Boiling Water To Kill Germs and Organisms

[Qweetzy]

The subject of boiling water to kill germs and organisms came up last week when we were out walking. How long do you usually boil your water to make it safe? I've heard that bringing it to a boil will kill giardia and other waterborne nasty stuff. What do you do?

[Morgan]

I boil water whenever I don't have enough drinking water. I can't rely on springs because I'm not sure if there are dead animals or plants upstream.

I will wait 2 minutes more after the water started boiling to make sure that the water is safe to drink.

[LivingToCamp]

That's always a good idea to do if you aren't sure if it is safe to drink. I think 2 minutes sounds good after it has started boiling. I think I have heard something about 5 minutes though, so not real positive.

[Refrigerator]

Originally Posted by Qweetzy

The subject of boiling water to kill germs and organisms came up last week when we were out walking. How long do you usually boil your water to make it safe? I've heard that bringing it to a boil will kill giardia and other waterborne nasty stuff. What do you do?

New studies show that bringing water to a boil is effective...you do not have to boil for minutes....

[Lamebeaver]

I don't boil, I use a filter. Boiling wastes too much fuel.

[Grandpa]

Originally Posted by Lamebeaver

I don't boil, I use a filter. Boiling wastes too much fuel.

Agreed.
Boiling also doesn't remove the heavy metals and other nasty stuff in the water.

[Red_Dog]

Another filterer here.

Boiling is not very practical for backpacking. I tried it once on a 2 day trip as an experiment, and won't do it again.
As stated previously fuel consumption is HUGE. Further, once boiled, it has to cool down before you can drink it. Annoying.
(boiling is however, a good back-up if my filter ever fails)

Having said that, for car camping, it might be a reasonable option if you can boil in large batches and fuel is not a problem.
Oh, another thing I discovered in my 'test'...Water that has been boiled and then cooled tastes 'flat'. You can fix this by pouring the water back and forth between two clean containers for a minute or two to re-aerate (another annoyance).

Something else to keep in mind when you have to 'treat' your water...use the treated water to wash your hands, wash your face, brush your teeth and do your dishes.

[pastywhite]

For most areas, it just needs to boil. As you go higher in elevation water will boil at a lower temperature so you will need to let it boil for a few min to get the temperature higher. Temperature of 185 will kill most critters.