Hi there,

I'm looking at doing a 2-3 day hike along Ninety Mile Beach in Victoria, Australia. I'm trying to find a desalinator that would be suitable for hiking. I know Katadyn have the Survivor 06, but that is $1100 over here. Does anyone know of a suitable hiking desalinator that has a higher output than the 06, and costs a LOT less? <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Thanks,
Stuart.

Hi and Welcome
Nice to see another Aussie around here.

I was looking at the Katadyn desalinator too, but I never got as far as getting one.
On eBay there was a guy in Hawaii a few months back selling them for between $400 and $500 AUD plus shipping.
I cant remember his username, but I am 90% sure he was in Hawaii.

I just settled on the Katadyn Pocket and Mini, and didnt worry about desalination. I cant justify the cost or the ongoing upkeep of the unit.

Good luck.

Doesn't exist and the O6 isn't all that practical unless you're not traveling, such as in a life raft. Too slow, too much effort otherwise.

Transpiration rig in your pack, cooking the water over your stove/fire every night? It would be like a midget still.

Thanks all for the input. I wouldn't want to spend more than about $200, and as they don't seem to exist (thanks Doug, saved more fruitless searching!), looks like we'll be going elsewhere!

As an aside, I've been looking for a normal water filter in the event we go elsewhere. Interestingly, the Katadyn Hiker microfilter costs $AUD169.95 through Prepare2Survive Australia (and costs similar at retail stores too), however it only costs about $AUD90 through Brigade Quartermasters in the US - and that's including conversion rate and shipping!

If desalination was simple and easy, a lot more people in the world would be drinking clean water. It seems to be pretty expensive and complicated, from what I've heard.

Sue

I wouldn't want to have to desalinate every single drop of my water requirements every day unless it were absolutley necessary.

As mentioned before, the energy it takes to desalinate saltwater is intense.

Still, if it were the only means of survival, I'd probably go with the boiling and steam catchment method. Especially if I had to build a fire anyway and had the appropriate equipment on hand.

The same guy who brought us the Segway has set his mind to developing a desal system that's fairly portable (think dorm room fridge) and supposedly using 2% of the energy required by current systems.

I don't know if it's possible, but maybe a backpack size system could be built.

Here's the story

I hate that Kamen keeps getting tagged with the Segway. LOL

The guy has produced such things as The Rapid Wearable Infusion Pump, The IBot Transporter (wheelchair that can balance on two wheels, climb stairs, raise up so that the person will be at eyelevel height to others, etc), The HomeChoice home dialysis machine and some other impressive things. To hear that he's working on a desalination machine is awesome.

Thanks for the link.

Yeah... they have 30 working prototypes, which I would say is probably past "working on" and means they are in the shopping around for a manufacturer/distributor stage. I have seen that wheel chair and it's simply amazing - climbing stairs, traveling over rough terrain, "standing up" to reach things at a normal height... simply fantastic. I'd say the segway is really his most "fun" gadget, but it too serves a socially useful purpose as well as an economical/green one. Desalinization/distillation at 2% energy costs (not sure on replacement parts) is pretty amazing. I wonder if they will come out with a backpack micro-sized battery/solar/recovered kinetics system! :-)

I can't wait to see what his think tank comes up with next.