Larry from Denver writes:

What are the least expensive yet safest types of water  filtration systems to make contaminated water drinkable? I’m interested in types that can be carried with you in an emergency or camping situation, and a larger type, say for a cabin, that works without batteries or electricity.

In Outward Bound we used iodine drops. It had a slight aftertaste, but it apparently worked. What do you recommend?

Hi Larry, thanks for the question.

This is an excellent question.  Drinking water is the most important thing you need on a trip, and it has to be safe. But water is very heavy to carry, so your best option is treatment.

Here is the issue.  When you go about treating raw water supplies to make them safe to drink, your biggest concern is the acute issues. Generally, these acute issues are microbes, bacteria, parasites, and viruses. That is why you added the iodine drops, for disinfection.

To assure proper disinfection, you need to take two steps:

1. Filtration
2. Disinfection

The dirtier the water is, the less effective your disinfectant will be.  This is because particles in your water, even colloidal particles (particles that are too small to settle out on their own) both absorb disinfectant and can shield microbes from said disinfectant.

For the first part of your question, I’ve browsed Amazon.com and found a good product for you. It’s from a company called Katadyn. Katadyn specializes in outdoor camping type activities, and have come up with a great little product that provides filtration, disinfection and even taste and odour control within an easy to carry bottle. The first filter is a sediment filter tight enough for cyst reduction (cryptosporidium cysts are common in surface waters and make you very sick), the second is an EPA approved disinfecting stage and the final stage is a carbon filter. The second stage is an iodine type disinfectant but the carbon filter should remove any aftertaste from the disinfectant or from the water source.

Click below to take a look. You can even purchase it from Amazon if you like. Generally Amazon.com prices are rather competitive:

 

Filtering larger volumes for drinking at a camp or cabin can be a bit trickier.  I wasn’t able to find a solution to treat larger volumes of water all in one step as above. However, I did find a filter for multiple people that can be seen below:

 

Simply add your iodine disinfectant afterward to ensure any pathogens in the water are killed.

I hope I’ve answered you question. If you have any additional questions please do not hesitate to contact me at any time.

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