Sometimes, you want to carry the absolute least amount of gear with you on your outdoor adventure. And when it comes to water purification, the least heavy product you carry with you are water purification drops or tablets. With these, all you have to do is drop them in the water you want to drink, and voila, the water is purified of waterborne parasites, bacteria, and viruses.

Traditionally, the most popular form of lightweight water purification has been iodine tablets. While they are effective, they also make the water taste nasty, and they can also create potentially harmful byproducts that you end up drinking. Yuck.

A better solution is using chlorine dioxide. Although chlorine dioxide has the word chlorine in its name, these two chemicals have different chemical structures. The additional oxygen atom in chlorine dioxide changes the molecule and creates completely different chemical behaviors. In fact, chlorine dioxide has been proven very safe, and is used by many water purification plants around the world to purify water. It does not create any harmful byproducts, and there is no bad taste.

In the past, it has been hard to use chlorine dioxide to purify water on a small scale, but McNett has figured out a way to do it easily and inexpensively in their Aquamira Water Treatment Drops.

Aquamira Water Treatment Drops consists of two bottles, each with a different chemical components. To use it, you must mix each of the chemicals in equal parts, and then wait five minutes. At that point, you add the mixed chemical to your water, and then wait from 15 to 30 minutes, and then your water is ready to drink.

Here's what makes Aquamira Water Treatment Drops world class:

• They are very effective, purifying water against parasites, bacteria, and viruses.
   
• There is very little taste produced in the water, after treatment.
   
• It is easy to use.
   
• It is relatively inexpensive.
   
• It is very lightweight and compact.
   
• One Aquamira Water Treatment kit includes two, one-ounce bottles, that treat up to 30 gallons of water.

Aquamira Water Treatment Drops are useful for anyone who is on an outdoor adventure and needs larger quantities of water treated against virtually all sources of waterborne diseases. It is also a good idea to keep a kit at home, in case your water supply becomes contaminated and you can't safely drink it.

Using the Aquamira Water Treatment Drops in the Real World

Don't wait until the last moment before you need to purify your water for drinking. Because you have to wait for the drops to work in water, you may want to take the time to plan ahead for your water needs. For example, in the morning, prepare all of your water before you begin your outing. This way, you won't have to treat the water throughout the day.

Be sure the source of your water is clean, not from a muddle puddle or a glacier stream. In these cases, you will need to prefilter the water to get all of the debris and sediment out of it first, then treat it with the drops. A carbon filter, or in a pinch, some clothing, can be used to prefilter the water. Also keep in mind that the drops can't remove bad stuff, such as nasty chemicals. So if you suspect that the water has chemicals in it, then you will need another form of water treatment.

Recommendation

I highly recommend these drops, especially if you are used to using iodine tablets now, as they taste much better and are just as effective, if not more so.

Product Notes

The MSRP is $11.95.