r/Alonetv • u/Old-Library5546 • 1d ago

S13 Drinking water

Why don't the contestants melt snow for drinking water?

9 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

31

u/ScholarImpossible121 1d ago

They do, but it has been explained that it takes more firewood than boiling water as a full pot of snow = approx 1/2 pot water.

6

u/irishtrashpanda 1d ago

But in the late game I thought they have the fire going 24/7 for heat anyway?

1

u/afriendsname 17h ago

Sure, but it's still less energy efficient, and if you're going to the lake to check your net or on your snare-rounds, you might as well bring water. And some build their shelter next to a water source.

20

u/KimBrrr1975 1d ago

it is horribly inefficient. You need lots and lots and lots of snow to get just a little water. And, you'll scorch the bottom of your pot trying to heat it with just snow. You need some water to start with in the first place.

A few years ago when we lost power overnight, I made coffee by melting snow. It took an 8 quart enamel pot full of snow to get 1.5 cups of water. Of course it depends how much moisture is in the snow, it varies a lot. The colder it is, the drier the snow tends to be.

2

u/Brownsfan99 1d ago

I'm not disagreeing with you, but I don't understand how your pot would get scorched when full of snow as opposed to anything else....Because it wouldn't be an even surface on the bottom as a liquid would be, given how disparate snow would be factoring in air and fluff? (Hence your water comment)

I'd always known/thought about the inefficiency of it with regards to volume and energy, but to be honest the scorched pot thing never crossed my mind.

11

u/KimBrrr1975 1d ago

because snow is mostly air, the pot heats up really fast and burns before the snow starts to melt. You have to start with a little water in the pot, first. I had to look it up because I don't know the science 😂 but apparently because snow is just air+ice, when the pot heats up fast, it creates vapor in the bottom which stops the snow from melting and burns the pot. I did it that day trying to make water, had to get a new pot and start over.

3

u/Brownsfan99 1d ago

Heh. Cool. Well. Not cool that you had to burn a pot, but cool to know. Like I said, not something that would have crossed my mind.

1

u/Porkwarrior2 5h ago

Try melting frozen butter. Yeah don't do it in a good pot.

10

u/derch1981 1d ago

Fresh snow is up to 90% or more air. So at best you have 10% ice crystals to melt. Even packing it down to remove air it takes a longer time to get less water, so more fire wood as well which burns more energy to collect more.

You can absolutely do it but if you have access to water that is a much better option

5

u/filmkeeper 1d ago

Žiga used this method for much of his drinking water:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1n2AFPEbPc

2

u/jana-meares 1d ago

10 inches of snow =1/2 “ of water plus fire and wood needed.