Emergency Water Filters Explained
When disaster strikes, you need to be prepared with the best emergency water filter. We have all seen the awful news stories of people caught in fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, and floods.
Fortunately, these things rarely happen in our own personal lives, but when they do, it is a good idea to be ready for them.
In this article, we are looking specifically at emergency water filters and how you can use them to ensure that, in a disaster situation, you and your family will still have access to safe water.
Simply Boiling Water is not Adequate
The reason we recommend that you find out more about emergency water filtration systems is that they are the only way to generate truly safe water.
Many people think that simply taking river or lake water and boiling it provides safe drinking water.
Whilst it is true that boiling water kills many common bugs and contaminants, it does not kill all of them.
Usually, even after boiling heavy metals and contaminants, such as those from fertilizers, remnants still remain.
This is the case even if you have added bleach to the water at a rate of 16 drops per gallon of boiled water.
Again, the bleach will kill off certain parasites and some viruses, but will not deal with all of them.
The only way to produce truly safe water is to use a good quality emergency water filtration system.
In the rest of this article, we are going to explain what you should be looking for in an emergency water filtration system to ensure that you buy one that is up to the job.
Buying the Correct Emergency Water Filtration System
Here is an overview of the main factors that you need to consider.
The Effectiveness of a Survival Water Filtration System
If you are going to buy a water filtration system, it makes sense to buy the best one possible. Otherwise, you’re wasting your money.
Buying one that is capable of dealing with all contaminants is the only way of ensuring that you have access to good quality emergency drinking water.
Buying a top-end filtering system means that whatever happens or goes wrong, you will be ready.
It may cost you more to have a quality filter, but in an emergency, you will be glad that you spent the extra money.
How Easy is the Water Filter to Access and Use?
If you find yourself in an emergency, you will need emergency water filters that are quick and easy to set up. Ideally, you need a system that is self-contained and does not require complicated tools to assemble. In an emergency, you may not have access to them.
Capacity
It can be tempting to buy the cheapest system, which usually means buying the smallest.
However, before you opt for this option, try to determine whether it would be adequate for your needs.
Usually, it makes sense to purchase a larger system; one that can cope with the needs of your family and possibly some of your neighbors.
Size
That brings us to another point. You need to research the size of the filtration system you need.
If you are able to stay in your own home, this is probably not an issue. Even if the filtration system is large, you should have the space to set up.
On the other hand, if you have to leave your home because of the emergency, you will want to be able to take the filtration system with you.
In that case, you will need to be able to transport it. This isn't a problem, even if you have a large system. Learning how to disassemble and store your system in advance is a good idea. It’ll need to carefully be taken apart and stored in a large protective bag.
Keeping this in mind, you should also make sure you have a storage bag before an emergency takes place.
Other Tips for Having the Best Emergency Water Filter
Buy Spare Filters
It makes sense to have at least one set of spare filters available.
That way, should it take time for the authorities to sort out a clean and reliable water supply, you will be okay for several months.
In an emergency, you are unlikely to be able to buy new filters and receive them quickly.
Therefore, it makes sense to have at least one spare set available. Even if you don’t need them for an emergency, you can use them down the road. So it won’t be a waste of money.
Other Equipment
As well as buying the best emergency water filter you can, you will need other equipment to be able to use it.
For example, if there is no water in the taps you are going to have to get your water from natural sources, such as lakes or rivers.
This means that you will need a way of collecting the water from these water sources and transporting it to where your filtration system is located.
You may also need some simple tools to enable you to change the filters.
Double-checked this and keep the tools in your emergency kit.
Store Some Water
Just because you have the filtration kit it does not mean that you should not still store some water for an emergency.
It makes sense to have some bottled water available. You can drink that water first and keep the bottles to store any water you later put through the filtration system.
If you have some large suitable food containers available, you can also store some tap water in them.
Of course, another option is a rain barrel, which can hold more than 50 gallons of water.
However you store this water, know that it cannot be consumed without being put through your filtration system first.
Taking this approach will give you a couple of days to find a natural water source nearby, in an emergency buying yourself time to think and act rationally will be really helpful.
Buy a Trusted Brand of Emergency Water Filters
Given the fact that you will be relying upon your water filtration system in an emergency, it makes sense to buy a good brand.
Doing so will ensure that when you need to purify water in an emergency, your equipment will not let you down.
For this reason, we recommend that our readers look into buying a Berkey water filtration system.
- Tags: Preparedness
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