What Is In Your Camping Water?

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 27th, 2010

If you are a camper, you may already know that the water is probably unsafe to drink. Generally, campgrounds get their water from a well in the ground and you can bet, it's not filtered. But that doesn't mean you can't have safe water for cooking and drinking while enjoying the beautiful outdoors.

A good portable water purifier is essential. The type of water purifier that uses Ultraviolet Treatment in the final stage of the process are highly recommended.

When shopping around for a portable UV water filtration system, keep these things in mind. You want a system that uses pre-filtration to screen out large debris. Sediment filtration is also important to remove any unseen sand or dirt. Carbon filtration is also recommended, every molecule of water is forced through the microscopic pores of carbon, effectively straining out particle matter. These three stages of the water filtration lead to the final purification process, the Ultraviolet Treatment. After the carbon filter has cleansed the water, it is exposed to intense dosages of UV light. This exposure effectively destroys viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae and protozoa. A 12Volt DC Power Supply is needed. This type of system can be expensive but well worth the cost.

A Portable Reverse Osmosis System is another good choice and less expensive than the UV system. The Reverse Osmosis type of system works in stages in much the same way as the UV system. A sediment filtration, a carbon filtration and in the last stage, water travels through 50 GDP TFC Reverse Osmosis Membrane, which removes lead, sodium, cyanide, ammonium, mercury, bromide, cadmium, trivalent chromium, magnesium, fluoride, nitrates, nitrites and many other water contaminants. This system is very easy to use, just hookup to a sink faucet.

It is important not to overlook how important filtering the water is. Many people have gotten sick while camping and thought that food was to blame when actually it was the water they were cooking with and drinking.