What are some of the best products to purify water for drinking when you have no power?

What works best for small amounts of water, that is easily portable?

What works best for large amounts of water purification, for every day use, over an extended period of time?

Keith

On all of my big hunting trips we have used the Steripen. It uses UV light to kill off all of the bacteria and germs. Great for smaller amounts of water. Normally just fill up a Nalgene bottle from a nearby creek and then use it. I don't recall the exact time for use, but I think it is done in around 90 seconds. It doesn't work well in murky/cloudy water. So you would have to filter out or let the sediment settle to the bottom before using it in water like that.

A few drops of bleach will kill anything in the water, google the ratio...cheap too

Berkey is a good one for the home drinking water

Pure silver the size of a quarter in a gallon of water. (IIRC)

Ditto on this, I used one in our elk camp for years as it's bad policy to send a client home with giardia. A surefire way to alienate hunters. I have a brand new one stored for emergencies. Berkey filters are the best, used by the Peace corps in undeveloped countries where you can get diseases and parasites even good Doctors here in the U.S. have difficulty diagnosing.

Lots of good filters on the market for backcountry hunters.

A Google search should yield you lots of info.

I’ve drank many gallons run through a MSR pump or a Sawyer gravity filter.

Haven’t died yet!

Yep on the Berkey for home

Berkey here too. A tad spendy for genuine Berkey filters , but much better than cheap replacements.

A lifestraw is good to have handy. Grayl geopress or ultra press are considered a simple & e-z way to purify water that carries easily. Msr makes some very good Basecamp and trail filters. Sawyer squeeze is popular with thru hikers. Bleach, iodine or boil is always a good option. Bleach, iodine or other chemical is good if you do not want to expose yourself at the water source for anytime longer than it takes to fill up a container.
I like the msr dromedary bags for transporting liquids, variety of sizes are available.

Good luck

Sawyer squeeze. Screw onto a plastic bottle and squeeze through the sawyer and drink.

I use this when in the backcountry

Been using Sawyer products for years when I go elk hunting

https://sawyerdirect.net/

This is what I use.
It doesn't hurt to carry a spare filter on extended trips. I had one clog-up once on a crystal clear stream, everyone in the camp had their water filter clog up though. It must have beem some strange mocroscopic organism or mineral that was in great abundance; I've never seen that happen before.
BTW, Harris Creek, NE of New Stuyahok, AK.

Guess I’ve been lucky. While guiding in Alaska I never used any kind of purification or filter. Never got sick, never had a client get sick.

Lots of proven methods. I think that the situation dictates which method is best in any circumstance.

I have in the past been hiking a trail that had a small stream running beside it. Came upon some people dipping cups in the water and saying how clear and clean it was. Kept walking uphill and shortly came across a bloated-maggot ridden deer carcass in the water....

Used to use this myself. Recommended dose is 4 drops/quart, some friends didn't like the bleach smell/taste so they used 2 drops/qt. They were very experienced back country back packers and never had a problem with drinking some seriously manky water, I always split the difference and used 3 drops/qt and NEVER suffered any ill effects.

Check out CANA provisions… it’s pricey, but it will give you ideas about building your own kit.