Walmart Water Treatments

[Tennessee Viking]

I was just in Walmart and noticed that they are starting to broaden their water treatments, including Potable Aqua iodine tablets. Has anyone use these yet, and are they safe and reliable.

One was the PUR water purification kit with container, along with refills, for large quanities of water. Is the container collapsable, and can the refills be portioned out for smaller bottles.

Then I saw a bottle with a filter straw on it. Said it filtered out most water bugs.

Both were under $40 bucks. But would you buy water treatments at Walmart.

[sofaking]

i've used potable aqua iodine, it works just fine but it helps if you add the vitamin c tablets to killthe iodine taste

[Grinder]

the filter bottle is the one someone recommended for the source of a filter for a "RAYWAY" type ,do it yourself filter bag. there is a writeup somewhere with no warnings about the filter being suspect.

If you want to spend more, you certainly can, just like any other backpacking product.

Until summer and closer to civilization, filtering is a waste of resource, IMHO

miles of smiles

[take-a-knee]

I was just in Walmart and noticed that they are starting to broaden their water treatments, including Potable Aqua iodine tablets. Has anyone use these yet, and are they safe and reliable.

One was the PUR water purification kit with container, along with refills, for large quanities of water. Is the container collapsable, and can the refills be portioned out for smaller bottles.

Then I saw a bottle with a filter straw on it. Said it filtered out most water bugs.

Both were under $40 bucks. But would you buy water treatments at Walmart.

Believe it or not those are state of the art products. The bottle filter is made by Sawyer and is highly regarded at Backpackinglite, many rig it as an gravity filter. The PUR bulk treatment is the same thing as the military uses for heavily contaminated water, they call it Chlor-Floc as it contains a flocculent that causes all of the organic matter to settle out and leaves a chlorine residual. You can treat standing pond scum with that stuff and then drink it with no problem.

[Two Speed]

Potable Aqua used to be my exclusive treatment method. Never got sick, and was also never attacked by rampaging werepigs,* either. From this we can conclude that not only is Potable Aqua an effective way to disinfect water but it also repels rampaging werepigs.

'Kay, I'll quit kidding around for a minute. Used Potable Aqua for many years, and would consider using it again under the right circumstances. Lightweight, inexpensive and used correctly, proper concentration, sufficient contact time, reasonably "clear" water, etc, does a decent job of disinfecting water.

Downside is that the water tastes like crap unless you add Vit C or something.

* Very similar to werewolfs, only you can get some fresh bacon if you kill one.

[sofaking]

Potable Aqua used to be my exclusive treatment method. Never got sick, and was also never attacked by rampaging werepigs,* either. From this we can conclude that not only is Potable Aqua an effective way to disinfect water but it also repels rampaging werepigs.

'Kay, I'll quit kidding around for a minute. Used Potable Aqua for many years, and would consider using it again under the right circumstances. Lightweight, inexpensive and used correctly, proper concentration, sufficient contact time, reasonably "clear" water, etc, does a decent job of disinfecting water.

Downside is that the water tastes like crap unless you add Vit C or something.


* Very similar to werewolfs, only you can get some fresh bacon if you kill one.

where can i find some of these,how you say, were-pigs?

[Ashman]

where can i find some of these,how you say, were-pigs?

Make sure you have silver tipped leki poles to kill them with!

[sofaking]

i am fearless, i will have a sharp rock or stick... no beast shall deny me of it's tasty bacon flesh!

[Two Speed]

where can i find some of these,how you say, were-pigs?

I dunno. I keep some Potable Aqua around so they haven't been a problem this year.

[pure_mahem]

Just to keep in mind some people have reactions that increase there sensitivity to iodine from using it for prolonged periods of time. I'd use it in an emergency but probably not regularly. Bleach is cheaper. You can even use one of those chlorine blocks they use for pools just put it in a ziplock bag and scrape off a bit when you need to treat your water. Not saying not too use it just trying to keep you all informed as I've heard of some doosey reactions from people who have used iodine regularly and they never had any idea that they would have a reaction.

[kytrailman]

PA has been around forever--Aqua Mira is ay better for chems. The sawyer filter is the BOMB!!! I mad a gravity filter that weighs in at 6 oz. complete, using it. I just had it out on the AT for a while and everyone loved it. I could fill it and everyone in camp could get water from it. Flow was way faster than any pump filter that was out there. Absolutelty zero leaks and the 0,1 micron filter is great. Backflush when you get home for storage. Good Luck. Way cooler to make rather than buy an expensive hyper flow IMO.

[NICKTHEGREEK]

I was just in Walmart and noticed that they are starting to broaden their water treatments, including Potable Aqua iodine tablets. Has anyone use these yet, and are they safe and reliable.

One was the PUR water purification kit with container, along with refills, for large quanities of water. Is the container collapsable, and can the refills be portioned out for smaller bottles.

Then I saw a bottle with a filter straw on it. Said it filtered out most water bugs.

Both were under $40 bucks. But would you buy water treatments at Walmart.

Probably some bogus knock off from china like most of the junk they sell

[kytrailman]

Sorry Nick-- the sawyer is a great filter. I know there are a lot of anti-wally world people out there. But it is a great filter. Way better than the Seychelle that everyone used to use.

[unl1988]

OK, if you kill a were-pig, won't it revert back to it's human form? and if so, do you really want to be eating that bacon?

[sofaking]

bacon is bacon is good...all parts of the pig will make a sausuges that is just fines. only oink is not used...