Clean Water from Any Source? | Overlanding Water Purification System 

This was a tricky product review to make for me. I really like what this product aims to do (lower the cost barrier for a portable reverse osmosis purifier) BUT it wasn't quite perfect when I took it on the trail. That said, the folks at Itehil were really good about replacing my unit and the new one is working well so far.

Amazing how things evolve. Made a water purification system years ago out of a three stage filter, 12v water pump, motorcycle battery and small solar charging panel. Has worked for years. Now they have them in a tiny package. Great video.

Thanks! I think especially when you're properly overlanding, like driving through S.America, Africa etc. this and a manual pump for backup would be great to have. Lots of advantages to an electric device like this.

Hmmm. Thanks for the honesty 🤠

Very cool! Before you even explained the "grey" water byproduct I was thinking it'd be nice to have less than perfect water for chores. I'd probably bathe with river water though. Maybe feel a little weird about washing dishes with raw river water but maybe wash with river and quick rinse with drinking, don't know, this thing seems to solve that. We're not off the grid yet, so I get to wait while this stuff matures! Even better.

Thank you for such a detailed and honest review. I just saw the Guzzle H2O Stream Portable Water Purification Kit on one of the Overland Expo videos, kinda pricey but curious about how well and reliable would this newer product be.

As far as the 2 outlet tubes, a good way to understand them is if you’re on a coastline filtering sea water. One line will be clean, drinkable water; the other contains the original salt content, plus the salinity removed from the first.

Waste water is in every reverse osmosis filter system and is one reason I've not installed one in my vehicle. Didn't want to waste water. But, as far as pulling water from a natural source, it's a great idea.

Sawyer Squeeze. The end lol

Comment below talking about desalination with this unit, which would be great if that is what it does with the bypass tube. If not, although this seems a nice unit, it seems that it is a bit busy when you can use a gravity filter, particularly the new one by MSR that actually works on viruses as well as bacteria. We currently use the Platypus Gravity Works and it has worked very well and short of breaking the bag, can't fail. We always carry a back up as well. Does this unit work on viruses as well as bacteria?

I’m glad the new one is working better! It’s such a great idea!

Looks like a great unit. I installed a system meant for a house in my van. It's a 7 stage filter system including a UV Filter. Water out of a lake or river shouldn't be a problem.

Hi, thanks for the time you took to review this system. Wouldn't it be easier to fill up the jugs in the river and then use the filtration system coming from the jugs to whatever you need pure water for? I suppose you'd get less drinkable water that way, but it seems like half the time you'd be using it to wash things anyways

That's a pretty cool product. I definitely do like the idea of being able to "regenerate" my water supply. Especially because I only take about 3 gallons of water most of the time and have to refill or ration it to make it last. Thanks for sharing! Interested to hear your long term thoughts once you use it more.

They should alternate the color of those hoses ... I might have missed this. What was the battery life?

Dean Kamen developed a solar powered water purifier that used less power than a blow dryer and used plasma to purify even the dirtiest of water. Id buy one of those but haven't seen it on the market

Illustrates why you need to have a backup system something like iodine drops or something like a sawyer filter

That spot looks like a spot I would goto on the green belt. Kinda near garden city city hall.

For backpacking, I've long ago ditched a pump filter and instead use chlorine dioxide tablets. This is for weight/bulk reduction and simplicity. No taste or odor. Almost never have a problem finding clear 'starter' water, so then its just a matter of plopping in a couple tablets per couple liters of water. I'd love to do this for car camping, but the water volumes used are much higher, and those tablets aren't super cheap. Anyway, just a chemical solution amidst a world of mechanical solutions.

This is how RO works. It pushes water through the membrane and membrane being membrane only able to filter certain amount of water, the rest just gets dumped. So there's no way to not have that second outlet. You can either use it as technical water or discard it, which is what's done in most cases. This water is not clean per se as it contains salts and other chemical compounds that failed to squeeze through the membrane (basically the whole point of membrane), but it's cleaner than water that's being filtered since it passed through pre-filter. I wouldn't use this water for anything like washing dishes or taking shower (as it still contains most contaminants) unless you're in a scrutiny or you filter relatively clean water, but then you can probably simply use that water. In a certain way this water will contain more chemical and biological contaminants then water that's being filtered simply because certain percentage of input water gets through the filter as almost pure H2O and the rest keeps all the contaminants becoming more saturated with them. That's why clean water from RO called permeate and waste water brine.

Why not have a connection on the inlet hose where you can connect the non drinkable water and recycle it through the filters again in case your source to purify is limited?

How many liters per charge is that? :D

If makin' coffee is so mpt to ya - Minerals in the H20 is crucial to make great coffee - RO water has no minerals.

I know the video is 1 year old.... but this is IMPORTANT: the input water goes through the machine and a decent percentage (30 to 60%) is transfered through the RO filter annd that is your safe water. The other silicone tube has the remaining water, with all the impurities and shit concetrated in it. They claim it is clean but not safe for drinking because of the carbon pre-filter on the input. Everything that is not stopped by the prefilter will go into the "clean but not drinking" output

Most home RO systems have a “byproduct/waste” vs drinking water ration pending how efficient the system is

dude thats how reverse osmosis works they all have the main out and the secondry otherwise the filters would get blocked

We love our Lifesaver jerry can

No matter how many times someone says 9999 .99 percent it still means 99% only

Are you still using this? How well is this holding up for you?

no dude, its (waste water) the price you pay for any RO system. Read a book.