How to Make a Homemade Water Filter

In a prolonged survival situation, getting clean drinking water is extremely important. Having a reliable filtration system that can help turn dirty water into drinkable water is a must for every preparedness-conscious individual. Unfortunately, many preppers often avoid buying a quality filtration system because of the costs involved.

An alternative solution is to make a homemade water filter and the good news is that you need just a few materials – materials that can be cleaned and reused time and again. Here, you’ll learn how to make a homemade water filter.

 

To make your own homemade filter, you need:

• A clean 2-liter soda bottle or any other similar-shaped container

• Clean piece of cloth or cotton

• Activated charcoal

• Sand: Both coarse and fine sand grains

• Gravel: Both coarse and fine gravel grains

• A Collecting container

• A paper coffee filter

 

Steps to Make a Homemade Water Filter

1. Cut off the wider part of the soda bottle (This is the bottom of the bottle)

2. Place the soda bottle in your collecting container. This will provide you with a reliable platform to use while filling the bottle with the supplies.

3. Grab the clean cloth or cotton batting and put it into the bottom of the soda bottle in order to give the water a last cleaning stage. This will also prevent any other elements from entering your collecting container.

4. Place the filter supplies into the bottle in layers in the following order: activated charcoal, fine grain sand, coarse grain sand, fine grain gravel and finally coarse grain gravel.

5. Repeat the above procedure until the soda bottle is almost full.

6. Position the paper coffee filter above the layers and start adding water. This filter will help to remove any elements and provide you with clean water in your collecting container.

 

It’s really as simple as that! Remember it is important to add several thin layers instead of just one thick layer because doing so gives each layer several times to filter the water. Moreover, it acts as an extra shield if you are dealing with very dirty water. In case you put just one layer of each supply, if the layer fails, your water filter will be ineffective. When each layer is repeated several times, the water gets cleaner and cleaner as it passes through each layer.

A filter of this type is cheap to make and will be as effective as most commercial water filters.