I’m not a fan of most portable water filtration systems, I have been let down by them too many times. The type that you suck on to get the water through don’t filter very well and clog quickly, that would be Survival Straw and others like it. They advertise up to twenty gallons, two gallons is what I managed (probably one, but I'm being nice here). The backpacking pump filters break way too quickly, even when I’m being gentle and slow. The filter bottles are okay, but don’t hold much water. For the expense, I can decontaminate over ten times the amount with lighter, less bulky chemicals. However…
Chemical treatment only kills germs. It doesn’t clean the water. It tastes nasty, and you either drink those dead germs, plant matter, etcetera, or figure some way to remove that stuff. Filtration will do that for you. As I have noted, I like and have a RO water system, but it has serious disadvantages. Reverse osmosis filtration systems require water pressure to work, are not portable under normal circumstances (meaning that you can figure out a way to make one portable, but it’s a pain) and throw a lot of the water away so that they don’t clog up.
A portable water filter system that I do like is the Berkey system. Berkey has been around for a long time, their water filters have kept countless African expeditions supplied with clean tasty water. They aren’t cheap, but I bought one anyways and have been very happy with it. A Berkey looks like a coffee urn (there is a clear plastic model, but I much prefer stainless steel). You pour water in the top, and take water from the bottom spigot.
As more intelligent survivalists have noted, you can make this cheaper. Simply purchase the Berkey filters, and use two 5 gallon buckets for the top and bottom sections. Drill and tap the top bucket appropriately, screw the filters in (making sure that there are no leaks), and you have a cut-rate Berkey. In any case, the filters do clog eventually, but they are made to be cleaned with a green scratch pad, making them able to filter over a thousand gallons before replacement is needed. Berkeys are bulky (and the cut-rate version is more so), but in my opinion are the only ‘standing water’ filter system that really works.
Chemical treatment only kills germs. It doesn’t clean the water. It tastes nasty, and you either drink those dead germs, plant matter, etcetera, or figure some way to remove that stuff. Filtration will do that for you. As I have noted, I like and have a RO water system, but it has serious disadvantages. Reverse osmosis filtration systems require water pressure to work, are not portable under normal circumstances (meaning that you can figure out a way to make one portable, but it’s a pain) and throw a lot of the water away so that they don’t clog up.
A portable water filter system that I do like is the Berkey system. Berkey has been around for a long time, their water filters have kept countless African expeditions supplied with clean tasty water. They aren’t cheap, but I bought one anyways and have been very happy with it. A Berkey looks like a coffee urn (there is a clear plastic model, but I much prefer stainless steel). You pour water in the top, and take water from the bottom spigot.
As more intelligent survivalists have noted, you can make this cheaper. Simply purchase the Berkey filters, and use two 5 gallon buckets for the top and bottom sections. Drill and tap the top bucket appropriately, screw the filters in (making sure that there are no leaks), and you have a cut-rate Berkey. In any case, the filters do clog eventually, but they are made to be cleaned with a green scratch pad, making them able to filter over a thousand gallons before replacement is needed. Berkeys are bulky (and the cut-rate version is more so), but in my opinion are the only ‘standing water’ filter system that really works.
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