coffee cup water filter

I made this system a few years ago while camping and it's worked well. I haven't gotten sick after using it (knock wood!) Mainly it's used for shower water or water for boiling into drinking water or other cooking (rice etc ...) 


To begin with I made five holes in the bottom of the cup. Somewhat small as I do not want the filter medium to go thru.

Step 1 Begin, make the holes

 

Next, I added the medium, activated charcoal for the final (bottom) layer and washed sand for the upper layer. The sand is mostly to trap material like leaves etc … before the water continues to the activated charcoal.

I used a smaller cup for the sand and a larger cup for the charcoal, so they nest together. After the water drips from the sand, it runs into the charcoal and finally into the final receiving vessel. I’ve used a coffee filter here, but also I’ve done this without the paper coffee filter.

the bubble top came from a whipped cream coffee drink and a 2 liter soda bottle screws into this nicely, creating a reservoir for the dirty water going in .

The water then goes into the cup with the sand, then drips into the charcoal, then drips into your final clean reservoir.

Comments

[DELETED_kage_no_akiri]

(removed by author or community request)

[zoomroom]

I agree completely, this filter is used to remove sediments etc ... to get from mud to a boilable or treatable water. I wish it did, but this filter does not completely sterilize, it's just the first step.
Thank you for the link, I'm surfing the entire site as soon as I can.
Thank you.
pb

[Yandle]

Good work tho, look forward to more!

[zoomroom]

Thanks, this is fun.
pb 

[mycroftxxx]

 This is a very interesting instructable -  I could see it being a lifesaver for someone forced into an urban survival situation.  However, the instructions here are a little hard to follow.  Can you separate each step out and put more pictures in?  I would like to be able to see what order each filtering media is added and possibly some sources for each material in an emergency?
Otherwise, awesome instructable!