Reid’s Aquamira Enhancement Kit
Two-part chlorine dioxide (Aquamira) is much smaller and lighter than water filters and works better than other chemical systems.
However, as sold it has two major usability flaws:
- The only way to measure is by counting drops, which is extremely tedious if you have more than a liter or two of water to treat (10L of water requires 140 drops).
- You only get one ungraduated mixing container in the 1oz kit, so if you want to treat more than one water bottle per 5 minutes... bummer, or go find one additional container (suitable for a tiny amount of liquid) per water bottle. The 2oz kit includes no container at all.
Behold!!! the Aquamira Enhancement Kit, which solves these problems:
This is the kit I carry. Contents, clockwise from upper left:
- Aquamira Part A (2oz size)
- Aquamira Part B (2oz size)
- Aquamira Part A (1oz size)
- Aquamira Part B (1oz size)
- Chart listing measurements for several common water bottle sizes, on the back of a business card
- 3mL medicine dropper with markings added for 1, 2, and 3 liters of water
- 10mL plastic graduated cylinder (available on eBay)
(Obviously, you only need one each of A and B, but I was running low.)
What you do is measure Aquamira into the graduated cylinder (using the chart for reference), let it sit the five minutes, and then use the medicine dropper to dole it out appropriately into water bottles. (Do not put the dropper directly into the Aquamira bottles, as that will contaminate them.)
Here’s the chart. You need 0.35mL (or 7 drops) of each part per liter of water.
Water mL Drops
one both one both
1L 0.35 0.7 7 14
2L 0.7 1.4 14 28
2.5L 0.88 1.75 18 35
3L 1.05 2.1 21 42
5L 1.75 3.5 35 70
10L 3.5 7.0 70 140
If this info is helpful to you, or you build a similar kit, please let me know! E-mail me at reid@reidster.net.
Disclaimer: While I have used Aquamira, and I have carried this kit in the field, I have not actually tried the kit in the field yet. I have plans to do so and will update this page to reflect my experiences.