How much water can you make?

Just curious how many of you have given thought to the amount of water you can make with just the contents of your PSK...

Personally, I have a vial with 20 iodine tablets and 2 gerber bags. If I fill up the bags to 8 oz (just at the end of the vertical lettering on the right side) and use one of my razor blades to cut the tablet in half then I can get 10 quarts, enough I think for a healthy 5 days.

20 tabs, cut in half = 40 half tabs. 2 tabs treat 32 oz, therefore 1 tab treats 16 oz, furthermore a half tab is good for 8 oz. 40 half tabs at 8 oz apeice gets me 320 oz, or 10 qts.

Any small discrepancy in the halves (i.e. one part being less than exactly half) can be rectified by a longer contact time, hence the two bags - make a bag of water and let it sit for an hour+ while you are drinking from the other.

this doesn't include boiling with 5 sq ft of aluminum foil, my back up which could technically provide unlimited safe water. the tablets are definitely easier though...

--Matt

From reading the title, I thought this was going to be about the aftermath of a weekend drinking beer <img src="/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" />

Since my "stuff" is in our vehicle, and there is a PUR water filter right on top of the pile, we can make quite a bit...

Add some plastic bags to you kit and you can make solar still wich will increase your output

"...you can make solar still wich will increase your output..."

Good luck. I played around with solar stills years ago, and was very unimpressed with the puny amount of water produced. Not enough to justify the labor involved as far as I was concerned...

Since I am running around NYC alot, my PSK is geared toward an urban calamity. I carry one bottle (50) iodine tabs, but they are to be used two tabs per litre. I also carry 4-6 plastic bags.

My concern is that if there is a problem in NYC, the contamination is just as likely to be chemical rather than biological. Carrying a Katydyne (sp?) capable of filtering chemicals would make the kit bulky. Still working on that one.

Half a dozen MP1's in my tin. I have always got a waterbottle stashed around me somewhere. That should be enough for 3-5 days. Depending on how warm it is.
I have a nasty feeling that the tin foil is going to go kaput after a couple of days. Which is why I put a kettle/tin cup in my boogie bag.

3 liters... Depending on where you are you might want to seriously think about DXing those Iodine pills for Chlorine Dioxide ones. As Iodine is ineffective against Gairdia.

You can pick up one of these for about $65. It's small and light but takes forever to filter 1lt. of water.

Now, what am I to think about this page from Princeton?
Iodine Treatment

I started out confused and now am MORE confused!

I have 40 MP-1 tabs in my BOB, along with a Katadyn ceramic filter, cloth and coffee filters for get the big gunk, 2- Stainless Klean Kanteens (for boiling), and a 25oz TI pot and 12oz cup.. There is also a 10x10' plastic drop cloth for rain collection or additional shelter.
My pocket kit has 8 MP-1's, 2 1qt water bags, plus fire starting materials for water boiling.
In this area, I'm next to a river, and less than 1 mile from a 40+ mile long lake. Plenty of creeks, and ponds in my area. Finding water is not a problem I'm .overly concerned with unless we get a major weather change.

Iodine is ineffective against Cryptosporium but is effective against Giardia. Check out "Water purification" under "water procurement" in Doug's "Gear and Equipment" reviews.

It comes down to quality vs quantity. Yes, MP1 might be a tad more effective, but I can get 3-4 times the number of iodine tablets in my mini PSK than I can MP1. And when I hike, I carry Katydyn's Hiker water filter. (my PSK is geared to be a backup to the standard contents of my pack, the survival situation I personally plan for is getting lost/ SHTF in a hiking/camping/hunting situation. Being in the military, I can't really "bug out" when a disaster strikes, better yet, I will be assiting those who haven't bugged out. So that is the compromise I am willing to make.)

Hey NightHiker,

Any particular likes or dislikes with that water bottle? Very curious before I pick one up. I have heard drawing water through the straw can be dificult.

Really appretiate any input you have.

Thanks

Cameron

The Katadyn "Hiker" model filter is very good, particularly solo. If you are going to be using this for a small group/family, I would suggest you look at the "Guide" model. It doesn't take much more room, but, filters more water, faster. We carry a couple among our group when hiking.

I carry Iodine tablets in my PSK along with a condom for water storage. I also carry a couple square feet of aluminum foil. Leigh got me thinking about the durability of the foil. After fashioning it into a container to boil water in would it eventually fall apart? Should you place the foil container over direct flame from a campfire or over hot coals?

I suspect that foil will fail pretty fast, I think that if you don't want to carry a metal cup, I would go to one of the disposable oven liners. They will be bulkier and weigh a tad more, but should last much longer.

And re the condom, once full of water they are very hard to carry. Just for your info...

another thing to think about for all you condom carriers out there...

Do you know what a quart or half a quart of water in a condom looks like? How will you get accurate dosages of iodine/MP1? Which brings me to my next point - have you actually tried to fill a condom with water? And you can carry a full condom in a bandanna sling of sorts.

Dosage of purification methods, ease of carry, and ease to fill are the reasons I went with gerber bags instead of condoms.

PSK- 18 PA tablets, turkey bag for carrying water.
Ditch Kit- 50 PA tabs, water bags, 2x16 ounce nalgenes
BOB - 100 PA tabs, 4x32 ounce nalgenes (+bladder)
EDC- 6 clorine tabs, 6 pouches of E'Mergn'C so I don't gag, water bag

I need to get a better filter before summer.

Thanks for the correction Coastie.

I guess we have differing pionts of view on the issue but there is nothing wrong with that. You choose quantity and I choose quality. Being military myself I agree that bugging out when things hit the fan is not an option.

I think where we differ is on what we are planing for. Sounds like you are planning to use your PSK for long term durations allowing you to operate without logistical support or assist large numbers of people. Where as my PSK is simply designed to save my buns for 2-3 days untilI I can extract myself or be rescued. Disaster relief (for me) is another issue with different needs and requirements that my PSK was not designed to handle (ie my PSK fits in an LC-1 first aid/compass pouch so it lacks first aid gear and food that would be required in disaster relief).