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Bears poop in the woods. You need Purinize

  • Ron 

Purinize_2_ounce_largeWater borne illnesses. You hear about them all the time. Whether they are protozoal, parasitic or bacterial, there’s all kinds of nasty stuff in water that can make you sick.

If you spend time biking or hiking in the backcountry (or even where water sources are questionable), the risk of picking up something nasty increases. Sure, you can carry around a dedicated camping water filter, but they get it little bulky.

Purinize turns the water purification model on its head, neutralizing and coagulating any contaminants in the water. It actually works in a four-part process:

  1. Flocculation: Dissolved, invisible impurities to come out of suspension.
  2. Coagulation: The impurities are neutralized as they clump together and become insoluble.
  3. Precipitation: Once coagulated, the insoluble, neutralized impurities solidify as they precipitate out of solution.
  4. Deposition: The precipitates settle and are deposited as sediment at the bottom of your water container.

I tested the Purinize with water from our rain barrel. While rainwater is generally clean, all manner of nasties can accumulate in the barrel and the hose over time. After collecting the water, I added the appropriate number of drops of Purinize and let the water sit. Now, Purinize says that you can consume the water immediately after adding the product, but I wanted to let it sit for a full 24 hours to see the full effect of the process. It only took an hour or so before there were ‘floaters’ in the water. After about 12 hours, the floaters began to clump together and after the full 24 hours, they had fallen to the bottom of the glass.

This is how the water looked after about 12 hours
After 24 hours big clumps of material had accumulated
More junk captured by Purinize
Use a filter to get these clumps out.

Once again, I could have chosen to just drink the water, but Purinize recommends using a 1 micron filter to get out the clumps.

I used the Sawyer Mini Water Filter and effectively left the nasties at the bottom of my bottle. All that was left was pure, if a little ‘generic’ water.

Laboratory tests have confirmed that Purinize can remove or neutralize all of the following:

  1. Bacteria: Removes 4 types of bacteria
  2. Hexavalent Chromium: Purinize converts toxic hexavalent chromium into non-toxic trivalent chromium.
  3. Chloramine: Purinize reduces chloramine to undetectable limits.
  4. Fluoride: Reduces sodium fluoride to undetectable limits.
  5. VOC’s: Reduces 80 volatile organic compounds to undetectable limits.
  6. Chlorine: Reduces chlorine to undetectable limits.
  7. Industrial & Agricultural Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals: Reduced up to 99.5% of over 70 different industrial chemicals, over 70 different agricultural chemicals, and over 30 different pharmaceuticals & basic drugs.
  8. Micro-Biological NSF P-231 Test: Reduced 99.85% of rotavirus & poliovirus I, 99.95% of klebsiella terrigena, and 99% of giardia lambia.
  9. Cryptosporidium Test – showing that Purinize reduces cryptosporidium by 97.1%
  10. MCHM Chemical Test – showing that Purinize reduces MCHM (WV chemical) by 99.9% after 48 hour treatment.

Purinize is lightweight and convenient. The ‘pocket size’ bottle ($15.95) is just 2 ounces and will treat up to 60 liters of water. If you’re storing big drums of water for the eventual zombie apocalypse, their 8 ounce bottle ($35.95) is enough to treat a 55 gallon drum.

Purinize is 100% non-toxic and safe for everyday use, does not lose its potency over time and, when stored properly, can be used for many years.

To conclude, Purinize is really easy to use. Still, the fact that the company recommends backing the product up with a filter (and all of the tests were performed after using a filter) gives me pause.

So, trust but verify? Use the combination of Purinize and a small filter to make sure the water is completely clean and clear? I’d love to see a small inline filter that I could use with my Camelbak.

Tags: Chemical elements, Chemistry, Lightweight, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Water
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