Is this SAFE? Testing the Gypsy Well Primitive Water Filter 

Hey Clay, The lab here to explain why 2 sample were run instead of 1. It is required by a lab to run a duplicate with every batch of samples. Since yours was the only surface water test that day we had to run a 50/50. Less than

“If you don’t hear from me next week then this was probably all bs” bruh took me out with that comment 😂😂😂

Some of my favorite videos, the blending of primitive with science

What a lovely little green frog. Amazingly patient and unafraid of the human contact. I'm sure it was grateful in its own way of the rescue.

when i was a kid, back about 65 years ago there was an old man named Dover who lived in a house with no plumbing, down at the end of the lane. he had an open spring house near his house and we used get water out of it on hot summer days when we played near his house. the spring was lined with flag stone with a 3 sided shed with an open front. he kept half of a coconut shell there to drink from. we never got sick from that water and it was crystal clear and cold. i still get all my drinking and cooking water from a spring pipe along the state game lands road which is dirt. it's called the " ox bow " spring. never get sick from it. water right of the ground is the cleanest water you'll ever drink, tastes better to. find yourself a spring and enjoy. nice video.

Clay, I am tempted to remain silent but I looked through some of your comments and notice that no one talks about parasites. I accept that especially in deep soil wells like you are using the incidents and likelihood of parasites is severely reduced. Similarly your lesson specifically talks about dewatering and part of the reason for that isn’t just bacteria but parasites that live in dirt. Most if not all community testing facilities don’t test for them because most deep well systems that are using aqueducts that are essentially free. But especially your dirt well (frog in the water) having natural dirt and other creatures which sometimes have parasites in their system it is worth mentioning. Even worse are human excrement transmissions in the dirt where the passage of parasites is even more likely. Also the eggs (cysts) of parasites that require the warmth of a body to hatch are very durable and remain inert for long periods of time even when frozen (snow and ice). All this to say that it is worth mentioning that great care should be taken when dewatering and protecting the well from creatures. Also I think the use of UV might be even more useful where cryptosporidium cysts are possible. Your use of plant stalks to wick and filter water is an excellent method of filtering these parasites. Lastly it might be worth mentioning the signs and symptoms of infections along with treatments (namely rehydration with treated water). But also as we drink and survive longer in an area we change our natural flora and fauna in our gut and then no longer have many digestive or health problems. Being aware, knowledgeable and ready to live in our natural environment is most definitely a valuable skill. Thank you for these great videos.

A warning about your tip of using tree bark to line the natural well: When wood rots, it produces methyl alcohol (aka wood alcohol). This isn't the alcohol that's fun on a Friday; it's the kind that makes you go blind (and worse). As long as the water is being cycled through (drunk, dumped out), it's probably fine for short-term use; but it's not great as a long-term option, and you're probably better off with silty water. If you must use bark to line your well (e.g. in soil that collapses in on itself and fills the basin), use green bark from plants you know to be non-toxic, empty the water daily, and change the bark out regularly - like every week or two. A better option would be small rocks or sand or (if you're lucky enough to be in clay-rich soil) bake some tiles.

I’d seen this well purification method used on hillside underground rain runoff by Taromovies channel, so it was great to see the lab analysis prove the concept. I especially appreciated the use of the sun’s UV as a secondary purification step. This is solid skill-building stuff! Please keep it coming. Thanks!

Want to see a homemade charcoal filter tested.

You have given this 72 year old woman such valuable info!! Water has been one of my prep worries! I on a well but with no electricity it is useless. Bought a lot of filtration supplies and tablets and a sand point well set up but 20 ft water supply kind of scared me. Your videos have given me more confidence in the sand point …..plus other alternatives. Thank you SO much for the information you share!! I have a creek for my goats but was concerned about my potential drinking water problem

I was very amazed at the treebark in your previous video on how clear it got the water. I'd like to see you do something like that again but with the charcoal and gravel like you mentioned. Great work Clay!

This is so interesting... Love this series of videos. Please, do keep making these.

Thanks for running this experiment for us, Clay. Interesting results. Here's to hoping you've evaded ye olde Beaver Fever. 😄

You could line the outside bottom of the bucket with a cotton cloth, or tight woven fabric to help keep the water clean

Not many people can make survival skills look easy, but you sir, continually surprise me. Still reeling over that season 8 dominance!

I was one person that mentioned being interested in seeing a test on that previous video as I waa a bit sceptical. Thanks for revisiting it!

Great video! The lab analysis is a fantastic addition.

Thanks a lot for revisiting this. It is a really important knowledge to have. Even if there is no major catastrophe it help to be able to know how to make a small well and boil the water just if somebody is lost in a wilderness for several days. See you next week.

I've known about this for about 50 or so years give or take. Something to do before digging your well is to look around the area you will be digging for signs of animal trails and avoid those areas when possible place branches or other debris around as a deterrent to keep animals from walking over it or thru it. I like the bucket idea. however we did line the water hole with rock. We did this along side of a creek several feet from the bank. Also I've done it near a lake as well. Thanks for the lab tests we never tested the water and I'm sill here so it is drinkable. lol

Thanks again Clay!! I must say you pay WAY too much attention to negative comments......those people never leave their parent's house!!

I love these practical ideas on using primitive methods to get water, good to know!

Man your vidieos are gold. I always forget to give them a like... my bad for that... im still working on bow drill fires... i tuned in for your bow building content before you won the dang show!!! Cheered for you the whole time and i still am. You rock brother!

I've seen this done near the ocean with the pit dug far enough inland to get fresh instead of salt water, and filling the hole with beach sand to act as a filter.

Being a half a mile from a small river, this is great to know. Loving your videos and keep up the great work!

Great practical demonstration, thank you.

Yes sir 👍 We always did coyote wells when longterm camping. Works very well and never got sick. Very good 👍

This was very informational, it is nice to see the more primitive way to filter water, when you might not be able to rely on modern gadgets to filter water.

Of all of the RU-vid videos that I have watched (including many that have significant educational value) yours are the most useful and life worthy. Thank you so much.

Thanks for putting this out there.

This is a fantastic series. Thank you so much, from Australia.

That was a beautiful little frog.

This is a fantastic series. I love the respect you showed for the frogs. Thanks!

Love these Scientific videos. Experiments and lab result analysis are always fun.

These videos are awesome, so glad YT recommended me your channel!

Yet another great skill for obtaining drinking water,thanks for your knowledge 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Hope we see you next week!

you definitely are up to crack the industry Mr Hays... thank you for that!... keep'em coming please...

Great information, thanks for posting 👍

Absolutely impressive! Your dedication to testing the Gypsy Well primitive water filter is truly commendable. By exploring and experimenting with traditional methods of water filtration, you're not only ensuring your own access to clean water but also contributing to the knowledge and understanding of primitive survival techniques. Your willingness to innovate and test such methods demonstrates your resourcefulness and commitment to self-sufficiency. Keep up the fantastic work in exploring and sharing these valuable insights into primitive living and survival skills! And I am Floating Village Life.

Amazing. I’m really interested in seeing lab results before and after with primitive charcoal and sand filters you always see people do. I’ve looked in the past on RU-vid and couldn’t find anyone doing a lab analysis.

This is a great series, Clay.

From what I understand there is E.coli everywhere, even in our own bodies, its just the amount that makes you sick. Just like viral loading, you can handle small amounts. So a primitive water filter that gives those results is very impressive

Thx for the Sunday treat, very interesting. I was already surprised by your filtering video back then, but having the lab testing it puts the thing on another level. Cute little green friend, seems like a healthy environment. See you next week Clay, no doubt 🤞

Great video man

Really intresting video. never thought that this works out so good! 😎

That frog is fantastic!!!!! So photogenic 🎉

What a simple yet powerful method. As you said, placing charcoal and gravel on the bottom should improve the water quality even more. Thank you!

@Clay - I don't know if this makes a difference but incase it does: I've been looking for a good survival channel for a while now and have only JUST found your videos. Your content is so amazing and I've been wondering why it took me so long to find them and what I think it that it might be because your channel is just your name. I did some Google searches a while back for the best survival channels to learn from and I think your name came up but when I clicked on your channel, your handle was your name /hunter and the blurb was a lot about hunting, so I assumed (incorrectly) that most of the content, even the survival content, would be around hunting or survival with encountering wild life etc. Since it wasn't what I was looking for, I clicked off and continued searching. I found my way back because I was searching for water filter solutions and after clicking on the one using grapevines, I started watching your other videos to see if they were just as useful and they were! There is SOO much value in what you're teaching and how you do it. You explain the how AND the why you also talk about the science behind which is both interesting and shows how knowledgeable you are. I plan on subscribing and sharing your channel with some of the prepping communities I've found my way to. I also plan on using them to teach my daughter a bit of science over the summer. I've found my way to a lot of survival videos this year and yours is one of the only ones that doesn't rely on gear you would have to purchase, which doesn't account for emergency situations where someone may not be prepared or when modern Resources run out. Like I said, your videos are gold for a variety of audiences. I'm not sure if you'd ever consider updating The about section & or adding 'survival' to somewhere in the channel name but I think it would help your videos be further reaching and grow your number of subscribers. Hopefully that's not too rude of me to say. Regardless, you have a loyal subscriber out of me! Keep doing what you're doing! I look forward to watching your past videos and learning more from you as you post.

I was wondering how different soil types around the pond might affect the ability for the water to pass through to the dug well? Your soil looked fairly sandy to me. Where I live is much more clay at least in some locations. Maybe the distance from waters edge to the dug well might would need to be shorter in a clay soil area…and/or depth of the hole? I really liked the video and the results of the test! Good info to know!

Loving your videos the past few months. Trying to build knowledge to be more prepared for whatever life might throw my way.

I enjoy these water videos. Good information to know.

Very useful knowledge that keeps us liberated and vital. Anxious to learn more from your work.

You have added validation to the gypsy well. I have been using this method for many years. Thanks

Oh, I thought I recognized you, I remember that other video. Keep up the good work!

I am reminded of "Treasure Island", where, outside the door of their inland 'fort' was "a cauldron with the bottom knocked out" that acted as their water supply. He spoke of seeing the spring bubbling up through the sand in the bottom, clear as day.

Nice one clay. Simple and effective especially with solar and boiling as you suggested. I'm guessing a lot of native tribal cultures still do this too. I wonder if there are other different ways native people get clean water around the world?... Cheers J

Bet you read every Foxfire book as a child! Great work showing people different techniques on getting clean water. This is something people may really need to know pretty soon. Subscribed!! ❤

Tree frog's are awesome! Fascinating...

Excellent, I love the confirmation lab testing, the tips and advice. As usual, you are the man Clay!

Great sampling technique.

Love this channel!!!

My ancestors were bog people, I knew digging a hole near water source worked, but didn't realize it filtered that well. Great vid.

Another great piece of content and extremely informative. Thank you & greetings from Norway

I drank from a crystal-clear waterfall then was jumping out of the caravan the whole night with a shovel and sitting in the bushes... I dank from a crysral-clear creek and the same occurred... I drank from the river my teacher had said to never drink of it, and it was o.k. You never know, you never know.

Thanks for making these kind of videos. Very cool

Loving this content! Thanks brother!

Very good info. Your grape vine filter video has been popping up since January 2024, at least. I finally thought God must want me to know something important. That video and this one make me say thank you God and thank you Clay. May God protect you and yours' and God bless you in the troublesome times ahead.

Really enjoy your helpful content.

I know you spend half your time in Florida. It would be great seeing this from a northwest prospective. Thank you

Awesome video and test. Really useful knowledge for any survival or outdoor situation. Thanks so much for posting this.

Wow! I didn’t know this trick. How simple but effective. File that one upstairs. Frog wanted to hang out with Clay Hayes.

I really enjoyed this video. Thanks for sharing this clever solution to getting water.

Great video!! Awesome knowledge to keep on tap, just in case.

I learned a lot from you , Thank you for the test and info . I feel much better if I'm stuck in a bad situation . GOD bless

Thank you

Great video, thanks 👍

Where I grew up in rural quebec, many people still today have house wells that are a big hole, sometimes lined with concrete or a huge plastic pipe, sometimes not even lined (if the soil can hold itself well or it's some rock, they may not even line the hole sides). The bottom is either left as is or a layer of gravel or pebbles is laid on it. The pump intake is attached to a floater, many times simply an empty bleach water bottle, so the intake is never at the bottom of the well (so the pump don't pump soil). They never question water from these very crude wells. Only the bank will require a water test before accepting to provide a mortgage. Otherwise, most people never do water testing. They're called "surface wells", in opposition to the ones that are just a small diameter hole drilled far down into the rock.

As suggested i think this is great for filtering debris an most stuff, then boil it and you will have nice water. Usefull trick imo.

Clay Hayes meets Steve Irwin meets Bill Nye vibes on this one I dig it

That is awesome. I have never heard of a Gypsy well. But it makes total sense.

Honestly, this is the stuff that we should be teaching our kids in the school! This could potentialy save a life, get out of a tough situation. Or just get some primitive water going while thinking of something more...

Thanks for educating us .

So what you are saying is this would be great to use once being ran through a good gravity filter filter like an Alexa pure plus you could use 2 buckets and build a filter in the bottom of the first bucket let it go through the first filter bucket into the second bucket then boil or let it sit in the sunlight. Then run it through the alexapure. Great info! Thanks man!

Cool man, ty, so much knowledge and great delivery!

I don’t need to know lab results to know that the ground is the best filter in the world. I’ve never seen this method before and I’m glad you showed me.

Hey I remember asking you if burning the inside of the bark you used in your coyote well video might help the filtration process. Glad to see charcoal made it into this video.

love these videos, have a great day :)

The coolest video I ever saw was a big 55 gallon drum with a buncha sand and other things I cannot remember but it had a drip constantly coming down into it and apparently a micro biome on the surface that filtered. You should make a video doing that if you haven’t

I love you brother your work is so very important thank you

Clay love these videos keep them coming. Does the lab analysis also test for parasites such as Giardia?

At my house i have a shallow gand sug well that supplies all our water. The water demand meets expectations but is not enough stored volume to water a garden or use in fire defense as im well out of range of a fire hall. I statrted digging a new well a year ago where a decent amount of water seeps through the geound and will eventually add a culvert and a gravity fed water line to the house. My question is if i added charcoal around the culvert, will the charcoal ever go bad and need to be replaced? Thanks Clay, great video. Love learning this stuff.

Awesome. I learned something very useful!

Sure hope you live to post next week.

You are awesome!!!! Thank you so much for doing this and sharing the results. Priceless information!!!!

Would be interesting to see the lab results from first filling of the bucket!?!

The knowledge about the importance of fresh and safe drinking water was reason for me to buy a water filter. Not the lightest, by far not the cheapest, but the best. A thing I can rely on. And if even that breaks, my water bottle is made of stainless steel and has a lid that could be used as cup. I could use it as a base for a filter system or even a primitive destillery. Destilling water is probably the safest way if You ain't got any filter.

Hey Clay awesome video very informative, I just have a question how to fix a crack on a bow limb if it's on the side and longitudinal? Thx

Thank s. This is great knowledge to have.

You got a like just for the frog! 🐸

Charcoal is all well and good, but it's probably important to remember that water run through ashes is how you get lye too. Be careful with what you're putting in there. Lye denatures when exposed to air, but it's still not something you want in your drinking water.