How to Make a Water Purifier

By Philip Yiga | October 28, 2015

Water is one of the most essential elements to life and people can’t actually live for more than 3-days without taking water. However, clean and healthy water can actually be hard to find in case you get stranded in the wilderness or incase there is an emergency. But in case you have to find your own water-supply then you must also be able to strain-out any impurities from it because if you don’t, you will end-up becoming sink. On the other hand, there are actually several steps you can follow to come-up with a great water filter/purifier and some of these steps have been listed below:

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STEP-1: MAKING A WATER PURIFIER/FILTER:

1. Collect your supplies/materials: you will actually need some materials to create a water purifier/filter. This mainly because you will be making a water-filter that relies on layers in order to make dirty-water clean. On top of that, you will need to boil this water after filtering it in case you plan on drinking it. some of the materials you will need include; plastic-bottle with a cap, coffee-filter, craft-knife, hammer and nail, large-cup, activated charcoal, gravel, sand and a container for catching the water.

2. Cut the bottom of the plastic-bottle off: use a craft-knife to cut the bottom of the plastic-bottle off by 2.54-centimeters. This can be done by simply sticking the knife into the side of the bottle and then begin cutting it slowly all around. But in case you’re a kid/child then ask an adult to help you’re with the cutting in order to avoid occurrence of any accidents like cuts.

3. Add handles to the cut-off bottle: begin by poking 2-holes near the cut edge of the bottle and try to ensure that these holes are opposite to each other then pass a piece of string through both holes and after tie the string into a knot. In fact, the importance of this handle is to enable the bottle to hang as it filters water.

 

4. Create a hole in the cap: afterwards, use a hammer and nail to punch a hole into the cap because this hole will actually help to slow-down the flow of water hence making the filter more effective. But in case you don’t have a hammer and nail at the moment, then you can use a craft-knife to stab an x-shape into the bottle-cap.

 

5. Place a coffee-filter over the opening of the bottle: get a coffee-filter and place it over the mouth of the bottle and then tighten the cap over it. This coffee-filter will actually help to keep the activated-charcoal inside the bottle so that it does not fall-out during the filtration-process. Additionally, the cap will help to hold the coffee-filter in place.

 

6. Put the bottle upside-down into a mug: place the bottle upside down with the cap hanging inside a mug/cup. This will actually help to keep the bottle steady while filling it with the filtration-layers. In case you don’t have a mug or cup, then you may put the bottle down onto the table but this will require you to hold it with one-hand in order to keep it steady.

 

7. Fill the bottom with activated-charcoal: after, start filling the bottom-third of the bottle with activated charcoal and incase the charcoal comes in larger-pieces, then you will have to break them down into smaller-pieces. Crush the charcoal by simply placing it inside a bag then use a hard-object to do the crushing. However, charcoal can get your hands very dirty so try wearing some gloves in order keep the hands clean.

 

8. Fill the middle of the bottle with sand: pour some sand over the activated-charcoal layer and you can actually use any type of sand but avoid using colored craft-sand because it may leak dyes into the water. Additionally, try to ensure that the sand-layer is as thick as the charcoal-layer and at this point the bottle should almost more than half-way full. All in all, only use 2-types of sand which include; fine-grained sand and coarse-grained sand whereby the finer-sand goes first on top of the charcoal while the coarse-grained sand goes next over the fine-grained sand in order to create more layer for water to pass through so that it become extremely clean.

 

9. Fill the top-section with gravel: fill the remaining section of the bottle with gravel but leave at least an inch (2.54-centimeters) or more of empty space between the gravel and the cut-top of the bottle. In fact, don’t fill the bottle all the way with gravel because the water will spill over incase it doesn’t drain quickly. On the other hand, try using 2-types of gravel which include fine-grained gravel and chunky-gravel whereby the fine-grained gravel will go first over the sand then the chunky gravel will go next just over the fine-gravel for best water-filtration results.

 

STEP-2: USING THE WATER PURIFIER/FILTER:

1. Select a container/jar to trap the filtered-water: you actually need to get a jar/container that will catch the filtered-water but make sure that this jar/container is clean and large-enough to hold water you’re planning to filter. In case you don’t have a jar, the use a bowl, pot, mug or even a cup for trapping the filtered-water.

 

2. Hold your filter over a container/jar: after, hold the filter over a container with the cap pointing towards the bottom. In fact, if your container/jar features a large opening, then try setting the water-filter down on top for support in order to avoid holding the filter. But if you had made a handle for the filter, then just hang the filter over something and after place the jar/container under it.

 

3. Pour water into your filter: pour water gently/slowly into the filter so that it doesn’t overflow. If water starts to approach the top of the filter, then stop and wait for the water-level to move down until you see gravel then pour more water into the filter.

 

4. Wait for water to flow into the container/jar: let the water flow gently into the jar but this will actually take about 7-10 minutes because water passes through different layers in order to become filtered and purified.

 

5. Pour the water back into the filter if it isn’t clear: in case, the filtered water is not clear-enough then pour it back through the filter so that it becomes clearer. So, simply take the jar out from under the filter then slide a new-jar under that filter. After, pour the filtered water in the removed-jar back over the gravel. In fact, you may actually have to repeat this process for about 2-3 times until your water turns clear.

 

6. Boil the filtered-water: try boiling your filtered-water for at least 1-minute in order make it safe for drinking. In fact, the filtered-water will still be containing bacteria, chemicals and micro-organism hence boiling it will help to remove all these contaminants. Additionally, if you’re higher than 5,000-feet (1,000-meters) above sea-level then you will have to boil filtered-water for about 3-minutes or more.

 

7. Leave the water to cool: let the boiled-water cool and then store it in a clean, air-tight container. In fact, avoid leaving the standing for long after boiling it because new bacteria may form inside it.