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This question raised a new sub-problem of which I was not at all aware of.

I carry a heater to boil the water before I drink it but I am unsure whether it removes all dirt from water. Please, note the water may contain some mineralization (noted in the earlier question). There are different types of tools to test for different mineralization such as arsenic but probably many others. Please, teach/show how to handle water during touring.

Helper questions

  1. How do you maintain your water?
  2. How to operate with water bags?
  3. How to maintain water-containers?

Related questions

  1. Water tests during travelling? - a general question here.
  2. How do you carry the water suitable for touring? Answered here.
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  • @hhh - I'd like to answer the part of this question about carrying water, but I don't know anything about purifying or testing water. If you open a separate question on carrying water, I can answer that. – Goodbye Stack Exchange Feb 21 '11 at 19:20
  • @Neil Fein: please bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/2986/… – user652 Feb 21 '11 at 20:16
  • @wdypdx22: please, teach how you do it then. Stick to mistakes if you find such and show a better way. How can you carry water during touring? How do you organize refills/fills/emptying/hygieny/safety? Do you plan them beforehand? – user652 Feb 25 '11 at 1:15
  • @hhh - You're asking everything from testing arsenic/pollution levels to cleaning water bottles. Honestly, I don't think about different types of tools to test for different mineralization. – user313 Feb 25 '11 at 1:23
  • @Jeff - Why was the touring tag removed? (I tried restoring it but the system won't let me.) – Goodbye Stack Exchange Jul 3 '11 at 0:02
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Rather than boiling water get one of these filters from katadyn or MSR

enter image description here

It won't remove all chemical poisons - but neither will boiling - it can remove some depending on how soluble they are. See Water filter use

And unless you are drinking from chemical waste spills for weeks on end I wouldn't worry, if one area is high in arsenic the next won't be !

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  • @mgb: the question is a bit broader than "use a filter" answers. – Мסž Feb 21 '11 at 0:53
  • Your link also mentions a reverse osmosis unit which does solve much of the mineralisation problem. – Мסž Feb 21 '11 at 1:02
  • reverse osmosis is lot more weight/cost/effort - unless you only salt water, or your only water source is a 3rd world sewer it's a bit over the top! – mgb Feb 21 '11 at 3:51
  • The equipped.org link contains more info about iodine, filters, water sources etc. But if you have suspect tap water or a stream away from civilisation a pump filter is perfect – mgb Feb 21 '11 at 3:52
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    @Martin Beckett: is this answer more appropriate to this question or here? I feel this answer is too general for bicycles.SE but great for travel.SE, hence opened a question there to migrate such answers. I moved my answer and I hope to attract here answers targeting the clearly bicycle-related questions above. – user652 Jul 3 '11 at 19:28

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