Water Bottle Filter

Good Morning, I woke up pretty thirsty and drank about a half gallon of water.  It reminded me, I was suppose to give you a tutorial on building a water bottle filter.  It's pretty quick and can limit the amount of pathogens and chemicals you find in foreign water sources, and provide you clearer water to drink. That being said, it's still best to boil or purify after filtering.  Let's begin with what you need:

2 Plastic water bottles

2 Handful of gravel

2 Handful of sand

1 Handful of charcoal (not matchlight, real charcoal)

1 Bandanna or microfiber cloth (even your tee shirt)

1 Roll of duct tape

Most of these items can be found all over the place because we trash our environment, but the key items should be in your kit, e.g., the cloth, knife, cordage and the duct tape.  The charcoal comes from your fire, and is basically your charred wood crushed finely.  The sand and gravel can be found on the banks of rivers, streams and other water sources.  Now let's start building.

Cut the tops off your the plastic water bottles and place them to the side for a moment.  You'll want to take some sand scrub the insides of the bottles if you recovered them from trash.  Next, invert the top and place it on the bottle, this will create a nice funnel for you to collect your filtered water.  

Now tape the inverted top to the lower part of the bottle to keep fresh water in and bugs and dirt out.  Hey, we're halfway done.  You guys are good.  Let start with the filter now.

diagram shows it can be built right side down

Take the bottom portion and stuff two layers of cloth in the bottom.  Next place your handful of gravel down, not to much because the water bottle doesn't hold much volume, so just enough to get a complete layer.  Now repeat that process with the sand, then with the charcoal.  Now place two layers of cloth on top.  You should have seven layer of filtration, 2 cloth, 1 grave, 1 sand, 1 charcoal and 2 layers of cloth.  

Now, let's seal it up.  Take your top and place it back on the bottle, now tape the bottle back together to "seal" the filter.  Whoo, we're almost done.  now turn the bottle upside down and poke some holes in it.  Success, but how do you use it?

The method I've used most is with a tripod.  Grab three long sticks and lash them together so they stand upright.  Next, hang the filter bottle with a cord with the mouth of the bottle pointing up.  Slowly, Pour your unsafe water into the mouth of the bottle and let it work it's way thru the filter. Once about half a cup has drained thru, the filter should be ready.  Place you collection bottle underneath and stabilize with rocks.  Your filter bottle should take about 30 minutes to filter 1 bottle of water, it's slow but efficient.  remember to boil or purify your water with tablets before you drink.  

If you use another method or want to learn more, remember to subscribe to my email list.  Cheers