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Sulaiman
International Hazard
Posts: 3692
Registered: 8-2-2015
Location: 3rd rock from the sun
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There is a big difference between drinkable water
(Rainwater or glacial melt water, rivers, lakes, aqueducts, reservoirs, cisterns, tanks, pipes.......
which contain variable types and quantities of 'contaminants' that are generally considered to be acceptable or desirable,
and 'distilled' water for analytical chemistry,
the type that I buy is distilled then 'polished' with ion exchange resins,
which is cheaper than diy.
A great deal of chemistry can be done with rainwater or municipal tap water,
the main contaminant for Rainwater is CO2, with some airborne dust, bacteria etc. but negligible dissolved solids.
Municipal water has chlorides and/or fluorides, iron, and much more.
eg here is a water quality report for my UK home
https://www.south-staffs-water.co.uk/household/my-water-supp...
In Malaysia (my other home) biological contamination of municipal water is significant due to the temperature, it is reduced by chlorination, but
water is boiled (or treated with filtration) before drinking.
At the moment I'm in Morocco, most cities and towns have private or municipal water supplies,
but like much of North Africa and the middle East, older homes were designed to catch rainwater and store it in a cistern... protected from daylight.
Seems to have been successful for centuries or millenia 
If you have space you could consider a solar still https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_still
For cheap distillation maybe use a metal pot over a fire made from whatever you can find to burn
(wood, paper, used cooking oil......)
CAUTION : Hobby Chemist, not Professional or even Amateur
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SnailsAttack
Hazard to Others
Posts: 166
Registered: 7-2-2022
Location: The bottom of Lake Ontario
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Some new findings:
Fresh snowfall is a nice way to gather a lot of rainwater without having to lay out a big fancy collection system. I just skim the top layer off our
cars into a big bucket.
As it melts you can pick out any little bits of organic debris before they have a chance to leach impurities into the water.
However, I still had issues. Firstly, the filter (a simple paper towel pinned against a mesh) somehow kept getting completely jammed on an extremely
small amount of impurity, which was strange.
Secondly, with no added disinfectants, the dirty-water smell manifested within just over a week; even hours-old snow is a vector for germs,
apparently, which raises some interesting questions about why the entire Earth isn't choked in dirty-water smell.
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Sulaiman
International Hazard
Posts: 3692
Registered: 8-2-2015
Location: 3rd rock from the sun
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Food chain?
CAUTION : Hobby Chemist, not Professional or even Amateur
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SnailsAttack
Hazard to Others
Posts: 166
Registered: 7-2-2022
Location: The bottom of Lake Ontario
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Also, shoutout to the 12 and a half atoms of cobalt that sustain their entire ecosystem. The devil works hard, but chelating proteins work harder.
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unionised
International Hazard
Posts: 5126
Registered: 1-11-2003
Location: UK
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
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Quote: Originally posted by SnailsAttack  |
...
Secondly, with no added disinfectants, the dirty-water smell manifested within just over a week; even hours-old snow is a vector for germs,
apparently, which raises some interesting questions about why the entire Earth isn't choked in dirty-water smell. |
UV light and oxygen
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EF2000
Hazard to Others
Posts: 153
Registered: 10-5-2023
Location: The Steppes
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Mood: Taste testing the Tonka fuel
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The problem with snow is that snowflakes form around aerosol particles. Supercooled water droplets wait for something to freeze on. Those particles
are what jams a filter.
Ice self-nucleation occurs only in pretty cold clouds, so if you live not somewhere in Oymyakon, your local snowfall is most likely from a warmer
cloud.
Studies of snow samples show that biological particles are pretty widespread nuclei for snow. So, snow doesn't get colonised by bacteria after
snowfall, it carries its germs with itself.
Attachment: christner2008.pdf (109kB)
This file has been downloaded 114 times
Wroom wroom
"The practice of pouring yourself alcohol from a rocket fuel tank is to be strongly condemned encouraged"
-R-1 User's Guide
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pneumatician
Hazard to Others
Posts: 411
Registered: 27-5-2013
Location: Magonia
Member Is Offline
Mood: ■■■■■■■■■■ INRI ■■■■■■■■■■ ** Igne Natura Renovatur Integra **
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boiling the water don't disintegrates the chaos in the air dissolved and carried by rain water when the rain drops fall...
make a cultivation and see what type of shit grow in agar... then use a disinfectant tolerable for the use you want for the rain water.
Else use a wide spectrum disinfectant and good luck! because now you have water full of shit and disinfectant! :-)
snow?? this is the worse "water" you can use, layer over layer of shit!
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