A gearish question: What’s the consensus about using PolarPur after it has been sitting around for @1 year? The bottle says that the solution isn’t effected by age and that it will work so long as there the little beads are still showing, but I am kinda sceptical. Has anyone tried to use the same bottle of PolarPur 2 years in a row, and did you notice anything funky or otherwise off?
Papillon
Papillon
When I do my section hike this year, I am planning on using my three year old bottle. The Iodine in does not age and turn into mush or lose it effectiveness.
Love my Polar Pur. Just one word of caution. Wrap the bottle in a bandana and place it in a ziplock. I broke a bottle in the wilderness and had it eat through my wet rib. Very disgusting.
Mr. Boo
I always replace mine each year, to make sure it’s as “potent” as possible, but you’re probably fine using an older bottle—it’s advertised as good for 2000 quarts, and at 4-5 qts per day times 150 days (you don’t be drinking treated water every day of your trip) this means a bottle should, in all likelihood, last you at least 2 years.
That’s the theory, anyway. Nevertheless, I just say the hell with it and buy a new one—if the solution does weaken or break down as time goes on, and the iodine pellets start to break down, the stuff simply isn’t going to do its job, and I take enough chances with water as it is without using sketchy iodine.
Incidentally, for those debating using iodine, or hoping to do without a filter, I’ve used Polar Pure for years and have never, to my knowledge, gotten sick from water on the Trail.
Baltimore Jack
Thanks for the feedback, guys. I will likely pick up a new bottle if/when I can, but the stuff is often not available everywhere. I prefer PP to straight iodine tablets, and it is certainly much lighter than a filter.
Papillon
Hey all you polar pur, aquamira fans…
save the bucks, try bleach…yup, I said it…bleach. 2 drops per litre…got me from TN to ME without a bit of Giardia while others around me had the runs. Some people can’t get passed the chlorine smell, but it always reminded me of swimming in a pool. It’s a lot easier, a lot cheaper and you can always find it. Don’t knock it til ya tried it!
Drink up…cheers!
phoenix
Phoenix - How long do you have to let the H2O/bleach mixture sit before it is drinkable? When you say “2 drops”, do you mean something like 2 eyedropper drops?
I’ll admid, the idea of using household cleaner-type stuff in my water scares me a little, but its always good to know the low-tech alternatives to going “commando”.
Papillon
Chlorine dioxide is the stuff water treatment plants use and probably better for than clorox. Comes under several different names of which I can’t remember. Google it or Dogpile sniff.
Bramble & Bushwhack
I agree with pheonix, an eye dropper plastic container of clorox was what I used the majority of the way on the trail. No chance for it to break, cost zero $$$ and weighed less than half an ounce full for enough lil’ drops to treat like 15-20 quarts! Not too shabby. Clorox has info up at their site as do other webpages for how to use clorox as an emergency water purifier. I’ll admit I did not treat my water that many times. Only when suspect… Never got sick. Lucky? Maybe. Clorox does not taste too bad. 4 drops to a quart is the recommended doseage shake and let sit for 30 minutes. I also used polar pure which not too shabby either. The iodine taste was hardly noticeable. I plan to use an old bottle for upcoming hikes. I think that will be fine… Convenience and cost wise, clorox wins out, and if I were to hike the AT again. that’s what I’d use.
Sweeper
If you boil your water for 5 mins. you killed everything in
it, including the taste! You can aerate it by shaking it
and get back some of the taste. Only drawback is fuel to
boil, but when wood is available…
I just used some Chlorox yesterday to disinfect my water
bottles and cook kit. A few drops of Chlorox per qt.
shouldn’t be too hard to swallow. I’m trying Potable Aqua
as a backup for my Pur Hiker.
IMHO, Iodine is the pits, AFA taste.
Ken J
Ken J
Boiling is a definate fix to the dirty water dillema, but you hit the nail right on the head Ken, it takes fuel! Also it takes time. So it’s rather inconvenient to rely solely boiling as a purification system on a thru-hike. However, boiling water at dinner time and maybe breakfast takes a minimal amount of additional fuel and time so is convenient at those times even if you’re cooking with a stove. When I could get a fire, I would boil water just to be on the safe side. And I enjoyed bypassing having to use chemicals whenever I could. Chemicals are not ideal, but the reliability, simplicity, weight and cost, again, make them an easy choice over filters on a long distance hike for me.
An exciting endeavor that is both cost environmentally sound, effective and implements no chemicals whatsoever is UV radiation purification. This can be as simple as SODIS, or techno wizzies may explore building their own from UV diodes and some know-how in lieu of the “wand” that is currently marketed for way too much dinero. an arc single AAA UV LED flashlight could possibly be one alternative. I’ve taken to using the Arc regular white LED as an ultralight flashlight, and am curious about the UV version and it’s unadvertised but potential purification applications. Water treatment plants have been using UV treatment with great success. One drawback is there is an issue of effectiveness relative to water turbidity. Hmmm. A bandana pantyhose etc. may be useful.
Sweeper
Hey Sweeps, ever heard of people building a tolerance for sea monkeys? Our best buddy Monty drank from the sewer all the way to Maine and nada. Some of that beaver water was not to pleasant. His dad lasted three days out of Hikers Paradise. Home with the Special G.
Bushwhack
I’ve heard that there are some of us that are immune to Giardia. Some say giardia and other water-borne illnesses are hyped up by filter/purification industry, but they do exist… to what extent is a highly contested debate. I’ve met plenty of folks that have suffered from bugs that I can’t even pronounce but are out there. There’re prescription drugs to combat the buggers, but they are costly and you need a doctor visit. Sundown had the prescription already filled out by his Doc so he could pick up the Giardia medication ASAP once he was sure he’d contracted it. Hmmm. A bicyclist that I met at Sandy Hook hostel outside Harpers Ferry travelled world-wide and saved money by drinking the native water and forcing his body to acclimate. Risky business, but he swore that he could build up a tolerance… So that’s interesting, I dunno for sure.
Sweeper
To bad we all don’t have dog’s intestines. I know we all have some bugs in us anyway like Ecoli and as long as they stay in the area of the body that they normally hide you’re cool. And you’re personal immune system varies between folks. I can eat some pretty rotten stuff and be uncomfortable but Bramble can’t even touch mildly old stuff without real problems. Seems men have cast iron pieces parts and can eat week old pizza, my Nitro Chili.
Did you get the Backpacker Gear Guide? They plan to test the UV purifiers soon.
Bramble got very bad cramps from iodine in the Smokes, didn’t help we were down to a quart a day but that stuff just killed here. I was fine, hmp? I like plain filtered water best for taste, bleach makes me nausiuos and the fumes can sometimes trigger my asthma. I wish we had sweet springs thru the whole trip. Ice water is so good right out of the crack. i think we skipped treating maybe twenty sources that we got high up and “looked” clean. I still laugh when I think of BedHead, on the walk, scooping up surface run off on Mt. Rogers. Animal scat everywhere. He said if it looked clean and had no floaters he was satisfied it was safe. Last time I checked cooties were a couple microns. Must of had that new super lazer vision job.
Bushwhack
The way that I treated the water…not sure if it’s the “recommended” daily allowance 
but, it works. 2 eye dropper drops out of a small travel-size Scope bottle, or 2 drops out of a Visine bottle (no eye dropper needed) and I’d let it sit for 20 minutes because I ususally carried too little water to save weight and filled up at every source. For some reason I have camel-like capabilities.
I think it was my method of over drinking at camp, in the morning whie I was by a source, I would drink and drink and drink and then probably go through 2 litres, if that, during the day. Even on the 95+ days. For those picky drinkers out there who loathe the taste of the chlorine, after your 20-30 minute decontamination period…leave the bottle open, away from the group so it doesn’t spill, for 15 mintues and the chlorine evaporates out of the water…tastes good as new.
Pheonix
I used chlorine dioxide under the brand name Pristine (another brand name is Aquamira). An advantage it has over Polar Pur is that it tastes better (it’s vaguely citrusy, not so bitter like iodine). However, it’s slightly more expensive.
I know lots of people who never treated their water.
hypatia