtyer the water the dirtyer the filter , the thing is to remember you actually physically pushing water through the filter element so grit , mud , and normal crap will kill the filters element , and plus , it will make it harder to actually pump the wtaer through the filter , this is allways a sign the filter is knackered , davey
ALS is correct, you need to filter some of the crap out of the water before you actually run it through a filtering unit. Saves wear and tear on the actual unit. Socks are a wonderful thing, So is a t-shirt. Anything that takes out a lot of the crap that would gunk up the filter before it actually gets to the filter. Thanks for bringing this up ALS!
hey mate , very true , the first rule is allways to take water from the cleanest visable source , then you can survey the surrounding area for trash , dead animals , etc etc , some guys have even been known to perform a "sniff" test on the water , sounds crankey but chemicals will allmost allways give off a slight odour , it starts getting tricky in a possible NBC enviroment etc but luckily it aint happened yet (to us anyway) collecting palatable water , edible food sources , building fires , or making shelters should allways be done in stages with good forethought to the end result , as the old saying goes "less speed , more haste" davey
We had troubles One weekend when the only water available was a murky swamp looking puddle with reeds growing out of it. I believe there was a dead dog halfway submerged in the water also... We used a shirt around the prefilter and still had to continuously clean off the ceramic element to get any flow. That was the worst tasting water I think I've ever drank. The dog was alright. Welcome aboard ALS!! S speaks pretty highly of you
dead dog water filter strikes back ! hey melbo , ha ha , what you should have done was whipped out your emergency stapeller and stapled the muts pie hole half shut then poked the water filter up its dirt box then you could have pumped (yes i said pumped and NOT humped) untill the water passed right through all the furr , snot , blood , intestines , etc and then reached the filter , this way you would not have had to have got your shirt all dirty and could have saved time cleaning off the filter , well , thats what the special forces training wing of my local womens institute taught me to do ha ha ha i also took a course in suicide cherry pie baking too ! yeah , big S is a sound lad , some guys can walk the walk and others can talk the talk , i strongle believe S is a guy who can walk anyware with his head held high , you know the old saying , "some men have and some men will" , he's had his share of both , best wishes to him and his family at this special time , some of the NICEST people you will EVER meet , anyware , davey
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