Mioxx vs Clorox?

I have no idea how to answer this and am relying on the chemists in the crowd to answer. I saw this question posed on another group and would like to know if there’s a difference between (non-scented) home bleaches and the end product of the Mioxx system which smells just like chlorine to me.



Thanks for any advice,



Lyn

Mioxx
Lyn,

I had a Mioxx for a while. It is a waste in my opinion. Kind of a pain to use, batteries run out, etc. I believe it does produce a slightly different agent from home bleach. It actually creates the same solution that is in Aqua Mira drops and some of the newer tablets. I think it it is clorine dioxide.



I personally like the newer tablets best. Khatadyn (spelling?) makes some chlorine dioxide tablets that work great and leave no bad taste.



If you want to go cheap though normal household bleach is fine. I am in the Army and when I was in Ranger school that is exactly what we used to purify all the water we drank. I think it is either one or two drops per quart, waiting 15-30 minutes before drinking. Completely effective. We drank water out of the swamps like this and were fine. Leaves little taste as well. Use a small bottle and eye dropper.



Matt

Lyn,
I own an industrial water treatment company, am licensed in the State of California to treat drinking water, own a personal MiOx unit, and can sell large industrial or municipal MiOx units.



The MiOx unit produces a mixed cocktail of sorts that consist of chlorine dioxide, hypochlorite (same as bleach), some ozone, and a whole bunch of assorted others. It’s impossible to actually determine everything that is in it.



It’s a faster disinfectant than just bleach but if you need to kill spores, 30 minutes of anything won’t do it - you’ll need about 4 hours for that.

What he said on the contact time.
But bleach is only about 7% sodium hyperchlorite, and I’m not sure what the other ingredients are. I would get some tablets or something specifically made for the purpose of water. Bleach, not being manufactured for actual potable water treatment, may not have controls necessary to ensure you aren’t ingesting something you shouldn’t.



Dan

WQA CWS-II

When we need to use a liquid chlorine
for potable water, we use industrial bleach (15%)that is NSF rated for potable use. The Centers for Disease Control, recommend using ordinary Clorox to disinfect potable water lines when there is a break.



The problem with liquid chlorine is that it breaks down in a relatively short period of time. Even in an un-opened container, it will degrade. So unless you are using fresh bleach on each trip, I wouldn’t necessarily stake my health on it.



Even though my company is authorized to sell large municipal and industrial MiOx units, I had to purchase my personal unit at full retail price and actually got it from REI.



Battery life is not a problem, I just replace them once a year whether they need it or not and I always carry a little extra rock salt with my unit. It still beats carrying all that extra weight of water. I purify my water at night after dinner, so that when I get up in the morning, there has been plenty of contact time. Although getting sick from ingesting crypto spores is not common, I just won’t take the chance - it’s easy enough to get enough contact time to kill them.

Bleach after a filter?
Would a few drops of bleach added per quart of water be effiective in killing the virii my MSR MiniWorks is incapable of filtering? I know the MSR is a good performer and that water borne virii are usually not a problem in back country water sources, but bleach is cheap and seems like good insurance.



Phreon

There are a lot of variables here
For one thing, I don’t know how much organic material is in your water, that will create a demand for the chlorine.



You really need to measure the chlorine residual, it should be at least 0.1 - 0.5 mg/l, and then you will need a varying amount of contact time to deactivate the bugs - you probably can’t kill them all.



Also, chlorine is not particularly effective agains viruses. Chlorine dioxide, ozone, or peroxide are both much more effective.



If you’re looking for inexpensive ways to do this, I’d use a commercially available tablet in addition to your filter.

What he said . . .
And I’ll add that chlorine and other chemical sanitizers are very INeffective on cysts like giardia and crypto. They have a hard shell that it is incapable of penetrating. Contact time doesn’t help. You need a very small, physical filter to eliminate cysts.

Organic matter & cysts in filtered H2O?
Organic matter and Cysts should not be a concern; there should be neither (statistically speaking) after water has gone through the MiniWorks or similar filter. I was speaking strickly to the virii most portable filters are incapable of trapping. Would an appropriate dose of bleach be effective against waterborne virii present in otherwise clean, filtered water? I’m sure the ultimate backup is AquaMira, but I’m curious about bleach’s efficacy.



Or does more “gunk” get through the ceramic and carbon filter than I was lead to believe? Shudder…



Phreon

Possibly.
I don’t remember the size of most cysts as I was happy to get out of that biz and I’ve made a point to forget as much as possible.



Waterdoc should know, but most carbon filters won’t be small enough, although ceramic SHOULD be, but you’ll have to check the micron rating and be sure it’s been certified by the NSF for that size.



www.nsf.org is your best source for water filters comparison and certification.

question
According to msr miox stands for mixed oxidants, ok makes sense but as a cancer patient I am told to eat food with anti oxidants so is this oxidant treatment defeating the purpose of the other. Thanks

Are you allowed to drink tap water?
If so, almost all tap water contains an oxidant - chlorine or chloramine.



If that’s the case, I wouldn’t expect the mixed oxidants from the MiOx to be a problem - but I’m NOT a nutritionist.

There can also be dissolved organics
in the water. No amount of ordinary filtration will remove that. Carbon filtration will, but not a ceramic filter.



As far as spores are concerned (and they’re the bigger worry than a virus), some filters can pull them out but many can’t, you’ll have to check the mfg’s ratings for your filter. I also don’t remember the physical size in microns of any of them.

If I was going to use filtration or chlorine, I would only use them together. Neither by itself is sufficient. And remember that chlorine is relatively inefficient when it comes to giardia, amoeba, or cysts. For that you really need a strong dose of something with more oxidizing power than straight hypochlorite.



Also, be aware that as the pH of water increases, chlorine becomes less and less effective. You might also want to consider using iodine, if you can get past the taste.



These are the reasons I use a MiOx. While in the service, I used Kool Aid to kill the taste of the iodine tabs we used, now, I can at least get 1/2 way decent tasting water that I won’t get sick from.

Tap water
wow people still drink tap water,thats cool.I dont know anyone who does. City or town anyone I know buy bottled water around here. I have my own well and have samples tested every 3 months and still ro it just to make sure

Bottled water is usually a rip off
Many bottled waters are produced by taking ordinary tap water and running it through a reverse osmosis system to remove all of the dissolved minerals. Then it is put into the bottle.



I used to have a customer that produced “Sequoia Pure Water”, it was ordinary tap water from Compton, California that was put through an RO system. Sounded like it came from some pure spring high in the Sequoia Forest. It sold in the 99 cent stores for $.99/liter or about $4.00 per gallon. Current pricing on Compton water municipal water is about $3.00 for 748 gallons. You do the math.

I looked up…
…the stats on my MiniWorks. It has an EPA approved ceramic filter good down to 0.2 microns with a built in carbon filter. MSR recommends iodine or chlorine treatment for virus protection.



Phreon

tap water
nothing wrong with tap water. I drink a liter or two daily. I occasionally drink bottled, but only when drinking fountains or a tap to fill my bottle from isn’t available.



Now, my parents’ tap water occasionally gets a bad taste due to algae. Nothing wrong with the water, but it isn’t the most pleasant to drink when it happens. So, my folks get RO water from the grocery store. Way cheaper than the bottled water you get by the case.

FYI
I just read that the government has recently classified iodine as a controlled substance because of the ease with which it can be made into explosives. If you can even find it now, I’m sure it’s only going to get more difficult to find.



As to chlorine bleach, blech…I wouldn’t put that in water I plan on drinking unless it was the only disinfectant I had.



The military has put together an excellent chart comparing pretty much all of the commercially available water treatment options.



http://chppm-www.apgea.army.mil/WPD/CompareDevices.aspx



It looks like the Miox does not necessarily perform as well as MSR states on crypto. The notes on the page state that it does work on crypto if you double the dosage, but that increases the bad taste in the treated water. I own a Miox, but I don’t use it alone, anyway.



Still, most of the time, I’m only using my MSR miniworks filter alone. In MOST bodies of water, the filtration offered by this unit is fine. Now, if I’m in a large body of water with a large and/or unknown watershed, I’ll layer my protection as much as possible and combine the filter with the Miox. Where it’s reasonable, I’ll avoid using the Miox where I can.

Thanks everyone
Especially waterdoc. The smell was so similar to household bleach that I had to wonder.



I found the Mioxx very easy to use and it imparted little to no flavor. I never needed to add the powdered gatorade that I brought in case the water on the trip tasted anything like my practice session using tap water.



We did use a filter (Katadyn) a few times to clear out floating matter, and after the battery died (I didn’t change it after one year). Live and learn.



Lyn