Long-Term Water Filtration & Purification Equipment

Hey all,

I've been doing a fair bit of reading and PM'd a bit with IamZeke (who seems to know everything there is to know about water safety).

What I need help on is honing on the right gear choices now that I have a basic idea of what's involved.

Realistically, in a disaster scenario I'd have around 10 people to provide water for. I'd like to have a system that'd work for at least a year's time.

Primary Filter System

I'd be running a stainless steel urn with supersterasyl filters. I was originally set on a Berkey, but this entire forum (including Zeke) is convinced they're the worst choice and fail all the time. Which brand stainless urn is the most durable? AquaRain, Doulton GSS, etc?

The Doulton website is incredibly confusing, are there multiple versions of the supersterasyl filters? If so, is there any "better" choice than the 7" candle version? Can they be backflushed or cleaned at all to increase longevity after the flow rate starts to die off?

Is there a washable/resuable device capable of pre-filtering the water that would lengthen the lifespan on the candle filters? Zeke mentioned canvas socks, though I'm not sure what those are, or if I should just get a large piece of canvas cloth to put over a bucket.

Auxiliary/Field Filter System

The only worthwhile products in this category seem to be the MSR Guardian, Katadyn Expedition, and Sawyer. The Guardian is claimed by MSR to be hardy against freezing (which could be an issue here in northern IL), but it has the lowest filtration capacity by far (10k liters) and the replacement cartridges are $170 a pop.

The Katadyn Expedition looks bombproof and supposedly filters 100k liters, but its $1,500

The Sawyer systems apparently filter for tens of thousands of gallons, and can be backflushed/washed. What gets me is the number of different options available. There's two entirely different series, the PointOne and PointZeroTwo. Then you have at least a dozen different filter kits within each to choose from. IIRC the PointZeroTwo would filter viruses unlike the PointOne, but I don't know if it has the same filtration capacity as the more coarse PointOne filter. Any help sifting through all these options is greatly appreciated.

Then, downstream of whatever backup filter, I would want a user-refillable activated carbon filter for chemicals/toxins. The only one I can find is the (what seems to be) incredibly small Katadyn inline GAC filter meant for attaching to water bottles. Are there better options out there for inline refillable GAC filters? What brand activated carbon gives you the best bang for your buck (as this would probably be the fastest consumed component)? How much should one have stockpiled? Does it have a definite shelf life even if stored in an airtight container?

Thank you in advance. I know this is a longer post, but hopefully the information here will help many others as well.

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Long-Term Water Filtration & Purification Equipment