Condense

Condense started with fresh water scarcity. Droughts are becoming normal, and for most of us in the US they're an inconvenience, not life or death. That isn't true everywhere. It's starting to reach backpackers too: a filter is no good if there's no water nearby.

So the goal was to make water collection personal. Something that pulls an estimated 3 to 5 liters a day out of the air and weighs under 5 pounds.

Fog and dew are the two best passive ways to collect water. Spider webs and Spanish moss were the first inspiration, but fog is picky about where it works, and dew turned out to be more adaptable. Then I noticed that wet lupine leaves look a lot like the shapes researchers found work best for collecting dew.

The first tests didn't work. I built a small rig, wrapped it in steel wire, steel wool and copper mesh, and left it on the car for two nights. No dew either night. So I went back to folding paper, then 3D printed the vanes and sewed sil-nylon over an absorbent poly-blend.

The name is form and function: it's how it collects water and how it packs down. The vanes add surface area and give it the coffee filter shape. Three layers do the work: sil-nylon that reflects heat and lets the water run down to the basin, aluminum that cools quickly overnight, and an insulating layer that holds the cold longer and soaks up a little extra. The frame borrows from airplanes, with lightening holes to cut weight and the stand tucked inside the frame. In the morning you fold up the stands, drain it through the cam-lock fitting and squeeze out the last drops. Then it folds flat and clips to your pack.

The plan was one for one: for every one sold, one goes to a remote community that needs it.