In this episode of the Primitive Camping and Bushcraft Podcast, Chris Speir discusses commercial water filtration systems, including popular options like squeeze filters, gravity filters, and the Grail GeoPress, highlighting their practicality and effectiveness for outdoor survival. Chris also reflects on the success of the Primitive Camping Coffee Blend and shares exciting plans for the upcoming season, featuring fire-starting techniques and more outdoor wisdom.
(upbeat music)
Welcome back to the Primitive
Camping and Bushcraft Podcast.
My name is Chris Speir
and I'm gonna be your guide
to the great outdoors.
So welcome back to the new rabbit hole.
We're gonna dive into a
rabbit hole today, guys.
This is gonna be so cool
because anytime you start talking
about gear or some various kinds of gear,
it's a rabbit hole.
You know, I mean, it's
crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy.
But how are you?
How are things?
How is stuff?
Is everybody having a great time?
Is everybody, you know, we made it
through Thanksgiving
and we're going into the
second week of December now
and we got Christmas around the corner.
Just a reminder, we're
gonna put this podcast,
podcast on pause until after the new year
and we're gonna start back up in January.
So, you know, I've
been thinking about that,
thinking about it and thinking about it,
but it gotta have some
time with the family,
spend some time.
It takes a lot of effort to do this
and do regular videos
and stuff like that.
But anyway, anyway, let's get diving
into the rabbit hole today.
So if you haven't noticed,
I have the coffee up here
and I just wanna say, wow, I
wanna say thank you so much
for everybody that is
ordering this stuff.
I can't believe it.
I never dreamed it would kick off
the way it is kicked off.
And I'm just like, holy
moly, this is a blessing
and I thank you so much.
And if you want some before Christmas,
if you wanna give some for a gift,
you got to get your order in now
or you're not gonna get it.
It's just been overwhelming
and we're just starting to get to where
we're almost backlogged.
So go ahead and put your order in now
and get your
primitive camping blend coffee
and let's get this stuff out.
You got the six ounces, 12
ounces, two pounds, five pounds
and you got fine grind,
medium grind, coarse grind
and you got whole beans
and you also got the K cups.
And these K cups are pretty cool.
I use those more than not
and then I'll also use
some of the grind there.
In my morning K cups, I have
one of those little disposable,
not disposable, but
they reusable K cup filters
that I'll put some regular
grinds in and I'll use that way.
But anyway, thank you so much for the
overwhelming response
for the primitive camping
and bushcraft blend coffee.
It is tremendous.
I'll leave links in the
description of this video
and the show notes for you.
So anyway, let's get
into the rabbit hole.
Let's go ahead and stick
one foot down that hole
and let's start talking about
commercial filtration systems.
So anytime, anytime
that you start looking
at convenience in the outdoors,
you're going to be sinking
some money into something.
And commercial water
filtration systems are no different.
You can, it's crazy how, you know,
something in the market
comes along and, oh, that's cool.
And then whoever markets
it, whatever company it is,
they put one in the right person's hands.
All right, so let's say,
let's say GRILL for instance,
you know, GRILL invents
this water filtration system.
They send it out to a
couple of influencers
on the interwebs.
And some of these guys,
it's been around for a while
and they do a video
on it and they're like,
oh man, this is awesome.
And then all of a sudden
they use it for trip after trip,
after trip, after trip.
And then more people see them,
they teach them classes or whatnot.
And you know, that is all
they need is the word of mouth
from these influencer type folks
that are big in the
space of the outdoors.
And all of a sudden this
is the new staple item.
It's the newest item.
It's the craze for the outdoors and
everybody wants one.
And this company
makes millions of dollars
and you know, stuff like that,
all off of a couple of
people's word of mouth.
And you know, I don't know,
I use every item that
I've ever made a video on.
And my wife actually
says, I have too much gear,
it's time to get rid of some.
And I said, no, I'm not gonna do it.
(laughs)
But you know, the
rabbit hole here is gear
and commercial filtration systems do
count towards as gear.
Even though it's in the water section,
it still is a gear item
that you're gonna use.
And you know, like water
filters on the market today
and each one of them
claims to be the best,
but they do the same thing.
They make dirty water drinkable
and that's straight out of the boat.
So they make it to where
you do not have to boil
your water to drink.
So out of all the water filters,
I mean, there's countless
water filters, there's tons.
And if you have used these things,
you know what I'm talking about.
All they do is just
make your water drinkable.
That's all they're there for.
And there's different
styles, there's different types.
You got the squeeze
kind, you got the straw kind.
Now you got them where
they're in line with,
you fill up your little
pack and your backpack
and you just drink dirty
water out of your pack.
And you know, it cleans it in line.
And then you have the grille,
they got the geo
presses, the ultra presses,
the titanium presses.
Then you have the
catedine, catedine hand pumps.
And then, you know, you get all these
gravity filtration systems and you know,
all these systems do the same thing.
But yet, they all
have different purposes.
And I will explain that starting now.
So commercial water
filters have a medium,
some form of medium or cartridge
that is usually made out of ceramic
or some sort of fiberglass material
that is going to filter your water.
Now this media is
porous enough to allow water
to pass through, but
the pores are small enough
to trap bacteria, viruses and protozoa.
So what this thing's doing is,
I wish I had one to
where I could cut it in half
and demonstrate and show you.
But what it does is,
let's take lava rocks.
You might see lava
rocks for your flower bed.
Now those items right
there could probably be used
as a water filtration system if needed.
Because it will allow
water to flow through it,
but it will trap some of
the nasties on the end.
And I'm not saying do
that, but I'm just saying
that it gives you an idea
of what I'm talking about.
Now, this media, what
they're talking about,
what I'm talking about in the book,
is porous enough to allow
water to pass through it.
So it's got little holes or little cracks
or little whatever all the way through it
that the water can pass through,
but the viruses, the
very microscopic viruses,
the bacterias, the
parasites, the protozoa,
all the nasty stuff
that's gonna get you sick
and knock you out of the
game are gonna get stuck
on the end while the
water's still going through
and you're able to drink it.
And most of these
will actually filter out
any kind of heavy metals or plastics
and stuff like that, microplastics
and any kind of items of the such.
Now, they're going to
filter out chemicals,
they're gonna filter
out other heavy metals.
And once that happens,
your water is cleaner
than the stuff that you're getting
through a water bottle.
If you go to the store and buy Dasani,
the water you're
drinking through this thing
is gonna be cleaner than that water.
Because I'm not sure about Dasani,
so I'm not making
statements that I can't,
but most of your water companies,
their water is just
like straight tap water
from the community and go
look it up, it really is.
And that's what's wrong with the world
is the people are
blind and they pay money
for stuff that they have
no clue where it comes from
and what's what.
And it's just, it's crazy how
people will drink this water.
And then what gets me,
I know we're getting
off on a tangent here,
but you go and you buy
water from a water bottle
that has all these chemicals added to it
and minerals added to it for taste.
It's water, dude,
water tastes like water.
You don't have to put anything in it
to make water taste better.
If people want water,
they're gonna drink the water.
You have to have water to live.
You cannot live off a Coke.
You can't live off of Pepsi.
You can't live off of coffee.
You can't live off a Kool-Aid.
You can't live off of these other things.
You can only live off of water.
The Diet Coats, your Coats, your Pepsi's,
your Dr. Pepper's, your Mountain Dew's,
all your other drinks are killing you.
And if you drink these things,
it is doing damage to
your body and your liver.
And you know, trust me,
I am not a 100% health officiato
or whatever they call
that, or health nut.
I'm not, by any means.
I mean, look at me, I love to eat.
I mean, I'm just the
fat guy in the woods.
I should be on Creek
Stewart's show, Fat Guys in the Woods.
If anybody knows Creek Stewart,
let him know that I'm
available for that show.
(laughs) But anyway, this idea of people drinking these drinks
and not drinking water is crazy.
Or adding chemicals to the
water for the taste is crazy.
You don't have to do that.
Just filter the chemicals out of it.
Just give us plain Jane drinking water.
You know, make the world healthy again.
You know, get rid of all the crap.
I don't know, it's just,
I got my own personal beliefs about this.
And it's just, I don't know.
So, now, I'm not a doctor.
Now, some variations of
these kind of water filtration
systems have charcoal in them.
And those are the ones that I really like
because they absorb the
nasty taste of the water.
You get into a
situation where you're drinking
tea-stained water and it
tastes like tea-stained water.
You drink river water
and it's gonna taste like
it came out of a river.
And, you know, I don't
know how to explain that,
but it's just gonna taste bad.
And, you know, with these
charcoal filters in them,
that charcoal is
actually gonna give the water
a nutty flavor.
It's gonna give you a,
depending on the type of charcoal,
the type of wood that
the charcoal had come from,
it's gonna give you either a nutty flavor
or some kind of wood flavor in there.
It's pretty good.
I like it.
I love it.
So, you know, there's
different kinds of filters.
There's tons of different commercial
water filtration systems.
Now, the next one, and, you
know, I had used these before.
I just, I did not care for
them because there was no way
to actually backwash them or, you know,
to rid the contaminants out of the filter
and once it clogged,
it's clogged and it's done.
But the catedine water pump
filter is one that I bought.
And it actually, it
did a pretty good job.
It does a pretty good job.
And as long as you're not
pumping dirt into the filter.
Now you throw it out into the creek or
the river or whatever
and you just go ahead and
you pump that thing down
and it shoots out clean
water on the other end
as fast as you pump it.
You know, it forces
water through the cartridge
and the cartridge is
the same kind of stuff.
It's either gonna be
ceramic or it's gonna be some kind
of fiberglass or it's
gonna have some charcoal media
or something to that effect in there
and it's gonna be doing the same thing.
But I'm pretty sure that
the filters inside the pump,
the catedine is replaceable.
So you can buy different
filters for it, you know,
so once it's done.
I have had those little
tactical, tactical, you know,
little TeamU products,
those little army pumps
and about this big got the
little arm that comes out.
(imitates pump) You pump your water right
out of the creek or whatever.
Yeah, they clog up.
They clog up real quick and they are,
you can render those dudes useless
the first time you ever use them.
Been there, done that, won't do it again
because I'll never have
one of those with me again.
You know, the old saying is
two is one and one is done.
You know, that seems to
be correct when it comes
to those off brand
water filtration systems.
Now, that's not to
say that the squeezable
or the straw type filters, you know,
it's okay to have
several of those with you
and your backpack.
You could have several of them with you
and not have a problem.
You could put, you know,
you could put two or three
in a backpack and you're
good and you're covered.
I've been putting a situation
with the squeeze filters clogged up.
I didn't have anything else to use
and we had to build a
tripod water filter.
I told y'all about this in my last video
and my last podcast.
And you know, we use
that, me and my brother
and it was pretty cool,
but I still don't like
having to boil my water.
You boil your water, you
wait for it to cool down,
you drink and then, you know,
like when it comes to
cooking and stuff, I just boil,
I'll dump my water
straight out of the river
or whatever and whatever I'm cooking
and then, you know, as
long as it's coming to a boil,
but, you know, when
it comes to drinking it
and I just prefer not
to have to boil the water
because it's just, it
takes so damn long, you know?
And look, we're talking
about perimeter camping.
We ain't talking about survival.
That's totally different thing.
You're in a survival situation,
you're gonna boil that
water and shut up in color,
you know what I mean?
So, you know, that's for
all the Marines out there
that like to do eat
the crayons and stuff.
I mean, us Air Force guys, you know, we,
(laughs)
I'm not even going down that rabbit hole.
But anyway, one of
the systems that I love,
we talked about the
Catedine, Catedine pump,
you know, the hand pump versions,
variations, you know,
gravity filters, these are amazing.
They're a little bit more bulky
than what normally you would bring.
And I have a special bag that I put bags,
these plastic storage bags in
that my filters actually screw to.
And I will fill up the reservoir
and it's usually six
liters, eight liters, whatever,
fill that reservoir up and
then it will gravity feed
and go through a long or
bigger version straw filter.
And it will filtrate all that water out.
You don't have to do anything.
Gravity does all the work.
And while you're doing
other tasks around your camp,
or you're fishing or going hunting,
or you're doing something
and you leave that filter on,
it's filtering all your water.
And when you come back,
you're going to have a gallon and a half
or two gallons of water ready to go.
And that's what I absolutely love
about the gravity
water filtration system.
You don't have to do anything
except for fill that bag
up, attach it, press go,
and you're good to go.
Now, the system that I use
is by Membrane Solutions.
And these guys contacted me,
asking me to do a video for them,
and they sent me the
products and I loved it.
I loved the ease of use.
I loved how I didn't have
to add anything else to it.
It was an all-in-one
situation, all-in-one product.
Everything came with it.
Everything works together.
It was not expensive.
Now, for me, it wasn't expensive
because they sent me the product to use,
but whenever you're
looking at the prices online,
like Sawyer has a
gravity filtration system
where they use the large variation
and they got their own
special Sawyer brand bags
and stuff like that.
You're looking at 70, 60 to 70 bucks
for that water filtration system
where you can get the thing
for $30 for Membrane Solutions.
And then for $5 a straw,
you can buy you three
more straws to put on there
in case the event that
your straw actually clogs up.
Plus, it comes with a backwash adapter.
So whenever you get
home, you plug that dude in
and hook it up to a water hose
and you wash all the
nasties out backwards
and it extends the life of your filter.
So this is one of those things
that you really wanna look
into whenever you're going.
If you're going on a long hike,
is the gravity water filtration system
something they're necessarily gonna need?
No, not necessarily.
Is it one that you would like to have?
Me, personally, yes.
Five, 10 mile hikes.
I like, when I'm
hiking in five or 10 miles,
I'm camping for a few days
and then I'm hiking five or 10 miles out,
I'm bringing the gravity
water filtration system with me.
And that's one of the reasons,
that's why I carry that with me
is because of the ease of use.
And that's the main
reason I carry it with me.
So squeeze filtration systems.
Everybody knows the Sawyer Squeeze.
I'm pretty sure they got
other brands out there.
Let's see, most of these brands,
after they've been a while for,
a long for a while and they're sure that,
hey, we can make some money off of this.
Then they copycats from
China start showing up
and you got off brands
doing the same thing.
So, but Sawyer brand
water filtration systems
are actually a pretty good safe bet
and they're a very good
water filtration system.
The large one will be able
to squeeze like 60,000 gallons
or something like that, 6,000 gallons,
I don't remember, thousands of gallons.
And it's a pretty good bet.
Let's see if I put it
in here over the years.
I've been driving countless commercial
gravity field filters,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
not putting it in there.
No, I didn't put how
long it lasts in there,
but it does 16 to 24 ounces,
these bags that come with it.
But anyway, what happens
is it gives you a little bag
that you fill up with your dirty water
and you screw the filter on
and then you squeeze
that dude into your mouth
or into the container.
And I've used one of
those for a long time.
And one of the first ones I ever got
was my mom gave me one for Christmas.
She's always getting
me something outdoorsy.
I love that woman, she's something else.
But, you know,
the squeeze filters
usually fit on water bottles.
Like even here in the book on page 135,
I put the quick tip
using the smart water bottle
attached to a squeeze
filter can help lighten the load
and serve more than one purpose.
Then you can use the smart
water bottle in the summer,
or sunny day to light a fire,
use it to do a magnification fire.
Stuff like that serves
more than one function,
all kinds of stuff like that.
But the squeeze filters,
man, they do pretty good.
They do pretty good.
We're fixing to get into my
go-to filter here shortly.
But the squeeze filters do pretty good.
I've used those before.
The straw filters are
good, I've used those before.
The pump filters, they tend to clog up
because you can't pay
attention to where your pump is
out in the water and it gets in the mud
and you clog that dude up with some mud
and you don't have a way to backwash it
when you're out in the field.
So those I try to steer away from.
And then now we're getting into the
actual straw filters.
Now, straw filters are widespread.
I mean, everybody knows
that there is a live straw,
there is a membrane solution straw,
there is, everybody has seen straws.
Everybody has seen straw filters.
And it doesn't matter where you've been,
what walk of life you've been,
you have seen some kind
of water filtration system
in the straw form.
You know, live straws,
live straw is the name brand.
And I got one in my water kit,
I got one in a hunting kit,
I got one in a boating kit.
And they're cost
effective and they're easy.
Yet they're not gonna last as long
as some of the other filtration systems,
but in an emergency,
they're gonna give you
some drinking water no
matter where you're at
or what you're drinking.
You could probably even drink sewage
through these things
and still live, you know.
I'm not gonna put that to
the test because I just not.
You know, the only person I
got a lot of faith in is Jesus.
And I don't have a lot of faith
in some of these
water filtration systems.
But when it comes down to it,
you could actually put
these in several kits, you know,
within three days, they
should not clog up too well.
Now, that's not to say
that my previous one,
it clogged up two days, a squeeze filter.
It clogged up two days out.
And I had to build the
tripod water filter system
and that's how we had drinking water.
But, you know, once I got home,
I was able to backwash this filter.
And then the filter
actually came back to life
and I was able to use
it for many more trips.
I was just cognizant and
made sure I pre-filtered water
before I actually used
that water filtration system.
So now, here is one tip
about water filtration systems.
And this is very
important if you don't listen
to anything else in
this podcast or this video,
listen to this, do not use
your water filtration system
if it has frozen, don't do it.
So what happens is the
water gets into your medium
and it expands and it cracks the medium
and it allows the water to flow through
without being filtered and
you will get sick, all right?
Now, this is not to say
that every one of them
is gonna crack or break, you know,
it won't crack on the
outside of the filter.
It will crack the
ceramic or the, you know,
the fiberglass or
whatever the filter is made of
on the inside.
Now, I wouldn't personally, I would not
and I would not use
it, I wouldn't move on.
But let's get, if you've
watched any of my videos
and you have listened
to any of my podcasts,
you will know that my
favorite water filter
is the Grail GeoPress.
The Grail GeoPress is my go-to,
I use it every time I go to the woods,
I take it with me every
time I head out to the woods,
is in my boat, is in my backpack
and when I go into the
woods, this thing is a lifesaver.
I go on camping trips, this is probably
the only filter I'll take with me.
I always have a backup, you
know, two is one, one is none.
I always have a backup, but the Grail
is my primary water
source when I go to a trip.
It, and what I wrote here in the book
is that the Grail GeoPress, it has become
the go-to filter system of countless
outdoor enthusiasts,
bushcrafters and
survivalists, many of whom consider it
to be one of the
absolute best filtration systems
on the market.
It has four parts, the
gap or lid, the inner press,
a replaceable filter
carters and the outer cup.
To use this, you're gonna
simply fill the outer cup
up to the fill line, you're
gonna insert the inner press,
unscrew the cap and push
the water by pressing down.
The inner press will fill up
and within eight to 11 seconds
you will have 24 ounces,
depending on your size,
I got a 24 ounce one, not the 16.9.
You'll have 24 ounces of
purified water ready to drain,
no matter where you are on the planet.
And that is their claim
to fame is that no matter
where you are on the
planet, you will have
clean drinking water.
I just recently did a video on YouTube
that we pre-filtered the
water out in a sludge pit,
nasty light water pit,
had dead turtles in it,
had fish in it, hogs
around, brooding around,
I mean, this was a
sludge bath, nasty water pit.
And it was mud, mud, mud, mud.
And we filtered,
pre-filtered with a handkerchief
and poured that water
into, actually we used
a millbait bag, me and
Dave, we got millbait bags
just for the 24 ounce grills.
And we filtered that water
in out with a millbait bag
and then put it through the geo press
and then drank it on the spot.
I am still here, I didn't get sick.
And this is some sketchy, nasty stuff.
So if you want, I'll leave the
description to that video
in the show notes for this podcast.
But that water was disgusting.
A couple more days and it'd
probably be as thick as syrup,
it was so nasty.
There was dead turtles laying around
and there was tadpoles
in it, there was just,
I mean, it was all kinds of disgusting.
But we still filtered
it, we still drank it
and here we are, I'm still
alive and that was last week.
We did that last week, so that's crazy.
Oh well, so all right, well, that's it
for the water filtration stuff.
We've gone through the
entire chapter of water
and now we're gonna take
a couple of week hiatus
and we're going to
pick up with season two
of the Primitive Camp
in the Bushcraft podcast
and we're gonna pick up in
the fire section, all right?
And fire is one of my favorite subjects,
is one of my favorite things to do.
I absolutely love starting
fires and fire is awesome.
And so speaking of
fire, so is this coffee.
Now these coffee, the
coffee beans are roasted,
nice to perfection and
have an amazing aroma.
And I just wanna thank everyone
that has helped kick this off
and pushed this to success to the point
where it was
something I never dreamed of.
I really do appreciate it
and I thank each and
every one of you for this.
So, hey, I tell you what,
God bless you, Merry Christmas.
And notice I said Merry Christmas,
it is Christmas, Jesus is
the reason for the season
and I hope you guys remember that
and I will see you in the new year
with a new video and a new podcast.
God bless you, I'll see you again.
(upbeat music)