FWIW, I always wipe off my monitors with rubbing alcohol on a cotton cloth -- that removes oil and grease film from cooking, etc. that plain water won't take.

filter that is designed to make safe drinking water out of ponds/pools/etc.

You can google Berkey Filters to see a host of YouTubes on how they work. The dirt and food coloring tests have the best visuals.

I have one at home and work and sometimes sell them.
They Rock!

in love with these things. LOL!

A friend thought I was nuts for investing in one, even though 3 drops of rain will issue boil water warnings here in our 'burg. I took my sport Berkey to his house and filled it with tap water, yard dirt and red food coloring. Had him drink a glass of cold tap and a glass of post filtered water side by side.

Guess who then asked for help picking out a model.



There are a gazillion videos on these. The ones I kept were on stream water and the dirt/coloring test, but may not be the best. Do you have video(s) bookmarked that do a good job in explaining Berkeys?

It would work, but the filters ain't that cheap that I would want to shorten filter life.

Sorry, swamped at work. I don't have links handy. If folks drink the water from the shiny Big Berkey, the filter sells itself so I don't have much effort towards internet back up.

Berkey filters normally last a reallly long time. At my rate of work usage- about 5 years.

That is NOT the venue for proving by visuals. I used my little plastic sport Berkey for the gotcha.

But it specifically wont work for salt water. Might work for my contaminated stream, but not my uninhabited island that almost disappears at high tide scenario.

I did a quick google on home desalination, and there are a host of options out there from what looks like mini processing plants to well water solutions and even one site that is promoting some kind of portable option? Guessing you already looked into those.

You may also want to cross post this thread in the DIY & Home Improvement group in the offchance some of the off-grid/solar peeps have come across this?

I hadn't. Was being lazy and not using the Google. But now that its in my face, I may have to do so. Heh.

Not that I actually expect to ever be in a position to need the info, but idle thoughts lead to research for me.

I thought about DIY, and I also considered posting to the lounge. Lots of smart people there mixed in with the rest of us smart asses.

I do appreciate the Berkey thing. I had never heard of them. I started watching the videos, and was quickly pulled up short and informed that I was not allowed to purchase one unless/untill I wore out my current water filter. And seeing as that is still new in the box, an unused relic of the past when we had disposable income(or any income), it seems unlikely I can justify, or afford even if I could justify, that kinda purchase.

is that it is just the evaporate when water is boiled. It takes a lot of energy, since you have to have the water boiling to produce the steam. You then collect the steam by cooling and there you have it----water, and the rest is left behind. I remember doing this in a chemistry class with a few tubes, but like I said---lots of energy used.

I also do not know if it will work if the original water has volatile chemicals in it. Seems to me that some of those chemicals may evaporate with the steam and be collected.

There must be a way they get the chemicals out. I guess the heavier minerals stay in the boiling pot. I know we use distilled water in our fountains and steamers to keep the deposit build up out.