Thoughts on Puritabs

I am looking for some educated/experienced opinions on Puritabs. Before anyone attempts the suggestion let me preface this with the fact I can not use iodine for medical reasons so lets not even go there. So far, to date, I have been using MP-1 tabs with great success, however recent events have required that I find something that packs down smaller than MP-1 tabs. From what I understand (please correct me if I'm wrong) puritabs are very very tiny (about the size of those little nitro pills that people with heart trouble carry with them) and still treat one liter of water per tab. My questions are these. How well do they work? What will they (or wont they) kill? Why are they banned in the USA? What is the down side of using Puritabs? I assume there must be a down side or we'd all be using them instead of AP and MP-1 tabs....right? If someone knows of an article on this or any other website which I missed that would answer these questions, please feel free to simply point me to it instead of hasseling yourself with a lengthy explanation. Thanks guys (and girls)!!

I dunno about puritabs, but I've heard you can get MP1's to pack better if you crush the tablet inside the pack.

I would think being banned in the US would be a significant downside, and a significant indication that there are others.

all you need to know:
http://www.backpackgeartest.org/reviews/...itial%20Report/

That's great information on the MP-1 tabs but Im referring to Puritabs and/or Aquatabs which are quite different (I'm told). I use the MP-1 tabs often and they're great but I need something much much smaller for certain specific situations and I read somewhere that the Puritabs and Aquatabs were the size of nitro pills.

if i remeber correctly doug had posted a link of a place where the sold puritabs or aquaclear tabs a long time back... And yes these tabs are tiny, very tiny. i don't know what the sizes are of nitro pills, so can't compair them. But the they are really small. Can't really compair them to iodine tabs, iodine tabs are banned here... Bit opposit of the US, so can't see a "significant indication". Proberbly determent by how much the companys wants to invest in testing and the will of the goverment. I do have to say that i find european law much strikter, wenn it comes down to the safety of it's citizens.

Brian:

I cannot say for sure why exactly the Puritabs product was banned in the US, but I understand it may be due to the tablets effervescent action, which may produce chlorine gas! You can find some information about Puritabs at this link I have read where there is a controversy about Puritabs killing cysts and therefore it is recommended to use a carbon-based filter.

If you had the time and resources to do so, I noticed the enclosed link above mentions boiling the water as one of the best methods of water treatment. I have heard if you are camping and (in a non-urgent survival situation) wish to have the water for later then try this method.

For each Gallon of Water:

1. Boil the water for 5 minutes. Boiling this long does compensate for higher altitudes.
2. Let stand for 2 hours minimum up to 8 hours in direct sunlight. Use a glass container for this.
3. If water is really cloudy sift through a cheesecloth or similar material before boiling.
4. You can also add 4 drops per liter of sodium hypochlorite (e.g. Clorox) or a total of 16 drops minimum. Add the drops after removing the water from the heat source. Letting the water stand in the sun helps remove the "chlorine" taste.

There is another alternative product called Chlor-Floc and is marketed under the name of Watermaker. This is the current US Army issue water treatment system. Again, the army recommends using a filter. I hope this helps.

Take care,

Stargazer
"If we believe in absurdities, we shall commit atrocities - Voltaire"

Doug has links to the mfr sites for aquatabs and puritabs but I didnt find any links to vendors (yet). Thanks for the info... I'll keep digging.

There's all kinds of good info on that link about more than just chemical water purification. I found the entire page quite interesting and informative. Thanks for sharing it. No doubt that boiling is the best method. I always prefer to boil water instead of ingesting a bunch of chemicals whenever possible. If I I could boil a pint of water in a 1'sq piece of foil in 15min (or heck even 30min) that would solve a ton of problems for me. Unfortunatly my foil-water boiling skills (or lack of skills) leave much to be desired. I cant get water to boil in foil.... heavy duty reynolds wrap, if youre curious. I also can't carry anything larger in certain situations either, which is why I'm not packing up 30 MP-1 tabs, my trusty Bota bottle filter and a 16oz tin cup. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Believe me if I could, I would (and I do when space and weight limits permit) pack all of the above and the problem would be solved with redundancy. This may be highjacking my own thread (...LOL the irony...) but if anyone wants to explain the finer points of successfully boiling water in foil, you have my undivided attention.

Brian,

First, let me say that the chlorine products are all far better than nothing. However, virtually all the chlorine products have the same drawbacks. 1. They are very dependent upon both water temperature and organic content. Lower water temp and higher organic content both can seriously impact the ability of the chlorine to kill the bad bugs. You can, to a degree, overcome lower water temps by longer treatment or higher concentrations of chlorine. Chlor-Flock attempts to overcome the issue of organic content, and works to a degree. 2. They will not reliably kill Crypto and some other similar hard cysts.

The Puritab and Aqua Tab tablets are very small.

Due to quirks in U.S. law, such treatments are considered pesticides. U.S. approval requires expensive and very demanding testing to prove efficacy. To date they have not successfully completed the testing. Lots of promises over the years, talked to all the manufacturers, but no success to date, to best of my knowledge.

Thanks for the information Doug, that clears up a lot!

I wrote that review on backpackgeartest, and I used to use the Puritabs before the MP1 tabs became available.

The bottom line is that they use essentially the same chemistry for purification - chlorine dioxide - though they use different ingredients and reactions to get there. I don't see why the results would differ substantially if the concentration of ClO2 is the same, and Doug has laid out the advantages/disadvantages of this method (though I'll note that Katadyn claims that the MP1 tablets do, in fact, kill Crypto, which iodine doesn't reliably do).

As far as actual experiences go, I used the Puritabs and never got sick; they seemed to make the water taste about the same as the MP1 tablets, and the packaging (and tablet) is indeed smaller and easier to open...but also less durable.

Since I ran out of Puritabs I've used MP1 tablets everywhere I'd used the Puritabs, including sticking them in my PSK. I trimmed a bit of the edges off of the foil packaging to make them fit better.

If you can find Puritabs here, I don't see why it wouldn't be just fine to use them - but I don't think they provide a meaningful advantage over the MP1 tablets, even taking the packaging into account.

- Steve

Anyone thought of repackaging the MP1 tabs in a small a la Doug's bottle to make them fit into a smaller space? Not sure how this would affect the shelf life but might be worth a try.

Flip

Flip: I asked the manufacturer about repackaging MP1 tabs. They said it would surely compromise -- if not destroy -- the effectiveness of the tabs. My guess is that even momentary contact with the moisture in the air will start them degrading.

Maybe they're just hedging their bets, but I'm not going to be the first to experiment.

Bear

The same thing was said for iodine and we repackaged them.

I donno. <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Flip

Well now I'm confused. Mp-1 tabs kill crypto (according to the mfr) and puritabs don't, yet you say they have the same chemical makeup... <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Kadatyn might have done more testing than the Puritabs folks to get official certification to make that claim; also, perhaps the MP1 tablets create a greater concentration of chlorine dioxide.

MP1 and Puritabs (and the other similar chlorine based treatments) DO NOT have the same chemical makeup. The "chlorine dioxide" in MP1 is not "chlorine" as used in the others. Those 2 oxygen that create the oxide make all the difference. It is a totally different compound. Unfortunately, the word "chlorine" is used in both and makes it very confusing.

That is not correct. Chemistry and end results are quite different. With covnentional chlorine tablets you "cannot get there from here," so to speak.

I thought both tablets produced Chlorine Dioxide; it sounds like that's not the case.

I show regarding Puritabs that "Each tablet contains 17mg dichloroisocyanurate sodium salt."

For MP1 tablets, the literature says they contain "Sodium Dichloroisocyanurate Dihydrate."

Doug - is there anywhere online where I can read up on the Puritabs and get better educated? My understanding was that they both result in ClO2, and if that's not the case, I'd be interested to learn what the Puritabs are producing, and in what concentration.

Thanks...

Thanks again Doug. That really answers the question. MP-1 tabs haven't failed me yet and I have used them on some pretty nasty water. I'm gonna stick with them for the foreseeable future.

I don't know anywhere online. I have asked the Katadyn folks for some technical information and hopefully will get a response before too long, though it may be next week given it's already Friday.

Thanks, Doug!

I always seek to learn...and I also want to make sure there's no misinformation in my report on backpackgeartest.

- Steve

Steve,

Hey, I could be wrong too, though I did research this previously. Wouldn't be the first time and unlikely to be the last. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> We'll get it straight, one way ot the other.