I too don't think there are enough threads on water. It's something everyone needs and most in this country take for granted. I guess working for a municipal water company I'm rather biased.
There's more to making water potable then just killing bacteria and viruses. And the idea of drinking water with a turbidity of 30 isn't something I look forward to. The river we draw from to make potable water usually has a turbidity of 2-3 NTU. You can see the bottom of the river @~ 6 feet but that's far from the Federal standard of .3NTU. The water we process typically runs ~.03NTU and there's still a chance of Chrypto and Giardia being present.
And running a sand filter without the process steps of coagulation/ flocculation, and sedimentation will not make clean water. I've seen it here when the chemical feeder here craps out. Turbidity increases are sure to follow and a rapid sand filter won't do much of anything. Water leaving the filter won't be much, if any, cleaner.
There are several proven steps that need to be followed if there is any hope of producing potable water.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_purification
Coagulation/ flocculation
sedimentation
filtration
disinfection
I don't know enough about ceramic filters or the Berkey black filters to give any idea as to how well these work or for how long. I do know that they are a much finer filter then sand so they should catch more things. But they would also clog more frequently, just the nature of the beast. Backwashing would clean out some things, though the surface scrubbing would only get some of it off. What gets inside might not get washed out completely.
I also don't know enough about plastics but most things these days are sold in them. I assume they're kinda safe, though not as safe as glass.(never heard of clear, lead free, glass leaching anything. Colored glass maybe.) I do know that the sun does have an effect on many plastics, yet not so much for glass.
There's more to making water potable then just killing bacteria and viruses. And the idea of drinking water with a turbidity of 30 isn't something I look forward to. The river we draw from to make potable water usually has a turbidity of 2-3 NTU. You can see the bottom of the river @~ 6 feet but that's far from the Federal standard of .3NTU. The water we process typically runs ~.03NTU and there's still a chance of Chrypto and Giardia being present.
And running a sand filter without the process steps of coagulation/ flocculation, and sedimentation will not make clean water. I've seen it here when the chemical feeder here craps out. Turbidity increases are sure to follow and a rapid sand filter won't do much of anything. Water leaving the filter won't be much, if any, cleaner.
There are several proven steps that need to be followed if there is any hope of producing potable water.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_purification
Coagulation/ flocculation
sedimentation
filtration
disinfection
I don't know enough about ceramic filters or the Berkey black filters to give any idea as to how well these work or for how long. I do know that they are a much finer filter then sand so they should catch more things. But they would also clog more frequently, just the nature of the beast. Backwashing would clean out some things, though the surface scrubbing would only get some of it off. What gets inside might not get washed out completely.
I also don't know enough about plastics but most things these days are sold in them. I assume they're kinda safe, though not as safe as glass.(never heard of clear, lead free, glass leaching anything. Colored glass maybe.) I do know that the sun does have an effect on many plastics, yet not so much for glass.
