On backpacking trips in Boy Scouts we'd bring kool aid packets, to add after the requisite 30 minutes, to cover the iodine taste. Depending on what powdered drink mix you bring along (kool aid, gatorade, emergen-c, etc...) it can also be a good way to get some vitamins, minerals and electrolytes.
Ahhh that’s funny I was thinking what you guys did I was thinking bring some lemon or something to add some flavor to the nasty water ahaha good idea with the coolaid
Great video...very informative. Chlorine or iodine, after filtration, using activated charcoal (aquarium shops for those who don't know how to make their own) to catch the heavy metals and a pinch added after the chemicals making it a tad more palatable. My own favourite, however, is potassium manganate. A few crystals purifies water (turns it pink to purple), which can be used for drinking, sterilising wounds, dressings, etc. Keeps boots and clothing smelling fresh and can also be used with glycerine or sugar, as a fire starter. A bottle as small as your eyedropper would last for months.
The proof is in the pudding, the water pudding, and you drank(or chewed) it ! Great vid! Yours is my new favorite channel, I've watched just about every vid. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and for your Service.
Just found your channel today, it's nice. One thing I love, and think is highly effective, yet a largely unknown piece of kit is a Millbank Bag. It's a tightly woven canvas bag that pre-filters water prior to whatever method is finally used to filter or purify. It was used by the British military. They are currently not issued, and few remain on the surplus market. There is a company that is reproducing it. It's called the Brown Filter Bag or just simply the Brown Bag. It can be used like the bag you used to dip water from the creek, nice big open mouth. It's then hung up and gravity drips into a container. It can be kind of slow, but unlike most every prefilter (and it is only a prefiler) that I know of for the big commercial units, all one has to do is wash it and it's good to go for next time. It will last nearly a lifetime. I use mine as the actual "bag" that all my water kit goes into. Tip - sachet is pronounced sashay, like in the old square dance calls. Reminds me of sabot's "sabot" instead of "sabo", and cashe's "cashay" instead of "cash". Just hacking on you guys, thanks!
I also think that filtration is important to do along with treatment. You can buy new aftermarket millbank bags but personally I don't find them very effective compared to a hand filter. They are pretty cheap though. Generally what I personally do is have two containers, clean water bag, and an expandable dirty water bag. This way you can collect water fast and filter then treat it later in a safer location.
Thank you for your service to our great country. Excellent overview of water treatment methods. Your video was a big help in choosing what to include in my kids EDC bags which are kept in a closet inside each classroom for an unexpected emergency. We had planned kits for each child at the beginning of every school year school year which starts in June in the Philippines. Begining this year, a basic kit is now required by the DepEd (Department of Education) which we were pleased to see happen. It appears getting prepared for the unexpected is trendy these days.
Also, you bring up a real good point about waiting four hours after a hike for a drink. I went on a week outing with some guys a while ago, and this one guy wouldn't even wait a couple of minutes. In fact, a few of them didn't. This one guy in particular just couldn't wait, and drank bad water. By the middle of the night he was so sick he thought he was dying. I knew right away what was wrong. Long story short. We had to turn back to take him to get treated for parasites, before we continued. He missed out on an awesome adventure and . I won't go into the gory details, I am sure you have seen someone poisoned by tainted water, but it's just not something you want to experience, and he recovered, and good guy and all, but not someone I want to keep close to me. That was very reckless. Yes, It only cost us about a days travel, but what else could negligence like that mean for a whole group of experienced guys?
I don't know if I'd trust all methods together drinking out of the Euphrates. Yuck. Swam in it, can't get that smell out for weeks. People get skin conditions out of it to.
Personally I like to double filter and then boil. You can start by using some form of cloth and a bottle, putting your "raw" water in it and letting the water filter through the cloth to get the big sediments like dirt/sand out, then that water goes into the finer filters like you discussed in Part 1, and finally the water comes out of the fine filter and goes into your pot/can for boiling. It takes a bit of time, but this way you don't have to deal with any funky taste, it can be done many many times over before you have to worry about your filters getting used up since the first stage takes out most of the junk that clogs up the finer filters, and it should get pretty much all of the heavy elements and parasites/bacteria/viruses out. Won't help you with salt though, still have to distill to get that out.
Abaddon GC problem is that People like me (High School Students) don’t usually have a pot for that, so I have been doing some research on if iodine tablets are allowed where I am at
Karl... love the info you are sharing with us. God bless yas. However... how come you didn't mention the "Sawyer water filter" system(s). I'm a backpacker and camper and been using a Sawyer for several years. Excellent long term filtration and at a LOW cost. You haven't heard of it?? Best wishes....... Ax
Ax, yep, I actually used to carry a Sawyer. However, now I carry a Survivor Filter. It gets down to 0.02 microns. That's a lot finer than the Sawyer. Read the fine print on your Sawyer. If you are sticking with the Sawyer, please treat with Chlorine Dioxide. I have gotten food/water poisoning in just about every corner of this planet. However, I once picked up a BAD bug, sick from drinking pond water once. Didn't treat it with enough Iodine. Under the microscope, they showed me little buggers swimming... I was on the same anti-worm drugs you give to dogs and cows and STILL shit out both ends for 6 solid days. I now take clean water serious. Thanks for watching, TR
Thanks for sharing ur knowledge Karl I love Ur show n videos... I used to work in a Military Surplus store...We sold New n used military clothing n equipment, survival gear, knives, guns n ammo @ one point... POLAR PURE is a red iodine Crystals that anymore can keep ready for use by fill-in the contrainer with water n just let it sit since it has a VERY LONG LONG SHELF LIFE... YES POLAR PURE comes with a Built-in measure-ing device... Filters like theee MSR Filter ( Mountain Safety Research ) from Seattle Washington filters down to the MICRON LEVEL = 🔎🔎 00.2 MICRON WILL FILTER VIRUSES...Theee smallest Micro-Organisms ( according to the MSR sales rep )
Thanks for that all that info. Especially about Chlor-Foc. But about the Aquatabs, I checked on Amazon and they say to wait only 30 minutes. Were you talking about the same product, because you mentionned 4 hours of wait time? I was stuck in a forest trail just last weekend and my girl friend and I had no more water for the day. Thank God I had a few Pristine tabs (8.5mg of Sodium Dichloroisocyanurate) when we finally reached a lake. Our lips were dry and we had problems to salivate from all that walking in the sun and no more hydratation. It was the first time I ever used those tabs. It worked great. But at one point walking in swampy trail with no drinkable water I was thinking of having that dirty swampy water. So now I can imagine myself in a similar scenarion never getting to that lake, those Chlor-Foc sachets would have been life savers.
Ideas for other videos : how have you handled wear and tear on your feet on the go ( from the minor to sprains, strains, fractures and breaks) as I am sure you have had lots of experience in this. All the best.
Nice show and tell there and informational TR, saw pt 1 already too I’ve use the iodine before the taste was not good where was all this filter stuff back in the day 😂👍👌✌️🪖🇺🇸
Karl, I appreciate the information in this video, and I did get a couple of ideas from it. I really believe in boiling, but consider also that that may not be possible. I have never carried a plastic bottle, but I'm going to try it. My question is about your jacket, and the brand. It looks real warm, and I' want to pick one up.
How about treating flood water in an urban environment? We've had some serious floods the last few weeks here in Australia and it's left some people stranded on top of their roofs for a few days until emergency services have been able to rescue them. I feel like a 3 stage purification method would work: - 1st use a Milbank bag to filter out particles (anything that filters out particulate would work) - 2nd boil the water to kill any viruses, bacteria, etcetera - 3rd use a Grayl GeoPress, UltraPress or Ultralight to not only further filter any pathogens but also filter out heavy metals & chemicals as well as improve the taste & smell. Any advice from the RUclips survival community?
I’m not familiar with those filters. I recommend the survivor filter, as it gets down to 0.02 microns … that’s much better that the lifestraw 0.1 microns
Great content! Would you recommend pairing 2 different products to have better tasting water? As an example - Potable Aqua paired with Sawyer mini? Thanks!
Yes, absolutely. However, I'm not a fan of the Sawyer-Mini... as it does not filter anything except particulate. Pairing is great. However, always be ready in case one fails. Thanks for watching, TR
Life Straws are great, if you don't have room for a larger pump filter. I keep a Life Straw in my carry-on bag, when traveling to austere locations. So, yeah, I think they are a great tool.
iodine... just a fun fact, its a mineral our body needs and almost everyone is iodine deficient, so the pills may have an unintended benefit:) how lucky can we get? This deal just gets better and better. Thanks for your videos, I've been looking at some of them, great stuff:)
He went in the Army when he was eighteen, so he was still a kid when he joined, and stayed in for over twenty five years. So he basically grew up in the Army, Karl has more experience with boots on the ground than 90% of the guys you'll find on RUclips. Hope that helps answer your question.
Short answer: Yes. Long Answer: I carry the Chlor Flox kit in my Rucks and in the small bag I keep in my vehicle when traveling. I hate the term "Bug Out Bag," but I do travel with a "Civilian" looking bag that is full of fun items to help me get home. I prefer chlorine dioxide for smaller kits. If you know you're going to be around nasty water... Chlor Flox is awesome. Hope this helps, TR.
Honest, I’ve had classes on pulling water out of plants and ground (solar stills) but never had much luck with them. Rather, I watch the locals ( humans and animals) and see where they go for water. It’ll be nasty, and still need to be treated, but it’s still more reliable than squeezing a rock. TR
On backpacking trips in Boy Scouts we'd bring kool aid packets, to add after the requisite 30 minutes, to cover the iodine taste. Depending on what powdered drink mix you bring along (kool aid, gatorade, emergen-c, etc...) it can also be a good way to get some vitamins, minerals and electrolytes.
Ahhh that’s funny I was thinking what you guys did I was thinking bring some lemon or something to add some flavor to the nasty water ahaha good idea with the coolaid
Great video...very informative.
Chlorine or iodine, after filtration, using activated charcoal (aquarium shops for those who don't know how to make their own) to catch the heavy metals and a pinch added after the chemicals making it a tad more palatable.
My own favourite, however, is potassium manganate.
A few crystals purifies water (turns it pink to purple), which can be used for drinking, sterilising wounds, dressings, etc.
Keeps boots and clothing smelling fresh and can also be used with glycerine or sugar, as a fire starter.
A bottle as small as your eyedropper would last for months.
That's great information to add to the collective. I've never heard of those techniques, I'm going to have to check um out!!🤜🤛🇺🇸🇺🇸
The proof is in the pudding, the water pudding, and you drank(or chewed) it !
Great vid!
Yours is my new favorite channel, I've watched just about every vid.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and for your Service.
Just found your channel today, it's nice. One thing I love, and think is highly effective, yet a largely unknown piece of kit is a Millbank Bag. It's a tightly woven canvas bag that pre-filters water prior to whatever method is finally used to filter or purify. It was used by the British military. They are currently not issued, and few remain on the surplus market. There is a company that is reproducing it. It's called the Brown Filter Bag or just simply the Brown Bag. It can be used like the bag you used to dip water from the creek, nice big open mouth. It's then hung up and gravity drips into a container. It can be kind of slow, but unlike most every prefilter (and it is only a prefiler) that I know of for the big commercial units, all one has to do is wash it and it's good to go for next time. It will last nearly a lifetime. I use mine as the actual "bag" that all my water kit goes into.
Tip - sachet is pronounced sashay, like in the old square dance calls. Reminds me of sabot's "sabot" instead of "sabo", and cashe's "cashay" instead of "cash".
Just hacking on you guys, thanks!
I also think that filtration is important to do along with treatment. You can buy new aftermarket millbank bags but personally I don't find them very effective compared to a hand filter. They are pretty cheap though.
Generally what I personally do is have two containers, clean water bag, and an expandable dirty water bag. This way you can collect water fast and filter then treat it later in a safer location.
Panty hose works OK in a pinch. Not the best, but better than nothing. No weight and simple to stow.
man you are so good at this thanks
Thank you for your service to our great country. Excellent overview of water treatment methods. Your video was a big help in choosing what to include in my kids EDC bags which are kept in a closet inside each classroom for an unexpected emergency. We had planned kits for each child at the beginning of every school year school year which starts in June in the Philippines. Begining this year, a basic kit is now required by the DepEd (Department of Education) which we were pleased to see happen. It appears getting prepared for the unexpected is trendy these days.
Great great video! Thanks again Karl
Excellent subject and coverage of it. Thank you!
I finished a two year course on water quality but still think this is very relevant information. Thanks my war fighting friend !
this channel is awesome
best vid on this theme so far! how do you guys not have more views? thx for all you guys are doing and thx for your service!
Help us spread the word.
Tactical Rifleman will do sir
Good to see you again
Also, you bring up a real good point about waiting four hours after a hike for a drink. I went on a week outing with some guys a while ago, and this one guy wouldn't even wait a couple of minutes. In fact, a few of them didn't. This one guy in particular just couldn't wait, and drank bad water. By the middle of the night he was so sick he thought he was dying. I knew right away what was wrong. Long story short. We had to turn back to take him to get treated for parasites, before we continued. He missed out on an awesome adventure and . I won't go into the gory details, I am sure you have seen someone poisoned by tainted water, but it's just not something you want to experience, and he recovered, and good guy and all, but not someone I want to keep close to me. That was very reckless. Yes, It only cost us about a days travel, but what else could negligence like that mean for a whole group of experienced guys?
Intro ends at 1:39
I would definitely run that sediment water through a sock or t-shirt before treating or boiling. great video
Thanks for watching, TR
Very good ideas. Thank you very much
I don't know if I'd trust all methods together drinking out of the Euphrates. Yuck. Swam in it, can't get that smell out for weeks. People get skin conditions out of it to.
Personally I like to double filter and then boil. You can start by using some form of cloth and a bottle, putting your "raw" water in it and letting the water filter through the cloth to get the big sediments like dirt/sand out, then that water goes into the finer filters like you discussed in Part 1, and finally the water comes out of the fine filter and goes into your pot/can for boiling. It takes a bit of time, but this way you don't have to deal with any funky taste, it can be done many many times over before you have to worry about your filters getting used up since the first stage takes out most of the junk that clogs up the finer filters, and it should get pretty much all of the heavy elements and parasites/bacteria/viruses out. Won't help you with salt though, still have to distill to get that out.
Abaddon GC problem is that People like me (High School Students) don’t usually have a pot for that, so I have been doing some research on if iodine tablets are allowed where I am at
Karl... love the info you are sharing with us. God bless yas. However... how come you didn't mention the "Sawyer water filter" system(s). I'm a backpacker and camper and been using a Sawyer for several years. Excellent long term filtration and at a LOW cost. You haven't heard of it?? Best wishes....... Ax
Ax, yep, I actually used to carry a Sawyer. However, now I carry a Survivor Filter. It gets down to 0.02 microns. That's a lot finer than the Sawyer. Read the fine print on your Sawyer. If you are sticking with the Sawyer, please treat with Chlorine Dioxide. I have gotten food/water poisoning in just about every corner of this planet. However, I once picked up a BAD bug, sick from drinking pond water once. Didn't treat it with enough Iodine. Under the microscope, they showed me little buggers swimming... I was on the same anti-worm drugs you give to dogs and cows and STILL shit out both ends for 6 solid days. I now take clean water serious. Thanks for watching, TR
Karl.... thanks for the input. I didn't know that!! I"ll look for the Survivor and the Chlorine Dioxide!! Thanks Man. All my best.... Ax
@@TacticalRifleman Definitely would be a great Patreon war story!!🤣😂🤜🤛🇺🇸🇺🇸
Thanks for sharing ur knowledge Karl I love Ur show n videos...
I used to work in a Military Surplus store...We sold New n used military clothing n equipment, survival gear, knives, guns n ammo @ one point...
POLAR PURE is a red iodine Crystals that anymore can keep ready for use by fill-in the contrainer with water n just let it sit since it has a VERY LONG LONG SHELF LIFE...
YES POLAR PURE comes with a Built-in measure-ing device...
Filters like theee MSR Filter ( Mountain Safety Research ) from Seattle Washington filters down to the MICRON LEVEL = 🔎🔎 00.2 MICRON WILL FILTER VIRUSES...Theee smallest Micro-Organisms ( according to the MSR sales rep )
Thank you I needed part 2 haha you guys are good ty
Thanks for that all that info. Especially about Chlor-Foc. But about the Aquatabs, I checked on Amazon and they say to wait only 30 minutes. Were you talking about the same product, because you mentionned 4 hours of wait time? I was stuck in a forest trail just last weekend and my girl friend and I had no more water for the day. Thank God I had a few Pristine tabs (8.5mg of Sodium Dichloroisocyanurate) when we finally reached a lake. Our lips were dry and we had problems to salivate from all that walking in the sun and no more hydratation. It was the first time I ever used those tabs. It worked great. But at one point walking in swampy trail with no drinkable water I was thinking of having that dirty swampy water. So now I can imagine myself in a similar scenarion never getting to that lake, those Chlor-Foc sachets would have been life savers.
15:25 Respect earned.
Thank you!
Ideas for other videos : how have you handled wear and tear on your feet on the go ( from the minor to sprains, strains, fractures and breaks) as I am sure you have had lots of experience in this.
All the best.
I’ll add it to the video idea list
That's a good question, I'm kind of curious what boots he's using for the cold weather in this video also.
I've heard you shouldn't use iodine if you have thyroid problems. Also does the bleach go bad if it's unopened?
Nice show and tell there and informational TR, saw pt 1 already too I’ve use the iodine before the taste was not good where was all this filter stuff back in the day 😂👍👌✌️🪖🇺🇸
Damn, Thanks Karl!
Thanks for watching, TR
Karl, I appreciate the information in this video, and I did get a couple of ideas from it. I really believe in boiling, but consider also that that may not be possible. I have never carried a plastic bottle, but I'm going to try it. My question is about your jacket, and the brand. It looks real warm, and I' want to pick one up.
How about treating flood water in an urban environment? We've had some serious floods the last few weeks here in Australia and it's left some people stranded on top of their roofs for a few days until emergency services have been able to rescue them. I feel like a 3 stage purification method would work:
- 1st use a Milbank bag to filter out particles (anything that filters out particulate would work)
- 2nd boil the water to kill any viruses, bacteria, etcetera
- 3rd use a Grayl GeoPress, UltraPress or Ultralight to not only further filter any pathogens but also filter out heavy metals & chemicals as well as improve the taste & smell.
Any advice from the RUclips survival community?
I’m not familiar with those filters. I recommend the survivor filter, as it gets down to 0.02 microns … that’s much better that the lifestraw 0.1 microns
I think you are missing something called activated charcoal
when it comes to detoxification and removable heavy metals.
Mark, We covered filters in Part-1. Thanks for watching. TR
Great content! Would you recommend pairing 2 different products to have better tasting water? As an example - Potable Aqua paired with Sawyer mini? Thanks!
Yes, absolutely. However, I'm not a fan of the Sawyer-Mini... as it does not filter anything except particulate. Pairing is great. However, always be ready in case one fails. Thanks for watching, TR
Tactical Rifleman Thank you.
Quick question, what are your thoughts on Potassium Permanganate vs the chlorine and iodine tablets?
The Betrayer
Gets my vote every time!
Just listed it's advantages in a comment above.
How about those portable straws ?what do u think about them ?i feel there be a good idea .great video keep them coming 👍🇺🇸
Life Straws are great, if you don't have room for a larger pump filter. I keep a Life Straw in my carry-on bag, when traveling to austere locations. So, yeah, I think they are a great tool.
The disadvantage is the time limit and inability to carry water.
Filling up a canteen from a muddy tire track in Africa. Damn, that's the most badass old-school snake eater ODA shit I've heard in a while lol
I didn’t say I was as smart
lol, fun or cool memories are rarely made by sensible decisions.
@@TheCCBoi Sounds like you've had some experience.💪💪🇺🇸🇺🇸
What kind or tester could we use to minimize the chances of us getting sick?
In the phield i recomend a pH tape measurer.
P.s. while water have lots of variables most tests are cumbersome.
Can you use regular clorine tablets for a pool to purify water for drinking
Yes, if you are purifying 10,000 gallons at a pop. It's too hard to get the correct amount down for just a gallon because it is so concentrated.
Great video!
Glad you enjoyed it
Thank u Karl.
iodine... just a fun fact, its a mineral our body needs and almost everyone is iodine deficient, so the pills may have an unintended benefit:) how lucky can we get? This deal just gets better and better. Thanks for your videos, I've been looking at some of them, great stuff:)
Thanks for watching, TR
I always used a bdu pants leg, sometimes doubled up as a filter first. Because I'm a wuss like that.
What about charcoal tabs?
I have experience with Charcoal filters, but not Charcoal Tabs. What Brand are you talking about? Could you send a link?
does anyone know the brand/ name of jacket he is wearing?
I don't know, but I was actually wondering the same thing. That's a nice looking jacket!!🤜🤛🇺🇸🇺🇸
Nice.
To make a sand, rocks and t shirt filter aka "trad Portuguese filter" is valid or takes too long?
Better than nothing, but it really just removes the sediment. You’ll still need to chemically treat the water
ok curious here, if you have to have fire anyways why wouldnt you do that first then just melt the water all around you?
Not if you are on the move
In a emergency situation..can pool water be purified?? So shock will clean my pool water so I can drink it in a emergency?
Yes and no... Lots of chemicals in a pool. However, you can use it to catch rain water, and purify as needed.
@@TacticalRifleman Thank you
What do you mean that your "grew up with it in the army"?
He went in the Army when he was eighteen, so he was still a kid when he joined, and stayed in for over twenty five years. So he basically grew up in the Army, Karl has more experience with boots on the ground than 90% of the guys you'll find on RUclips. Hope that helps answer your question.
Flush the caps or suffer the craps! 121617
Nice!!! So true.
Also empty the canteen often
That one bottle looked more like chocolate milk rather than water. :D
Yeah, I scoped a little too close to the bottom to get the big crud.
so what do these chemicals do to your gut flora?
Anything is better than catching a parasite... been there done that.
@@TacticalRifleman That would be a good war story to add to your Patreon list! All your worse case scenarios that didn't go as planned.🤜🤛🇺🇸🇺🇸
Why not gather the snow..? It’s more pure than any open ground water source. Yellow snow is a no no .
I agree, it's similar to too much tequila, that's what I heard anyways ;)
I guess treatment has its uses. I rather boil. You can filter most debris with a cloth or shirt.
I always pre filter with a t-shirt anyways
IF WE ARE HAUNTED BY FULLY AWARE MACHINES ALL THIS IS USELESS :(
but i love your vids
friend plz tell me would u recommend this chlor flac or not?
Short answer: Yes. Long Answer: I carry the Chlor Flox kit in my Rucks and in the small bag I keep in my vehicle when traveling. I hate the term "Bug Out Bag," but I do travel with a "Civilian" looking bag that is full of fun items to help me get home. I prefer chlorine dioxide for smaller kits. If you know you're going to be around nasty water... Chlor Flox is awesome. Hope this helps, TR.
Tactical Rifleman thanks bro .
thnku very much
I use coffee filters to strain out the nasty crap.
Fake radio noises like that would be such a big boy thing to have a radio.
Then it’s all about how to live like an animal...
MMS
pool floc for drinking water lol
Great video series Karl. Any tips (or maybe a vid?) for collecting water in more arid conditions?
Honest, I’ve had classes on pulling water out of plants and ground (solar stills) but never had much luck with them. Rather, I watch the locals ( humans and animals) and see where they go for water. It’ll be nasty, and still need to be treated, but it’s still more reliable than squeezing a rock. TR
@@TacticalRifleman Thank you