Wednesday, January 7, 2009

How to write a better blog: Water purification part 2

Well, the long and the short of writing a better blog is to have more and other people write it--in this case in the form of comments. Just in case you are not a comment reader, I will share some of the comments on my last post, "Water, water, everywhere" (though I won't include all of them--you have to leave people wanting more, and maybe this will turn some non-comment readers into comment readers... :) which were basically full of more information than I gave out. Thanks everyone! Now on to further information, since that is what we are all craving (besides water, of course):

---The McKeachnie Family shared the following link and information: " http://www.amazon.com/First-Need-Deluxe-Water-Purifier/dp/B0009RP8T2

It's a compact, light weight (less than 1 pound), award-winning water purifier. We have one that we keep in our 72-hour kit and we love it! We store water as well, but we feel much better having this product."

This product, or one like it, now that I have a starting point for researching this kind of thing, is going on my list as a must-obtain item. Less than one pound is hard to beat if you can only take what you can carry in an emergency situation. I will probably get a couple of replacement filters to go with it, seeing as how I'm a worrier... :)

--Carl in Wisconsin added this information, especially important to remember because he stresses that you need to use bleach with no additives for water purification:

"Marie, I have to toss my 2 cents in on the water issue. When using bleach even clorox bleach you must make sure it additive free, no scents, no nothing, but bleach. I buy Farm bleach at my local Farm store in 4 gallon cases for under $5.00. I went over to Wendy's excellent site and noticed that the warning about additives is kind of buried at the end.

I add 13 drops to a 2 litter pop bottle or 25 drops to a gallon.I have 4 55 gallon food grade containers in the garage ( probably frozen right now) with only bleach as a preservative. I would use this water for Non-potable applications like the toilet...etc

I would check again with my original Clorox link for amounts of bleach/ water you are planning to use for human consumption--they are considerably less than those Carl cited, and as mentioned, the water he talks about is not intended to be used for drinking water.

---Stephanie came back more than once, and answered my question about using bleach past its prime potency with this excellent link. In her original comment, she mentioned pool chemicals, which are dealt with, along with numerous other methods of water purification (including solar!) via a comment left later...

-- ...in a six-page document put together by Connor. He has kindly included a link to his information in his comment and said that I could share, so I leave you to access it through the link provided there--his is the last comment besides mine in the comments at this writing. ( I wasn't sure how to transfer it correctly here....sorry. But believe me, it is worth checking out.)

Thanks again, everyone---I learned a lot (as usual) from the information you were willing to share. Hopefully Connor won't mind when I add one of the final sentences in his document here:

"Please do not consider this information to be comprehensive; you should still do your own homework!"

Please be sure that you use any kind of water purification system carefully--it's better to learn now so that you will be able to use them safely later. Some of the systems (such as chlorine /pool chemicals) would likely be my very last choice for water purification if they made my list at all, because they scare me, (there's my worrier side again) but I still like to know all my options. Please research thoroughly and use carefully any method that you decide to use.

I could probably find a way to add that phrase about homework to just about any blog post that I write--there is still so much out there that I need to learn, and the information that I do put out often leads to comments that teach me a lot. Thanks to everyone that comments--I really appreciate it. Sometimes, I find out that you have done a little more of my homework for me--at least in this case it's just helping, and not cheating.... :)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad to help! In case anybody is too lazy to click over to the other post (ha!), here's the PDF link for the storage/purification document:

http://www.connorboyack.com/drop/water.pdf

Anonymous said...

Hi Marie. I have a link on my site about making a water filter for use in emergencies, simple and used efficiently around the world in poor communities, the link is under the "how to" section for those interested.

At home I have the rain water tanks and ceramic candle filters that double check all our water supplies.

Grumpyunk said...

Great discussion! Good PDF link in the comments.

Here's a couple of links that you may wish to check out.

Dry pool chemical info -

http://www.survivaltopics.com/survival/better-than-bleach-use-calcium-hypochlorite-to-disinfect-water/

There's more at that site that I haven't checked out yet.

The First deluxe filter is nice for portability, but only 135 gallons of filtered water and then replacement? Seems only good for Bug out purposes. For home/daily use check this out - Make your own water filter using Berky filters.

http://www.alpharubicon.com/kids/homemadeberkeydaire.htm

Might try these people for the filters. Not a personal referral as I still haven't got this project off the ground.

http://www.morethanalive.com/Black-Berkey-purifying-elements?id=tFu7bJuB

We've been using simple bleach and mostly 2 liter bottles. Some of the newer square milk containers I've seen lately seem a lot sturdier than the normal milk jugs. There is some question as to whether you should use milk jugs at all. use your discretion.

Marie said...

Connor--You are definitely making it easy on people--that is a great source of information that supplied answers to this week's poll--thanks again!

Molly--I checked out that link on your site, and now I have more information to add to my emergency notebook. Thanks for the link and for your comment!

Grumpyunk--I will have to check those links out--thanks for sharing them. I always appreciate learning more, and I'm glad that there are so many ways that you can purify water because it's so essential. I want one of those portable ones to use in case we have to grab what we can and go--knowing how to make and use a more long-lasting solution would be vital in a longer-term emergency. Thank you very much for adding to the list of ways that a longer term situation can be handled!

The Scavenger said...

Marie, thanks for another informative post. Water storage and filtering are just some of the things I need to get better prepared with. Always learning and trying to get ready. Thanks for helping with that.

Chris

Marie said...

Chris--I started out with plan A--boiling, and plan B--bleach, but got a lot further down the alphabet with information from everyone else...there's always more to do, it seems like, but little by little it gets done, even with water storage--thanks for commenting, it's always appreciated!

WrethaOffGrid said...

Hey Marie, this has absolutely nuttin' to do with this message, I just nominated you to receive the Lemonade Stand Award, you can check it out here...
http://wretha.blogspot.com/2009/01/lemonade-stand-award.html
or
http://tinyurl.com/936p9k

Wretha

Marie said...

Wretha--Thanks very much for the award---I appreciate your kindness!