[at-l] Water filter/purifier/chems/whatever

[lparker@cacaphony.net (L. Parker)]

> Question,
> As I ponder exactly what avenue to take, and I am leaning
> filter, can you
> tell me what will make water taste palatable?  I am a real
> picky drinker.  I
> can not stand bad tasting water, including many city and well
> water systems.
> Will the filter be adequate or do I need to go to a purifier?

First, you must understand that no portable filter/purifier is going to make
all water taste like pure bottled water. Even "pure" bottled water tastes
different from spring to spring. The reason for this is that all water
contains dissolved elements and it is these elements that give local water
sources their unique taste. Typically these dissolved elements include iron,
copper, sulfur, calcium and other metals and their respective salts. The
ONLY way to get pure water is by distillation in a fractional distillery -
which weighs far to much to consider for hiking.

A good 0.2 micron filter will remove all bacteria, cysts and most viruses,
but it WILL NOT remove dissolved substances. A typical purifier contains an
activated carbon filter through which the water is passed. The carbon
removes many of the dissolved substances by chemically reacting with them as
they pass through and binding them to the carbon where they remain trapped.
This process removes most of the more displeasing solutes, but it WILL NOT
remove them all.

The MSR Miniworks II filter now contains a filter cartridge that is a
ceramic filter on the outside and a charcoal filter on the inside. While
this arrangement may be ideal for your purposes, it does have a drawback. As
explained earlier, the charcoal binds to the solutes to remove them from the
water. When all the receptor sites are full, the filter must be replaced.
The old "standard" filter lasted for MONTHS of continuous use. The new
charcoal filter, while remaining effective as a filter, loses its
purification abilities much more quickly and therefore shortens the useful
life of the filter.

Now an observation, I don't know precisely what you mean by a "picky
drinker", but there are waters that I simply hate and waters that I love.
When Nimblewill came through here he camped beside a spring on the Econfina
River. The water he took form the spring tasted so good he carried extra for
a few days just so he could keep drinking it! However, I have never drank
ANY spring water on the AT that I thought tasted bad in any way. There have
been a few springs that I would not have drank out of without a filter, but
there was usually another not to far away. I never found that I needed or
even would have wanted a purifier.

Lee I Joe