Water Filter Discussions (clipped from EMP thread)

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thermax292
thermax292 Registered Users Posts: 23 ✭
in Solar Product Reviews & Opinions #1
BB we bought a Berky water filter for our hurricane supplies and will use that for fresh water if the time comes. You can use pond water or ever rain water from puddles of water. I build a Faraday cage for the generator however from what I've read if we get a man made EMP our biggest fear is food. They predict that starvation will begin in only 3 days. I think living in the city with our lights on in a dark neighborhood full of hungry people will be the real problem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Um3JhPx344
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  • bmet
    bmet Solar Expert Posts: 630 ✭✭
    #2
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    Re: Electromagnetic Pulse

    My parents have bought into one of those Berky water filters, but I have yet to see them fill it up with pond water to prove it. Physically it seems small to provide the kind of filtration at the quantity printed in the manual. I was an NBC Disaster Preparedness team member, and we never had any water purification system that small which didn't require some sort of chemical assistance as one of the steps. I am skeptical.
    thermax292 wrote: »
    BB we bought a Berky water filter for our hurricane supplies and will use that for fresh water if the time comes. You can use pond water or ever rain water from puddles of water. I build a Faraday cage for the generator however from what I've read if we get a man made EMP our biggest fear is food. They predict that starvation will begin in only 3 days. I think living in the city with our lights on in a dark neighborhood full of hungry people will be the real problem.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Um3JhPx344
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  • thermax292
    thermax292 Registered Users Posts: 23 ✭
    #3
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    Re: Electromagnetic Pulse

    bmet My parents have bought into one of those Berky water filters, but I have yet to see them fill it up with pond water to prove it. Physically it seems small to provide the kind of filtration at the quantity printed in the manual. I was an NBC Disaster Preparedness team member, and we never had any water purification system that small which didn't require some sort of chemical assistance as one of the steps. I am skeptical.

    I haven t tested ours yet either, I'm planing to prefilter every thing using several materials and finally before the Berkey a mister coffee filter. This will take some of the burden off the charcoal filters in the Berkeys and help it filter faster
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  • techntrek
    techntrek Solar Expert Posts: 1,372 ✭✭✭
    #4
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    Re: Electromagnetic Pulse

    Take a look at Aqua Mira, it is what I use when I backpack. It is the same chemical process used by many municipal treatment systems. It will take care of crypto (given enough time, unlike iodine), doesn't have a chemical taste and will even clarify murky/tannin water. A heck of a lot smaller than filters. Worst case if the water has particles in suspension you may have to use a hankerchief to pre-filter, but otherwise the chemical is effective.
    4.5 kw APC UPS powered by a Prius, 12 kw Generac, Honda EU3000is
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  • Seven
    Seven Solar Expert Posts: 292 ✭✭
    #5
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    Re: Electromagnetic Pulse

    I use berkey filters on a daily basis. I have a big berkey at home and I built a bucket berkey for work. I also run the pf2 filters on the bottom. If you have never set up your filters, and they are the black ones, you need to. There was a long run of the filters that did not have enough glue on the bottom that attaches to the plastic threaded part. As a result they simply come off and you are left with two pieces, or you will have a small area with no glue that the water just passes by the filter.

    Putting food coloring in the top resivoir when you fill it is an easy way to check to make sure there is no bypass of the filter. No color should be in the lower tank at all.

    The cleaner the water, the less you will have to clean the filter. If using creek water, run it through a pillow case to separate the solids. You can do that with several things to get the bulk of the nasties out. You can just let the water sit for a little while to get the rest at the bottom of your container and then just siphon it into a berkey.

    The berkey site says that their candles are good for 3000 gallons. I have way more than that through mine and you have to look at a new one side by side to tell that the one that is a couple years old is a little smaller. Due to the scrubbing of the cleaning. The pf2 post filters only have about a 6 month life though.

    One thing you really need to be aware of is the priming of the filters. Without priming them, you are only going to get a fraction of the volume they are supposed to have. You need a little bit of water pressure to do the priming. Without priming, a pair of the black elements would filter a gallon in about 7 hours. The same filters, primed, will do over a gallon an hour.

    Side note. My bucket berkey at work is a single candle inside of a 6 gallon food grade bucket. The amount of pressure from the 6 gallons of water will make that single filter process more water in an hour than the two filters in my big berkey at home.
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  • SteveK
    SteveK Solar Expert Posts: 387 ✭✭
    #6
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    Re: Electromagnetic Pulse

    +1 on the Aqua Mira. We treat before filtering though becasue we like clear water too.

    We used Doulton candles in gravity mode never trusting gravity fed virus and bacteria protection from any candle, even Berkey's. We do have Berkey's in reserve with the nitrate filters.

    We replumbed our home over the summer and added thi filter set. It is certified by CA for all but pharmaceuticals and is not reverse osmosis. Bio filtration excellence. The only filtration system to do virus and bacteria. It is a water purifier.

    http://www.lowes.com/pd_329330-43353-WHEMB40_0__?productId=3438006&Ntt=whirpool+water+filter&pl=1&currentURL=%2Fpl__0__s%3FNtt%3Dwhirpool%2Bwater%2Bfilter&facetInfo=

    Anyone read up on the newer EMP weapons in RU that are supposedly rated at 200KV/M ?
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  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,439 admin
    #7
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    Re: Water Filter Discussions (clipped from EMP thread)

    Hi guys,

    I have moved this to its own thread... I think this is a worthwhile discussion that had little to do with EMP (at least on the technical side).

    Has anyone tried or looked at the Sawyer systems:
    Hollow Fiber Membrane (HFM)
    Very thin hollow porous tubes with uniform pore sizes. They offer a very large surface area in a very small volume. The pore size can be controlled to the extent that virus removal is possible. Due to the very large surface, it will not foul quickly and gives ample warning before it plugs. It will not fail and will not allow pathogens to pass through. All Sawyer water filters and purifiers use hollow fiber membranes.

    I got one--but have not had a use for it yet (yeah!--the world is still here, today).

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
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  • SteveK
    SteveK Solar Expert Posts: 387 ✭✭
    #8
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    Re: Water Filter Discussions (clipped from EMP thread)

    Bill, that thing is pretty slick! Says it has a million gallon guaranty! Excellent flow rate and backwashable. Thanks for the tip. The only thing it seems to lack is chemical and VOC ratings but that's not something to be too concerned with for this type of device. A simple charcoal filter would absorb most of those anyways.

    Neat stuff!:cool:
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  • bmet
    bmet Solar Expert Posts: 630 ✭✭
    #9
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    Re: Water Filter Discussions (clipped from EMP thread)

    just as a flight of fancy, running filtered water across the underside of a solar panel on a summer day ought to get hot enough to kill most germs.

    How about combing solar thermal with Berkey? Charcoal has already been superheated to be free of impurities, so the hot water wouldn't hurt it at all.
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  • techntrek
    techntrek Solar Expert Posts: 1,372 ✭✭✭
    #10
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    Re: Water Filter Discussions (clipped from EMP thread)

    Bill, any chance you can get Windsun to add a sub-forum for renewable/offgrid/survival related topics that aren't directly energy related, like this? We get a lot of talk about electric cars which would be another topic for such a forum. And passive solar heating, and other alternative heating methods (wood, pellets), and...
    4.5 kw APC UPS powered by a Prius, 12 kw Generac, Honda EU3000is
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  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,439 admin
    #11
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    Re: Water Filter Discussions (clipped from EMP thread)

    I have asked before--I think he does not want to stray too far from the solar/RE power theme. I know in the past an open Cafe type forum can be very difficult to moderate (opinions create strong discussions, which turn into hurt feelings, and we lose otherwise good members).

    So, in the end, we are not adverse to discussing products and other "off grid" living techniques--Feel free to start a thread in a "related" forum (off grid, product review, etc.)...

    If we get enough Wood Stove/Water Filter/Electric Vehicle threads--Perhaps that will be enough to "seed" a new "Sustainable Living" forum.

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
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  • Shadowcatcher
    Shadowcatcher Solar Expert Posts: 228 ✭✭✭
    #12
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    Re: Water Filter Discussions (clipped from EMP thread)

    My concern is related to "boondocking" with an RV, in our case a teardrop trailer that is set up for sustained lengths of time away from "hookups" and that includes pulling water out of lakes ad streams and making it potable. We have wilderness camped for a number of years and part of that is water and used a First Need filter made by General Ecology. I was pleased to find that there is a larger version meant for small RV's that just fits on the end of a garden hose. I normally use a ceramic carbon filter and since the outside ceramic element is cleanable to scrape off the polliwogs etc. that goes between the 12 pump from lake or stream and the trailer and the General Ecology Trav-L-Pure Camper Canister and from that into the water tank.
    I am not particularly concerned about anything other than natural cause disasters and the teardrop is an ideal bugout vehicle/shelter.

    Attachment not found.

    Ours is the small one
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