this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2025
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Boil your water, then after it cools run it through a charcoal and/or osmosis filter. Even then, it's still not great. Commercial/community water treatment isn't some silly little optional process.
Get a water filter that’s designed for camping. The two varieties I’ve seen are either a hand pump or using gravity to force the water through a ceramic filter. Try to pick water that is relatively clean looking (not obviously murky, and it helps to pick flowing water).
Best tasting water I’ve ever had and you won’t get giardia (the most common cause of diarrhea symptoms described above).
I tried a hand pump while camping and never used it again. The tannins in the water (decayed plant matter secretion) isn't captured by the filter and hit me pretty hard.
Yet.
The biggest risk out in the woods is microorganisms. If you boil it or use a well designed filter you are likely going to be fine if you're drinking otherwise clear water.
I wouldn't just filter the water from the Hudson river and go to town, but if it's 10 miles to the nearest road I think you're probably doing better than your tap
If you're going to do all that and still end up with "not great", why not just distill it?
If you have a licenced portable distillery to take with you camping then power to you.
A pot, a sheet of plastic, a cup, a rock, some sticks and rope and you can distill water.
And a massive amount of fuel.
Have you ever tried to evaporate a liter of water? It takes a lot of energy to do so. Fun for a science project, but if you need enough to stay alive/be comfortable, it's a lot easier to bring water.
If you're in the woods, you have access to a virtually unlimited amount of fuel. If you're in a desert, the fuel source is nuclear. This is a technique taught in survival courses/manuals and military field guides all over the world.
Sure, but gathering wood takes a lot of effort and energy. It's an option if you don't have the filters, but the original question was why not distill if boiling and filtering ends up in "not great".
If I have to survive, and I can do with boiling and filtering, I'll take "not great" water over spending hours gathering and chopping wood to keep a fire going long enough to vaporize a liter of water.
Not a good idea to drink distilled water.
distilled water is fine the issue is if you drink mostly or only distilled water, it doesn't have the minerals you'll find in tap water and long-term missing those isn't healthy. even so you can get those minerals from other sources like food or supplements most of the time.
Unless you're starving to death, you absolutely get those from food. The amount of minerals in even hard water is miniscule compared to what's in food. Drinking distilled or RO water, even regularly is not going to hurt you.
Drinking giardia on the other hand...