water purification systems - anyone assembled their own ?

[ianrichards121]

Just researching water purification systems and it occurs to me that I don't need to buy a full system from a dealer. The components are easy to obtain and there are savings to be made.
Basically, what I am after (I think) is a filter unit, pressure sensitive pump and a few bits of plumbing.
I am sure that there are many that have been down this route, so any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
ian

[highlanderhead]

I have done plenty of research on this subject. Basically all is needed is s prefilter, which will remome sediment, a carbon filter that will filter down to about 0.2 microns and lastly a new concept in water purification that will destroy all bacteria is a aquarium ultraviolet sterilizer (the sea aquarium type not the pond type) If using the sterilizer the carbon filter can be eliminated, but I would rather be safe than sorry as the uv light may blow on your trip. All this can be powered by a shurflo pump 3bar to 5bar. website for filter equipment is the jp2 http://www.jpceramics.com/ water pumps http://www.shurflo.com/pages/home.html and uv steri http://www.paraquatics.co.uk/en-gb/dept_75.html put it all together and you will have a cool bit of kit that will filter out the lot this is the kit that u will be building for a fraction of the cost http://www.noahwater.com/trekker.html Hope the info helps. I currenlty use a desalination unit too when driving along the cost. This unit takes salt water from the sea and converts it into clean fresh water, its a nice bit of kit and u will never be short of water http://www.sunshinemaritime.co.uk/PUR%2040E%20page.htm

[ianrichards121]

Thanks for that.
I'll check it out and put together a system
Thanks
Ian

[SandyM]

Interesting stuff you posted, highlanderhead. Thanks for the good links and the ideas.

Michael...
www.expeditionoverland.com

[highlanderhead]

The carbon filter that you will need from JP is a carbex, one of the best, to clean just scrub with a wire brush. For the UV Light use a cheap maplins 150 watt inverter. Place the whole kit in a nice aluminium case and thats it. Ps use hoselock for the connections on the case that way you can quickly connect and disconned differnet pipes etc.. Any more questions Ian feel free to ask.

[ctc]

I tried this and have to say that I ended up with a white elephant (Very heavy and rather bulky).

My unit was designed to take in dirty water and then strip it of sediment in one filtration process and then in a second process make it drinkable. For this I used a marine pump, a sediment filter and then a Katadyn ceramic filter. It also had a shower attachement.

One of the problems in such a system is the flow rates and pressure rates when moving from one size hose to another. Clearly you can pump water through a sediment filter far quicker than a Katadyn. This is problematic.

FYI my white elephant is gathering dust in the garage. I now use a Katadyn stirrup pump to purify large volumes of water and for showering I use a home-brew barrrel which sits on top of the roof rack and is connected to a shower rose. Simple and effective.

What I am saying is that it helps to be very clear about what your primary aim is with regard to building a pump. A clear design and probably some advice from a marine plumber / boat chandler would help.
Good luck

[This message has been edited by ctc (edited 04 February 2005).]

[highlanderhead]

Flow rate is fine the shurflo pumps are excellent I get 5 litres a min (passing through sed, carbon and uv setup) coming out which is all I need. A domestic shower uses between 3 and 5 litres a min. Secondly when run through the uv sterilizer there is no resistance so if its fast large volumes of water needed I use that method and switch the other two off. All in all it weighs 8kgs and measures 40cm by 30cm small sacrifice for safe clean drinking water.

[ctc]

Well done, sounds impressive!