You can save a lot of money by making your own water filter system.
Clean water is essential for life. A person can live without food for several days, but it is very difficult to live without water. That is why it is so important to have clean water at home. Every day a person drinks about 2 liters of water per day.
Yes, tap water is safe to drink, but it has many impurities that need to be removed, but buying a ready-made water filtration system can cost a fortune.
You can buy bottled water, but you will spend a lot of money, although you can invest it in something more important and economical.
How to make a water filter using a plastic bottle?
Make a device that will filter out bad water using materials at hand. We will follow the design method used by NASA engineers and scientists.
It’s important to know! This method is not designed to create pure drinking water. You shouldn’t drink it because it can still contain contaminants that you can’t see.
You will need for your diy water filtration system:
- 1 empty plastic water bottles.
- Scissors.
- Paper towels or napkins (if you spill water).
- Gauze.
- Rubber band.
- Filter materials (cotton wool, sand, gravel, raw pasta, coffee filtersw, sponge, ceramic rings).
Step 1. Make dirty water
The dirty water sample will replace the waste water. It happens that they consist of different elements of the earth.
There are many ways to make dirty water. You can take some dirt from the ground and mix it with tap water, then add food coloring for a heavier task.
Step 2. Cut off the bottom of the bottle
To make a diy water filtration system, you need a filter cartridge.
So, take an empty plastic water bottle, and cut off half an inch, working from the bottom up.
The neck of the bottle is the bottom element of the homemade water purifier, and the place that you cut off will be the top. Remove the cap from the bottle. You can poke a hole in the bottle cap with a screwdriver.
Put gauze on the neck of the bottle and secure with an elastic band. Turn the neck part of the bottle over (so that the gauze part is facing down) and insert it into the other half of the bottle.
You can put more water filter elements in your filter, in which case you will need two bottles or larger bottles.
Transparent bottles will give you the opportunity to see the filtration process.
Step 3. Fabric filter
Place a fabric filter in the bottle and place it firmly against the neck. You can use several cotton swabs or a coffee filters as such a filter.
Step 4. Wash the filter media
Before you start filling the bottle with filter materials, rinse them all well under running water. This is necessary so that there are fewer contaminants in the upper part of the passing water.
To create a diy water filter system, it is important to choose more natural materials such as sand, gravel, ceramics or small stones. Therefore, rinsing them is a very necessary step in creating a clean water filter.
Step 5. Prepare the charcoal
If you have charcoal from a grill or fire, this is a great option. Break the charcoal into small pieces with a stone or hard object at hand. Take the charcoal and wrap it in cloth. Next, place the charcoal in the bottle opposite the first piece of cloth.
Step 6. Add sand
The diy water filter system is that you first add a good cleaning element, and then add layers of coarser elements.
Lay the sand on top of the charcoal. You don’t have to fold it into the cloth, but it should be enough to cover the charcoal cloth.
Step 7. Add gravel, ceramics or stones
Next, you can add cotton wool, ceramics and other improvised filter materials. The last layer of this filter is gravel. You can easily find it in nature.
Since the bottle itself is not large, you will only need a small amount of it.
Step 8. Test and evaluate the results
Make sure your job is done successfully. Take some more fabric and pull it well over the bottom of the bottle. Secure it with a rubber band.
Position your filter over an empty container. Pour the dirty water that you made at the very beginning of the experiment into the filter and watch the water just a few minutes.
Write down the results. What to review? What to remove or add? How long has the water been filtered?
Step 9: Try Again!
Rate your filtration system based on the water filtration result. You can use a different effluent for each test to make it easier for you to evaluate how well your filter is performing.
As you test, you will notice that some filter materials perform better than others. Keep testing your filter.
Outcome:
These stages suggest that filtering water at home (or on a hike) is not difficult, as many people think.
But remember that you definitely need to use water purification tablets in order to have water.
A few more simple schemes for Homemade Water Filter
1. Inexpensive water filter bucket Berkey
This is an inexpensive water filter that consists of two five-gallon buckets and black Berkey filters.
Typically, the filter cleans approximately 3,000 gallons of water. The system can be upgraded with up to four filters that will purify approximately 12,000 gallons of water. The buckets are suitable for food products and have a convenient lid.
2. How to make a BIOFILTER FOR WATER with your own hands?
Instead of using expensive filters – build your own biofilter. This filtration system is often used to purify water. This filtration will be enough for you to have drinking water. Your body will rid itself of the remaining microorganisms that could pass through the filter.
This biofilter filters water in the same way as other purification systems.
The standard for them is that the water, after being filtered, must be relatively clean in order to be drinkable. To do this, they create a multi-stage system to filter all harmful trace elements from the water.
Another biofilter removes impurities and pathogens from the water, so you end up with drinkable water.
And you can diy water filter!
You need to create three separate layers:
- Gravel
- Sand
- carbon
Each stage of purification filters different substances, making the water clean enough to drink without harm to health, even if you took this water from a dirty reservoir.
The first layer removes large debris. These are small sticks, leaves and beetles. The water then flows over the next sand layer, which filters out the smaller particulate matter, who were able to get through the gravel. The water then flows through a layer of activated charcoal, and rids the water of bacteria and some chemicals.
Carbon is considered the success of the biofilter.
The porosity of carbon means that just one gram of carbon has a surface area of more than 500 m2, which is what makes it so effective.
So, now the process of creating a biofilter
You will need:
- Gravel, sand and carbon.
- Several five-liter containers or buckets.
- Screen.
- Ring saw.
- Several plastic fittings.
By using the fitting, you will control the flow of water and see when materials have flowed from one bucket to another.
- Pull the fiberglass screen over the fitting that will be attached to the inside of the bucket. Then fix it with an elastic band or glue it.
- Make a hole in the center of the two buckets at the bottom, the diameter of which is similar to the diameter of the threaded part of the fitting. Make another hole of the same size in the side of the last bucket just above the bottom.
- Connect the fittings together so that the bottom or side of the bucket is between them. Point the shielded part of the fitting upwards. To create a seal, take an o-ring and place it between the fittings.
- For the bottom bucket, you can add a fitting with a flexible tube for the outlet. This will help you pour the filtered water into the pitcher.
- Make a hole in the center of the lids for two containers that is slightly larger than the fitting. You don’t need a tight fit, you want a fit that makes it easy to collect your buckets.
- Cover the screen to keep it safe. To create such a lid, you will need small plastic cups. Make some holes in the sides of the glasses, and then attach the cup upside down over the fitting.
- Gravel, sand and activated charcoal should be rinsed well under running water to remove all dirt.
- Now you need to put 2/3-3/4 filter elements in each bucket. Activated charcoal should be placed in the lowest bucket with a fitting on the side. Attach a lid with a hole to this bucket. Next, install a sand bucket and a gravel bucket on top of it. There should be no holes in the lid of the top bucket.
Now the homemade water filter will be able to filter enough liters of water per day. To get even better quality water, you can aerate it after filtering. Aeration is not a complicated process. Pour the water back and forth several times between several containers.
3. Diatomaceous earth diy water filter
You will need:
- Large transparent bottle
- Drill
- Knife
- coffee filters
- Cotton balls
- diatomaceous earth
- Activated carbon
- fine sand
- fine gravel
- coarse gravel
- plastic straw
This homemade water filter will remove small and large particles, not germs and bacteria. You need to boil water to make it drinkable.
- Take a 2 liter clear filter bottle. Remove the bottom of the bottle completely. Then make a small hole in the lid. This bottle will be the body of your homemade water filter.
- Place the coffee filter on the inside of the neck of the bottle. This will be the last filtering part of your water filter.You can use silicone glue to glue the edges of the coffee filter to the bottle.
- Turn the bottle over. Put 2-3 tablespoons of diatomaceous earth. This will be the first layer above the coffee filter.
- The second layer of the filter will consist of activated carbon.
- Next, lay fine-grained sand, it should be at least 2 cm. Pour a layer of coarse-grained sand on top.
- Place a layer of fine and coarse gravel on top of the sand layer. About 2 inches for each layer to fill the entire filter.
- Insert the wine cap into the hole in the lid made in step 1. Place the filter over a large glass or jar. Now, the water you pour into the bottle will gradually flow through each layer and coffee filter.
This process is similar to how water is filtered in nature, flowing through various rock deposits and clay.Use this diy water purifier system to sanitize your water supply!
Frequently asked Questions:
What materials are needed to water filter yourself?
Any materials that are at hand will do: gauze folded several times; cotton wool; paper, napkins, sand, coal.
With such components, filters that you can make yourself will not last long, but are suitable for short-term use. The components are poured into the container sequentially: filter layer, charcoal, sand.
A few simple ingredients, properly paired together, can provide cleaner water in any environment. Just make sure you know if you need to boil it before drinking.
Is it possible to a diy water purifier out of wood?
Water filter made from a tree branch removes 99% of E. coli bacteria.
It is best to use white pine branches with the bark removed.
It is necessary to fix the branch in a piece of plastic tube. Sapwood, which is made up of a porous tissue called xylem transports sap from tree roots to tree crowns through a system of tiny pores and vessels, and naturally lends itself to the task of water purifier from contaminants as small as 70 nanometers.
Is swamp water drinkable?
To get drinking water from swamp water, you need to prepare the ingredients for your homemade water purifier well. You will need: sand, small pebbles and coal.
When might you need a DIY water filter system?
Knowing how to make your own filtered water one can be very helpful when traveling! If you like to go hiking, then your pure water may run out, then you will have to get clean water yourself! But how to do that?
With your own filter, of course! With their help, you can purify water anywhere and anytime.
Whether you’re looking for a house water filter system for your home or just a project for kids, we hope you find one that suits you!
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