Water Treatment FAQ

I've tried a ton of crap, most of which didn't work completely as advertised or in fact gave me the craps. I found small quantities of common bleach works best in rough locals. Easy to get, easy to use and cheap as hell. I ran into one of the leading Navy bio-tech researchers and he concurred with my opinion.

Common bleach is 5% sodium hypochloride, check the bottle you use to verify this strength. I dilute a cap full of bleach to 5 gallons on average, depending on how bad the source water is screwed up. 1 cap full (approx. half ounce) to a gallon has been my max. I give the bleach at least 6 hours to do it's stuff, overnight is better.
 
I've tried a ton of crap, most of which didn't work completely as advertised or in fact gave me the craps. I found small quantities of common bleach works best in rough locals. Easy to get, easy to use and cheap as hell. I ran into one of the leading Navy bio-tech researchers and he concurred with my opinion.

Common bleach is 5% sodium hypochloride, check the bottle you use to verify this strength. I dilute a cap full of bleach to 5 gallons on average, depending on how bad the source water is screwed up. 1 cap full (approx. half ounce) to a gallon has been my max. I give the bleach at least 6 hours to do it's stuff, overnight is better.

Very interesting.
Whats your opinon on Iodine?
 
Very interesting.
Whats your opinon on Iodine?
I don't like it at all. First, I think you have to use a lot more of it to do the same thing as bleach. So I think in the end it ends up being more toxic. Second, I think it makes the water taste far worse than the bleach. Third, it gives me the shits almost every time!

The conversation I had with the bio-researcher MD was some fifteen years ago, but I don't think anything has changed much since that time. He said he had tried all sorts of crap (price was no problem) that the government buyers kept providing him with. After he had to evacuate his personnel out the labs for the second time because some of this crap produced fumes that started choking people, he said he handed one of his nurses a $20 bill and told her to simply go buy a couple of gallons of common Clorox. That's all they used after that.

He agreed with the way I was treating water with it and said that in such a diluted state it was not only effective, but not a whole lot more toxic than the chlorine found in common tap water.

It's a good trick to know, particularly when traveling through foreign countries. :cool:
 
Thing is that bleach does not work well with heat/ UV as the strength is disabled by the UV/ Heat. In sunny conditions Iodine is much better for treating water, you yanks use Iodine, teh Poms use chlorine.
Make sure that particulates are filtered from the source water prior to treatment, there are now good drinking straws/ personal water systems available on the market. Most of you should keep iodine in their med-kit, it is good shit! if you are in 3rd world conditions bleach is also OK.
Medic 1
 
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