Advice on Filtering water

[Catrike16]

Hi All,
Went and did my first trip, had to do one night, Tent problem and midges.
However, very enjoyable and a fantastic star filled night sky.
Just wanted to get some advice on the do's and don'ts of filtering water, I mean it looks a pretty dark colour and grim in places, so wheres best and where to avoid?
Thanks in advance

[Lazarus]

if its rained heavily, water from rivers is often an interesting colour.

Assuming a river then high up as possible, moving water, preferably not farmed and no cattle ...puddle/anything if desperate and boil if really worried about quality .If i had to pick just one its either fast moving or high up.

Trust your water filter most of the exotic stuff is not really that prevalent in the UK but you could still get ill if unlucky- never had any issue personally. If concerned then a standard water filter and UV light would work or tablets and wait [ alone neither of these last two remove sediments or the murk from your water but it will be safe to drink].
I use a water to go filter [in the bottle] and a MSR trailshot , the former more often as the UK is a pretty damp place but the later will work with a very shallow/limited water source.

[Bearbonesnorm]

Avoid water that's close to -

Livestock, grazing fields.
Fields used to grow crops.
Farms or outbuildings.
Fords, bridges, paths and tracks.
Known camping spots.

Take water that's -

Sourced from as high up as possible.
That's fast flowing.
Doesn't appear to contain dead sheep.

Don't worry too much about any brown tint as it's often simply peat which won't do you any harm. Forests (without recent operations) can be good sources as there's usually very little chance of livestock or chemical run-off.

[Catrike16]

Thanks,
I had Sawyer filter and a two litre platypus bag, I was a bit unsure but luckily I had just enough water.
Thanks for the advice

[GregMay]

Also depends where in the world you are. Even up high, in post industrial areas like Calderdale I won't drink from any water source. Scotland, pretty much all fair game once I'm in the Highlands and following Stu's list.

[whitestone]

Search on YouTube for "gear skeptic" (yes with a 'k"). I came across him with a video on stove efficiency but he's a set of videos on water treatment and purification (they are not the same) but be prepared for about three hours of viewing!

His videos are very much USA biased and aimed at backpackers but the principles hold. The US EPA recommend a minute's rolling boil to purify water but that's mainly because boiling water is an easy state to determine. To actually meet EPA standards for drinking water you just need 15seconds at 65C. For filtration some filters will deal with cysts (giardiasis and cryptosporidium) and bacteria while others will also deal with viruses. For chemical treatment it's a combination of dose, temperature and time.

As Stu says, anywhere above habitation and away from livestock *should* be OK

[fatbikephil]

I'll not bother filtering if it's the heelands, or no livestock in the catchment, or a spring. Otherwise filter every time. Ideally avoid brown water as it will clog a filter pretty quick (use a coffee filter as a pre treatment) but it's not the end of the world as back flushing will clear it.

Puddles with fresh rainwater are fine unfiltered!

[Catrike16]

I was in Dumfries and Galloway, I had to cut the trip short as I had a midge nightmare.
Due to a whole set of hilarious circumstances, I left home late, left the car park late, had a Garmin nightmare, camped where I didn't really want to but it was going dark, hadn't pitched the tent before ( I know, I know ) , forgot my midge hat, to cap it all there was a tear in the tent inner, I got utterly eaten.
Undeterred, I'm going back for more in the next weather window, Smidge saved me from an even worse fate and it was still worth it despite all the bites

[Lazarus]

Character building adventure....we have all had them

[riderdown]

Even up high, in post industrial areas like Calderdale I won't drink from any water source

If you have a decent filter you should be fine high up if you are a little careful, there are plenty of reservoirs in the calderdale catchment used for water supply today, water companies don't like expensive treatment processes and manage their catchments. Industry such as tanner's were a valley thing, mines you need to know the area as some could be worked out over a hundred years ago. Quarries turned into landfills or farmers getting greedy taking waste is anyone's guess as it is anywhere.

Puddles with fresh rainwater are fine unfiltered!

Rainwater isn't clean, nor is the puddle it sits in

If concerned then a standard water filter and UV light would work

a portable UV lamp with the intensity to kill bacteria/ viruses? A decent filter will be doing the work your UV light is window dressing

[Lazarus]

Yes portable ( kills 99.9%)and MSR recommend additional things if concerned about viruses ( not a huge UK concern) as ( most) filters, esp the portable type we tend to use, dont remove viruses chlorine works as well iirc.
YMMV and I would not use both but it's the best choice for the concerned/ cautious.

How is rain water in a puddle not safe but rain water in a river is ? Genuine question- does it travelling via the ground filter it of dangers ?

[RIP]

Occasionally I've taken both a Trailshot and a Steripen. No particular reason, just felt like it at the time.

Together they weigh less than 500ml of water; and using both on the said 500ml of water takes about 2 minutes, which is time well spent as an excuse to stop and chill anyway.

I find it curiously satisfying purifying water too - while I'm purifying I like to think what fascinating stuff it is: molecularly, a strange combination of two gases forming a liquid; something without which you'd very quickly cease to exist; the way it flows around things; the way it erodes things very slowly (mountains, caves); how useful it is to remove felines from my garden when ejected at high speed from a Supersoaker...

Precious stuff. Amazes me how some people waste so much of it.

[yourguitarhero]

I was packrafting down the Spey.
My pal and I were drinking from the river, both of us taking water filtered through my Grayl Ultrapress - considered one of the better filters.
Figured that would be OK

Both of us got sick on day 3/4 - shitting and puking. Hadn't been sharing anything else and generally had different things to eat if stopping at a town.

Assuming run off in to the river from farmer's fields.

Not sure what that adds to the thread - mostly that the filters don't do everything and you still need to be smart when using one. I learned that lesson!

[whitestone]

Reg - water is one of the weirdest substances, doesn't get denser as it gets colder for example - it's at its densest at 4C which is why ice floats on water. And that's a very good thing because if it was denser than water then rivers and lakes would freeze from the bottom up and kill everything.

Here's the YouTube playlist about water treatment - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIMeq0c ... Ei&pp=iAQB - he doesn't take anything at face value and tries to find peer reviewed scientific papers to back anything up and does say "this is a stab in the dark/educated guess" sort of thing when he can't.

[RIP]

water is one of the weirdest substances

It certainly is: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.the ... ighters

Spey water - surely the best way of purifying that is to distill it then put it in an oak cask for a while?

[Catrike16]

I'm not sure if I feel more or less worried now

[riderdown]

How is rain water in a puddle not safe but rain water in a river is ? Genuine question- does it travelling via the ground filter it of dangers ?

Who said river water was "safe"? essentially it's about understanding the risks, rainwater picks up bacteria and viruses in the sky and then falls, when it lands it picks up more. Water from some types of spring can be very pure or stuffed full of bacteria, I'd always treat. The one thing that I would worry about it chemical contamination but as the EA know the solution to pollution is dilution hence why water courses not puddles. Water companies take out solids, colour, manage ph, and chlorinate and try to do little else for most of the upland sources, how do they manage this? By management of the catchment. I live in a area heavily mined and quarried from early on in the industrial revolution yet it's used as a water catchment for a reservoir by a water company with fairly basic treatment. I also know of another nearby area where the roads put in by a windfarm development crossed a spring catchment and permanently polluted it with testing showing high levels of arsenic and manganese amongst other things. Hence saying the entirety of the river Calder catchment is high risk as opposed to anywhere in the Highlands is probably a bit simplistic

Not sure what that adds to the thread - mostly that the filters don't do everything and you still need to be smart when using one. I learned that lesson!

Doubt the filter was the problem, more the ingestion from contact with the water and things that had been in it

Spey water - surely the best way of purifying that is to distill it then put it in an oak cask for a while?

As I understand it the distillery doesn't have to test it's source as a potable water,

[riderdown]

Steripen is a new one on me

https://litfl.com/steripen-convenient-o ... %20average.

What the review doesn't comment on is the effectiveness for cryptosporidium, this is mainly a seasonal risk but there all the same. The water will need to be very clear otherwise I expect the effectiveness will plummet

UV is used by the water companies where they have to, and used as part of the way of of treating private water supplies so to basic principles are sound

[Itchynuts]

How to sub standard in the woods by Kathleen Meyer

I had this book a few years ago but it has dissapeared since moving house. Probably during a serious book cull.

I remember it had an excellent section on the need for water filtration. I don't remeber the details but it did prompt me to buy a Katadyn water filter and supplement it with water treatment tablets.

The book is actually good read too.

[Itchynuts]

My last post was modified and "sub standard" has replaced one word of the books title. Perhaps I should have expected that.

I hope this works, the book's title is How to (4 letter word starting with S, ending with t and rhyming with hit) In the Woods.

[redefined_cycles]

Occasionally I've taken both a Trailshot and a Steripen. No particular reason, just felt like it at the time.

Together they weigh less than 500ml of water; and using both on the said 500ml of water takes about 2 minutes, which is time well spent as an excuse to stop and chill anyway.

I find it curiously satisfying purifying water too - while I'm purifying I like to think what fascinating stuff it is: molecularly, a strange combination of two gases forming a liquid; something without which you'd very quickly cease to exist; the way it flows around things; the way it erodes things very slowly (mountains, caves); how useful it is to remove felines from my garden when ejected at high speed from a Supersoaker...

Precious stuff. Amazes me how some people waste so much of it.

You forgot to mention Reg that it's also amazing at cutting things (at high ejection rates) and laminar flow/aerodynamics is helped from it's study (and how it moves). Tastes lovely too

[whitestone]

The forum software has a "swear filter" facility. Stu has used it amusingly to replace various words and phrases so "R*pha" becomes "Crikey, how much?", "b*don" becomes "piss bottle" and so on.

You can check what will happen by using the preview button as the changes are shown in there.

[fatbikephil]

https://bikepacking.com/plan/tips/ultra ... r-filters/
Worth a read - as noted the UV lights only really work with clear water. Looks like an MSR et al and chlorine tablets are the only sure fire way of killing everything.

My puddle comment was a bit tongue in cheek - you would never want to drink straight from a puddle in a road as there are a large amount of nasties on any road surface left by passing cars (tyre particles, diesel particulates, oil residue...) Even a track might contain some horrible stuff left by passing traffic.

One other thing that is good about filters is that you can use them to lift water out of a shallow burn that you can't get a bottle into.

[Itchynuts]

Didn't think about a swear filter especially because it was a book title and not some angry rant - must remember to preview.

On the wierdness of water, it is the only known substace that expands when it is cooled (below 4°C) and also expands when it is heated above 4°C
So the frozen solid floats on the warmer liquid.
If this didn't happen ponds and rivers would freeze from the bottom up and so would huge chunks of the sea. we would probably never have evolved.

[dlovett]

Hi All,
Went and did my first trip, had to do one night, Tent problem and midges.
However, very enjoyable and a fantastic star filled night sky.
Just wanted to get some advice on the do's and don'ts of filtering water, I mean it looks a pretty dark colour and grim in places, so wheres best and where to avoid?
Thanks in advance

Top Tip, don't leave an expensive water filter bottle in a cupboard wet. Months later it will smell like sheep/cow/pig/take your pick sub standard when you try to use it and be impossible to remove the smell/taste.