Well, what did you expect? We couldn't put "How to fill a condom" on the navigation bar. People might get the wrong idea. In reality, however, if you are new to the idea of using a condom for an emergency canteen..... that's exactly what this page is going to show you how to do.
Are there better ways of carrying water? Of course. But survival isn't always about having what you need on hand. It's about preparation, practice and improvisation if the need arises. In other words, your survival could be decided by how adept you are at making do with what you have on hand in the absence of what you expected to have. You can have all the items you need at home, practice 24/7 and encounter an emergency while visiting a relative several states away from home. At that point, chances are that you won't have all your emergency gear available to you. How well you fare in such a situation has everything to do with how well you can improvise if need be. Face it, if you could pick and choose your "emergency situation" it wouldn't be an emergency, now would it? You'd be more than well prepared.
So, if you can't pick and choose your future, why would you practice like you could? Don't rely solely on preference. That can be to your disadvantage. There are folks who don't like the idea of a thin latex membrane as their means of transporting life saving water for a variety of reasons. Mostly, because right now there are other means available to them. But what difference will that make if a condom is all that's available to them in an emergency? Simply avoiding a technique will not prepare you for using it when it's all that's available to you.
To start with, fill a sink with about 2" of water. This is to simulate a small puddle of water. Although it's much easier to fill your "latex canteen" like you would a water balloon, sink faucets are a little hard to come by in the wild...and if you should happen upon one, odds are there won't be any working plumbing connected to it. So, you have to learn how to transfer small available quantities of water into your canteen (See Photo 1)
Next, you stretch your canteen like you would a balloon (Photos 2&3).
Once you've stretched your canteen a bit, put your thumb and forefinger of one hand an inch or two inside of the opening and hold the canteen by stretching it a little (Photo 4).
At this point, it will hold a bit of water without much help (Photo 5).
Here's the trick; without removing your thumb and forefinger, wrap the latex mouth around your fingers so you can both hold and seal off the mouth. Now you can use your other hand to gently squeegee the water down to the bottom of the canteen (Photo 6). If your fingers slip out, like mine did here, no problem. Just pinch off the water at the bottom and reset your fingers in the mouth of the canteen and continue.
Once at the bottom, you squeeze off the canteen so the water remains in a small ball while at the same time, you unwrap the mouth of the canteen and stretch it open a couple of inches. While you are doing that, you can stretch the neck of the canteen to increase the volume of water it can hold. While you are holding the stretch, lay the entire mouth and neck in the water again and when you pull it out of the water again, it should look like photo 7.
While still holding the mouth open, roll your hand so you can pinch off the opening between your middle and ring fingers. Letting go of the bottom, you can squeegee the trapped water down into the main reservoir. By repeating these steps, you can have your canteen filled in must a couple of minutes, with no more water than you would find in a small puddle.
Just repeat these steps over and over until you get your desired quantity (about a quart of water) in your canteen. Once you pass roughly a pint of water in the canteen, you don't have to squeeze the water down as you won't have the back pressure that you had to overcome earlier (Photo 8). Just don't get greedy. The more water you put in a condom, the weaker it gets. With a quart/liter of water, a condom is surprisingly resilient. If you try to put a gallon of water in it, you run a greater risk of losing it all.
This measured just a touch over a quart (Photo 9). Not bad for a guess and perfect for a water purification tablet. You should try this a couple of times to get the idea. It's not as easy as you might think if you've never done it. If you're doing it for the first time in the wild, you'll have to factor in a little fear, maybe hunger, possibly cold (in the air, water or both), maybe it's raining and you're wet and shivering. Then add a little frustration, exhaustion and sharp rocks in or near the water....just to name a few. Take some really good advise that's been passed on by every good instructor concerning survival; "Don't wait until you need it to practice with it". Yes, there are those who prefer other methods. But then, what if? Can you do it?
A condom is just one of many commonly found items in and around a modern household. But then, so are latex gloves, zip-lock type baggies and 2 liter soda bottles. Be smart. If you find yourself in a survival situation and you have access to a better water container, use it. But stuff some extras in your pocket, ruck or other vehicle you're using to carry your gear and supplies. Who knows? Perhaps you or someone else will have need for one of those extras you stuffed in your pocket "just in case". You'll thank yourself later as you realize how many different uses you'll have for these common household products.....especially if it's all you've got with you.
