Activated charcoal filter ?
I am thinking about getting the sawyer point two zero and putting msr silt stopper and a charcoal filter before the sawyer filter to clean out the heavy and filter the chemicals ,as talked about in an older thread.Found the silt stopper but I cant find a charcoal filter, can someone point me in the right direction.Thanks
Home Depot, W-M, etc, and get some 10" housings to hold them.
To save $$$, eBay.
For a small system, a frig filter already has an integrated housing and often Guest quick connects for 1/4" tubing. It's smaller, lighter and won't hold up as long.
Same places have them.
Thanks EXPY I checked out ebay for the housing and it cleared up the confusion I had.I was stuck on using a fridge filter,wasnt thinking of using a housing and a filter insert.
I'd recommend you reverse your order.
Silt, Sawyer, then Charcoal.
Activated charcoal expires by coating the surface area of the charcoal. Less to coat, longer it lasts, and better job it does.
Tj
Will do, I was thinking silt, charcoal, before sawyer to make the sawyer last longer, but you guys would know better than me I am new to this. Is there anything else I am missing or should this be GTG. I will be using this for emergency purposes, after my stored water supply runs out.Thanks for the input.
Originally Posted By silveradot:
Will do, I was thinking silt, charcoal, before sawyer to make the sawyer last longer, but you guys would know better than me I am new to this. Is there anything else I am missing or should this be GTG. I will be using this for emergency purposes, after my stored water supply runs out.Thanks for the input.
Its better than most and on par with many.
The Sawyer basically is just fine filter. Your glass nylon is a course filter and the charcoal removes dissolved chemicals that would go through filters.
The progression then is course, fine, charcoal aways getting cleaner water as you go. Another suggestion would be another course flter like a screen on the outlet of your bucket/tank. That would catch the big stuff that will clog your coarse filter faster.
Any filtration system should have a good maintenance plan. That's backflushing or cleaning the filters. Keep in mind, activated charcoal last only about six months once its wet whether you use it or not. It simply coats gets a slime on it. There's ways to clean activated charcoal but mostly the filters are sold as simply replace.
Tj
Thanks Tj that makes sense to me now ,you have been a big help.Now its time to get the parts together for assembly.
What do you think of using activated charcoal you can find on Amazon and ebay and building a small plastic housing for it? You can find 13 LBS of a.charcoal for $39.00. I would assume that is a metric shitton if all you are doing is purifying water with it? Is that type of stuff gtg?
Originally Posted By silveradot:
Will do, I was thinking silt, charcoal, before sawyer to make the sawyer last longer, but you guys would know better than me I am new to this. Is there anything else I am missing or should this be GTG. I will be using this for emergency purposes, after my stored water supply runs out.Thanks for the input.
[Correct. But consider a ceramic candle in place of the Sawyer. Cheap on ebay.]
We have been doing that same process for couple years now, but switched to a ceramic candle in a 10" housing because we ran the system at 40 psi with an RV pump and after a couple months the Sawyer housing would crack and leak.
Last year I got off my butt there and connected an RO system to make purier water to drink [we use several RO systems at all the locations]. All I can find now are TFM [thin film membrane] for the RO and they take more pressure than the cellulose acetate membranes.
I had to change out the RV pump for one that can run higher pressure and now run closer to 70 psi to make it fast to fill up our drinking water containers.
Search for my topics on water filtration to see some of the hardware thats inexpensive and makes config'ing and running a lot easier.
Originally Posted By Eagle_19er:
What do you think of using activated charcoal you can find on Amazon and ebay and building a small plastic housing for it? You can find 13 LBS of a.charcoal for $39.00. I would assume that is a metric shitton if all you are doing is purifying water with it? Is that type of stuff gtg?
You know, we bought abt 5 lbs of it and I see no reason that a long column filled with it wouldn't work.
On the other hand cartridges are so cheap and long lasting, we haven't needed to do it. IF you buy on ebay etc.
The box stores are "gotta have it now" ripoffs and you will pay way more..
For example, we bought one of the "portable RO" systems on ebay [search or see my topics] way back in 2006 I think and all the components are still in service [use on utility chlorinated water] and the water still tests sim to what it did new with the TDS tester [get one that uses lithium batteries]. [Total dissolved solids but will also reflect things like chlorine, etc]
We only drink RO water here and I can't imagine how many gallons we go thru. Maybe several thousand gallons so far for that ~$55 dollar investment. Wonderful water.
Compare that to when we hauled bottled water flats and their cost. So convenient, cheap and healthy.
Recently tested water run just thru a carbon filter and it did make a big difference in the reading.
Then pass the water thru the RO and Wow. Gets down into the teens TDS.
With the RO system, we valve off the 'wash port' and once a week or so, I don't know, she allows the water to flow back into the 40 gallon storage tank. Of course we use water from that tank for hand washing, cooking, cleaning [not bathing or stuff like that] and the process works well and no RO membrane wash water is wasted.
We are 'water supply challenged' there and you have to understand how to do this to be practical.
Bottom line is only purify to the degree necessary for the application of the water.
Collect small poly RV and insect sprayer, etc, tanks. Look into 12 volt RV pumps. ebay. Experiment and apply the knowledge.
The first RO system at the container was based on a H-F 15 gallon 12vdc pump and sprayer tank and worked great for a couple years till we went larger.
Protect your precision filters with sufficient prefilter stages at all costs.
Also, UVC lamps in a sophisticated housing that operate off 12vdc power and use very little of it vs the amt of water processed are available at good prices [as low as $60 last I checked] on ebay.
We bought several [in the $40 range] when we found great deals on the UVC filters over the years and they would be a faster way vs RO to process larger qtys of water to be same to drink from a bio POV AFTER your Sawyer or ceramic [abt $25] filters.
Of course the ability to remove most dissolved or fine particulates [virus] wouldn't be nearly as good as if using RO.
Do any of you have pics of what you're talking about, lotta greek to me so far....acronyms and such.....
Originally Posted By Bandag:
Do any of you have pics of what you're talking about, lotta greek to me so far....acronyms and such.....
I was wondering the same thing. Pics or a diagram would be nice.
OP - Great topic. I was going to buy the same filter but I saw it didn't have carbon and being in Utah, a lot of the creeks have heavy metals in them from mining.
