Andy posted this over at SYKW survival forum that I thought was interesting.

Here's a possibility of a inexpensive solar still for 3rd worlds. It's pretty primitive, you have to deploy a few of them to be effective at 1.0 to 1.7 Liters of condensed water per day (24 hours).


http://www.watercone.com/product.html
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/003889.html

Hard to fit in a BOB, though....

Sue

Hmm, since it is conical, I am betting you could make a collapsible version just by using a more flexible plastic and instead of having the catch around the bottom belled you could just make a seam fold and it'd still catch the moisture and collect it. Then you could pinch the bottom flat and roll it up into a cylinder. I am also thinking you could make it pyramidal and have it fold flat for transport/storage under the same premise. it might not be quite as reliable, but it would still be a whole lot better than nothing.

As an alternative carry method, you could also put a cone of cloth covering over it with a little rectangular hole cut in the front of the cover and a strap at the bottom and wear it as a cool kung-fu Koolie hat.

You could easily make this an inflatable item I would think.

The bonus while blowing it up is that the moisture in your breath can be caught. LOL

I have seen listings on Ebay a number of times, for the inflatable version which is used in survival kits, although no listings currently. If I see a listing sometime, I will post it, as it may have the manufactures information for direct purchase.

Pete

It appears that I am too slow with an idea, once again... HAHAHA

Thanks, Pete!

I think your thinking of something like this:

http://www.sailgb.com/p/aquamate_solar_still/

http://www.solarsolutions.info/main.html?main=educationalright.html

I'm so slow that multiple products have hit the market! LOL

Actually, looking at the second link, I may have seen that item before. It looks really familiar. So I'm nt slow, I just think everyone else's good ideas are my own.

Did I ever tell you guys of this theory I had? I think I'll call it Quantum Physics!

I saw these on a show a while ago. What a great product. I wonder how effective a really large one of these could be.

I'd think production would be based on the area. Double area = double production.

You know, I'm almost thinking that a person could make one of these in a pinch using two garbage bags, one clear and the other black. The clear plastic bag could be set up over the black bag in tepee fashion with sticks, and a center hole with a secondary "moat" dug around, both lined with the black bag could serve as the reservoir and catch.

Eh... Then again, why not just dig a hole and go with the basic solar still. Nevermind. LOL

Overthinking the problem...

The AquaCone has been discontinued and is no longer for sale.

But their AquaPak is only $20, and in the right places, they say it can produce 4 gallons of clean water per day.

Sue

Unfortunately, the Aqua Pak is not a desalinator like the Aqua Cone and is only a system to pasteurize water.

Pete

Pete, that is true. The AquaPak won't desalinate water, and it won't remove heavy metals, either. It's really just an improved version of the clear 2-lire soda bottle, but tougher. But it was created for Third-World countries whose water is mostly contaminated with biologicals.

I wonder why they discontinued the AquaCone?

Sue

Argh... They Discontinued the AquaCone...
But they sure wanted a lot of money for it($200.00)!

The AquaPak Solar Water Pasteurizer looks like it might fold up small and it looks like it holds quite a bit of water too.
At $19.95 it is quite interesting.

Double the LINEAR size would be a LOT more than double the production...

It is the AREA that matters in most things like this, but I am not sure WHAT to measure in this case... If it is the area of ground covered(which I would THINK would be the case), then because A = PI * R^2 then 2*R = 4

So if you double the size, you get 4 times the water.

Less exertion than digging.