View Full Version : What did you do to keep water filters from freezing
This question is for those thru hikers that had early start date in the colder temps.
I am concerned about my water filter freezing at night and during the day. What did you do to keep this from happening or do you have any suggestion so this will not happen.
bobgessner57
10-18-2009, 08:55
Blow out the hoses after use, drain the pump. The cartridge will still freeze up in really cold weather but will thaw when water is pumped in. If it is badly frozen up, especially if the plunger is stuck or the inlet is clogged, immerse the whole thing for a few minutes and the spring or creek will thaw it out. Cold hands are an occupational hazard with this method.
Such aggravation is one reason I switched to Aqua Mira unless travelling with a group where I want to be able to produce large quantities of water rapidly.
Thanks for all you do for the site, Attroll.
CrumbSnatcher
10-18-2009, 08:56
after pulling my filter out of the water source or my water bag, i pump the filter a few more times,pull it apart drain it the best you can! then either wrap the filter in my fleece and set it aside. if its extremely cold,i put the fleece inside my sleeping bag or just under the bag.
Jim Adams
10-18-2009, 09:11
don't take one.
geek
Kerosene
10-18-2009, 09:27
Use Aqua Mira.
Seriously, backflushing and/or blowing out the water probably works best. You could also put the filter in the bottom of your sleeping bag I suppose.
nitewalker
10-18-2009, 09:54
A, B, C, D and the answer is all of the above. at nite make sure its in your bag with you but only after you take most of the water out..if it does freeze and you have daylite remaining wrap it in a black fleece or something dark, then put it in the sunlite for awhile and c what hapens...
i prefer to take aqua mira and leave the filter at home. most times i will roll the dice and go without treatment. the aqua mira is for questionable sources of water. boiling is always the backup if really bad.
now if i were hiking down in florida i would definitly bring the filter along with aqua mira. those florida water sources are really a gamble with all that warm weather and low lying areas. things can go bad rather quick...
peace
Yes Aqua Mira. You'll sleep better at night.
garlic08
10-18-2009, 11:26
Ditto the Aqua Mira. But before I figured out that filters in general don't work for me, I would put the filter body in a ziploc and sleep with it.
I feel better about the quality of drinking water in the winter, in general. There's less human, stock and pet traffic and sometimes fresh snow melt.
Use body heat. If you have interal pockets in your jacket/fleece, put it in there for a few minutes before using it.
Definitely pump out as much water out of it as you can. And depending upon how cold it is, you can either put it in your sleeping bag/quilt with you (in a ziploc or something) if its really cold or you could wrap it up in some clothes if its just below freezing. One trick I do is to wrap it in whatever clothes I am hiking in and putting it in my bag. Usually the residual warmth of that clothing plus the insulation of the clothing and the bag will prevent it from freezing if its in the 20s. If it gets much colder than that, you'll want to take it into the bag with you. Thats been my experience. Hope it helps!
beakerman
10-21-2009, 14:18
Definitely pump out as much water out of it as you can. And depending upon how cold it is, you can either put it in your sleeping bag/quilt with you (in a ziploc or something) if its really cold or you could wrap it up in some clothes if its just below freezing. One trick I do is to wrap it in whatever clothes I am hiking in and putting it in my bag. Usually the residual warmth of that clothing plus the insulation of the clothing and the bag will prevent it from freezing if its in the 20s. If it gets much colder than that, you'll want to take it into the bag with you. Thats been my experience. Hope it helps!
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This is the way to go for sure.
Most other folks here are assuming you are trying to make a frozen finter work again. There can be problems with that--the ceramic type filters can crack when the water in them freezes then you might just as well not use one. I don't know if the newer ceramic filters are still that way but my understanding is the microfiber filters do not suffer this weakness and I know membrane types don't have issues with this ether.
The other frozen filter issue you run into is of course the pump itself. If you have it full of water and let it freeze you can damage the casing of the pump which means you won't be able to pump anymore with it.
What I do with my Katadin Hiker is take the inlet hose off drain it and pack it away. Then pump the thing dry by using my finger over the inlet to act as an additional check valve so all the water can get pushed out: leave my finger off the inlet and pull the pump handle up, put my finger ofer the inlet and push the handle down. My check valves tend not to work well when they are not wet. If it's really cold I let it set a few minutes and repeat jsut to make sure I get as much water out as I can.
Any microbiologist types know at what water temperature giardia is no longer an issue?
I seem to remember a rule of thumb way back when, that if you could keep you hand in it, the water was too warm.
warraghiyagey
10-21-2009, 20:54
This question is for those thru hikers that had early start date in the colder temps.
I am concerned about my water filter freezing at night and during the day. What did you do to keep this from happening or do you have any suggestion so this will not happen.
Don't bring one. . . problem solved. . . ;)
Thank you for all the replies so far.
beakerman
10-21-2009, 23:33
Any microbiologist types know at what water temperature giardia is no longer an issue?
I seem to remember a rule of thumb way back when, that if you could keep you hand in it, the water was too warm.
From the EPA data sheets:
How long can Giardia cysts survive in the
environment?
The survival of Giardia cysts in the
environment is significantly affected by
temperature; survivability decreases as the
temperature increases. A small fraction of
cysts can withstand a single freeze-thaw cycle.
Cysts can survive for 2 to 3 months in water
temperatures of less than 10/ C, and at 21/ C,
cysts have remained viable for almost one
month. Cysts are killed in 10 minutes at a
water temperature of 54/ C. Raising the water
temperature to boiling immediately kills cysts.
They mention small fraction surviving a single freeze thaw cycle yet teh CDC says you can get it from ice cubes...go figure.
Personally I filter all of my water regardless of temperature...
LIhikers
10-25-2009, 00:39
When I winter camp I store my filter inside my jacket during the day and inside my sleeping bag at night. And of course I make sure it's as drained as much as possible after using it.
ShakeyLeggs
10-25-2009, 00:59
Ditto on getting as much of the water out as possible. Also putting it in the bag with you to keep it from freezing.
One thing to keep in mind. If you expect that the filter will freeze steer clear of the ceramic element filters and go with pleated paper filters. If the ceramic cartridge freezes there is a big chance the cartridge will crack thus making it totally ineffective at filtering.
In very cold weather you'll want to keep the filter in your sleeping bag with you...I made the mistake of letting mine freeze and it really messed up the filter when I tried to force it to pump even though it was frozen...I fought it all the way to Damascus before I finally replaced it...it took me awhile to realize that there was something wrong with it...it took forever to get a quart of water out of it and I'd see others with the same filter not having any problems at all...Mt. Rogers took one look at it and gave me a new one.
If your boots are wet and it will freeze put them in a plastic bag or stuff sack and put them in the bottom of your sleeping bag...nothing worse than waking up to find you can't put your boots on because they are frozen into position.
quick post i read plenty of journals, they say man we had to walk this far in the RAIN to get to the next shelter and it pourded down rain as we went to get water.....ever seen anyone collect it and use it to avoid hiking to water sources?
quick post i read plenty of journals, they say man we had to walk this far in the RAIN to get to the next shelter and it pourded down rain as we went to get water.....ever seen anyone collect it and use it to avoid hiking to water sources?
Drank and cooked with plenty of rain water collected from the shelter roof on my recent trip on Isle Royale. Although, I only received one day of steady sideways rain, I collected rainwater to keep from having to go to the lake to gather water and filter. As a note, I also drank water directly from Lake Superior on occasion without filtering. No gastric difficulties from either method. The standard on the Isle is to boil or filter all water due to a parasite deposited in the water from wolf scat.
Cookerhiker
10-25-2009, 09:37
When I used a filter, I drained it and put it in my sleeping bag. Now I use a steripen.
Snowleopard
10-25-2009, 12:45
When I used a filter, I drained it and put it in my sleeping bag. Now I use a steripen.
Winter seems like the time when a steripen has the advantage over filters and chemicals.
Filters may freeze.
Chemicals take longer to work in cold temperatures.
Are there any problems with using a steripen in cold weather?
I'm a bit surprised that no one has suggested flushing the filter with drinking grade ethanol - as both a disinfectant and an antifreeze.
ChinMusic
10-25-2009, 15:00
Are there any problems with using a steripen in cold weather?
Only if ice is present. UVC will not penetrate ice.
The temperature of the liquid water has no affect on the effectiveness of the Steripen.