Building a DIY Water Filter Using BioChar and a 3 Gallon Jug - Ann's Tiny Life

hey everybody ann here i've already had my coffee but today we are gonna make a water filter now this is just the way that i do it so if you have a different way of doing it well share it down in the comment section below so let's get started what are you going to need to make this water filter well i'll show you first of all you're going to need a container that is going to become the water filter i have used two liter soda bottles uh one gallon water bottles um and today i'm going to be using a three gallon water container that the lovely miss connie sent me and so that's the first thing that you need you need something like cheesecloth i've used gauze i have used cotton i don't really like cotton it gets too compacted and it slows the water flow down a little bit too much and i've also used coffee filters i don't recommend coffee filters because eventually they just stop the flow altogether they won't filter anymore and you have to take them out and basically start all over cheesecloth has worked great and also gauze has worked really great for me you are also going to want to have a very clean bucket now i use a white bucket when i'm filtering water because i want to be able to see down into the water and see what color it is see if there's any sediment that's getting through because if there is then it needs to be refiltered and you need at least one lid maybe two i'm going to use two and i'll show you why later this is very important this is activated carbon it's made from burned coconut shells basically and they've already crushed it all up for me and everything you can make your own biochar all you have to do is get some hardwood uh burn it and pour water over it when the you know it basically turns to charcoal and then just crush it up but this is already done for me so this is going to be great and you need pebbles rocks stoves now a lot of times i use sand in in addition i'll i'll do the the cloth the biochar then sand and then pebbles and then rocks but i don't have all that right now and this contains a multitude of different sizes of rocks so i think that's going to work just fine i don't i don't think i'm going to need to add the sand and what the sand actually does is just another barrier so that small particles can't get through but i am not going to be filtering any water that has a whole lot of particles in it it's going to come from my water catchment system and it's already had a lot of that particulate filtered out because it come it goes in through a screen so there's not going to be a bunch of leaves and you know grass and stuff there's going to be some very fine particles but the other parts of the filter are going to take care of that all right let's get started using the cap to the three gallon container mark a little circle around the top of the lid keep going around the circle with whatever sharp thing you got until it's deep enough that you can just pop it out or just cut it out or whatever you can also use a hole saw i didn't have the right size bit for the whole saw so i just did it this way with the lid on put your container down into the hole and see if it fits yep looks pretty good now it's time to drill holes in your lid i'm just drilling five [Music] now you have to cut the bottom out of your container and this will effectively make it the top of your filter [Music] i ended up having to use the little saw on my multi-tool it worked pretty good [Music] [Music] screw the cap on your container and turn it over and now it is time to start filling your water filter with all the wonderful things that's going to make your water safe to drink the first thing you need to put down into your water filter is the cheese cloth or gauze or whatever it is you're going to use and i like to get it fluffed up i don't like to just throw it down in there because i like to really shove it down in the cap really well so that the last point at which the water leaves the filter it's going to be going through that cheese cloth next layer is your biochar you're going to want to put in about two or three inches in this size filter [Music] now it's time for your stones or sand or gravel or whatever you're going to use if you're going to go the route of sand then pebbles than stones yes definitely add the smallest particles first that's going to be your sand that's going to go on top of your biochar and then your pebbles and then your stone so that the largest thing is on the top of the filter there you have it your beautiful water filter is [Music] complete is it gonna work don't know gonna go get some water and find out i brought this operation up here on the porch so i could sit right here and just do it and watch my studio she's gonna drink out of it that's all right and i'm just gonna take this oops sorry judy and pour it into here this first run is gonna be murky because this activated carbon probably has some dust and the rocks probably had some dirt and dust in it so i'm just gonna pour a few scoop holes through and then we're gonna take that filter out and see what it looks like down the bottom of it if it's looking terrible that's okay we'll just keep refiltering it until it gets nice and clear yeah see that see how murky that is i don't think it's gonna be clear when it gets down into the bucket i'm pretty sure it's gonna look pretty much like that but after a few times filtering and after the carbon is good and wet and whatnot it's going to look perfectly clear i guarantee it's going to be clear see that looks pretty murky that's all stuff coming off those rocks so once this empties i put about four gallons in there once this is done we're gonna take a look in the bottom and see what it looks like down there i bet you it's a mixture of that color and kind of like a grayish tint but i guarantee you this filter will filter that all out after the second or third rinsing what you doing miss judy you being bad are you being good i think she's being good this is just about stopped dripping so i'm gonna go ahead and see if i can just take this off i think i'm gonna need both hands maybe maybe not maybe yeah i'm just gonna take this off put it over here and have a look on inside the bucket and see what we got yep just as i predicted kind of like a grayish murky color so we're going to filter it again just going to pour it over here and see what happens the second time i'm just gonna do this whole process over again the second filtering has been done so i'm gonna take this off and move it over there and see what we got in this one maybe a little bit better we gotta do this again i'm not sure if you can see it very well but i do really like this gravel because it's got all different sizes and the smallest seem to settle to the bottom and there is some sand in this and that settles to the bottom right above the biochar so i think that this these rocks are going to work just fine well it is still filtering this is the fifth time so after this is done hopefully we'll have some nice clear clean drinking water looks like the fifth time did it it looks very clear and doesn't look like there's anything floating in it so i am gonna take a little taste test and a smell test and a look test look at that look at that all right let's uh let's look over here kind of hard to see but looks crystal clear look at that crystal clear let me see how it smells smells like plain old water alright let me take a sip yep it tastes good and it tastes better than the stuff i remember getting out of the tap i haven't had tap water in so long but i remember it always having kind of like a weird oh no some kind of weird taste to it well this does not have that weird taste to it and it has turned out perfectly clear i'm drinking it in one of my new glasses isn't that pretty so my new water filter was a success i hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and hopefully some of you have your own ideas on how you can build your own water filter so let me know and well that's all i got for you guys today see in the next video [Music] you

Channel: Ann's Tiny Life and Homestead

Views: 73,237

Keywords: homesteading, off grid

Id: K1FOjgNvyA8

Length: 10min 46sec (646 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 07 2020