We Built This Bucket Filter Out of Amazon Products. How To Build a DIY Bucket Filter

[@schadenfreud33]

First thought, an hour really? After watching - you guys made the correct decision by letting this video be as long as it needed to be, thank you

[@ajbryant784]

Licensed water plant operator here. This is awesome, sound knowledge. I know they touched on it but I do want to emphasize to people that this is not complete treatment. The water coming out of this still needs to be disinfected by chlorine, heat, uv, etc. before considered potable.

[@AndyAdventuring]

Presumably you could take the water from this, boil it for 20+ minutes, and then store it in a large food-grade container indefinitely? Or is it better to filter and sterilize on demand?

[@ajbryant784]

@@AndyAdventuring Honestly, I’m not sure about the storage part. You’d probably want to boil for an extended Period of time or justover-chlorinate it. The chlorine will neutralize over time and after your residual chlorine is gone, if any pathogens remained in or entered the water they’d be able to reproduce. Easily treated by disinfecting it again.

[@user-dw4cv3xq5u]

Not indefinitely. Natural bacteria will still form and should be changed monthly-6mos depending on seal type, environment and other factors.

[@C.B.W]

This will initially produce ~ 5 ppm chlorine 1 Quart water, 2 drops bleach 1 Gallon water, 8 drops bleach 5 Gallons water, 1/2 teaspoon bleach 10 Gallons water, 3/4 teaspoon bleach 50 Gallons water, 4 teaspoons bleach

[@ArturShield5]

No aspect of this video is valuable. Copy pasted my two replies one of which Spiritus removed. Absolutely worst video you have done. Letting some water run through aquarium rocks from amazon is not effective filtration. The water will still contain bacteria at the end of this process. I also have severe doubts about this being able to combat heavy metals, dangerous chemicals, pollution, etc. Distilling water would be much more effective and cheaper than this, it would remove contaminants, viruses, bacteria. This guy clearly has not really though through this all the way. Also fifty minutes? Let me know if you want a small essay on why everything in this video is wrong. This method of filtration using rocks, sand, and activated carbon/charcoal has persisted on the internet and different survival manuals despite not ever having been effective. This Zach fellow is not an expert or even somewhat informed person on the issue of water treatment and since he runs a business on the topic it's concerning he is portraying himself as such. This is incorrect and bad info and I would advise anyone reading this to not waste their time and money doing this or especially to rely on this is any type of scenario. This channel usually has great info but this is simply incorrect, not useful, and potentially dangerous.

[@dirty-civilian]

Solid dudes doing very valuable content. Good stuff guys!

[@ArturShield5]

No aspect of this video is valuable. Copy pasted my two replies one of which Spiritus removed. Absolutely worst video you have done. Letting some water run through aquarium rocks from amazon is not effective filtration. The water will still contain bacteria at the end of this process. I also have severe doubts about this being able to combat heavy metals, dangerous chemicals, pollution, etc. Distilling water would be much more effective and cheaper than this, it would remove contaminants, viruses, bacteria. This guy clearly has not really though through this all the way. Also fifty minutes? Let me know if you want a small essay on why everything in this video is wrong. This method of filtration using rocks, sand, and activated carbon/charcoal has persisted on the internet and different survival manuals despite not ever having been effective. This Zach fellow is not an expert or even somewhat informed person on the issue of water treatment and since he runs a business on the topic it's concerning he is portraying himself as such. This is incorrect and bad info and I would advise anyone reading this to not waste their time and money doing this or especially to rely on this is any type of scenario. This channel usually has great info but this is simply incorrect, not useful, and potentially dangerous.

[@kevinmcdowell3446]

@@ArturShield5 Did you miss the part where he says you combine this with another form of filtration/treatment???

[@fidel-3470]

As far as buckets go, your local grocery store that has an in-house bakery has free buckets if you ask for them. They get baking ingredients (like frosting) in 3 to 5 gallon buckets and they often just throw the buckets out. They're food grade, often have lids, and just need a quick rinse. If you want to buy them and you have a Winco near by, that's often the cheapest food grade bucket around.

[@JackJdawg]

Sam’s Club will give them away. Some of them are square. I wonder how much that matters.

[@ploob906]

Uniformity will make the construction simpler. As many square buckets of equal dimension/ As many round buckets equal dimension

[@JackJdawg]

@@ploob906 based on my experience with Sam’s, they will give you enough to make 2.

[@user-jn7if5cv5s]

Zach is the absolute man. Solid human being.

[@NorroTaku]

good guide! especially liked the tool pre prep section PS: deburring tool comes in handy working with plastics

[@tristar-tinker_3706]

50 min of washing rocks well spent I didn’t think I’d learn near as much as I did

[@Bmaier69]

Bubble hash bags come in 220-20 micron they are very heavy duty food grade and also are sized to buckets. You can get an American made set out of Colorado. Excellent content as always!

[@cana_provisions]

@bmaier69 - good tip! I'll look them up - Thanks!

[@musician445]

This is so freakin cool dude. Zach's company and these concepts are just a revelation on an incredibly important principle.

[@joshlyons5781]

I just built 2 systems for myself and 2 for friends. Thanks Zach (TUSC grad)

[@Frankthetank686]

I enjoy coming to your page, website and channels because there is always good quality information that you guys provide but also from the community as a whole. There is always someone who knows more and share's high-quality information so that as a community we can succeed.

[@journeyman7189]

Excellent demo as well as the what's and why's. How did I miss this 7 months ago? Nate

[@Jeanmat]

I would strongly recommend using distilled water for cleaning the activated charcoal. You can sometimes get pre-cleaned activated charcoal. Otherwise, using tap water may diminish it's life. For the rest of the filtering media, tap water is fine. As I watch, further comments: You can add additional layers of sand and activated charcoal depending on your water situation. And you can always run the water twice or more in the filter. Secondly, if you're going to store these "ingredients" for future SHTF use, it's important to seal up that activated charcoal to prevent passive air filtering. Thirdly, using food dye isn't such a great idea considering the seriousness of the ordeal. Getting a TDS meter (they're not expensive), getting a PPM baseline when it's new and monitoring it as you use it will be safer. Anything above 300 is unsafe. Though depending on how well the media was cleaned, it may be higher at first then progressively lower. Also, a final chemical treatment is pretty much mandatory as even if your TDS is low, it doesn't mean your water is 100% safe to drink (just very likely). Especially in their scenario (stagnant water in a pool). Either using water purification tabs or reconstituted chlorine (pool shock powder). Don't use liquid chlorine as it's not shelf-stable for very long. Also, for this step, you can finish it off by boiling it appropriately if you have access to a heat source.

[@Mr6o8]

solid info! we did something like this back in boyscouts, everything in layers in a 50gal drum though.

[@craigrobertson6082]

Excellent demo and explanation. Great jobs, fellas.

[@ChipWooder]

OUTSTANDING!

[@nightfury6836]

Brilliant work gents!!!

[@The_Argent]

Good set up. A tip for cleaning out the larger media would be to grab a couple pieces of 1/4" hardware cloth and making a basket out of that.

[@NorroTaku]

awesome idea!

[@readmyjournal]

That was VERY helpful.

[@KipKaspertly]

Some thoughts: Storing water for an extended period of time before or after filtration should be avoided. Washing the media in the bags should be avoided, especially with the rock, use the mesh screen to purge them initially. For the sand and carbon you could lay it out on some plastic with a slight incline to allow the lighter material to slowly wash out. Using a brew bag prior to sand or carbon step can be avoided, those gravel steps become kind of pointless if you’re filtering to 160 or 250 microns with the brew bag. Depending on the ceramic filter you are choosing to use, some are 0.5 microns. Your lifestraw is a 0.2 micron membrane. Do with that information you feel like, personally I would consider that potable water. Some more theory, the amount of holes is actually important, the amount of time through each filtration step should be tuned, the amount of media in each step should also be considered. This will make those steps count. I think this video is a good way to dip your toes into water filtration but looking at real designs and calculated considerations is ultimately where you need to go.

[@lancet.346]

So cool! I would figure out a way to secure the system to a wall if you live in an area that is seismically active. I've had to clean up a few messes back in the day.

[@roschellerumley3566]

Great job ❤

[@drewspencer9769]

Look up portawell. They have a good filter system. You can run it by a large battery or pug it in. You should also own a power station like jackery

[@Blackout22442]

When are we getting the Eye of Sauron water tower sticker? 😂

[@thaihiggins8637]

Thanks brother's for this keep the content coming.

[@LaVistasays]

This is awesome but grab a colander or pasta strainer from the kitchen to rinse out the larger media 😂

[@matt1730]

Rice washer.

[@Shardalon]

Couldn't you layer multiple layers, inside the bags still, in one bucket? Like, put the charcoal in first, drape the bag over the bucket as usual. Shake and flatten out the charcoal. Then put the bag of sand on top, and drape that bag over the bucket as well. Shake and flatten again, etc. Just curious.

[@jakeblasdel3454]

You don’t wanna rupture your bag.. but in all seriousness, great video. Thanks

[@Vilreen]

You could avoid having to cut the stainless mesh by using plastic wash bucket standoffs to get the media off the bottom of the buckets :) would make it slightly more expensive though

[@drewspencer9769]

Google RV inline filter system. You can run these systems with a drill pump

[@jacobhesington6725]

This is awesome.

[@nathanrollins1948]

I learned a lot from this video

[@ricardosolis8855]

For a better circle cut out, drill a screw in the middle of the bucket. Take a string, tie it to the screw. At the other end tie it to your sharpie and let the string guide you. Probably another unnecessary step but if you want to be precise then it’s an option.

[@unfi6798]

Great principle simple system.

[@thealchemist-hr8me]

Potash Alum (Potassium Aluminum Sulfate) can be useful for aiding to increase the speed and effectiveness of the sedimentation process prior to filtering I'd also keep some Iodine or something similar on hand to ensure the potability of any filtered water that cant be boiled in the event of a true emergency Also, incorporating some Sodium Bentonite Clay and/or Diatomaceous Earth as part of the filter media can increase the filters effectiveness due to differing atomic charges and adsorption characteristics compared to just AC I commonly build my own mixed media filter stacks with cotton/cellulose, sand, activated carbon, and celite545(activated diatomaceous earth) which I use for removing contaminates from solvents and extracts in my lab and it works extremely well 👨‍🔬 --RuneShine, Michigan's Norse-Druid Alchemist✌💚🙃

[@cana_provisions]

Great info there! Would you please email me at: [e-mail] if you're interested in continuing the conversation!

[@jn8601]

This is great.

[@chargingsumoproductions9526]

Is the thickness of each filter element 4" and stackable in a bucket? Do the dome filters need to be in its own bucket?

[@rogues1hit]

Super informative

[@scarlite4518]

Great video!

[@TheSteathysniper]

love these videos

[@mindaugassaulis3979]

Could you start with muddy water instead of clear water?

[@ArturShield5]

It might not come out clear then. This video is basically misinformation.

[@cana_provisions]

We routinely run this demo with filthy water directly out of the swamp at DARC. When confronted with visible chemical contamination as shown by discoloration that is not stripped by other methods (such as Sawyers) the carbon layer will remove this "tinge" to the water - if your material has been prewashed. You can quickly experiment with this yourself by adding a few drops of red food coloring to your water and let it percolate through your system. You should see that water run through clear. Again, to emphasize the point, this methodology is an simple way of providing a first-pass filter to remove large sediment and some chemicals for the water. As stated in the video, you should always rely on a secondary methodology for disinfection (chlorine, UV, etc.) afterwards.

[@Revo_Fan]

GearSkeptic has a great video series on water filtration that has great information, it uses lab reports and analyzes their results and product misinformation to look out for when looking for a water filtration / purification system

[@nealdefluri]

I like to put the aquarium rocks on top so the snails have a place to live #darcwater

[@sweetteamobster8225]

Talk to me like I'm dumb. You mentioned life straws. So is it through the tower then through a life straw then treat with UV or other means? Life straw would need the attachment to hook up bag or whatever to get water from tower delivered?

[@joshlyons5781]

Yes this is to Pre-filter the water before you use it in a hollow tube non renewable gravity filter system. Such as life straw, katadyn, msr .etc. after filtering with these systems you will still want to treat with chlorine such as aqua tabs h2go / UV sterilization like steripen or thoroughly boil the water if you have access to heat.

[@The_combat_trucker]

I like these videos! On spiritus channel

[@LowKeyKoqui]

What pants is Adam wearing been looking to get a pair but don’t know the name

[@SmokeyTheBrisket]

I’d suggest adding a water flow meter. When you have a lot going on, you can easily loose track of how much you used this. Pen and paper also works, but then you have to remember to write it down 😅

[@Kycirion]

Personally I would wash the pea gravel in a collander the first time around. Work in batches and the particulate will naturally wash away.

[@senorplisskin]

What quantitiy/amount of carbon is that bucket you purchased?

[@cana_provisions]

For this I purchased the 6.8kg quantity - but I did not use all of it for the demo. I always prefer to keep a safety stock of the material on hand.

[@senorplisskin]

@@cana_provisions much appreciated 🙏 grabbed a can and h2go from ya and was pumped as hell to see this in my email 💪

[@cana_provisions]

@@senorplisskin Thank you for your business! Glad some of my comments are going through - some of them seem to be getting bounced.

[@senorplisskin]

@cana_provisions all good 👍 so much info out there dude it's hard to find a place to start but actually @truenorthtradecraft put me in this direction 👉

[@pyeitme508]

Wow 😳

[@lentztu]

What about flood water? I’m still looking for some filter/purification info on something for flood water since that probably has nasty chemicals. I don’t think this set up is for that, I’m suggesting for future discussion or content. Flood water worries me due to gas, lead, feces, etc in it.

[@theDudeOfDudes]

"The Power of Settling" is actually the name of my newly released book on a healthy marriage.

[@InfernoPhilM]

Adam is even nicer in person

[@christophergrogan4644]

Man I would put those rocks in a macaroni strainer in small amounts and rinsed it lol.

[@oldgravely]

you could add or sub a layer of media with a layer of zeolite, it will capture heavy metals and nitrogen and amonia

[@oldgravely]

And the zeolite can be reused or recharged by drying it in the sun, the UV will drive off the VOC's

[@coyotetacticalsolutions]

Zach you know me, I’m lazy brother. Toss those lids in the laser cutter and bang em out 😁

[@christaylor77723]

Why not buy an adequate amount of commercial filters to put in the buckets to sustain you for the long term? The water is actually potable after using a quality filter. Filters like the Berkey last for multiple thousands of gallons.

[@MapleHillMunitions]

This reminded me of a PSR video intro. 😂

[@ElTubeo1515]

Bugging in > bugging out

[@drewspencer9769]

They sell food grade buckets at Lowes

[@3vil3lvis]

The methodology is spot on, execution is precarious at best. The overall height and weight of this tower is less than idea because it is top heavy, difficult to load and troublesome to dispense.

[@cana_provisions]

@3vil3lvis agreed in the height and weight department. This is one reason I will often times demo this by nestling the buckets to compress that overall height. I have seen folks actually build an exoskeleton like tower to help in that stability and maintenance process. We're always looking to get better!

[@drewspencer9769]

Be careful with silica sand. You don't want to breathe it in

[@kenatpach]

This is killer! multitude of sexual and possibly racist innuendos aside. 🤣 JK... great info, and presentation was spot on! Love the "if you're gonna build one, build two. That turns a couple of months of austere living into four, by my math. Thank You Cana and Spiritus!

[@billynomates920]

thanks for your video - i think. i say think because who doesn't know how to build a bucket filter? learned that as kids yet instead of moving by your video, i clicked. well, something made me do it and that made me think. when i was a kid, the cold war was very much on and maybe that's why it was normal kids knew this in detail. then i thought again: if it's making a comeback, maybe things aren't so great? 😕

[@DylanJones-d4v]

Is it just me...or did he not actually use the pea gravel in this video?

[@brennendodd187]

This comment is to help the algorithm

[@PistoleroJesse]

It's like making rice....

[@user-dw4cv3xq5u]

Get the blackness out lol

[@jackthomas4169]

Dumb old fools way to do it is also set up your rocks and such then just put in bathtub and let the tub run until the water comes out clear and then you can get your Sawyer filter

[@99cobra2881]

Buy bleach powder Dont waste money on liquid bleach

[@pushbak5289]

Gonna be that guy, but anyone know what pants these two are?

[@thomaswgoodwiniii]

Zach is wearing the Cordell Combat Pant from @TacticalDistributors

[@pushbak5289]

@@thomaswgoodwiniii appreciate you

[@Anonymous-b3m]

lmao, third world tactics with first world tech.

[@spinny2593]

I can't listen to girly slow jazz while I'm working. I need some punk rock damnit. Like... is this what you listen too when you get into a gun fight? Or is it slayer... angel of death?

[@ArturShield5]

Let me know if you want a small essay on why everything in this video is wrong. This method of filtration using rocks, sand, and activated carbon/charcoal has persisted on the internet and different survival manuals despite not ever having been effective. This Zach fellow is not an expert or even somewhat informed person on the issue of water treatment and since he runs a business on the topic it's concerning he is portraying himself as such. This is incorrect and bad info and I would advise anyone reading this to not waste their time and money doing this or especially to rely on this is any type of scenario. This channel usually has great info but this is simply incorrect, not useful, and potentially dangerous.

[@SeldomCorrect]

You have my attention

[@ArturShield5]

@@SeldomCorrect Letting some water run through aquarium rocks from amazon is not effective filtration. The water will still contain bacteria at the end of this process. I also have severe doubts about this being able to combat heavy metals, dangerous chemicals, pollution, etc. Distilling water would be much more effective and cheaper than this, it would remove contaminants, viruses, bacteria. This guy clearly has not really though through this all the way. Also fifty minutes?

[@cana_provisions]

​@@ArturShield5 I agree with you about the potential presence of bacteria or viruses in the final state. This system is intended to function as first-pass filter, not a purifier. We have used these extensively to prolong non-renewable filter life by not filling it to capacity with sediment. With regards to your statements on the Still: you are absolutely correct. Distillation is a known, highly effective water treatment method and if you have that equipment and/or skill(s) necessary to fabricate a Still, that's a fantastic capability that you have and you should take full advantage of. Two details that ought to be considered are the thermal signature of your still as well as the proportion of fuel required to produce X amount of water. In the event of heavy metals and petroleum products being known threats, you can add a layer of KDF into the mix to help strip those contaminants out of the water. Again, please email me at [e-mail] where we can pick up this conversation. I'm looking forward to seeing your essay and continuing the discussion.​

[@kevinmcdowell3446]

@@ArturShield5 Did you miss the part where he says you combine this with another form of filtration/treatment???

[@CelticGermanicTxWarrior77]

Great info. I'm just gonna use a salt water filter. I live blocks from the ocean.

[@tyrant6647]

Maybe spread media on a screen and use an air compressor to help lift loose dust out before flushing with water?

[@BcFuTw9jt]

Wouldn't just setting up the bucket to take Berkey or similar filters been a lot easier?

[@cana_provisions]

You can absolutely set it up to take the Berkey or similar filters in the place of the ceramic elements. However, if you take really dirty, nasty pond or swamp water and add that directly to those ceramic elements without first removing some of the silt, sand, and sediment, those elements are going to clog up extremely quickly. When using Berkey or equivalent ceramic style elements, I make it a point to try to get that water as clear as physically possible first.

[@tenaciousdann735]

Great video!