Water Purification

[FSMike]

As long as you've cleaned the guano off the catchment area first.

[zeehag]

is recommended to let rain for 30 min after placing water catcher--at least in the books i read--i donot use deck as iti s not conducive to cleanliness-has feet and pet butt on it--oh yes and bird guano--is full of mo0lds...LOL---yes--an hour isnt enough time to get the e choli from pet butt out of water supply--LOL--but if you use a tarpish tool for collection, a 30 min rinse keeps the dirt out of the tanks--rinses off the ambient dust and dirt that accumulates in a dirty dust catching bilge--lol--ALL bilges catch dust--lol---so rinsing is a good idea--i use rain water for lots of things-cleaning---hair washing-whatever i need extra water for--i catch in whatever i have available--pans, buckets--lol --i donot have a collector as such yet-havent made one--but is a list item...i have it on my list..LOL....

[Canibul]

You can drink any water if you mix enough Scotch whisky in it.

[bella]

Originally Posted by zeehag

is recommended to let rain for 30 min after placing water catcher--at least in the books i read--

In the books.....
In the tropics you can miss an opputunity to fill tanks with the heavy downpour that lasts 20 minutes, which is fairly common. The book implies that rainwater is impure?
Using a mainsail as a part of the catchment system, let the salt wash off. It doesn't take that long.. 5-10 minutes max depending on heaviness of downpour. you can filter the initial water with a debris filter.

--i donot have a collector as such yet-havent made one--but is a list item...i have it on my list..LOL....

Simple collector can be made from a piece of old sail, watch the dumpster for castoffs. Funnel cemented in center with a plastic hose. Watch the kind of hose you get. Make sure it is drinking water safe. I prefer the kind that is rated for hot water from one of the home improvement stores, let the rain hit is long enough to rinse it off then put the hose in the tank and forget about it until the rain is over. Similar system from the main can be used pretty much the same way, except that you catch the water off the back end of the boom.

Chlorine is an acceptable water purifier. If you can taste it, it might be a little much. However Chlorine also biodegrades after about 24-36 hrs so, the taste will, over time disappear.

IF one is worried about taste, there are always those canister water "purifiers" and you can go to home depot and purchase for under a hundred dollars an in home purifier system that is doable for a boat. Refill cartridges are about $35 each and they do filter out the bad stuff.

Do not rely on a marina, esp OCONUS, to have potable water. Treat all water, in 3rd world countries, as suspect.

About watermakers, the more technology you have aboard, the more time you spend in maintenence, the more money you spend in parts and all that. If one is going to the desert, I might consider it...but in the tropics, esp in summer. Naw, just too much free rain that is available. If you hit a port and spend your first week or two just doing maintenence rather than enjoying your port, you are going to miss so much. I try real hard to priortize my technology into what I need to get there. No offense meant to anyone, but looking back to those sailors who traveled the worlds oceans before we had a lot of good ideas that seem to have fallen by the wayside for catching water, keeping it drinkable safe. We all need to remember, that technology is great, fantastic, but at the same time. It has an inherent ability to fail at the worst possible moment. Having a backup system is always smart.

About deck water. I wash my decks daily, seawater and then rinse. It's my home, I like keeping in clean. Use the deckwater, collected in a couple of extra jerry cans for deck rinse and other non-drinking stuff.


hope that helps a tiny bit..
'b.

[Tellie]

My experience has been that most people put far better water into their tanks, rain catchments, marinas and dock hoses, etc., than they take out. A good under the galley filtering system is a good idea no matter how fastidious in tank management you may think you are. Things grow and grow fast in dark damp areas. The good news is that our bodies are quite adept at killing off most of the nasties we ingest. We've all been drinking nasties all our lives from restaurants, bottled water, the faucet at home (ever see the inside of 20 year old plumbing pipes?), heck most of us drank right from the garden hose as kids and here we still are. Your more likely to incur liver and kidney damage from the chemicals you treat your tank and water with. Possibly making the cure worse than the problem.

[bella]

Originally Posted by Tellie

. Your more likely to incur liver and kidney damage from the chemicals you treat your tank and water with. Possibly making the cure worse than the problem.

Up to a point that might be true, but the water purification tablets have been in use for long enough to know what they might or could do.

I think that many cruisers can tell you that the daily happy hour is of far more liver damage than biodegraded chlorox or purification tablets.
YMMV

[Islandmike]

We have a system of filters that will clarify the water then run it through a UV chamber, this kills all bad things. Once the water is clear the UV can do its job, we have never had a problem...

[bella]

For what it is worth. When I move into a new marina, if I don't already have it. I stop at Walmart and visit the RV section. First thing I get is a water pressure regulator, they usualy cost about 5 or 6 dollars as opposed to the $40 west marine charges. I also pickup one of the short hoses and use it to attach to the regulator in one end and an inline water filter on the other. I get that in the RV dept at Walmart as well. It is a first line of defense.

Then go to home depot and get one of these and add a 1 micron filter to the cartridge. and then attach to the line that goes to your faucet. You are pretty much set.

Even if you are not using marina water and using your tank, the filter will work for tank water.

If you are really worried, then add some bleach, it biodegrades fairly fast and will kill most anything.

If you are worried, 1 ounce of bleach to a regular sized dishpan will 'sterilize' all your eating goods. You can also use this ratio to wash any fruits or vegetables that you buy in 3rd world country's that have suspect sanitation.
again YMMV

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by bella

However Chlorine also biodegrades after about 24-36 hrs so, the taste will, over time disappear.

That doesn't make sense. Chlorine is an element - it can't break down into another element other than in a nuclear reaction. Clorox is sodium hypochlorite IIRC, which should oxidise biological contaminants, leaving hydrochloric acid as a byproduct. Maybe a chemist can confirm or refute this.

Should add that chlorine is good for killing buggies, but won't get rid of chemical contaminants such as benzene. A good filter should also be used, which should eliminate most of the chlorine residue.

[Tellie]

Originally Posted by bella

Up to a point that might be true, but the water purification tablets have been in use for long enough to know what they might or could do.

I think that many cruisers can tell you that the daily happy hour is of far more liver damage than biodegraded chlorox or purification tablets.
YMMV

LOL Happy hour, good point.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Lodesman

That doesn't make sense. Chlorine is an element - it can't break down into another element other than in a nuclear reaction. Clorox is sodium hypochlorite IIRC, which should oxidise biological contaminants, leaving hydrochloric acid as a byproduct. Maybe a chemist can confirm or refute this.
Should add that chlorine is good for killing buggies, but won't get rid of chemical contaminants such as benzene. A good filter should also be used, which should eliminate most of the chlorine residue.

As noted, we don’t use “elemental” chlorine for sanitation; but chlorine compounds; such as sodium hypochlorite solution ("Liquid Chlorine")
Ultra-Violet (UV) light degrades liquid chlorine by a chemical reaction in which two chlorine molecules combine with two molecules of water to form four molecules of hydrochloric acid also known as hydrochloric acid plus oxygen.
Without the use of a stabilizer, such as cyanuric acid, up to 90% of the active chlorine can be destroyed by sunlight in just 2 hours.

[mesquaukee]

Time to kill germs with Chlorine (1mg/litre or 1 oz per 5 Imp Gal or 6 US gal)
E.coli 0157:h7.............................. less than 1 minute
Hepatities A virus........................... about 16 minutes
Giardia Protozoan.......................... about 45 minutes
Cryptosporidium Protozoan....... 10.6 days

Nothing much kills the last one except UV filters. It can be removed by the use of a 1 micron filter such as the Seagull IV which is certified to do so.

Crytosporidium can be present in bird feces, surface water etc. Simply relying on chlorine to purify your water is not enough. Public water supplies may also contain it.
We used to have a natural resistance to it which has disappeared due to improvements in sanitation and water supplies. People in the "3rd world" retain this immunity so their not becoming sick from it does not mean the supply is safe.
It may be possible to build a resistance to it.

An Australian study has shown that unpurified rain water is safe to drink (Associate Professor Karin Leder - Head of Infectious Disease Epidemiology Unit - Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine Monash Universi) .
Any dirt or germs in water collected on deck is easily filtered out. The only substance which cannot be filtered out is salt which washes off in a few minutes.

I worry more about what is happening in my water tanks than what's on deck.

[mesquaukee]

Typo error, the 1 oz in my last post should read 1 ml of household bleach for 5 Imp Gal.

[CarlF]

I've used the following Matrikx filter in a standard undersink filter housing for some years. It filters to .5 micron and removes chlorine and other odd tastes. I get about 1 gallon a minute flow which seems fine. Only $12US and lasts quite a long time. They say it has a coarse filter medium on the outside that keeps the finer inner layer from clogging as quickly.

MatriKx +CR1 0.5 Mic Cysts & Turbidity Reduction - FreshWaterSystems.com

Carl

[CarlF]

The "why didn't I do that years ago?" boat project last year was chilled filtered water. I ran a 3/8" tube from the high quality undersink water filter into the fridge where I mounted an empty 2 quart stainless waterfilter holder that I bought off Ebay. A tube then goes back out of the fridge to a standard water valve mounted on the counter beside the fridge.

This has allowed me to ban bottled water on the boat - good for the environment and for my back (no more lugging cases of the stuff aboard)

Carl