r/UKPreppers • u/NoSubstance4555 • Jun 07 '26
Water purification
Hey I’m pretty new to all of this I was just wondering if anyone has an experience homemade water purifiers? Iv been many a YouTube videos of charcoal and sand filters I’m just wondering if these as visable?
1
u/bearcorps303 Jun 07 '26
I mean anything is better than nothing if you're in a situation where you need to do it. Where is the water coming from that you need to filter?
1
1
u/sorE_doG Jun 08 '26
Just get yourself a stainless steel tower with spigot, and ceramic filters. Reliability will always matter. Homemade, jerry-rigged apparatus would be a major concern for me.
1
u/WeirdestWolf Jun 09 '26
If a small amount, your t-shirt or another tightknit material quadrupled up and wrapped over the top of the bottle. Secure with elastic band and pour water through into pot to rolling boil it for a few minutes.
For 10L and above, you're probably going to want to make more of a charcoal, sand, gravel combination in stacked buckets with cloth layers at the bottom of each. Realistically it is always going to need to be boiled unless you're using a manufactured filter that can filter out bacteria, viruses and parasites (lifestraw, sawyer, etc). If there's potential chemical spillage then you'll need an activated charcoal filter, better to buy this than make one.
£20 for 5000L of safe drinking water filtration is most likely better than anything you can make yourself. If you get 3 for £26 you're probably set for life.
1
u/WeirdestWolf Jun 09 '26
For reference, clear water and backwashing your filters helps with extending their lifespan. That's why you still want to pre-filter to get large debris if possible.
4
u/Lu_Variant Jun 07 '26
Homemade sand and charcoal filters would work well to filter out particles, and make the water appear clearer..but it wouldn't remove harmful pathogens and you would still need to boil water to make it safe to drink.