I searched and I searched and can't seem to find this info.

Could someone please point me in the direction of "desalination tablets"? Is there such an animal?

Thanks!

Not Yet

There is a chemical based desalination kit available but nothing so simple as a tablet that you can add to seawater and end up with clear, cool fresh water.

The chemical method, by all reports uses a noxious mix of chemicals to cause the salt to be able to be filtered out. And the result is discolored and barely drinkable water. One report I've read from a user claimed that you would have to be desperately thirsty to drink the resulting water.

The kicker is that such kits, because one of the chemicals was a silver compound, were expensive and relatively heavy given the limited amount of water, typically a liter or two, produced.

The almost good news is that there are portable reverse osmosis desalination units available. These units can produce many gallons of good quality drinkable water. The down side is they are expensive, last I looked the smallest unit was about $600, and require a fair bit of time and physical effort to work.

Dying of thirst while surrounded by water has been the bane of sailors through time and stranded sailors would happily trade a fortune for fresh water when they had none. These units are reliable and capable of producing enough water out of seawater to keep several people alive indefinitely and are operable by nearly anyone. The US navy has taken to putting them in life raft survival kits.

Here is an expensive solution, not a pill though,
the Sea-Pack Emergency Desalinator
http://www.landfallnavigation.com/desalinator.html

another solution is a pump, they come in several models
http://www.landfallnavigation.com/-sas07.html

and the solar still
http://www.landfallnavigation.com/memss.html

look for the items on eBay

Yeah, I'm not sure how one would get a pill that would REMOVE something from water. Maybe some sort of precipitant, but the best that would do would make a big salt tablet at the bottom of a glass.

Of course, if you invent that, every Navy in the planet will want them - it's your ticket to billionaire-ism.

Back in the good old days of army surplus-stop that charging woodchuck at 3000 yards with your swedish 37mm anti-tank rifle, barrels of enfield bayaonets at $1 apiece, $20 mausers in cosmoline- there were desalination tablets-about the size of a hotel bar of soap- that disintegrated into a batch of sludge at the bottom of the waterbag; usually found with packets of yellow dye/shark repellant and mae west life preservers....*sigh*...so many missed opportunities.

--removed silly idea--

Geez, I had forgotten the goodness of the original army-navy surplus stores.

I have noticed that what passes for a surplus store these days is not even in the ball park with the greats of yesterday.

Sad too. . I must have gone through a dozen E tools as a kid digging holes. Canteens for scouts. . real canvas tarps, Foreign and oddball insignia of all kinds. .

What kid couldn't use a US navy dye signal for ocean use. . They were great for that neighbors flower gardens or snow in winter!

Who could forget the myriad miscellaneous pouches and carriers. . The vietnam era web gear and pouches. .

Oh, especially those Vietnam era poncho's. . I still have a few and they still smell like vomit. . and still usable. .

Ammo cans a plenty. . 30 cal and 30 cal. . $5.00 a piece, all you wanted. . .now the darn things are $20.00 plus a piece!

The last great find, was the german three position e-tools with the one piece handle. . those got me out of a ditch more than once.

I still have, and use, the 1951 Mountain cook set acquired from one of those vintage surplus stores. My biggest score was a pair of mil surp snowshoes for all of $7.50. As a penniless student in the late 50s, most of my gear came from surplus stores. I learned that the least organized, most chaotic stores had the best bargains, but you had to dig for them. Not a bad habit for an aspiring archaeologist to acquire...

There's the old steam distillers. I don't know how long they've been around. A couple of centuries at least. They're slow as sin and require a lot of fuel. But, they're dead nuts simple and will remove anything with a boiling point higher then plain water.

Commercial versions:

http://www.amazon.com/Prime-Water-Universal-Purifier-Distiller/dp/B00X61S95I/ref=pd_sim_sbs_469_3?ie=UTF8&dpID=51XgkUJhbDL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR112%2C160_&refRID=16HKFDGJS9KPGN1QE1KG

http://www.amazon.com/Survival-Still-Non-Electric-Stainless-Distiller/dp/B00DIRZPM0/ref=pd_sim_sbs_469_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=41FbfBdqIoL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=16GWD901PEFZCNHG27B0