Water Purifying

I bought a First Needs water purification system 1.8 quarts/min.   It is the only (from what I've read) system that removes virus from the water.  It uses some type of electro magnetic something or other.  It was $79.00 at Gear For Adventure website.  Free shipping over $100.  Extra filter for $40.  Each filter will purify 125 gallons of water.  Quite a bit more expensive but I have a 3 year old and 6 month old, an item like this would never be too expensive to buy for them. 

People with allergies....like to...iodine!!  BEWARE of water purification pills. Most use iodine as the killer of bad things. There are several other types of ways to take care of problems, boiling and filtration comes to mind first. IMO have the anti allergy pens etc on hand.

oh dear! I just got some potable aqua tablets Germicidal

I finally thought I did something right and it's iodine6.68%

How would one know if they are allergic?

Thanks!

Good preps magazine is "Backwoods Home". They took over when "American Survival Guide" bit it a few years back. Has a TON of useful informaion. I bought a "big berkey" water unit via the magazine. Heavy duty and effecient.

Recommend you find a copy of "Backwoods Home"

TTFN

Water is my biggest concern.  You can only live a few days without it and it is almost impossible to buy enough bottled water!!!  You should not store well water (which is what we have) because bad things grow in it.  We finally purchased an Aquarain filter.  It has 4 filters that filter out just about everything.  It looks like one of those large metal coffee dispensers.  We actually put it together and tried it...which I would suggest.  My plan is to store water from our well and treat it with bleach before putting it in the filter.  The filter removes the bleach and other stuff.  If anyone has any suggestions....feel free to suggest!  I've purchased 5 gallon containers for storage and I actually ran an experiment with ziploc bags.  I filled them with water and left them in our bathtub.  The didn't start leaking for 2 weeks.  I figure I could do that and use that supply first. 

My Katadyn drip filter set up is basically a bucket with three ceramic/charcoal filters and a lid nested on top of another bucket that has a dispenser spout. The threaded filter ends are inserted into and through the holes in the bottom of the top bucket. They are held in place with a plastic nuts and washers tightened from underneath. This is nested onto the bottom collector bucket which has a dispenser spout.

You fill the top bucket with water up to, but not over, the top of the filters and replace lid. The water passes through the outside of the filters to the center hollow core and filtered water is collected in the bottom bucket.

Let me try this:

========  lid

|    filters   |

DISPENSER 4 HIR wrote: I have read that all of the water stabilizers are hype, and you are better off just using bleach.  The hot tub swimming pool dry chlorine product last a very long time and may be used to make regular stregnth bleach.  When storing tap water, treat with bleach, fill container to the top and seal.  Last a minimum of 6 months, and I have drank water stored for 3 years with no bad effects.

Chlorine:   Chlorine is familiar to most Americans as it is used to treat virtually all municipal water systems in the United States. For a long time chlorine, in the form of Halazone tablets, was used to purify small batches of water for campers and military troops. Later questions emerged about the effectiveness of Halazone, and in 1989, Abbot labs pulled it off the market. If Halazone tablets are encountered outside the US, the nominal shelf life is 6 months, and the dosage is 2 tabs per liter. Until recently, there was no chlorine product designed for wilderness/survival use available in the US.

Chlorine has a number of problems when used for field treatment of water. When chlorine reacts with organic material, it attaches itself to nitrogen containing compounds (ammonium ions and amino acids), leaving less free chlorine to continue disinfection. Carcinogenic trihalomethanes are also produced, though this is only a problem with long-term exposure. Trihalomethanes can also be filtered out with a charcoal filter, though it is more efficient to use the same filter to remove organics before the water is chlorinated. Unless free chlorine is measured, disinfection can not be guaranteed with moderate doses of chlorine. One solution is superchlorination, the addition of far more chlorine than is needed. This must again be filtered through activated charcoal to remove the large amounts of chlorine, or hydrogen peroxide can be added to drive the chlorine off. Either way there is no residual chlorine left to prevent recontamination. This isn't a problem if the water is to be used at once.

Chlorine is sensitive to both the pH and temperature of the treated water. Temperature slows the reaction for any chemical treatment, but chlorine treatment is particularly susceptible to variations in the pH as at lower pHs, hypochlorous acid is formed, while at higher pHs, it will tend to dissociate into hydrogen and chlorite ions, which are less effective as a disinfectant. As a result, chlorine effectiveness drops off when the pH is greater than 8.