How long to boil water?

[FastRope71]

Here is an interesting angle on this at This Link

"The correct amount of time to boil water is 0 minutes. Thats right, zero minutes.

"According to the Wilderness Medical Society, water temperatures above 160° F (70° C) kill all pathogens within 30 minutes and above 185° F (85° C) within a few minutes. So in the time it takes for the water to reach the boiling point (212° F or 100° C) from 160° F (70° C), all pathogens will be killed, even at high altitude."

Source: http://www.princeton.edu/~oa/manual/water.shtml

"What is not well known is that contaminated water can be pasteurized at temperatures well below boiling, as can milk, which is commonly pasteurized at 71°C (160°F)...".

Source: http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Water_pasteurization.

The fact is, with a water temperature of 160 to 165 degrees F (74 C) it takes just half an hour for all disease causing organisms to be inactivated. At 185 degrees this is cut to just a few minutes. By the time water hits its boiling point of 212 F (100 C) - plus or minus depending upon pressure or altitude - the water is safe. Even at high altitudes the time it takes for the water to reach a rolling boil and then cool means you can safely drink it.

Lacking a thermometer to measure water temperature, you only need to get your water to a rolling boil. By that point you know the water is hot enough and that the disease organisms in your water were destroyed quite some time earlier. End of story, turn off the heat. Stop wasting fuel. Let the water cool down. Your water is safe to drink!

For more information and an experiment showing why you are done boiling your water as soon as it reaches the boiling point, read the Survival Topic How Long Must Water Be Boiled Revisited."

All of the above was pilfered from another forum, but was too good to not disseminate widely.

[Steamforger]

It's been some time since Medical Microbiology, but I do remember that some of the bugs out there deploy a spore when the heat gets so high that they will die. This heat resistant spore later becomes the full grown bug you boiled the water to kill off in the first place.

Clostridium perfringens (gives you the "Quickshot") and botulinum (Kills you) both can do it, as well as Bacillus cereus (Again with the "Quickshot"). Listeria monocytogenes (Mimics meningitis) can survive the normal pasteurization heat/time of 161f/15 seconds.

Sources for C. botulinum recommend boiling for 5-10 minutes to kill the toxins. I'm respectful enough of C. botulinum to give it the full 10 minutes of rolling boil. Under pressure if able.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/exte ... oison.html

A handy chart is at the bottom of the article.

[Jered]

I think that if I'm at the point where I have to be fuel sensitive, I'm not going to want to take any chances, and will want to let the water boil for the full ten minutes.

If I have to, I'll boil it over a campfire.

[Frankingun]

Grandma would boil the water at the lake house because the house was the only one on it's spur from the water main. I think she did 10 minutes, Mom might do five, but I don't think less.