Water purification still

[Zai]

Hi all,

I'm building a rocket stove at my new pad (when the solicitors get off the golf course that is) ; and I got to thinking about using it to purify water. If I boiled water in a vessel with a lid which is connected to a spiral of copper tube (acting as a heat exchanger to recondense the steam) and collected the condensation, would this be an efficient and safe water purification method?

[metatron]

Hi all,

I'm building a rocket stove at my new pad (when the solicitors get off the golf course that is) ; and I got to thinking about using it to purify water. If I boiled water in a vessel with a lid which is connected to a spiral of copper tube (acting as a heat exchanger to recondense the steam) and collected the condensation, would this be an efficient and safe water purification method?

It will clean the water but boiled water tends to taste odd when left to cool.

Kind of like

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Water-Distiller ... 495&sr=8-1

p.s. if you put something with alcohol in it like cider, it will make a nice brandy.

[Zai]

[
It will clean the water but boiled water tends to taste odd when left to cool.

Kind of like

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Water-Distiller ... 495&sr=8-1

p.s. if you put something with alcohol in it like cider, it will make a nice brandy.

Hmmm, thanks for the warning about the taste, hopefully not too disgusting. I was going to use it to purify rain-butt water in in case of a SHTF scenario. Good idea about the brandy!

[tshw1973]

Why not use a water filter or purification tablets?

[Zai]

Cos they run out. And go out of date.

I've always got water purification tablets around, but how many will I need? When? I'm going to build a rocket stove anyway, and I love making things that serve multiple purposes. For a little extra effort, I thought I'd try and add another function.

I might build it in to a barbecue too!

[Technik]

would this be an efficient and safe water purification method?

Not very efficient. Why not just filter water through a cloth or coffee filter and then boil? You will need a lot less fuel for the stove this way.

[Zai]

Interesting point. I was thinking about removing dissolved contaminants that filtering and boiling won't remove - for example salt or heavy metal contamination.

[dead-man-walking]

a simpler solution would be to use a sheet of heatproof glass over boiling water at an angle, would remove the "tainting" you get from copper pipe,

what folks find odd about the taste of boiled or "stilled" water is that it is pure and has no mineral or chemicals in it to add taste.


if i ever get round to it i might have a go at making a water purification "tent" with one of the mylar foil rescue sheets

[Zai]

use a sheet of heatproof glass

Man is a genius.

Hmmm, I bet lab supply shops have got butt loads of glass tubing and vessels, all ideal for the purpose

[Technik]

Oh! Another thing to remember is that distilled water is bad for you if you drink it long term. Like "dead man walking" posted, it has nothing else except pure water. I can't remember exactly now but I think pure water goes into some kind of reaction with your blood cells and causes your body to compensate the lack of minerals in the water by sacrifising the ones stored in your body. Distilled water is good for cleaning circuit boards and a couple other things but not good drinking long term.