Water Filters or Boiling? Which do you prefer?

[Srobocop]

I'd have to assume water filters are pretty much the way to go, but does anyone boil their water? Any thoughts on this?

 

[Robin]

I bring a filter, but when I use a packaged meal that requires boiling water, I don't use the filter, right out of the lake. I also drink straight out of many Canadian lakes, far offshore if the wind permits me to be out there. Nothing like dipping your cup over the side of your canoe and quenching your thirst.

But, I always bring a filter rather than boil drinking water.

 

[memaquay]

Filter, if lazy, drink right from lake/river/mud puddle/beaver pond.

 

[Odyssey]

Filter gadgets are getting easier and user friendlier. What I most like about filters (besides the peace of mind) is the (near) instant availability of clean cool water, rather than waiting for boiled h20 to cool down. I have dipped a cup in a lake or stream, and (so far) not suffered any unpleasant results. I try to filter enough water at the start of a day for cool drinks all day. Having enough filtered water at camp, using a gravity bag filter, means we tend to use filtered water for cooking also. Just a habit now. Before this bag thing I was only using a pump filter for drinking, it was too much of a pita for cooking. Boiling is fine.

 

[red langford]

Filter. Sometimes I boil but not on purpose. I'll boil up some water for various uses, cooking, tea, washing or whatever and the leftover will go into the Nalgene. And yes, from time to time I do drink right out of the lake.

Interestingly enough the German visitor I met this year never filters nor boils unless he is in questionable waters. What make this so interesting is he works in the water treatment plant in Germany. So he knows what's in water that can hurt you.

 

[Canotrouge]

I'm like Mem, we do have a gravity filter that we use at camp, but most of the time we drink strait from the rivers/lakes. Boiling is also good enough, we don"t use filtered water if it is to be boiled for cooking or drinks like coffee or tea.

 

[clemency]

I once got giardia from a spring 100 feet down from a 10,000 foot pass in the Rockies. It was very unpleasant. I filter or steripen now.

 

[Canotrouge]

My brother in law had the same experience 3 times... He doesn't even brush his teeth with un treaded water.

 

[tump_lion]

still drinkin' the lake water...i think i like spruce bog water the best...

 

[Jonas Sjöblom]

I usually drink directly from the river or lake. But it has happened that I got sick so nowadays I'm a little careful, especially if there are beavers around..
But I make fire for both lunch and dinner so I can just put a pot on it while eating.

 

[Cookannapurna]

Like others have said, I filter all drinking water and boil all water for cooking. The newer gravity filters have become so easy and inexpensive, compared to the old days, there is no excuse not to filter other than personal preference.

 

[yellowcanoe]

filter if I am in camp. Never boil.. I don't filter water I am going to boil for a meal. If I am thirsty on the water I drink from the top of the lake. UV rays act the same on the lake top inches as a Steripen does. I do this at home too from my lake.

 

[Guest]

-I don't filter cooking water,just let boil 3 minutes
-at a base camp or heavy trip,I use a filter for drinking water
-when going lite,I use aquamira drops for drinking water
Turtle

 

[redoleary]

I filter drinking water but use it straight from the lake for cooking. I'll often just keep a pot of water on the fire just to have some on hand and if some of that is left over I'll pour it in my water bottle. But I prefer filtered to boiled for drinking.

 

[memaquay]

Some people are more susceptible to beaver fever than others. I had a buddy, who like Redcanoe's friend, had to use filtered water to brush his teeth. I sometimes wish I could catch the dang thing, because it's one hell of a weight loss program. One of my buddies got it and lost 40 pounds in two weeks. Despite all my efforts, I haven't managed to get it yet. I remember there was a water engineer over on Myccr who claimed that filtering was a waste of time, because of all the cross contamination issues. He maintained that there was no way for the filtered water to remain unblemished because so many parts touched each other. He thought that most incidents of beaver fever on group canoe trips probably came from improper hand washing(trace amounts of fecal content) and food preparation.

I use a ceramic filter now, mostly because it makes the water taste very nice.

 

[riverstrider]

Like others here, I use a filter for my drinking water, and boil cooking water. I also take along extra gas or iodine tablets as a back-up to the filter ever since my previous filter experienced a catastrophic failure on day 2 of a 7 day trip. On that trip, we were very fortunate to be able to buy extra gas from Raymond's Store on the Northeast Carry (and also very fortunate that our shuttle service had not yet moved our cars from the Lobster Stream paring access). We were also able to supplement by catching rainwater flowing off of our tarp.

-rs

 

[Mnoutdoorfunguy]

We filter all of our drinking and cooking water with a Katadyn Pocket Filter that has a charcoal filter on the outlet side of the ceramic filter. Our cleanup water is not filtered. Katadyn Micropur tablets or boiling provide the backup.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Waiting for s cheap desalinated for ocean canoeists. Under a grand!

 

[sailsman63]

I have to say, I was excited when this topic came up. The info has been helpful.

I have a sort of auxiliary question for those who have used the tablet type stuff: How effective are they? I'm thinking compact enough to be a backup/fit in the ditch bag, not for general use.

 

[Mama]

Filter