CANA Provisions AR-1: A Portable Water Pump for Overlanding and Survival

Dangerous conditions are sometimes the muse for good concepts. In 2008, Zach, the founding father of CANA Provisions, was working alongside Engineers With out Borders in Cameroon. This African nation was torn aside by many years of financial disaster, warfare, and illness. Clear water — a useful resource most of us take without any consideration on daily basis — was tough to acquire in rural areas, and this led to outbreaks of preventable sicknesses similar to typhoid. Zach’s staff labored to construct and set up water assortment and therapy techniques within the village of Nkuv, however he finally returned residence to America, the place such techniques did not appear important. However 12 years later, whereas collaborating in a Tactical City Sustainment Course (TUSC) on the revered coaching heart often called the Direct Action Resource Center (DARC), Zach realized that a few of his prior expertise was nonetheless related for emergency preparedness. This led him to develop the CANA Provisions AR-1, a conveyable water pump that is designed to assist households and small teams receive clear water extra effectively.

Improvement of the CANA Provisions AR-1

To know the AR-1, it is necessary to grasp the occasion that sparked its creation. DARC TUSC is a week-long course that “addresses a number of the techniques and strategies that might be utilized by a small cohesive group to safe their belongings and survive throughout a interval of political, social and financial instability with localized recurrent ranges of violence the place the rule of legislation is absent or just about nonexistent.” Many who’ve made it via the TUSC program contemplate it a harrowing however enlightening expertise, and this was actually the case for Zach. He refers to his expertise as “an train in human struggling” — a serious wake-up name concerning the actuality of catastrophe preparedness.

Above: In emergencies, bottled water costs sometimes skyrocket, if it is out there in any respect. It is a good suggestion to have a backup plan for acquiring giant portions of water from a close-by supply.

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One in every of Zach’s duties throughout TUSC was to acquire and purify sufficient water for his entire staff. He shortly realized that scooping water from the swamp, filtering out the sediment and particles, and purifying it within the area to supply 10 to fifteen gallons of protected consuming water per day was unimaginable with the gear he introduced. This was an enormous downside, and one which remained on his thoughts after the category ended.

Water assortment and purification requires stream from the supply to the clear water container. Hand pumps and filter bottles may be efficient for smaller quantities of water, however producing giant quantities is tedious and labor-intensive. Gravity filters are an alternative choice, however they’re painfully sluggish and delicate to clogged filters.

Above: The chassis was designed to help the pump and fittings for standalone use in harsh environments.

With the intention to speed up the method, Zach started experimenting with numerous commercially-available water pumps. Many present pumps may produce enough water stream, however have been designed for in-place use or everlasting set up. Cell use would require a extra sturdy, rugged housing. These off-the-shelf pumps have been additionally designed to run on clear, secure electrical energy — similar to what you will get from a wall outlet — and lacked the digital “mind” needed to just accept energy from a wide range of cellular sources (automobile batteries, Purpose Zero energy stations, and many others.). So, Zach used his engineering information to develop a variable-pressure, diaphragm-based water pump system that might be used virtually anyplace on Earth.

AR-1 Options

The CANA Provisions AR-1 is described as “the whole lot you want in a single equipment to get began transferring water.”  The product description continues, “From supply to container, container to container, pressurizing a pre-plumbed system, or feeding a filter — transferring water is what the AR-1 does. No extra hand pumping, no extra siphoning, no extra dunking containers within the pond.” The equipment will function the muse for a modular ecosystem of water assortment and purification parts to be supplied by CANA Provisions.

The AR-1 pump is contained in an impact-resistant chassis with IP65 dust-proof and weather-resistant seals. It options Anderson 15-45A electrical connectors, a user-serviceable 10A fuse, and all of the electronics needed to securely regulate energy from a wide range of off-grid sources. The pump pulls solely 3.5A at 12V throughout regular operation, so it will possibly simply run on a conveyable energy station similar to a Goal Zero Yeti or another 12V model battery (LiPo, LiFePO4, Li-Ion, SLA, AGM). Constructed-in vibration dampeners enable it to function virtually silently, even when it is hard-mounted to a trailer or overland truck.

To feed the CANA Provisions AR-1, you will want to attach the included quick-detach 10-foot inlet hose and drop the tip into a close-by water supply. Then, join the outlet hose by way of one other QD socket, route it into your most popular water container, and flip the facility change on the pump. The AR-1 produces roughly 3 gallons (or 11.3 liters) per minute of water stream, and its twin in-line strainers filter out particles and particles. Stress is adjustable as much as 55psi.

When you’re planning to make use of the water for consuming or washing, you also needs to go it via a secondary air purifier (such because the LifeSaver Jerrycan) to get rid of micro organism and different waterborne pathogens. Chemical purification, boiling, or distillation are additionally viable choices. In any of those circumstances, the AR-1 eliminates the exhausting activity of scooping and pre-filtering buckets of water to feed the air purifier.

Constructing an Ecosystem

CANA Provisions describes the AR-1 because the “first and most vital element of the modular CANA Ecosystem.” Though we’re not capable of announce particulars but, we have heard that the corporate is working to develop equipment that can streamline the water purification course of, permitting customers to finally pump straight from a unclean supply right into a clear water tank. The AR-1 is also used to shortly pressurize water vessels for rinsing gear, from surfboards to mountain bikes, or may even be used to generate water stress for an overland trailer or tiny residence. We’re trying ahead to seeing how this ecosystem evolves to cowl extra purposes.

For extra info on the brand new CANA Provisions AR-1, go to CANA-Provisions.com.

Written by Patrick McCarthy