DIY Salt-Water Survival Bottle (Compact Desalination Kit) 

My uncle in Tennessee had a huge version of that. I don’t think he was distilling salt water, though.

A lot of steel water bottles have a non-stick coating inside. Also important to make sure that yours doesn't before boiling water in it.

I would recommend using only stainless steel parts. Copper in contact with distilled water oxidizes quickly and this oxidation contaminates the water. Another tip is to leave dolomite tablets in contact with water for a few minutes to raise the ph and recover magnesium and calcium. We also have to be careful with excess boron in desalinated sea water, sometimes the steam pressure drags the boron. I prefer to use brackish water.

Good trick during the ad, using the cute bird as a lure while you talk on! I salute that subtle yet effective trick.

If you use an open fire to cook while camping; you can use bar soap and splash of water to coat the outside of the cookware in a thin layer. This will allow the soot from the fire to be clean off very easily when finished.

i absolutely LOVE your little bird friend!

Your bird is so playful, he's very comfortable with you. Good addition to adverts, gives something to watch so the ad doesn't get skipped.

It is important to keep the copper clean as it will oxidize along with picking up a black substance that is more dangerous. The best way to clean is use citric acid solution and then rinse well. Some will rinse with a 50/50 vinegar/water solution followed with straight water.

This video is so calm. It's a nice break from the constant excited energy of youtube. Even channels like yours are hyped and energetic.

I normally quite like your conversational style in your more science-based videos like the gasifier, but this is a perfect example of how to do an instructional video. No unnecessary flimflam, no tangents, just "these are the parts you'll need, this is how you build it, this is how you use it". Great stuff (and a very neat looking finished product as well!)

Something to keep in mind with this, stainless steel when heated to a certain point creates chromium carbide. This is bad, when the chromium has been reduced to a certain point stainless steel begins to corrode. You'll see it when stainless steel begins to show purple bands in it, that means it's too hot to maintain it's resistance to corrosion.

I have recommended this project to all my co workers. (Outdoor ed)

This is the sort of advice that is almost entirely pointless to know .... right up until the moment when it will save your life. Brilliant video. Thank you.

I love that you show the trial-and-error and 'failed attempts' during all of your projects. Most representations I see of science/engineering in movies/tv/other media just show the idea→final product and I think it gives a false impression of what this work actually requires.

I was once lost in the woods and I had a compass, but all I could do was draw circles.

Really cool! Back in the 60s/70s, my dad used to make me little steamboats using this sort of technique.

what i like about your videos is that they are high quality. and it seems that you dont care about the algorithm favouring frequent uploads at the cost of quality. I also like how we can actually do what you do.

Wow there is a real DIY, not a comercial profesional tool used, just regular cheap ones everyone got at home thanks!!

1. Try a bottle with a lid that goes all the way to the outside of the bottle, and a liner. Can remove liner and use it to catch distilled water. Place the liner back in the bottle for storing freshwater so you don't have a salty taste. 2. If enough space, can place coil between this liner and metal bottle. 3. Since the temp should not exceed boiling temp, can use plastic tubing instead of copper. 4. Use screw fitting rather than soldering - soldering can break down at high temps. 5. Use the tubing for the bend rather than a fitting to drop weight. 6. When buying fitting, also buy an endcap so it won't spill water when using for water storage and not distilling. Leave fitting on tube rather than relying on compression for easier change out. 7. Installing copper wool in the tubing increases condensation (more contact area for water droplets). 8. Burn inside of bottle thoroughly to remove any lining. 9. If hard to remove gasket, buy 2 lids - 1 for distilling without gasket, 1 with gasket for water storage.

Good demo and video. My thoughts for improvements while I was watching it were: 1) it would be good to be able to adjust the height of the bottle to control the heat; this could be just a knot in the rope, or other device, and 2) you could stuff the damp cloth inside the coil, instead of draping it overtop. Better yet, have a vessel, like your food mug, just the right size so you can immerse the coil in it.

Pure Michigan: "I am surrounded by freshwater seas. I should make a video about a compact desalination rig." Your videos are a joy to watch, and I certainly hope they help lots of people be safe. Which I am pretty sure is why you make them.

Oh man, you just can't stop improving, can you? I've been following you since airsoft video.

the best sponsored outro I've ever seen! How cute and playful she/he is?!

Adding flux before your solder piece might keep things in place a little easier. I think it helps the solder adhere better as well.

Spreading the copper coils apart will lower the amount of heat one coil will transfer to the next. It allows cooling air or water to reach all sides of every coil. I like your design. Very compact and usable.

Finally, I can make moonshine on the go.

A connection tube about 8-10" long or so to connect the bottle and the cooling spiral could give 2 advantages: - more distance between the cooling spiral and the heat source under the bottle - the connection tube could have a knee that brings the winding of the coil in horizontal position. Open the coil (separate the windings about 1/2 inch to each other) also helps the condensing water rinse out the tube. Tat helps keeping pressure in the boiler constant, so You'll have less "boil over".

Never tried it, but filling pipes with sand before bending them, helps to keep their shape regular, especially with larger diameters and narrow bending angle

I've been tinkering with water distilling for a few years. Just rewatched your video and love the tip about submerging the coil. Awesome video... I love your projects.

This will be very useful in the coastal communities of countries that are frequently hit by typhoons/hurricanes/cyclones as this lets them get drinking water from the ocean...

Your little buddy is ADORABLE!!!!

Thanks for the super-practical video that doesn't require a lot of expensive parts or equipment! Sweet!

All I would do is make the distance between the coil and flask greater to maintain the differential or shield the coil from the heat source with anything reflective or something insulating and not too flammable like bark. I doubt, however, this would improve function by much. I'm always happy to see your videos pop up, thanks.

Thanks for a great Video! The bottle in fire automatically turns to black, but that's a layer of tar, which is poor conductor. If you use flame blackened kettles on fire, they are less efficient than clean ones. So, if you look forward to boil the water with solar energy, i recommend to find some special paint for that, instead of tar layer. 😎👍

Stainless steel is perfect for this application. That is why it is used in many laboratory and production setups, even as pressure vessels. The temperature required to make chromium carbide is not reached as long as a fluid is inside the container. Another improvement would be to design the coil in such a way as to allow it to be buried in dirt, which is then moistened, to improve the cooling and collection properties. One problem with this design is that a lot of steam still escapes, and floats away. By burring the coil in wet dirt/sand it improves the collection amount by a country mile!

This is absolutely brilliant and quite possibly the single most valuable diy survival sustainability video I've ever seen. Good lord man, thank you for this one.

Came for the portable desalination bottle method, stayed for the bird. Adorable.

"HONEY? WHERE IS MY MOTHERS STAINLESS STEEL BOWL?"

i remember watching your videos religiously years ago, just got this vid in my recommendation. how the hell was i not subscribed

Pretty cool. People who live on ocean coastal areas may need this someday. Thanks for posting.

your CO Host steals the show.. and MY heart

honestly if you made a kit with everything including the stove I would buy it in a heartbeat

I HAVE SEEN QUITE A FEW DIFFRENT DESIGNS -YOURS IS THE MOST SIMPLE AND PRACTICAL TO CARRY IN BACKPACK

Dad was a desalinator guy on the USS Altamaha in WWII. And I ended up working with various steam and refrigeration systems.

Bonus feature: you could froth up a nice latte with that steam nozzle 😂

Spacing out your coils. So the air can get through them. As well with the heat dissipate

But yet we have people dying of thirst in the world while we are literally surrounded by this stuff...It is as simple as you showed ...

Awesome video. First off, please ignore all of these negative comments. These people went to the comment section and never finished the video. The others are just stupid. This is a great idea. I'm making one of these for my hiking pack. Its not just for salt water but if you have fresh water that is murky and some water still tastes awful after boiling, this will fix that and get out other minerals that might be in there that might not be good for you. You boil water for survival, you purify water for sustainability. Just because you boil your water doesn't mean its safe to drink for more than a few days. Again, great video.

successfully used a bird to make me watch a whole ad

Great piece for the kit. Minor point : heat first, then flow solder.

Instant favorite. Your design is amazingly simple and effective. I know what I'm adding to MY survival kit!

Your worm (copper coil) should always be going down hill. As you have it the distillate will pool up inside the worm causing resistance and spurting on the output. On a larger scale, would cause a dangerous over-pressure in the boiler.

I think this project along with a solar lens, would be a great kit for travelling in the sea!

Its a great design for a portable distillery though and I thank you for sharing it with the public. I commend your work and I believe you are doing a great job of presenting important material to your viewers. Thank you again

That little birb makes me smile! He is having so much fun! haha

Just an extra tip. Pour your favorite beer in the canister and distill and whiskey is made. Enjoy. 👍

You should start a daily vlog channel. Your bird is so interactive with you. Great job raising it. So interesting.

This is pure genius! Great compact design.

I love these types of video nice to see someone making useful and interesting projects

That little setup would catch you a felony in Florida

You mentioned the solder weld, and your best results "gentle heat" - what's more likely is that you've heated both parts consistently, to the melting point of the solder simultaneously. This has been my experience. Heat both piece up slowly so they reach the melting temp at the same time, and then apply a little more heat until the solder "wets" and wicks up the parts, remove heat and let the joint cool on its own.

Great to see the courses you take on product/ industrial design are already paying off!

Excellent design and advice on the soldering!

Lol!!! That birdie was about to put your eye out with that pen! It must be one of his favorite toys because he looked like he was having a lot of fun with it!

Planning a 2021 cycle trip in the Moroccan sahara, It's a good idea to take this with me as a backup. thanks for sharing.

Check out the new Community Video Response playlist on my channel page! I'm trying to recreate the video response feature from the early days of RU-vid. Since video responses have been missing from the site it has felt a lot less like a community and more like channels are islands off by themselves. I made many friends on RU-vid years ago by filming responses to their videos and vice versa, so lets try to make that happen again. If you have made any of my projects film a quick video of them and send me a link to: NightHawkVideoResponse@gmail.com. Looking forward to seeing your videos and featuring them in the playlist! Link: ru-vid.com/group/PL1a2HkcVbmAUhkDqaCxd1sXXQVvuOR-_H

For anyone having trouble soldering the copper to the stainless steel (it can be tough to get it to stick and not just bead off), Ruby Fluid Stainless Steel liquid flux is great for that. Apply it to where you need the solder to go, heat up the parts, and apply the solder.

Cool! I'll just throw a butane torch, copper coil, an old gallon paint can and empty water container in my backpack, just in case I get stranded near an ocean. Very practicle. Thanks.

Ill remember this, The day might never come that I need it but now if it does come I got somthing ill remember,

So many RU-vid channels start out really well, then relatively quickly sell out their quality in exchange for money or popularity. Not so with yours. I have been subscribed to you for several years now, and every video you make is just as good as the one before it. Great job man! Thank you for your constant originality and consistency. Keep it up 👍👍👍

while i was watching i felt so much thirsty, that i had to run and start drinking water, love it :)

Cool (or hot) project (I.e. depending on your perspective). That was fun to watch. Thanks for sharing.

Having a community response playlist is just such an amazing idea! I remember when RU-vid had a video response feature where you could link your response to the original video, but that got sloppy real fast. But a curated playlist is an amazing alternative!

how dare you make me want to watch your advertisement at the end. NOT FAIR...cant stop staring at the bird.........so cute, and cool...damn you....lol

Thanks for sharing. I saw another video where they took a pot of water about 1/3 full, put a bowl in the middle, then set a curved pot lid on top except upside down. The boiling water condensed on the lid and dripped into the bowl. Probably the simplest system I have seen.

I live near the gulf and actually made a small ( though bigger than this) still for desalinization , in case of hurricane etc, emergencies when water may be an issue. I used an old beer keg for the container and a bit larger copper tubing. Another upside is, one can save the sea salt for food in a bad time for seasoning and preserving meats. I have tested it, but hope to never need to actually rely on it. Good tip on adding back some minerals, I wondered about demin water, now I know. Thanks.

Great idea for emergencies, thank you for uploading it.

If your stranded on a deserted island, and there is no fresh water source, this is a life saver for sure. I' gonna make one and then run away from home!

Wow! Great video: I will be on the lookout for parts to put one of these together. Thanks so much!

Love your design and your video format. You do a great job with your ads too, I actually want to keep watching even though it’s an ad.

Your bird cracks me up. MORE BIRD! :)

Now make one with a foldout reflective dish that opens like an umbrella so you can distil with sunlight.

Muchas gracias por compartir tan Valiosa información de Supervivencia! Fuerte abrazo desde la Ciudad de México!

Great video as always. Well explained and simplistic design for ease of making. A few recommendation for improving this project is to find an alternative to the small rubber stopper, as this will most likely be easily lost due to its small size and time it takes for distillation/ long time being a loose piece. If possible i would suggest something like a simple valve attached to the elbow and before the copper line fitting. secondly having a parts list either in the video description or shown in the video will help people recreate it as they wont need to search through the whole video for where you mention the piping size or type of vessel used. lastly a small safety tip for distilling water: if the water source is contaminated with chemicals or heavy metals (you may not know in a survival situation), it is good practice to allow the still run for a potentially a few minutes before collecting water to allow volatile chemicals to escape and just dump the residual water as it would still contain the heavy metals. Yes there is the potential of not taking in enough vitamins and minerals if you are drinking only distilled water but I personally don't know the extend of how dangerous it is so I will suggest do your own research/ personal decision. An idea for another project close to this is making a portable small sand filter.

You’d be a millionaire if you sold these on amazon. The next life straw

What a hunk! You can't improve on perfection...

Muito bom! Ótima ideia.

the only way a youtuber can make me watch the ad segment at the end is with a cute bird apparently

This is an AMAZING idea and I will be trying this out myself when I get the chance! Keep the good ideas rolling!

This is great. Watching youtube can be very helpful for us city slickers adventuring out into the wild.

You could always transfer the salt water left over in the desalinator after distillation to a small can and finish boiling it out to collect the salt in that water. Sea salt is quite useful for many things... adding flavor to meats or other foods if you're camping and didn't take salt with you or to simply collect sea salt to take home with you. But if you are in an actual survival situation it can be even more valuable as a disinfectant, a preserving agent and an electrolyte. Great video... that was a beautiful, compact design for a desalinator.

I recommend that you reroute your copper coil outlet (since it's flexible enough) to be dipped at the bottom of the beaker to avoid lost steam and efficiency. Great video.

First time i dont actually skip and ad the bird is too cute !

Clicked LIKE when I saw that adorable black-headed caique

Finally I have a mobile liquor dispenser for my weekends 🤗

This is a very good improvised distillation rig. The product is pure water from whatever quality water is being processed. It could be used on contaminated fresh water or (ewww!) urine. The product would still be wholesome distilled water. I wouldn't add any of the contaminants back in except with sea water though.

Having the bird was a genius idea to keep me watching through the ad xD

This is really cool. I’ve been watching a lot of videos like this because of the impending nuclear war. Never paid much mind to survivalist stuff, but now, move over y’all, I’m getting on the train… TOOT TOOT 🚂 🚂🚂

Thank God, finally a useful invention that can be used for survival when you're stranded at sea on your dingy and have a fire going.

Very efficient design. If I lived or traveled anywhere near salt water i'd certainly be putting one of these together.