Bleach for water

imported
#1

i have decided that the least expensive way to go is to treat my water with bleach. can anyone give me an idea of how many drops to use per what amount of water?? thanks.

buzzsaw

#2

I was told to use 2 drops per 20 oz bottle which should be 3 or 4 drops per liter. I usually filled a 3 liter bag from a stream and added about 12 drops. I never treated a good spring and had no GI problems in my thru hike last year.

Quest

#3

Howdy…when I through hiked, I hiked from Hot Springs to Springer using bleach with no probs.

I used a small nalgene container with a little dropper on the top. Make sure you put this inside something solid to protect that nipple part and then in a ziplock because that nipple will inevitably catch something and snap. A buddy of mine just hiked out a small glass vile with a dropper.

To treat it…I used 2-3 drops per quart. Depending on the temp and the water source (4 in a pinch- but you’ll taste it). Use 3 in the cold and 2 for a fresh spring in the summer. Drop the drops in, and then either one extra drop for the threads of your container’s lid or shake the container then bleed it over onto the lid. Then wait about 30 minutes (again- depending on the conditions).

Good Hiking!

Last Minute Ga-Me03

#4

There is some debate about how effective bleach is at getting out all the cooties in water. You might want to consider something else.

Peaks

#5

i use bleach as well and will use it this year on the pct. there has been some discussion about the pro’s and con’s of bleach on this forum already. if you want to see what people said, search under “clorox”.

nightfever

#6

I used to work in the pool industry and we used sodium hypochloride as a sanitizer (same as bleach). If I recall correctly, crypto takes a minumum of 72 hours to be oxidized by 20ppm chlorine. My guess is that 2-3 drops in a nalegene equates to only 4ppm. In general pool water is 2-6ppm constantly. I dont like crypto or drinking pool water…I’ll stick to my filter…

Ohioan