Pristine Water Purification drops - seen these?

[JBR]

https://www.pristinewatertreatment.com/cart/index.cfm?ProductID=1&do=detail

Never heard of these before, but saw Guy Eastman using this as his water purification on a recent espisode of Eastman's Hunting Journal, while out hunting mule deer in Colorado.  There are two liquids that you mix together in the cap of one of the bottles (5 droplets per liter I think), wait 5 mins, then dump into your water. Shake well and wait for 20 mins before drinking.  Apparently there is no change of taste to the water like with Iodine or Chlorine tabs, no glass bottle to break (the drops come in two 1oz plastic bottles) and purify up to 120 liters of water (30 gal). 

I just placed an order for the small personal package ($29) and will let ya know what I think once I get it.  Last year, all 3 of our water filters crapped out on us during a 7 day hunt.  We ended up having to boil water and/or use Iodine, with a little Emergency-C added in for flavor. 

I'm trying to cut back on weight and bulk like many others, so I'm thinking of dumping the water filter and going with something like this, that's small, light weight, won't break down and tastes good. 

I'm curious if anyone else heard of this system or tried it?? 

[ICEMAN]

Holy moly, how did three purification systems all fail?

I have called this the Hot Tub water purifier. Water sterilization drops or pills are nice, but the only drawback I hate is they are slow, and you are still drinking unfiltered water.

[JBR]

Good question, Ice.  One filter was quite old and I was not surprised it failed.  My MSR Sweetwater has always worked fine for me, but after about 1 liter, it began acting like the filter was clogged and needed cleaning.  I went through the cleaning process and scrubbed it out, but it never seemed to come back to life.  The water barely trickled in and I sweat more trying to pump it, than I seemed to get in actual water!

My other buddy had just bought a new one that I think was a Swiss Army (black with red cross on it) one??  I worked great the first day, but by day two would barely pump any water at all - and it was brand NEW!  Weird. 

Anyway, I think I may try a combination of two systems...one will be this Pristine drops system.  I will look for running water (when possible) and try to filter it through a hankerchief before treating it with the drops. 

The other one, will be one of the newer gravity fed filter systems for camp.  I'll experiment with these two systems during summer fishing and scouting trips into the backcounty.

[bobcat]

I like these tablets:  http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___89324

[actionshooter]

Has anyone tried the platypus gravity feed filter, really cool looking, really simple also.

[ICEMAN]

JBR, not trying to be a pest, but you may wish to further research the Pristine product line. I do not see where their product claims to kill cryptosporidium and Giardia. This Pristine product seems to match Aquamire Chlorine Dioxide purification, and they (Aquamira) claim that if you encounter Crypto or Giardia, you still need to microfilter the water. (Besides, you may save some money with the Aquamira...) Check out the similar Aquamira products at campmor...

I prefer to use the Aquamira bottle filter if I am soloing... If group camping, I bring my first need filteration system. I carry drinking water in the water filtration bottle in my backpack, so it does not seem like I am adding too much weight to the pack, can always top off at a creek, or use the bottle to purify water and transfer to other containers as needed. No moving parts, and nothing breaks....just buy a new filter every couple of years and you are good to go!

[JBR]

Ice - when you referred to filtering your water, I thought you were talking about large particles and floating junk (hence my handerchief comment), but I see you were referring to Giardia and cryptosporidium... 

according to the info on Pristine's site, they do remove both of those as well.

[from their website]

With PRISTINE®, a recent breakthrough in technology, individuals now have access to chlorine dioxide in a stabilized form with full effectiveness. Many consumers will benefit from PRISTINE®, including those needing to purify water for outdoor or travel use and for disaster preparedness and emergency water use at home.

Chlorine Dioxide (Water Purifier) Information Sheet:

ClO2 is effective against the following water contaminants:

viruses, water bacteria, giardia, cryptosporidium, botulism, e. coli, cholera


I will check out the Aquamira products as well.  I tend to be overly redundent when it comes to firestarting stuff and water purification and I'm trying to widdle it down to the most efficient options.  I too have a water filtration bottle as my "backup", but trying to find the best combination system to take with into the backcountry.   

I too don't like waiting, but if you have a bladder in your pack and a Nalgene type bottle you can treat one and drink from the other and vice versa, so you never have to wait.  The gravity fed filtration systems seem like a good light weight option for larger volumes at camp. 

Thanks for the input....I'm always learning, which is why I like this forum 

[Muleyslyr]

Two things I've learned and will never do again.  Never go on a back country remote hunt without some sort of water purifying system or tablets.  And never underestimate the importants of clean drinking water. This year I'm gonna be trying a new system I came up with over the winter.  Oughta work good.

Here's what got me going on the importants of clean drinking water.  On a 10 Moose hunt in Northern Alberta where supplies were limited we ran out of water on the 5th day!  Had to drink from the lake and I don't care how long you boil it it's still gonna taste like your drinking water out of the Pot Holes. 

Here's a pic of the water I lived off for 5 days.......

[JBR]

Yeah, looks pretty nasty.  I'm sure that would motivate me to come up with a better system too!  So, what's the "new system" you came up with?

[Slider]

  I think like Ice I will stick with the water filter for now!!!

[popeshawnpaul]

I have a First Need system from REI and it has worked flawlessly for me for 10 years.  I can pump a brown mud puddle that comes out crystal clear and tasting good on the other end.  It doens't weigh much so I don't sweat it.

[JBR]

Ice, after looking into the Aquamira system you pointed out, I'd have to agree that A) it IS the same product and B) that it's cheaper. 

It's interesting that it does recommend to filter your water as well for the Giardia and cryptosporidium.  If you still need to do that, why not just take the filter that takes care of all of that to begin with?   

Are you supposed to do that with the Iodine tablets also?  Hmmm...

[ICEMAN]

Ive chatted on a hiking site for years and have learned that the crypto is not necessarily killed by the all of the various chemical treatments... I prefer to "filter" to get stuff out. Like I said, I bottle filter most of the time. I carry Katadyn Micropur individualy sealed tablets, as a back up against bottle failure. It will kill crypto, the hardest to kill bug...  http://www.rei.com/product/743202

If you are looking for a back up measure against failure that is light weight, you may want to get the small tablets....

Iodine tablets seem to blacken and go bad if you peek in the bottle....

[MountainWalk]

i have had nary a problem with plain old low tech iodine tablets.  all i care about is if its wet.. little off color never hurt anyone.

[Muleyslyr]

i have had nary a problem with plain old low tech iodine tablets.  all i care about is if its wet.. little off color never hurt anyone.

Too wet your mouth.....that's OK.  Or even get you through the day.  But if you had to live off that for several days you might think differently.

[MountainWalk]

my friend, i also have endured the taste of iodine water for more than a few days. two whole weeks last year

[ICEMAN]

Mountainwalk, iodine does not kill cryptosporidium. I would upgrade my water purification system if just using iodine. We should all be using microfiltration for water needs, other measures as a last resort.

http://www.cdc.gov/NCIDOD/DPD/parasites/cryptosporidiosis/factsht_cryptosporidiosis.htm

[MountainWalk]

im one of those stupid people who may get sick one  these days after years andyears of drink "untreated water". or i may not. i'll take the chance.

[Muleyslyr]

Why?

[MountainWalk]

i firmly believe that the more lysol, bleach, dawn and whatever chemicals that you expose yourself too, the less able you are to naturally survive.. i just be how i be and eat a little dirt with my stuff and drink some brown water.  i have never been sick for more than a day or two and my house doesnt smell like the cleaning aisle in the grocery store.. i raise and eat natural food and try to keep healthy.. we arent much more different than cave people.. and even more neat,, we arent too much different from critters either

[couesbitten]

I'm with MountainWalk, I haven't used my water filter in 8 or 9 years, and I've never been sick from anything that I eat or drink in the Mt's. When I was in high school and would be out changing sprinkler pipes that were filled with irrigation water from the Yakima river, I'd get a little thirsty and I'd drink all I wanted. The reason the Indians got sick from the white explorers/settlers as they moved west is because they were being exposed to "germs" that they're bodies had never dealt with before, so they had no resistance.

About 10 years ago, I read an article, I believe in Outside magazine, about this very subject. In it, they took water samples from all over California, from heavily visited areas of Yosemite park, to mountain streams and lakes in the Sierra Nevadas. I do not remember the exact numbers, but I do remember feeling justified by the results of their tests. Only the most obviously contaminated water had bacteria in it, in high enough numbers to make the average person sick. So, ever since then I have felt very comfortable drinking water from nearly any source in the mountains.

Scott

[bobcat]

I got really sick from drinking from a creek in the middle of the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana. It was that cryptosporodium that I got, or whatever it's called. Three out of four of us that were on that hunt got sick. My dad's friend was so bad we almost stopped at the hospital in Spokane on the way home. I put off going to the doctor for several weeks because I didn't realize how bad it was. I just had diarrhea but otherwise didn't feel bad. I ended up losing about 25 pounds, which was a lot for me back then because I was already so skinny.

So if you drink untreated water and have for years your really lucky, that's all I can say. 

[dreamingbig]

I have a msr mini works and also carry potable aqua.  If the water is really clear/fast moving then I will just use the potable aqua.  If it has more sediment (such as a lake) then I will go with the filter.  The potable aqua doesn't bother me as I am adding a drink mix to it anyway.