What’s the one thing that everyone needs, regardless of who they are? Water. Plain and simple. The human body can do amazing things, but without water, it’s like trying to drive a truck without gas in it: it won’t work!
The awesome thing about living in modern civilization is that water is available at the touch of a tap. With minimal effort, you can get cool, clean, life-giving water poured straight into your glass. But what if civilization fails? What if your access to clean drinking water gets zapped away in the blink of an eye? Drinking contaminated water is not an option as you can get sick and take a downturn for the worse, fast.
So how do you ensure that you’ll be able to get access to clean drinking water when the taps are no longer an option? One word: Aquatabs. I got a set recently to try out for myself and let me say right now that I’ll be keeping a set with me from now on. The peace of mind that I have after testing these out is incredible.
If you’re like me and want to ensure that you and your loved ones are taken care of in the event of an emergency, keep on reading to get my honest review of this awesome product that could potentially one day literally save my life.
Easy to Use
I ordered the small tablet package to start out with. They came in a small bundle of 100 tablets, each individually sealed in a paper foil packaging. This makes it easy to break off as many or as few as necessary to purify the amount of water that you need.
Each tablet is capable of purifying up to 1 qt. of water at a time. You can use multiple tablets in larger volumes of water, which makes it really nice that they come in packs of 100.
The directions on the packaging are clear on how to safely use the Aquatabs. For my application, I went to my local river park and dipped a quart sized water bottle into the river. After following the directions to filter out any debris that was in the water, I dropped a single tablet into the bottle.
I watched as the tablet slowly settled to the bottom and noticed how it activated immediately as it hit the water. Small particles began fizzing off of the tablet as it dissolved into my freshly collected river water. As per the directions, I shook the bottle up to incorporate the entire tablet into my water and did so for about 10 minutes.
Then I sat the bottle down on a rock to let the Aquatab work its magic and create drinkable water in 30 minutes!
Taste and Smell of Treated Water
I’ve used iodine drops before to purify water, so I was a little apprehensive at first to try out the Aquatabs. Iodine drops tend to smell and give off a weird taste when drinking treated water, so I was unsure of what sort of effects the Aquatabs would have on the taste and smell.
After the 30-minute wait time, I was pleasantly surprised! There was no smell at all to the water and when I took that first sip, I was floored! No funky after taste. Just fresh, pure, clean Rocky Mountain water.
Now, take this with a grain of salt as the water source that you choose to use may be different than mine. According to the description, you can purify pretty much any freshwater source you can find. If you’re in a survival situation, you might not be able to find pure river water and might have to settle for standing water. The Aquatabs might not eliminate the odors that may exist in standing water sources, but they sure will take care of any water borne illnesses! And in a survival situation, that’s really what matters.
Can be Deployed in a Variety of Situations
Aside from keeping these in my emergency preparedness kit from now on, I fully intend to keep a set of Aquatabs in my camping and backpacking kits as well. One of the problems that I run into all the time, especially when I’m overlanding in my pickup is that I’m limited by the amount of space I have in my pickup to carry water. I usually carry a 5-gallon jug and when that gets low, it’s time to go home.
Now that I’m confident in the effectiveness of Aquatabs, I feel pretty confident that I can gather water from wherever I’m at on the trail in my water jug and drop a few tabs in and feel good that I can keep adventuring as long as I want to!
In the case of backpacking, it’s always a good idea to have a backup to your critical gear items. I usually carry a squeeze filter and while they’re effective, they can easily be broken if you drop it or if it gets crushed inside of a backpack. Aquatabs help me ensure that I can have access to purified water when I’m in the backcountry no matter what happens to my filter!
Final Thoughts
Don’t leave securing your most important resource up to chance. Having clean drinking water no matter where you go has never been easier than getting a set of Aquatabs.
One recommendation I’d add in is to make sure that you keep your Aquatabs in a waterproof container. Due to the small size of the tablets and how small the packaging is, you run the risk of getting the package wet and ruining the tablets if your gear gets dunked while you’re outside. Keeping them inside of a sturdy, waterproof container will ensure that your Aquatabs will always be ready to go whenever you need them.
Pick up a set of Aquatabs today. You’ll thank yourself one day, I guarantee it!