# Melting snow for water



## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

I have melted snow many times over the years, living where I do and having winter camped and just generally spent a lot of time outside in the winter. I never really though about how efficient it would actually be, it was just something you did without thinking because it was convenient. Whenever melting snow for drinking water is mentioned it usually gets a lot of criticism but I never could really understand why.
There is a lot of snow on the ground here right now, a couple feet anyways, it is not wet snow it is all crystallized and hard to pack (was -30 already this winter). A lot of people have heard the old axiom of 10" snow to 1" water but I think that is misleading.
Today for instance I went out and filled some containers with snow from a spot I knew was clean. I didn't pack it with my hands, just took the pot and scooped as much as it would pack itself. From leaving the house to back inside was less than two minutes. I brought the pot in and put it by the stove, within about ten minutes the snow was melted and I put it in the kettle, it was boiling in another few minutes. I have to admit, it was much easier and faster than I had thought, to get a substantial amount of perfectly safe water.
How much water did I get? Between 1/3 and 1/4 of a container!
Now of course melting the snow takes energy, there is no free lunch. The thing is though, up here you need to have a source of heat anyways, it is not an option. The house did not perceptibly feel any colder, I didn't use any more fuel. Obviously the heat was absorbed but it was not significant in terms of fuel.
So I am very happy to see that this is a more viable option than many seem to think.


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## forluvofsmoke (Jan 27, 2012)

I've heard several times that ice is 10% air & 90% water, while snow is 90% air & 10% water. That depends on the conditions when the snow fell (temps and wind, mainly), and what happened to the snow after it fell (how long on the ground, how windy, temps and sunshine). Everything mentioned can effect how dense the snow is when you "harvest" it for melting into usable water.

Windy conditions and very cold temps seem to create a more dense snow-pack by breaking the snow into smaller crystals when the snow is blowing/drifting...smaller sized particles will take less space, as the space between the particles is also smaller. Wet snow from warmer ambient conditions during snow-fall seems to actually have less water density, as it hasn't been broken-down in size, and even though it will manually pack more easily and hold together, there is friction in the compression of these larger particles which reduces the compression in terms of weight vs volume.

Some of the most dense snow seems to come from wind blown snow in open areas where the snow may travel for great distances being carried just above the ground and striking the surface many times before coming to rest in a drift, then, heated to form a surface crust by sunshine during clear sunny days. This snow is very hard to break with a boot heel (similar to surface glacial ice), and it is very heavy, containing a higher percentage of water.

I haven't melted snow for drinking water for a while now, but it is a viable source, especially in a rural area, and as you stated, you need heat for comfort (or survival in most cases) anyway, so use this source to make your water...only makes sense. It doesn't matter if it's a camp fire or wood stove, it's heat.

In any case, snow is snow, as long as it's not littered with contaminants...if you're melting it for water and it's dense, you get more water for each filling of the container, but if it's light and fluffy snow with little water, you just need to make a few extra trips to the snow-bank for more water each day.

Bring on the snow! It's been dry here since early last summer and we need precipitation...I just don't like having to work in it 5 days/week.


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

Yeah I have heard the 10 to 1 ratio countless times and even that 1 foot of snow is 1" of rain, but never really put it to the test. I remember one time camping in particular, all we had is this little pot and it seemed to take forever to get a sip of water, with a real heat source and when time is not a factor it is a whole different ballgame.
It was actually a lot easier than getting water from a handpump.
By the way, this wasn't from a drift, not hard at all, just snow that had been on the ground for a little while and packed with a quick scoop of the pot.


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