Net Control – K0STR
K0STR – In the last few weeks, I’ve been trying to get you building lists. Today we’re going to talk about water. You can go almost 2 or 3 weeks without food, you can’t last more than 3 days without water.
There is no person in the U.S. that shouldn’t have a Life Straw. This is the cheapest way to filter water, they will filter 50 gallons of water. It’s so simple, you should have one.
Now we need to start talking about supplies. Locate a source to draw water: Lakes, streams, rain barrels, things that hold untreated water. Personally I have a lake within 3 blocks of me, then bring it back for purification. Any other suggestions?
KF0FXA – A lot of times if you try to get water straight of of a lake or something. If you dib a hole a short ways away from the source itself, the earth itself can act as a filter.
K7ASB – Good idea for Giardia treatment in case you don’t have a good source of water.
K0STR – If you catch directly out of a lake or stream you’re going to get giardia. I do ultra violet treating. I will expose to the sun for at least 4 hours, then go on to my next step.
UV filtering basically kills most of the bacteria. Next I filter the water with cheesecloth to get the particles out. My next step is to run it through my filter. I have Alexa purification systems. Consists of a large tank, gravity fed and it passes through a very extensive filter system. I have been using this for a couple years.
Alexa pure system is expensive, the tank system itself runs about $300 and extra filters are about $100 a piece. This will filter 5000 gallons of drinking water.
Get them off of Ebay and Amazon, etc.
There’s also the Berkey system, which is similar. These are equally as efficient.
? – You can also build an improvised filter with a bucket, some charcoal, etc.
K0STR – Do not use raw water for any purposes other than laundry or toilet.
? – You can also build a still, a pot and some copper pipe. You can purify water with a still.
WB6IVF – How long does bottled water store?
K0STR – Bottled water is a good substitute, but where does it come from? How was it filtered? When I purify my water, I know it’s clean.
K0ATV – Most bottled water is city water that’s run through multiple filters and then ozone is run through it.
K0STR – Denver Water is some of the best water in the U.S., but they do chlorinate it. A filter system will take all this out too.
K0SAH – If you’re talking emergency use, just being able to drink water is most important. Bottled water shelf life is 1-2 years, and you can also boil this water.
K0STR – I store a lot of water. I have a lot of jugs around stashed away. Basically it’s faucet water. When I need it I can run this water through the filter.
K0ATV – I have a couple hundred gallons of water stashed away. I don’t pretreat, I’ll just run it through the filter when I need it.
KD0YBJ – A couple 55 gallons drums meant for holding water. I initially used tap water with an appropriate amount of bleach. I had it tested after 10 years and it’s still good.
K0STR – I put in my gallon jugs, I’ll put one drop of chlorine bleach in there. The water does not deteriorate, it can become contaminated, but you can filter that.
KZB – The problem with bleach is that after 6 months is after 6 months it’s too week to use. The alternative is pool shock. It’s good for 10 years. 1 Tsp. will make a gallon of bleach.
N0RMS – Pool shock, there’s a youtuber channel called City Prepping, he has a whole video on how to use pool shock. I bought 4 lbs. of it on Amazon for less than $30.
K0STR – You can use Life Straw whenever you need water in an emergency situation.
? – One thing to remember if you’re processing water into containers. When purifying water, the water will also purify the container.
KE0BOW – I use those same things (water bricks). Put those things in the sun for 3-4 days to gas off.
KE0NHH – Be careful when you’re filling containers you have to make sure that containers a clean or it’ll contaminate water over a period of time.
N0MTN – I use MSR water filter.
K0STR – I use a Katadyn filter which is similar to the MSR. You want to rotate your water FIFO, take the oldest first and chart that.
? – The vast majority of filters do not filter viruses. When you’re storing water need to take into consideration the weight of the water and where you are storing them.
KF0FXA – It would be good to understand terrain, and indicators of where water might be.
-End-
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