DrinkWell can’t remove salt.  However if the water has been contaminated by up to 10% seawater, they are still capable of providing thirst relief on a temporary basis.  The electronics automatically adjusts to handle the higher conductivity.  If there is too much salt in the water, it will stop processing and a LED illuminates to inform you the water is too SALTY.  If the SALTY LED illuminates and that is the only water you have, partially suspend the plate set in the water until the SALTY LED doesn’t illuminate.  DrinkWell will still clean the water giving you some short term relief.

• How much electricity do they use?

A 5-volt, 2-amp hour battery (weight about 200 grams) would clean some 40 liters of 200 NTU muddy water.  It would take about 30 - 40 minutes of winding a small hand generator to recharge the battery.  That is about the same mechanical effort as is required to get 40 liters of water through a portable filter.  Your average mechanical filter will clog well before it has passed 40 liters of 200 NTU water at a final turbidity of less than 2 NTU.  As long as you can keep winding, our plate set will process several thousand liters of that water.  Using the above as a guide, the more heavily polluted the water, the more electricity that is required.

• How much setting time is required after the treatment stops?

The longer the better, up to 12 hours.  For water to have a turbidity of less than 1 NTU, it requires about 12 hours settling, even though 5 minutes settling will often give water with a turbidity of less than 5 NTU.  You can always let the water settle in another container and continue treating more water.

• How often can you use DrinkWell?

Once the water is treated and removed, you can commence treating another batch straight away.  The limitation is your power supply.  It is entirely possible to do well over 20 batches in half a day if the water is not too polluted and you have the electr icity available.

• How much material can the plate set remove before it needs replacing?

Using clay as an example, a 0.5kg plate set could remove about 10 kg of clay before it needed replacing.  Allowing that 200 NTU of water contained 0.5 kg clay per 1,000 liters, this represents an ability to clean over 10,000 liters of 200 NTU water before the plate set needed replacing.  The lower the turbidity of the water, the more water the plate set will clean before it needs replacing.

• How do I know the plate set should be replaced?

You need only look at it and see that some of the plates are no longer continuous from one end to the other.

• Can I use the plate set in another container?

Yes.  Indeed the use of a taller container will enable the plate sets to clean more efficiently.  The major reason why these containers are used in preference to taller ones is carrying convenience.

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