there are a lot of different types of
water treatment and deciding what to
bring on your trip can be overwhelming
we want to know
so here's video on how to choose a water
filter so there are two main categories
that we talked about when discussing
treating your water and the first one
are filters so filters will use a
physical element to remove bacteria and
protozoa from the water and those the
main threats in the u.s. however they
won't filter out most filters won't
filter out viruses viruses are too small
and will pass through the pores of a
filter if a product is sold as a
purifier there's a couple different ways
that it will work but purifiers will
neutralize bacteria protozoa and viruses
so the first form of a purifier is going
to be a chemical purifier this was a
two-step process where you pre-filter
your water and then use the chemical to
treat the water
another type of purifier is a UV
purifier like this one this will
actually use ultraviolet light which
will neutralize any threats in the water
without being sampled to you and then
there are some filters that actually
have pores small enough and will
actually capture viruses
so the first thing that you need to
decide the water treatment is letting
out you want a filter or a purifier if
you're in the US where protozoa and
bacteria are the main threat most people
are going to choose a filter if you're
outside of the US or in an area where
you're concerned about viruses or
there's a lot of human activity or
animal activity we'd recommend that you
choose a purifier there's a lot of
different things to consider after that
things like weight and size of the
filter air purifier ease of use and how
easy it is to fix and maintain in the
field the cost obviously and then how
much water you need to filter your
filtering just for yourself and you
might not need to have something that
can take a large quantity of water but
if you're filtering for say a group camp
or a lot of water for cooking then you
need to take that into consideration the
best option for you is gonna be
something that balances all of those
there's no one magic product that works
best for everybody so first I have poop
filters and purifiers so these will work
by having an intake hose
into the water source and then another
piece that attaches to every year
filtering your water and essentially
you'll pump and the dirty water will
come through the hose go through the
filter and then into your bottle so the
cool things about pump filters is that
they're really easy to use and generally
very easy to maintain in the field you
can often replace the cartridges and
then you can back flush them if they get
clogged you can also decide how much
water you want to go through pretty
easily because again if you just keep
pumping dirty water will get clean water
I have a funk builder and I'm definitely
a fan of the system some of the
downsides of pump filters is that they
are heavier and bulkier and some other
forms of water treatment and if you're
treating water for a large group it can
get really old to pump water so next we
have gravity filters so gravity filters
works by having a two bag system we fill
one with dirty water and then the water
will be pulled through the tube here
through the filter and then into the
clean bag you have filtered water so the
cool things about gravity filters are
first of all gravity does all the work
for you so they're really easy to use
you basically just fill this and then
wait and still have clean water this
makes it really awesome for filtering
large quantities of water so they're
great serve boot camps also similar to
pump filters you can easily replace the
filters filter systems themselves and
it's good
some downsides of gravity filters are
that you have to have a place to hang
these bags and unlike some filters where
you can gather water from really small
steep edges with a filter like this you
really need to be able to gather a large
quantity of water by putting the bag
into the water so if you don't have
something like that nearby these can be
a bit of a challenge fix we have drink
through filters and purifiers this
covers a wide range of products but
essentially the way that they'll work is
you'll have something to fill and then
drink through or easy to squeeze through
filter so something like this where you
have a bag and then a filter in the cap
or there's bags like this that then
allow you to squeeze water through the
filter
you also have straws that go directly
into the water source to drink or even
filters like this guy where there's a
tube that goes into your water source so
really great things about drinks through
filters is that they're very easy to use
and lightweight and pretty compact which
makes them a great option for trail
running or mountain biking or for day
hiking and they're very fast for
drinking water you know just put this in
the source and then you're hydrating one
of the downsides of these drinks or
filters is that they don't filter large
quantities of water on their own very
well so they're not great for filtering
for a camp or even for cooking but many
of them can be used in line as gravity
filters like this one which solves the
issue of not being able to filter a
large quantity
so now I have the first of our purifiers
this is an ultraviolet light purifier
this has a UV light down here that you
stick into your water bottle and stir
around and that light will neutralize
anything in the water so that's bacteria
protozoa as well as viruses which is one
of the plus sides of using purifier the
great thing about these guys is that
they're really lightweight and they're
very easy to use and obviously they also
treat against viruses which is pretty
cool some of the downsides of using a UV
purifier is that you're pretty limited
on water quantity you can generally only
filter a small amount of water something
say in your water bottle a great thing
is that you never need to replace or
clean this element down here but they do
require batteries so you will need to
carry extra batteries with you if you're
using a UV purifier also silty or dirty
water will generally slow down or
prevent you from being able to purify
the water so you will need to use some
sort of pre-filter again this is not a
filter it's just killing anything in the
water so it's a good idea to use the
pre-filter anyway since it's not going
to do till ice against dirt you don't
want to dirty your water so that is a UV
next we have chemical treatment of the
water there are a lot of different types
of chemical treatments but the main ones
are going to be a chlorine based or an
iodine based treatment the great thing
about chemical treatments is that
they're really small and lightweight and
they're generally pretty inexpensive and
basically what you're gonna do is you're
gonna drop the tablets or drops into
your water stir and wait this is really
the ideal backup option to carry even if
you have another form of water treatment
just because they are so small and
lightweight the downside of using these
as your main form of water treatment is
that you'll have to wait somewhere
between 30 minutes to sometimes four
hours for your water to be codable and
water temperatures can affect how long
it takes for the water to be treated
also something to note with iodine is
that it will leave a sort of bad
metallic taste and there are things you
can add to your water in addition to the
iodine to neutralize that taste it also
will not treat against Cryptosporidium
which is the protozoa and it's also not
a good option for pregnant women or
people who have thyroid conditions so
choose what's going to look best for you
and lastly you may be saying to yourself
like I've heard that boiling water works
as a treatment and it does you're gonna
boil water and choose that as your form
of treatment you'll need to bring the
water to a rolling boil for a full
minute or for a full three minutes if
you are over 6,500 feet in elevation the
downside of boiling water while you
don't have to purchase any extra element
is that you do have to have extra fuel
to carry with you so weigh the costs as
well as the weight for choosing boiling
ideal form of treatment also boiling
water will sometimes leave a weird funky
metallic and flat taste to your water
and keep in mind that if you're using
that as your drinking water you'll need
to boil it and then wait for it to cool
before you can we hope this helps you
choose a water filter do you want any
more information check out this video or
in this video or anything on the RNA
excreted by stage we'll see you out
there
you