HH2O AutoMagic Water Collector & Rainfly Tensioner System

[irondog]

...Most folks to whom weight is of even moderate concern tension their tarps with shock cord or surgical tubing spliced into the guy lines and plan their campsites close to or right on a water source...

Post scripturally, and with much respect for the remaining points of your post: Yes, bungee/shock cord good. Me like. All my tie-outs are entirely bungee. Entirely. No dainty splicing-in for this crude man! I do the HH2O FOR the water and EXCLUSIVELY for the water. I'm well experienced with proper, snappy tarp tensioning. I'm in this (HH2O) game strictly for the water. I'm never so well placed and so intelligently planned that I can always make my hangs nearby to, or right on, a safe, secure, steady source of fresh, potable water. - Regarding these "folks to whom weight is of even moderate concern": I, at 250pounds, am not going to successfully delude myself that I'm ANYthing like an ether-lite, hyper-lite, ultra-lite, light-weight, sorta-lite, wish-I-were-lite, hammock camper. Hardly a thing more contemptably laughable than a big man packing little gear! No. Not for me. I gotta "keep it real", as the kids these days say, and pack for the man I am, whether I like me or not. I'll happily trip along, and carry me one or two funnels and a couple collapsible bottles. You might put 'em in my pack, or you might take 'em outta my pack, but I'd never know it. I'm not so sensitive that I'd EVER feel the difference. But I know I been dry nuff to 'preciate the difference 'tween Needin' water and Havin' water!! It's just one tool in my box of ways, and I don't for a minute imagine that irondog's ways are for everyone. No one need do as irondog does. As Grandma always done told me: "Nicky! Don't do like they says or does! Do like what's right! Or else!" Nuff said. Good ol' Grandma!

[xyppee1]

How do they actually work to tension the fly? I just ordered a HH and they come with it.

[Two Tents]

How do they actually work to tension the fly? I just ordered a HH and they come with it.

The tension is caused by the weight of the water in the bottle once it starts filling. I, just me and irondog, appreciate the water collection properties more than the tension aspect of the catchers. My dog needs water all the time and has no issue with tarp water, puddle water or water that contains small amounts of assorted nasties that he finds and happily consumes.

[ToddDubya]

I just got a Hennessy and it came with the collectors. My first thought when I looked at them was that I could fill bottles, then in the morning attach those bottles directly to a Sawyer mini filter and have fresh water first thing. What's not to like? I haven't tried them yet but I will and if it doesn't rain this weekend maybe I'll just break out the hose and see how well they work.

[Dux]

Rain off our tarps will in general have much less contamination than from any ground source, other than a tap. Thus requiring much less from our filters and extending their usefulness.

[BananaHammock]

The seeds, leaves, and other things are what usually stops me from putting a pot under the tarp. I've done it but it came with some floaties. I didn't have the Hennessy attachment though.

[trekkingnut]

hey guys, im back!

i struggled with the sieve inserts during heavy rain in the amazon and had to take them out.

to be quite honest a bit of bird #$&% isnt going to kill you in a hurry and you should be looking at purifying water anyway. steripen is the best way forward for this unless it is heavily saturated with sediment. 90 seconds to purify a quart -1 litre of water (for the americans... sorry fellow brits) is nothing and i have taken one on a solo paddle down the amazon in my packraft and didnt recharge it for 6 days and had no problems whatsoever.

if humans have survived for 10,000 years without having fancy gadgets then im pretty sure our stomachs would adapt if we tried. boiling is always good anyway. i rarely ever drink straight out a stream as thinks like nitrogen and mercury are just as much as a hazard in the long run as short term issues with intestinal parasites.

two things id say are. one i didnt get on well with the sieve and two only put half litre bottles on, the big 2-2.5 litre bottles seem to damage the stitching in the middle of the tarp and you get dripped on and need to rewaterproof things! not worth the hassle to be honest....

always take them with me if i know im going to be in an area with rain but little access to water, cloud forest for example.

[Dux]

In the spirit of HF being a friendly place, I deleted all of my most sarcastic bits before posting. I tender this missive in the hope that it will help people avoid serious health complications.

a bit of bird #$&% isnt going to kill you in a hurry

Kill? Most likely not. Diarrhea for days? Yup.

steripen is the best way forward for this

Buwhahaha!! The steriPEN is a horrible option rife with problems and no upside other than a high price tag. Most importantly, it only treats living biological contaminants. Which are far from the only contaminants that we need to deal with. Second most important is you never know if it worked. Bit of an issue right there. There are tons of issues that people have had without knowing it from the unit being imperceptibly damaged to low batteries that has gotten people sick.

humans have survived for 10,000 years without having fancy gadgets then im pretty sure our stomachs would adapt if we tried.

Have you even thought about what you are saying?? So many things wrong with that sentence it is difficult to know where to start.

Back in the day small children drank untreated water. Many died. Infant mortality ranged from 40-80%. So by the time those that survived reached adulthood, yeah, they were pretty well adapted to the local contaminants. You might want to pay attention to the key word "local" in that sentence. Most people in the old days never journeyed more than 30 miles from the place of their birth during their entire lives. Thus their exposure was limited to a relatively small subset of contaminants that they were well adapted to. I personally know several people who have contracted serious health issues from biological contaminants they were exposed to while traveling. From having a toe amputated (taking a shower while having a blister), a section of their esophagus removed (brushing teeth with local water), losing some of their eyesight, etc. None of which cause the locals the slightest concern. We ought to be very careful when traveling.

Next, how many people were in their area? How much pollution? Throughout most of history, not many of either. Take North America for example. During the Colonial Period there were less than 3 million people on the entire North American continent. The entire area was unspoiled wilderness and had been for centuries. Contrast that to now. There are more than 400 million people. Add to that decades of heavy industry, intensive agriculture, the paving over of too much of the land, the alterations to the waterways, the fact that the ground water levels keep dropping (thus concentrating pollutants) in most areas, the excessive pollution of the recent past, etc, etc.

In summation, our ability to drink directly from streams bears about as much resemblance to our ancestor's as ours does to a dog's. The current landscape bears about as much resemblance to the land where our ancestors drank water directly from streams in as the surface of the moon does.

boiling is always good anyway.

Yepper. Boiling is the most effective and economical method for rendering inert the organisms most likely to cause us harm when ingested. Note that it does neither kills nor renders inert all organisms. Just the majority of those most likely to cause us harm. Further, boiling does nothing to mitigate some contaminants and increases others. Distilling increases some contaminants as well. For that matter, most backpacking filters do little to mitigate anything other than the organisms most likely to cause us harm when ingested. That is the elephant in the room.

i rarely ever drink straight out a stream

!!!

as thinks like nitrogen

The nitrogen we encounter in the woods is not harmful. Nitrites and nitrates can cause long term issues. Perhaps you intended to refer to the nitrates in fertilizers and manure, which are commonly encountered in untreated water?? By the way, your steriPEN does nothing to mitigate nitrates or nitrites.

and mercury are just as much as a hazard in the long run as short term issues with intestinal parasites.

Nope. Chelating mercury from our bodies is much more difficult than dealing with intestinal parasites. Also the damage done by mercury is much more difficult to reverse than that of intestinal parasites. Mercury is not "just as much" - it is a far greater hazard. Your steriPEN does nothing to mitigate mercury and has a spotty record on intestinal parasites.

the big 2-2.5 litre bottles seem to damage the stitching in the middle of the tarp and you get dripped on and need to rewaterproof things! not worth the hassle to be honest....

Have you thought of suspending the containers separately? Of course those are too heavy for the tarp alone, why would you even try???

hey guys, im back!

We stand amazed.

[Owl]

I know I'm way late to this conversation, but I wanted to chime in a bit. I like the idea of the HH20 collectors, and might end up picking them up sometime to try out if I get the chance.

My son and camping partner notes that I have some leftover 'issues' from my time in the military, to include a huge stress about lack of water while camping/hiking.

Given that, only in an emergency when it simply wasn't possible would I drink the water from these 'straight from the tarp'. I'd be quite comfortable doing so once it was run through my Sawyer Mini...even moreso if I were to boil it first, but I've learned to trust the filter pretty well. It removes enough of the biological contaminants that I'm good with it.

Of course, that's going to do nothing with any chemical contamination that might be present...either from what may be on your tarp already (silicone, permetherin, or whatever the manufacturer might have treated it with), or what may have come down with/in the rain (airborne chemicals, pesticides from the air or trees above you, etc...). But let's face it...most of the time that's going to be a small concern in direct rainfall compared to what you'll find in almost any ground water except right from a spring.

Laugh off the concern of what you might pick up in bird poop or whatever other biologics you might get drinking directly from them if you will...I've spent time in a large variety of climates in both North and South America. I've had to deal with parasites, fungi, infections... I'll grant it's a smaller concern in North America compared to many other places. But people still DIE from the side effects of a lot of these infections/infestations even here...why be an idiot and run that risk when it's simple enough to avoid?

I don't get the uber macho mindset that I'll 'rough it and take the chance'. Most of those folks haven't ever seen/experienced what happens when you take that chance and fail.

Learn the hard way if ya wanna...it's your health/life.

[Rolloff]

I'd let my dog drink water from my tarp, then if he didn't get sick or burp real nasty, I might try it, after filtering, and under extreme duress.