Can a Brita Filter or LifeStraw Make Pool Water Safe to Drink?

[RICKYtan]

Say can a brita filter, LifeStraw type of water filter make pool water drinkable?
What is the process that filters dirty water?
Side note, is it possible to drain a pool of enough of its chemicals make safe for sinking?

**Brita filters may be the weakest, probably just for sink water

Ever hear of hollow fiber membranes for filtering water?

 

[jedishrfu]

Here's an article on Brita filter limitations:

https://www.outsideonline.com/19593...ers-filter-river-and-lake-water-while-camping

and a humorous take on it:

http://uproxx.com/life/scientific-experiment-brita-filter/

 

[Student100]

Say can a brita filter, LifeStraw type of water filter make pool water drinkable?
What is the process that filters dirty water?
Side note, is it possible to drain a pool of enough of its chemicals make safe for sinking?

**Brita filters may be the weakest, probably just for sink water

Ever hear of hollow fiber membranes for filtering water?

Brita uses activated carbon and resins to remove some* (you'd need to quantify this to determine how much) molecules/elements/sediment from your tap water. You can find a high level description on their website. Activated carbon works by physical absorption, having a very large surface area due to small pores throughout. There's also some chemical reactions that take place. The resins work via ion exchange, replacing harmful ions with less harmful ones, and they also general have a large surface area. I don't really know that much about this stuff though.

Could you make pool water drinkable? It depends on how much stuff it removes per trip through the filter, but given enough cycles through it I would guess it would be safe to drink. Like Jedi's links say it won't kill organisms in the water that can make you sick. Get a UV pen if you're worried about organisms, I use one when I go out backpacking. Not only does it not alter the taste of glorious spring water, but it's small and compact. For sediments Brita is probably fine, for some chemicals I would also hazard to guess it's fine, and as a "first stage" filtration setup it would work well in my opioion.

Zerowater, another filter maker, says they can remove all dissolved solids with their filter design: https://www.zerowater.com/ I used it at one point and time to refill evaporated water from my salt water tank when my RO setup broke. Nothing died, so it probably works pretty well. I don't know if I trust their dissolved solids meter that comes with the system though.

 

[CWatters]

Swimming pools are normally dosed with sodium hypochlorite to disinfect them. I think the same stuff is sometimes used to make drinking water.