something widely advocated by many groups, not limited to the American Red Cross, FEMA and many others--is that regular household bleach is perhaps the cheapest and most widely available water disinfectant available. 2-4 drops per liter, or 8-16 drops per gallon. Doesn't kill cryptosporidium, but nonetheless very useful Check out the official reccs for yourself. They have a great saying which is something like "Consider a two dollar large bottle of bleach as 10,000 gallons of potable water".
a large bottle of household bleach belongs in everyone's preparedness pantry at home (out of reach of the kids).
youre welcome
I will research this later, but if true my zombie apoc list goes.
1. Guns
2. Ammo
3. Antibiotics
4. Bleach 
Ttt. Bleach plus life straw
And use your guns to take someone else's water 
It's actually a good idea.
I took an austere medicine course my senior year.
I was very surprised to learn that my Katadyn Pocket filter (one of the most expensive purifiers out there) is not even 100% because of small viruses. You need that + chlorine dioxide tablets (or possibly bleach) to be safe.
I prefer my bleach straight up.
Jhay -
I prefer my bleach straight up.
This is the best way to kill germs inside the body and make the nasty water inside of you, clean.
Life straw
Baek Doo San -Non N00B -Jhay -
I prefer my bleach straight up.
This is the best way to kill germs inside the body and make the nasty water inside of you, clean.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/sep/15/miracle-mineral-solutions-mms-bleach
It apparently cures everything from AIDS to malaria...
I was told that back in the day, in South Korea, some people used to use black market "Rox" (short for chlorox; bleach, or ??) as a preventative medicine (???).
Something that they found to work very well but needs time is plain old sunshine. Using a clear plastic water bottle (has to be plastic and clear), fill it with water and leave it lying sideways in the sun for a day (time varies with sunny/cloudy conditions and temparature). If you've got a reflective surface to lay the bottle on then so much the better. UV from the sun does the trick.
They teach this technique now to under developed countries. Cloudy water has to be prefiltered through cloth or let settle and siphoned off first. It also only works against biological agents, not chemicals or heavy metals. But most chemical contaminants can be filtered out using good quality activated carbon (easily bought at pet stores in the aquarium section).
Wiki "solar water disinfection" , or SODIS, to learn more about it.
There's also the age old trick of boiling your water to kill all the microbes.
All my consumable water goes through a Berkey (sp?!) filter in my house.
I hope my cell phone works during the apocalypse so I can still access this thread.
What about iodine?
In
Best brand of life straw?
I'm going to carry my 3 stage reverse osmosis filtration system with me, if SHTF. It weighs 30 pounds and 4/5 of the water runs off to waste, but you gotta have the best water when you're making espressos to give you energy to fight the zombie horde.
Im allergic to bleach.
iodine also works..
i use a filter and chlorine tablets when i go back country camping
same concept except it's in tablet format
a jug of bleach will last you a hell of a long time
you can also use the tablets if you go to a country where you suspect shitty water