Water purifiers & desalinators

[MarkG]

I recently ordered a Katadyn Pocket water purifier from REI. It wasn't cheap at $290. The unit is Swiss made and appears bomb proof and comes with a 20 year warranty. Something I really didn't think about when I was researching purifiers in general was... salt water. Turns out, purifiers will not desalinate sea water! I took a quick trip to the Katadyn website and about fell over backwards when I saw the price of their cheapest manual desalinator at $1000! It produces 30oz an hour. A 1.2 gallon per hour manual unit will set you back $2195. Powered units start at $3595. As important as water is, would you be as safe as you can be without a desalinator?

[Weaver]

Purifiers and desalinators are apples and oranges - different purpose, different methods.

Purifiers are designed to remove impurities from fresh water - bacteria, spores, other crap that will make you sick. They use a variety of filter methods (ceramic, fibers, activated charcoal, etc.).

Desalinators on the other hand are designed to turn salt water into fresh water. Reverse osmosis is the only realistic method (well, you could distill the water, but that's not very portable). Cost is much, much higher - but it's a limited use item.

If you are talking about hiking/camping/survival on land, get a purifier, and purify fresh water.
If you are talking about shipwreck survival in the open ocean, you need a desalinator.

[kalikraven]

For a cheap emergency supply of drinkable water in a saltwater envioremnt try a forward osmosis filter.

http://www.htiwater.com/documents/SeaPack.pdf

http://beprepared.com/product.asp?pn=WP%20P302&sid=FROOGLE&EID=FRWP%20P302&bhcd2=1281949092