SGT Rock
2004-04-18, 22:08
Not a full review, just a few after the hike comments.
I used Aqua Mira on my recent hike with the kids. I found it to be pretty easy to use, nothing to mess up on unless you don't have any patience.
Basically mix 7 drops of each part in the mixing cap per liter, for me it was 21 drops which did not even fill the cap all the way up - so there is plenty of room for even bigger containers in that cap. After that, you wait about 5 minutes while the chemicals mix into a light yellowish-green color liquid. The pour the mix into the bag and shake it, 30 minutes later it should be clean if you are using really cold water, less if the water isn't that cold.
Some people have said there isn't much of a taste change using Chlorine Dioxide (the chemical of Aqua Mira) but both my sons and I found it to add a slightly citrus taste to the water that was not there if we drank the water pure from the source. It is not a worse or better change in my opinion than using Polar Pure Iodine but is definatly a lighter change than using iodine tablets or chlorine bleach.
As for effectiveness, my children and I are all still fine after drinking water treated with Aqua Mira. I don't know what contaminates (if any) were in the water we treated, but the area we mustly got our water from was in the Ozark Mountains of Arkasas where there is moderate to high hiker and camping traffic as compared to most other places I normally go.
I used Aqua Mira on my recent hike with the kids. I found it to be pretty easy to use, nothing to mess up on unless you don't have any patience.
Basically mix 7 drops of each part in the mixing cap per liter, for me it was 21 drops which did not even fill the cap all the way up - so there is plenty of room for even bigger containers in that cap. After that, you wait about 5 minutes while the chemicals mix into a light yellowish-green color liquid. The pour the mix into the bag and shake it, 30 minutes later it should be clean if you are using really cold water, less if the water isn't that cold.
Some people have said there isn't much of a taste change using Chlorine Dioxide (the chemical of Aqua Mira) but both my sons and I found it to add a slightly citrus taste to the water that was not there if we drank the water pure from the source. It is not a worse or better change in my opinion than using Polar Pure Iodine but is definatly a lighter change than using iodine tablets or chlorine bleach.
As for effectiveness, my children and I are all still fine after drinking water treated with Aqua Mira. I don't know what contaminates (if any) were in the water we treated, but the area we mustly got our water from was in the Ozark Mountains of Arkasas where there is moderate to high hiker and camping traffic as compared to most other places I normally go.