Easy Water Filter

I was reading in a survival blog about how almost useless the lowly coffee filter was for filtering water because it was almost impossible to hold in place while filtering. As I was looking at my 32 oz. Nalgene bottle, I was wondering how to hold a coffee filter over the neck so it wouldn't slip off the bottle. I looked around my supply of containers and located a spice container with a flip up lid that I had saved for another project. As it once held onion powder and reeked of onions because of the soft plastic it wasn't going to work for what I had originally planned. Looking at the lid, I realized it was almost the same size as the opening on my Nalgene bottle and my filter was born. The threads on the spice container fit the Nalgene bottle exactly.

Supplies needed:

32 oz. Nalgene bottle

1 standard coffee filter for 12 cup brewer

Cap off a medium size spice container (see sample picture) should measure 2 1/2 inches across

Step 1:

Remove the lid from the Nalgene bottle, leaving it tethered. Open the coffee filter and place it over the neck of the bottle. Insert your finger into the center of the opening and push it down an inch or two into the bottle.

Step 2:

Spread the portion of the coffee filter sticking out of the bottle around the outside of the Nalgene bottle threads as evenly as possible.

Step 3:

Screw the spice bottle lid onto the Nalgene bottle over the filter.

Step 4:

Either pour unfiltered water into the larger opening or just dip the entire bottle into the water until it is full. Once full, remove the spice cap and carefully remove the filter. The water is now ready for boiling, chemical treatment, or drinking directly with your LifeStraw. If you boil the water, you may want to transfer the boiled water into another container to prevent recontaminating your clean water.

Comments

[KylidgeM]

What`s the spice cap for?

[FunE2]

It holds the filter in place and the lid opens to allow it to fill. It comes off and the original lid goes on once the water is filtered. I suppose you could hold the filter on with a rubber band, but they can break and are easier to lose than the spice cap. I hope this explanation clears this up for you. Take a look at all of the steps and you should see what I mean.

[avocadostains]

Nice fit. I think the brita filters are pure charcoal. Charcoal and sand. Probably granular charcoal so it doesnt clog should make a good filter. I keep meaning to try I buy distilled water, thats like 30 dollars per month. I drink rain water sometimes but the roof is so dirty, I dont feel super good about it. I have noticed if Im drinking the distilled out of the cear jug and it starts to get a funky taste from backwash, If i leave it set out in the sun the bad taste goes away. Also water stays fresh/harbors stinky lifeforms much less in an open jug vs a capped one. Super legit first instructable. Very nice.

[FunE2]

Haven't looked into how to put charcoal into this so it would stay in place. This was just meant to get the grit out before further treatment. It would also help your LifeStraw last longer if you used one. Think I'll see if I can add a charcoal pack of some sort to this.

[avocadostains]

My sister is always talking about the lifestraws. They are a good product. There were definitely similarly sized units that worked to filter water by handpump before the lifestraw. I think whats cool about the lifestraws is the idea of drinking directly from a body of water. That is pretty cool. I was reading a bit. Coffee filters filter down to about 10-25 microns. There are a type of filters made to fit wide mouth canning jars (90mm wide) They're called synthetic filter discs, used by people who grow mushrooms. The discs are reusable, You wash them and then can sterilize them in a pressure cooker. I dont know if they would work or not. Just a thought. Here they are for 95 cents apiece. Not as cheap as a coffee filter but more heavy duty and reusable. http://www.mycosupply.com/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?preadd=action&key=SFDI01 Water purity intrigues me. The synthetic filter disks filter down to .3 microns. The lifestraws go to .2microns. The coffee filter water filter would be plenty good for me. Id probably skip it and drink right from the stream for the adventure.

[FunE2]

This was just intended to get rid of the big stuff. I will check out the synthetic filters to see if they would work. Thanks for the idea.

[kking35]

Good idea

[amberrayh]

That's a cool idea. Congratulations on your first Instructable! I hope we see more from you in the future!

[FunE2]

Thanks