Guest Post By Blindsquirl
The McNett Aquamira Frontier Pro water filter is available for about $20. It’s rated by the manufacturer to filter greater than 99.9% of Cryptosporidium and Giardia from up to 50 gallons of water. It attaches directly to a variety of hydration systems and standard water containers with 28mm threads.
It comes with a few accessories including a draw tube and 4 replacement prefilters. The draw tube allows you to use the filter with common water or soda bottles. Simply attach the tube to the intake side of the filter, insert it into the bottle, screw it on and suck on the bite valve end.
Gravity set-up, packed up, including reservoir, pre-filters, Frontier Pro filter and two 2 liter platypus bags.
If you figure a gallon of water per person, per day (that’s a minimum); one of these filters should provide clean drinking water for a month and a half of constant use.
That’s pretty good for $20. Plus, with the 28mm threads mentioned earlier, the Frontier Pro can easily be turned into a gravity filter to provide water without pumping (or sucking).
Here’s the cheapest way I’ve found to do it.
You’ll need the following:
Two empty 2 liter beverage bottles (I used sparkling water; I didn’t need to wash them after emptying them.)
Something to punch holes with (I used a 1/8” paper punch.)
Two pieces of Duct Tape, each approximately 2” long (Gorilla Tape is a brand I highly recommend).
Approximately 18” of paracord, fish line or whatever you have that can be used as a handle.
Some #4 cone-type coffee filters.
A piece of Latex tubing (a.k.a. surgical tubing) for connecting to a hydration bladder or beverage bottle. (You might be able to get by without this but latex tubing is pretty handy to have anyway.)
Remove the labels and caps and cut the bottoms off of the 2 liter bottles and put these in your “I’ll find a use for that someday” pile.
Fold a piece duct tape over the edge created by cutting the bottom off of one of the 2 liter bottles. Fold the other piece of duct tape over the edge directly across from the first piece. This reinforces the plastic so the handle doesn’t tear out when you fill it with water.
Now punch 2 holes, approximately ¼” down from the edge and as close to directly across from each other as you can. This is where you’ll attach the cord for hanging the filter. Using a hole punch makes a clean hole, sharp edges give a tear somewhere to propagate from. In a pinch, you can heat the end of a nail in a fire or with a lighter and push it through the plastic.
Tie one end of the cord through each hole, creating a loop/handle that the bottle can hang from with the cap end pointing down.
At this point, I also punched corresponding holes in one of the bottoms removed earlier. I threaded the handle/loop through the bottom so it could be used as a loose fitting cover for the reservoir, helping to keep debris from falling into it when filtering water.
Gravity filter set up and hanging, the cloudy part near the neck of the bottle is the coffee filter.
Insert one paper coffee filter into the now handled bottle and push it down into the neck of the bottle. This will become your disposable/replaceable prefilter and should buy you some more use from your Frontier Pro.
Slide the second bottle (without the loop) into the bottle containing the coffee filter and push it down as far as you can, without poking a hole in or tearing the coffee filter.
Screw the Frontier Pro water filter onto the exposed threads of the lower bottle.
You can remove the bite valve from the end of the Frontier Pro by simply pulling it off. Once that’s out of the way, attach the hose from your hydration bladder to the fitting on the Frontier Pro that was exposed by removing the bite valve.
The hose from my 10 year old Platypus bag didn’t fit snugly enough to stay in place on the bite valve end but the draw tube that came with the Frontier Pro did.
I simply inserted that into the bite valve fitting and used a short piece of surgical tubing to jump between that and the hose from my Platy Bag (I had to pull the bite valve off of the Platy Bag too).
Platypus Bags are an inexpensive alternative to other name brand Hydration packs. But, in the spirit of doing things on a budget, you can also use empty plastic beverage bottles to filter water into.
Simply attach one end of the Latex tubing to the Bite Valve end of the Frontier Pro water filter and let the other end hang down into the beverage bottle. If you’re careful, you can hang the filter with only the draw tube inserted into your filtered water container.
Reinforced areas with handle attached.
For filling the reservoir, I took another 2 liter bottle and cut the bottom off of it. I use that to scoop water from whatever source I want to filter and dump it into the hanging system.
If you hang it about shoulder high and there isn’t a lot of crud in the water you’re filtering, it’ll filter 2 liters pretty quickly (with no pumping or sucking).
The coffee filter prevents a lot of crap from getting to the Frontier Pro, theoretically increasing its service life.
When it’s time to replace the coffee filter, simply pull the two 2 liter bottles apart and replace the dirty one with a new one. Coffee filters are inexpensive enough that you can replace them every time if you like.
This allows you to filter water while still being able to do something else. Just pour the water into the two liter bottle and let it filter into whatever container you want to use.
My “belt and suspenders” philosophy also has me treat the resulting filtered water with iodine, just in case.
According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health web site “Iodine can be used as an antimicrobial agent for the emergency purification of water. Tablets and solutions are commercially available. Effects generally occur within 15 minutes.”
One form of commercially available Iodine for water purification is Polar Pure (available from Camping & Survival for about $10.00). “It will destroy water-borne pathogens including Giardia cysts and microorganisms that pass through filters when used as directed.
One bottle will treat up to 2000 gallons.” The bottle has a dosage chart on it and the cap is used for measuring and decanting the solution. It is a self contained package that also has an indefinite shelf life.
While Iodine can leave an “objectionable” taste in the water, Vitamin C helps to neutralize the taste.
Electro Mix by Alacer is an electrolyte replacement powder that doesn’t contain the sugars that most sports drinks do. By combining one packet of Electro Mix with one packet of another Alacer product; Emergen-C, in 1 liter of water, you can replace important electrolytes and get 1000 mg of vitamin C all at once.
Both products come in 36 packet boxes. I’ve found Electro Mix at health food stores and I’ve purchased Emergen-C at Walmart for as little as $9.00 a box.
I highly recommend using both of these mixes. They’re inexpensive and provide nutritional supplements that most people can probably benefit from anyway.
Check out my web site for more info on being self sufficient.
{ 6 comments }
I have accesse to bleach for water treatment, two drops would treat five gallons would this benificial to have on hand even with its realitive short shelflife
I couldn’t help but try the Emergen-C idea. You’re right, I can still taste the Iodine but it’s not near as bad as what it was before.
Also good job on finding a filter that can adapt to a 2 liter. I’ve already spent money on Katadyns, but it wouldn’t hurt to throw a couple 2 liters of distilled water and a cheap filter element in my vehicles. At least I would have roughly a gallon of coolant on hand if I had radiator trouble.
If we had to bug out on foot and leave the vehicle, the 4 liters could be emptied into our camelbaks and we could just carry the empty 2 liters to use as intended above then convert it to an improvised sand filter for rainwater if we find ourselves in an extended situation. That’ll take the load off the Katadyn.
Cryptosporidium is essentially harmless to immunocompetent humans (if you have AIDS that’s a whole nother story). Giardia is harmful to humans.
Problem with this filter is it is useless against bacteria (toxicogenic e.coli, salmonella, shigella, typhoid and camplyobacter), likewise useless against viruses (hepatitis A, Norwalk agent). I’ll stick with bleach or iodine and put up with the taste.
John, you need to get your facts straight. Cryptosporidium was responsible for the deaths of multiple healthy people back in the early 1990s in Milwaukee Wisconsin when it made it’s way into the municipal water system. Crypto causes a dysentery like condition with massive dehydration and and inability to digest food and absorb nutrition due to parasitic infection of the bowel. It also leads to the inability to keep food and liquids down. Even with proper medical treatment it can turn lethal as it did in Milwaukee. Take it one step further and eliminate the prescribed anti-parasitics needed to eliminate the micro-organism, eventual death of a human host is emminent. These are the cold hard facts, proven by historical fact, in a proper, medically sound situation.
A quick google search will back this up.
Even ingesting small amounts of relatively weak pathogens will eventually catch up with you over time as it depresses your immune system each time you come in contact. You should still use a filter even if you chemically treat because the particles in the water are recognized as foreign by your body and will also lower your immune system and eventually hurt your stomach/intestines. Coarse filter your water, chemically treat, then filter with a good quality filter. That will leave you with sanitized water without the turbidity or chemical taste.
This is cool. Already have the components for DIY Berkey (filter elements / 2 5 gallon buckets) but something more compact for ‘just in case’ makes some sense – thanks for the link!
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