Are you a natural wanderlust? Do you enjoy making travel itineraries throughout the year? Do you like venturing into the wild, immersing yourself in historic destinations, or checking out the hottest spots in different cities and countries?
If your answer is yes, then now is the perfect time to invest in an item that can get you through your travels. Apart from having essentials such as food, clothes, toiletries, gears and phones, it is an excellent idea to get a portable water filter to take with you anywhere you go.
Water is a vital component when traveling as this provides proper hydration despite being always on-the-go. It is undeniable that a common problem travelers often encounter would be the lack of a clean water source for drinking. Fortunately, water filters are now made portable and available for everyone, most especially for jet setters or frequent travelers.
What is a Portable Water Filter?
A portable water filter system is a device that a traveler can take and keep in handy to access clean and potable drinking water. This gets rid of contaminants, chemicals, and bacteria that may cause harm to the person. Portable water filters come in a variety of types and mechanisms, read on as we tackle them one by one.
Different Kinds of Portable Water Filters
Straw Filter
As its name implies, straw filters function similarly to a regular straw. Picture the device as a lightweight, enormous straw that has several layers of filters inside. This is used like a standard straw where you have to draw water directly from the water source up to the mouthpiece.
The only difference between the two would be that this requires a stronger effort to draw water from the water source.
Straw filters utilize a hollow fiber membrane that comprises of tightly woven fibers that trap viruses, bacteria and parasites. With this build, all the entities and elements found in the water are not able to go beyond the filter layers thereby giving clean water that is free of sediments, debris, bacteria, residue, and foul odors.
Pump Filter
This type of water filter entails connecting a lead line to a water source and another line to a water container or recipient. Once both lines are connected, a hand pump will be used to draw and filter the water. These come with varied filters such as fiber, ceramic, block activated carbon or an activated carbon.
The filtering process works similarly to that of a straw filter. However, the drawback of this one would be that it does not completely filter water from bacteria and other organic entities. It involves the use of hollow membrane filters and mechanical filtrations to get rid of contaminants.
Overall, this gives water that is clean and with an improved smell and taste.
Bottle Filter
This is a favorite for many travelers as this can be used with or without the filter. It utilizes fiber filters and solid block activated carbon filters to clean the water. The way to use this would be by pouring water into the bottle and having it go through the different filter layers until filtered water reaches the mouthpiece.
This is known for working well in decreasing the presence of arsenic, heavy metals and other forms of water contaminants. This is excellent in blocking viruses and bacteria, plus it keeps all the good minerals in the water. If you want to know more about how to use one, you can check on a water filter guide.
Gravity Filter
A must-have for campers, trekkers and people who generally love the outdoors, gravity filters are the most convenient water filters to use. This utilizes two containers that are set up right above each other. To use it, water is poured into a container and is then subjected to pass through the filter mediums used with the help of gravity.
Filtered water will then end up in the other container which is created with a tap that facilitates transfer into a water container or recipient. This is known to be effective in eliminating viruses, bacteria, parasites, protozoa, pesticides, herbicides and chlorine. This is a bit larger than other filter types as it comes with multiple parts.
UV Filter
A battery-powered water filter, this can be used by hikers and campers who need water that is free of parasites, viruses, protozoa, and bacteria. This works fairly fast and is capable of improving the taste and smell of the water. It does not remove essential minerals during filtration too.
The only drawback for this one would be that it does not filter out chemicals such as chlorine and more.
Conclusion
A portable water filtration system can do wonders for your water quality. This should make it to a jet setter, a traveler and a hardcore wanderlust’s travel essential list. Hydration is important, and so is clean drinking water.
Make sure to get one for your next trip, you never know what’s in the water, so best practice would be to filter it out using one of these amazing water filtration systems.
