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The lifestraw is fine, if you are using it to filter water for one person in a water bottle. We have a number of them. But the Berkey is the way to go if you need something in your home, or have a family.
Need Ideas on Small Scale Water Purification
- Thread starter Schattentarn
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Go with the Berkey.
Got two filters for the moment, it's enough to support myself or proably an smaller group:
Katadyn BeFree Gravity 10L -
it was called Katadyn Camp before (which i have)
In my backpack i'm having this one:
https://www.katadyngroup.com/ch/en/8017685-katadyn-combi-filter~p6696
Katadyn BeFree Gravity 10L -
it was called Katadyn Camp before (which i have)
In my backpack i'm having this one:
https://www.katadyngroup.com/ch/en/8017685-katadyn-combi-filter~p6696
This does solve the problem of carrying water back to your camp or place of residence. In a SHTF world municipal water systems might not even flow and you may have to hike to a water source and carry the water back. Evidently, this system will let you filter the water while you are carrying it back.
I tried to buy a Berkey system today and sure enough, as someone said, they refuse to ship to California. I called and asked them why. They said California law precluded sending their filters to California. I asked them to send the main unit and send to filters to someone who would forward them to me. They refused. I was about to tell them that whatever California said or didn't say they don't write or control laws for the US Postal Service but I just gave up. Let them wallow in ignorance.
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You could use a remail service to get the Berkey. There are ways around stupid laws.
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I heard it was because they didn't pay the California tax for that sticker that warns everyone not for use by pregnant women, yada yada.
Have someone from another state buy it for you and mail it.
California has retarded laws.
I love the gun cases that say, Not Legal in California. I suspect it's because of the magazine.
Have someone from another state buy it for you and mail it.
California has retarded laws.
I love the gun cases that say, Not Legal in California. I suspect it's because of the magazine.
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Warning! Every substance known to mankind causes cancer only in the state of California.
California has no standing whatsoever to regulate US Postal Laws. If that is their excuse, it is totally bogus. I am done with them.
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I don't think it's the postal law. I think Berkey Company would have to pay for special testing for the California warning label. It's still retarded.
Who are you done with, Berkey or California?
I'd keep Berkey, and I'm a California native.
Who are you done with, Berkey or California?
I'd keep Berkey, and I'm a California native.
Get out of California!
I have ideas about this.
Below is a solar oven that heats up to 450°F. A friend of mine claims that it's a simple matter to run a small, coiled copper pipe from the container of water (heating in the solar oven) to condense the steam into distilled water (see below), but I haven't seen the setup with my own eyes.
His technique takes time, patience, and sunshine . . . but you can actually turn seawater into fresh distilled water.
Because it relies on the Sun, no fuel is consumed.
Glass Corningware pots make a good distiller. He says he used a high temperature epoxy resin to seal the copper pipe to the vent hole in the glass corningware lid.
He claims--with 3 of these setups--that he can make up to five gallons of distilled water per day (on average) from the nasty, South Florida canal water.
No fuel, few (if any) real moving parts, can purify sea water, and every component is reused . . . so no expense beyond the initial investment.
Below is a solar oven that heats up to 450°F. A friend of mine claims that it's a simple matter to run a small, coiled copper pipe from the container of water (heating in the solar oven) to condense the steam into distilled water (see below), but I haven't seen the setup with my own eyes.
His technique takes time, patience, and sunshine . . . but you can actually turn seawater into fresh distilled water.
Because it relies on the Sun, no fuel is consumed.
Glass Corningware pots make a good distiller. He says he used a high temperature epoxy resin to seal the copper pipe to the vent hole in the glass corningware lid.
He claims--with 3 of these setups--that he can make up to five gallons of distilled water per day (on average) from the nasty, South Florida canal water.
No fuel, few (if any) real moving parts, can purify sea water, and every component is reused . . . so no expense beyond the initial investment.
I was just thinking before I read the last 3 paragraphs, You would need 4 or 5 of them to have enough clean water every day.
Say shatt, if you don't know anyone outside the state, what size burkey are you wanting..
I imagine it is because of burkeys ability to filter out certain chemicals added to your water by governments with a different agenda than you. But at least your smile will be pretty.
I looked at a satellite photo of Springfield. Is the "pumped water" to a tap or a storage cistern? If your service goes straight to the tap, it might be worth planning on storing water. Realistically speaking, in the event something happens where the water will not soon return after being cut off, there's a good probability food will do the same. I understand you will be able to feed animals and crops straight lake water, but you will be competing with a ton of people doing the same with the few lakes and streams in the area. Those same few water resources will rapidly become contaminated with soap as thousands will bathe there as well ~ assuming armed bandits don't guard these resources out of coordinated greed. If you think, even the slightest bit, that water could run out for more than a week, get out of that area!
I am done with them. Not only because they won't ship to CA., when I called to ask why every extension had a recording device. I had to crack their phone system as if they owed me money and when I did that and got a live person, I had to drag the information out of him. It was an interrogation. There is no customer service. I am just not interested in doing business with them.
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OK. I just told husband to order a couple, and he did. And we got it.
Me too. I was gonna offer to get you one schatt. I could send it to you.
Thank you but it is the filters that cannot be sent to CA. Before I knew it was the filters, I asked if they could ship it to Idaho and they would forward it to me. They said no. I am not even thinking about this company anymore.
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If California doesn't want you to have one than that is more than enough reason to get one.
I completey agree that one can't have too much water. Water is useful for--basically--every aspect of existence.
At the same time, I believe that I could survive (it wouldn't be fun, but I'd do it) on 5 gallons of water a day. I could even stay reasonably (if not perfectly) clean. I have managed--in my experiments during my last hurricane (I have prior posts on this forum about this) to keep my armpits, hair, intimate body parts clean, and brush my teeth on 3 gallons of water, while a person may need about a gallon a day just to drink . . . although water demands increase drastically with diarrhea, vomiting, diabetic problems like hyperglycemia, and people whom are dehydrated to begin with.
If we treat these specific situations as outliers that happen once in a blue moon (and I'll interject here, and say that I'm not completely comfortable claiming that these situations are outliers, as the stress, bad food, disruption of medical supplies, and grief that will surely be epidemic after SHTF, and water demands may have to be much more generous than the 5 gallons that the stills can make), then I could get by on 4 gallons . . . if I absolutely had to.
P.S. You can get distilled water just from a 6'×6' clear plastic sheet, a rock, some fishtank tubing, a syringe-type turkey baster, a plastic cup or bowl, and--possibly--a hairpin, paper clips, or clothes pins (although these last 3 items are helpful, they are not essential.
You also need a shovel to dig the hole.
I use a clothespin to hold an end of a section of fishtank tubing to the side of the bowl such that the nozzle of the tubing is at the bottom of the container.
I use the turkey baster syringe to suck up the water through the fishtank tubing, and squirt it into my canteen for later use.
These types of stills are cheap because this setup will even work with clear plastic garbage bags.
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