Water Filters

Hi Ferfal,

Thanks for the information that you provide in your blog. You have many good suggestions for disaster preparedness. I especially appreciate your suggestions regarding items such as knives, water, flashlights and other items. Having water, shelter and small tools is absolutely necessary when disasters such as a tornado, hurricane, flood, etc occur.

In return for all the good information you have given, I would like to share with you. We recently purchased a Big Berkey water filter system for our family to use at home and it is working out quite well. The system itself is rather expensive ($250.00). However, it does not require any electrical power and the filters it uses have a shelf life of 50 years. The water filter system was originally designed for the Queen of England so that polluted water from the Thames River in London could be filtered for drinking water. The water filters are impregnated with silver and will remove bacteria that causes disease. Of course this is not for carrying with you. However, as you say - often it is best to stay in your home. With this system you can take polluted water and use this system to provide clean drinking water for a family.

Thanks and best regards,

Douglas
Fort Worth, Texas

Thanks Douglas, I enjoy trying out gear. Its fun and you learn along the way.
That's pretty interesiing story . I knew Berkey water filters where good, that's why we're proud to have Directive21, an authorized Berkey dealer, as a sponsor, but I didn't know the story about Doulton, the commercial British Berkefeld name and the Brit royalty.
Here's a link where the story is explianed in more detail, the Queens demand for a filter to purify the dirty London water, pretty interesting.
http://www.jmccanneyscience.com/DoultonWaterFilterInformationSub-Page.HTM

FerFAL

You might need this‏

Hey Fernando,

Check out this link (click here).HM Digital COM-100 Waterproof EC/TDS/TEMP Meter

As you said, "Water comes before firearms, medicines and even food."

Here is another link to the same product (click here).Hand Held TDS Conductivity Meter

The second link has the following review:
I own a commercial water testing laboratory. This is the best portable conductivity meter I've ever seen and it has a very reasonable price.

Hi, that's pretty cool, I didn't even know these water testers even existed.
I found this other one that seems to be another good alternaitve for testing water quality.HM Digital Pocket Size TDS Meter TDS-4 Water Quality Tester
I'm not sure if it detects all sorts of micro organisms but it must narrow down nicely the sort of purity of water you are dealing with or how effective a filter actually is.

Product Description:
A TDS tester that's ideal for all water purification applications, wastewater regulation, aquaculture, hydroponics, and colloidal silver. Perfect for both consumer or commercial use. Carry one in your pocket at all times! .. The smallest and lightest TDS meter on the market. .. Sleek design is perfect for personal or consumer use. ... Hold Function: saves measurements for convenient reading and recording. .. Auto-off function: the meter shuts off automatically after 10 minutes of non-use to conserve batteries. ... Measurement Range: 0-9990 ppm. From 0-999 ppm, the resolution is in increments of 1 ppm. From 1000 to 9990 ppm, the resolution is in increments of 10 ppm, indicated by a blinking 'x10' image. ... Factory Calibrated: our meters are calibrated with a 342 ppm NaCl solution. Meters can be recalibrated with a mini-screwdriver.

Thanks for the tip, I didn't know there was something like this out there.

FerFAL

Water, water, water...

You always have it as if by magic but when you dont, you see the light.
Water must be the most underestimated survival supply. Store as much as you can. FULL CONTANIERS PLEASE! You dont get a SHTF notice. Ever. So an empty container of any kind is just that.
Notice in the article below how important it is to know how to treat water and have the nescesary tools and knowledge.
Pool shock as a long term water purification supply, but most of all a good water filter such as the Berkey, sold by our sponsor, Directive 21.
Notice how things are rarely black and white. If lukcy, you'll have some sort of water, but you'll need to treat it well.

Huge water pipe breach imperils region

Fiasco leaves 2 million Bay Staters high and dry

FerFAL

Water...And something I noticed about jobs.

The other day the water filter lady came by to change our water filter.

The problem we have here with water is a perfect example of the survival mentality required for the post economical collpae lifestyle.

Water is life. Anyone knows that. You don’t live long without it and people usually take it for granted, survivalists know that particularly well.
You should beep several galons of water stored at home for emergecy use.
But what happens with our tap water here in Buenos Aires?

We occasionally loose service for a while, specially in summer, and in some places people have been without water for over a week ( yo should try that) but we do have tap water.

Well, at least 65% of the people in the Buenos Aires southern suburbs has.
Of course I pay for my tap water, only difference is that my bill, unlike you lucky guys, has a small warning ( smallest letter size, of couse) at the bottom:
"This water should not be consumed by pregnant women or children under 3 years of age."

That’s nice. Contaminated tap water. How is this possible?
Our government simply approves a terrible standard for our water. So the water company has a right to provide bad tap water, that would be illegal in any serious country.

It’s of course dirty with small particles and full of dead microorganisms. Dead because of the chlorine.

You see, instead of actually going through a real purifying process, they just filter it a bit and dump lots of chlorine so as to make it potable, or at least so that no one dies from ecoli and sews them.

Nice thing about cancer is that unlike polluted water, it’s almost impossible to prove that your cancer was provoked by the excessive chlorine in water, or the heavy metal or arsenic.

So, the filter I have filters everything, but also absorbs the chlorine out of the water, but it requires replacement every 3 years, you can’t just retro-feed it to clean it, because the absorbed chlorine stays in there and eventually it stops absorbing it.

The replacement cups filter the bigger particles and gets replaced every 3 months or so.

The lady came by to replace the filter and also left me a year supply of cups, and a couple other parts like little hoses the filter needs and may brake ( not likely but I keep some spare parts just in case)

The woman that came was actually the daughter of the woman that came last year, and this leads us to the second part of this post.

She’s a radiologist but lack of job made her start working with her mother.

This happens a lot these days. People that had different profesions or trades and went back to work with teh family due to lack of job.

In the old days kids just went their way, but now in many cases young people try to pick up the profession or trade of their parents.

Now, with the unemployment, it looks like an attractive alternative.

You often find father and son/daughter working together that are doctors, lawyers, accountants, or working in the same family business or trade.
The plumber, electrician or painter will usually come with his son that is slowly following dad’s or mom’s steps.

Just take this into consideration when or if you are about to choose a career or occupation.
Knowing that money will be better if the son picks up the family trade or business makes such profession much more attractive.

Just think about it, take it into consideration, and talk about it with your father or suggest it to your children.

FerFAL