Binchotan Charcoal

[Flint]

Hello Everyone,

I was wondering if you had any experience with Binchotan charcoal sticks for water filtration purposes ?

I would imagine there is a lot of fancy marketing around it to cater to stage green as I have not read anything positive about their efficiency yet, but I'd love to be proven wrong in case they have any benefits.

Thoughts ?

[Michael569]

Well most filtration jugs are based on principle of activated carbon that attract particles with opposite charge. Id say this works the same way but not sure about the cost compared to something like britta jug. These fancy things tend to be overpriced for no reason. 

[Flint]

4 hours ago, Michael569 said:

Well most filtration jugs are based on principle of activated carbon that attract particles with opposite charge. Id say this works the same way but not sure about the cost compared to something like britta jug. These fancy things tend to be overpriced for no reason. 

Thanks for the feedback

I'm more worried about efficiency, since a stick of charcoal is not the same as an actual filter through which water passes. I don't see how a stick hanging arround would hold the heavy metals and such especially if used several times. I should look up some studies.

Also, Honestly, Britta is not very cheap either They have even specific engineering so you can use only britta filters on britta products.

[Ora]

charcoal has a lot of binding sites thats why it can be used for such a long time. Charcoal works through ADsorbtion not ABsorbtion.  That means things cling to it, not get absorbed into it, so you can even boil it to release all the stuff and reuse. you can just soak water in those sticks but it takes a long time. if you go get a cup of pond water and put some charcoal granules, it will go from cloudy to clear within a few days.

berkey filters arent cheap but you can go for 3 years or longer without changing the charcoal filters which are literally just huge solidified cylinders of charcoal infused with silver as an antimicrobial.

 

[EugeneTheSage]

I use them for about a year. I've tried to measure the water EC (electroconductivity - the more particles are dissolved in water the better it passes the electrical current) and it is 850 uS/cm after 12hour filtration comparing to 1150 uS/cm. 

What I've read about the coal is that you could tolerate drinking water after 1 hour of time and best filtration after 12 hours

Tap water filtered with those sticks is tastier than boiled tap water.

I think I also should've been researching deeper about that.