Hydrate or DIE!

An Excellent choice for a water filter - the Platypus 2L Gravityworks system

70% of you!

The saying Hydrate or die has been the moto of the popular brand Camelback for a long time now, and it was even adopted as a running joke in my time in the Canadian forces, but truer words were never spoken! you need this to live and depending on the environment you are in if you go without it for 3 days you will literally die... so how does one obtain the proper amount of water to sustain themselves for long periods of time? how do you know if you're dehydrated? what are the symptoms? what is the treatment? what kind of water filter should I purchase?

Where and how much

There are plenty of videos and survival guides out there where you have probably heard all of this before but I'm writing this as if someone had absolutely no idea how to obtain water(the purpose is to improve my writing skills on subject matter I know so feel free to skip to the product review if you are skilled in the art of consuming water). Typically you want to get your water from a flowing source i.e a river, stream, spring, well, lake or even the rain(which has been known to be the purest source that you can drink right away) but depending on where you are you may not have access to most of these, but when in doubt you want to avoid stagnate water sources, in other words water that has been sitting around for a long time. If you are in the wilderness its not a good idea to drink straight from the source, you should filter, purify or at a minimum boil the water to a rolling boil and have it boil for at least 1 minute, but depending on how sketchy the source is I would go longer just to be safe. 

With the advancement in technology today water acquisition can be a breeze! from UV water purification to pump filters to purification tablets the choices and companies are endless but you must follow the instructions for care and cleaning, otherwise you could end up in a messy situation(diarrhea and vomiting can dehydrate you to dangerous levels...don't let the beaver fever ruin a good trip!), ensuring the cleanliness of your system is paramount, and letting water remain stagnate in your gear is no good either, you will develop mold and mildew and more than likely ruin your filter.(I will touch on proper cleaning when I review my system)

So how much water do you need to sustain yourself? this is a question better answered by you... everyone's water needs are different and you will know after a certain amount of kilometers how much you will need over time, you should find your needs out by testing this in a controlled environment i.e. going for a walk on a hot day, bring several liters of water with you and drink as needed if you have water left over put that amount against the distance and time it took you to travel to get a rough baseline, don't forget to adjust for weight carried and terrain you might be going through. the amount of water I carried in the army was often dictated to us but whenever I got some freedom of movement I normally carried 3 liters 2L in a camelback and 1L in a nalgene bottle and whenever we were resupplied with water I would finish the naglene and top up everything every chance I had! sometimes the resupply was...delayed and then you're stuck stealing sips off of buddies which is unhygienic and also makes you very unpopular! but I digress, your water needs are dependent on you as the individual but having the ability to carry large amounts of water is always handy and can be used for other things such as dish washing, bird bath showers, or laundry(I have an excellent piece of gear I will review in another post on this subject)     

Dehydration trouble shooting

What does dehydration look like? in my youth(like 7 years ago lol) I took on a second job as a garbage man in my city, it was hot and heavy work(not to mention foul at times) but it was honest work that kept me in shape, until one day in mid summer I started to cramp up...really bad to the point where I uncontrollably clenched my fists while clenching my jaw and making a pucker face like I had eaten 1000 sour warhead candies all the while feeling very light headed and had the spins like I was on a runaway tilt a whirl. I was immediately taken to the hospital, and was administered 3 full I.V's. The point of this story is that I was a dummy and wanted to work faster and get the job done so I stopped for few water breaks causing severe dehydration to the point of hospitalization...not my shining moment, so learn from a dummy decision I made and DRINK WATER! it sounds easy but you can get caught up in the moment of a difficult task and forget, just be mindful of the weather conditions and the physical activity that you are doing.

Some very helpful indicators for dehydration are the colour and consistency of your urine https://www.landrumhr.com/resources-en/newsletters/risk-management/august-2018/urine-and-hydration-color-chart  here is a helpful chart that tells you if you are dehydrated based off of colour... if you're peeing what looks like maple syrup don't be a dummy like Jimmy the garbage man and consume copious amounts of that thing your made 70% of. It's also not a bad idea to carry around electrolyte packets that you can find at any drug store, and in most times in the children/infant section which is commonly used for diarrhea, they are small and light weight, I would recommend stashing some spares in a first aid kit. Another indicator that you are entering the danger zone of dehydration is that you have stopped sweating completely, meaning your body has nothing left to cool you down, so stop what your doing, take a knee and drink water(this was the remedy for every know injury imaginable in the army I had to throw this in for all my goons in green). The last indicator I am going to touch on is the pinch test, where you pinch a part of your skin(normally on the forearm but try a couple places on the body) raise it up and let go, if it takes longer than normal for your skin to return to its original position....you guessed it.... take a knee and drink water. Now when I say this I do not mean chug like your drinking out of the Stanley cup, small controlled sips and swish the precious solvent of life around in your mouth for a few seconds then swallow, this is done because in some cases chugging water while dehydrated can cause the sodium levels in you blood to drop too low cause water intoxication or Hyponatremia(ya I know big words for an infantryman) which can be fatal. 


  The Platypus Gravityworks 2L system

Let me begin this review by saying this is my first time reviewing a product online so let me know if I can do anything better, I would greatly appreciate it.

To begin I will disclose that my experience with water filters is limited as in the army we were always pushed clean water in 20L jerry cans, but I have boiled my fair share of lake ice during winter operations and I can say with confidence that this system is much easier, faster and tastes much better than boiling water.

The Platypus Gravityworks system works as the name implies, with gravity, by holding the 2L bladder that says dirty above the clean water bladder or bottle you wish to fill. The stream of water is quick and has very simple instructions on troubleshooting and testing to ensure your filter is working correctly.





My apologies for the quality of the pictures but I have put this product to good use, these are the instructions on the inside of the carrying case which is compact, and built out of mesh and nylon.

My biggest draw to this product was the quick and simple ability to obtain large amounts water, by simply scooping water with the bladder that is labeled dirty, connecting the hoses, and raising the dirty bladder above the clean bladder...that's it, once the water starts flowing you raise the clean bladder above the dirty bladder and purge the air bubbles so the water flows better(this is also how you back flush the filter, no syringes required!).

As far as the quality of the filter goes it filters to 0.2 microns, effectively removing protozoa and  bacteria out of the equation. On my last trip I booked a less than ideal campsite on a lake that was not that deep and had plenty of algae and sediment so I really put some faith in the system, it filtered everything out and the water had ZERO taste despite how the "lake" smelled. now a couple campsites later when I back flushed the system a good amount of that sediment came back into the dirty bladder and I had to dump that bladder but I was incredibly happy to see how effective that back flush was!

My next point truly appealed to my love of all things multi-use and interchangeable. this system is compatible with nalgene, camelback, kleen kanteen, and most push - pull cap adapters for sports water bottles. So in a pinch I can use the camelback  as a dirty bladder or clean bladder and use the hoses for each part of the system, making finding replacement parts a non issue... I have a couple videos that wont upload here so I will post them to my Facebook page LumberJack Tact.

Care and cleaning of this filter was too easy, I used 6 drops of unscented bleach and a full 2L of water and let the bag sit over night, the I connected the filter and used the system as intended after the filter was done(which is 1.5L a minute... ya talk about high speed low drag) I dumped the water and washed with hot soapy water and used paper towels to dry the inside as best I could, I then flipped both bladders upside down inserted a wooden spoon and balanced them over a cup to drip dry for half a day, I shook as much water out of the filter as possible and ensured the hoses didn't have any water in them...that's it, ensuring no water is left in the system is key.

The price point of this system is around $120 Canadian with tax and they also have a 4L system which would be perfect for family or group camping. All in all an easy, efficient, a 100% necessary item I carried with me, I would highly recommend this product to anyone who is in need of a good filtration system!

hope you enjoyed the read!

Cheers,


Jimmy 

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