11

This question raised a new sub-problem of which I was not at all aware of.

I carry a heater to boil the water before I drink it but I am unsure whether it removes all dirt from water. Please, note the water may contain some mineralization (noted in the earlier question). There are different types of tools to test for different mineralization such as arsenic but probably many others. Please, teach/show how to handle water during touring.

Helper questions

  1. How do you maintain your water?
  2. How to operate with water bags?
  3. How to maintain water-containers?

Related questions

  1. Water tests during travelling? - a general question here.
  2. How do you carry the water suitable for touring? Answered here.
Community
  • 1
  • @hhh - I'd like to answer the part of this question about carrying water, but I don't know anything about purifying or testing water. If you open a separate question on carrying water, I can answer that. – Goodbye Stack Exchange Feb 21 '11 at 19:20
  • @Neil Fein: please http://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/2986/carrying-water-during-touring –  Feb 21 '11 at 20:16
  • @wdypdx22: please, teach how you do it then. Stick to mistakes if you find such and show a better way. How can you carry water during touring? How do you organize refills/fills/emptying/hygieny/safety? Do you plan them beforehand? –  Feb 25 '11 at 01:15
  • @hhh - You're asking everything from testing arsenic/pollution levels to cleaning water bottles. Honestly, I don't think about different types of tools to test for different mineralization. –  Feb 25 '11 at 01:23
  • @Jeff - Why was the touring tag removed? (I tried restoring it but the system won't let me.) – Goodbye Stack Exchange Jul 03 '11 at 00:02
  • @neil totally unrelated, see http://bicycles.stackexchange.com/tags/synonyms and start typing that tag.. – Jeff Atwood Jul 03 '11 at 00:06
  • @Jeff - Left you a message in chat. – Goodbye Stack Exchange Jul 03 '11 at 02:10
  • @Jeff: @Neil: I thin it would be better to move this kind of broad questions to travel.SE.com now because it is open and leave just clearly bicycle-related-questions to bicycles.SE.com. Otherwise, SE sites are spam soon. Although I tried to ask the question as bicycle-related, answers are less targeted to bicycles -- more about water safety. –  Jul 03 '11 at 18:57
  • ...or to make many small questions about the helper questions, now the current form is a bit too broad. –  Jul 03 '11 at 19:09
  • @hhh - Nice edit! No reason you can't have a water handling question on both sites. (If you want to discuss this more, it would make more sense start a thread in meta or in chat.) – Goodbye Stack Exchange Jul 03 '11 at 19:30
  • @Neil Fein: the water-safety and management/operation during touring are two different topics altogether. They are not the same questions at all. I am trying to attract here questions that are more about management and operation, rather than scientific water-safety. Is there some label for this kind of practical questions? –  Jul 03 '11 at 19:33

1 Answers1

3

Rather than boiling water get one of these filters from katadyn or MSR

enter image description here

It won't remove all chemical poisons - but neither will boiling - it can remove some depending on how soluble they are. See Water filter use

And unless you are drinking from chemical waste spills for weeks on end I wouldn't worry, if one area is high in arsenic the next won't be !

mgb
  • 3,975
  • 27
  • 27
  • @mgb: the question is a bit broader than "use a filter" answers. –  Feb 21 '11 at 00:53
  • Your link also mentions a reverse osmosis unit which does solve much of the mineralisation problem. –  Feb 21 '11 at 01:02
  • reverse osmosis is lot more weight/cost/effort - unless you only salt water, or your only water source is a 3rd world sewer it's a bit over the top! – mgb Feb 21 '11 at 03:51
  • The equipped.org link contains more info about iodine, filters, water sources etc. But if you have suspect tap water or a stream away from civilisation a pump filter is perfect – mgb Feb 21 '11 at 03:52
  • @mgb: the second link is broken –  Feb 21 '11 at 20:09
  • 1
    @Martin Beckett: is this answer more appropriate to this question or here? I feel this answer is too general for bicycles.SE but great for travel.SE, hence opened a question there to migrate such answers. I moved my answer and I hope to attract here answers targeting the clearly bicycle-related questions above. –  Jul 03 '11 at 19:28