Long term water storage

[dreamaker]

Does anyone have any good long term drinking water storage experience.  Good sure fire methods, just got some water bricks.

[Gavin_Sons]

Yep my well and a generator

[Jess from VA]

This is not huge storage by any means.  But I have been adding good half gallon and quart (empty juice, yada) bottles of tap water to my two big fridges/freezers to the point that they are as crammed about as full as possible with all my regular food storage in place (including lots of bottled water and other fluids).  It takes a little creative packing to max out the space available, and still have room for your food.

This is more a system to reduce electric use for the fridges than anything, and to help keep things cold/frozen during power outages (until the generator must be used), but it also lets me have a decent amount of potable water on hand if ever needed (in 23years, my city water has never been cut off, except a couple of brief water line repairs).

Probably not the volume you are contemplating.  

If city water notifies you of a future shut down, it is always wise to fill your tub(s) and do all laundry before it happens.  

[dreamaker]

It’s interesting that you would say that, well I was told that the older friges would really eat up the current. So it was suggested to fill bottles with water and freeze them, and it would lower the current consumption.  Well it seemed to lower the electric bills.
Good thing I think it was in ’02 we lost electricity on the east coast, for us it was three days, after about a day and a half they suggested to boil any water you consumed.  Guess what!!  I had a whole freezer full of frozen water that I could use for drinking and cooking. Also kept all my food from going bad, actually about the forth day the freezer still kept things cold. So I go with the Boy Scout Moto, and “Be Prepared” and think ahead.  I know we can go for a period without food, but not long without water.  With all this crazy stuff going on with the weather, I figured, what the heck, it can’t hurt.

[Jess from VA]

It doesn't matter if it is a PC Gold Star appliance or an old Kenmore, the more you keep the fridge/freezers packed full, the lower the electric bill.  I can find no downside to packing them full of clean water.

Yep, I went from tenderfoot to senior patrol leader.   

[Serk]

50 gallon barrel of 0TDS RODI water for my aquarium, and a very high end 6 stage RODI filtration system that can take any water down to such purity that it doesn't conduct electricity (As well as having a generator and enough fuel to run it for several days) on hand is my solution.

It's easier to make water than to store it. Some source of water would be easy to find in just about any situation, having the ability to make that nasty contaminated water drinkable is the key.

[saddlesore]

  I made a "pail " out of some 2 inch PVC pipe.  Lower it down the well with some paracord and I have water.  The well is 240 feed deep but the static water level is around 16 feet. 

[dreamaker]

50 gallon barrel of 0TDS RODI water for my aquarium, and a very high end 6 stage RODI filtration system that can take any water down to such purity that it doesn't conduct electricity (As well as having a generator and enough fuel to run it for several days) on hand is my solution.

It's easier to make water than to store it. Some source of water would be easy to find in just about any situation, having the ability to make that nasty contaminated water drinkable is the key.

That is a wild setup, sounds interesting.

[Robert]

A plastic 55 gallon plastic drum with water in a cool place should hold for awhile. Below is a article I found. We regularly have distilled water delivered so we usually have a few 5 gallon containers of water on hand. If you get a few of these 5 gallon containers and keep recycling the water in them you should not have a problem either. This below is for disinfecting the water but city water stored would require less chlorine. In the last hurricane was 21 days without power.

1 Gallon water is disinfected by 8-16 drops of regular household bleach (visually about 1/4 of a teaspoon) - double that for cloudy water. Shake and let stand 30 minutes. One teaspoon will disinfect 5 gallons. Immediately after treating, water must initially have a slight smell of chlorine. If it does not - repeat the process.

3)  Household bleach is relatively harmless. The smell or ?waft? of chlorine is not bad: it indicates that water is treated and germ free. Once treated and disinfected, the chlorine smell will go away in a few days.

4)  Regularly used water from large tanks may be treated once or twice a month with 1 Oz. bleach per 200 gallons or 5 Oz. bleach per 1000 gallons.

[dreamaker]

Good Info.!

[art]

Interesting that this post came up. I recently had no water for a day and had very little fresh water on hand but for a 5 gallon container in my truck used for emergencies on the road.  after the water came back on I washed and refilled the container and added a cap full of bleach. I don't know if it was enough but figured it wouldn't hurt. I'm going to start collecting water in some containers from now on.

[dreamaker]

I picked up a few of these water brick containers, not necessarily at this company, these are stackable and made for storage, no BPA in them. I also got a couple of these Life Straws, I keep one on my bike with a mini bug out bag, just in case. Not to seem to whacked out, but you can go to your sports wear outlet and buy some emergence food. May be a 72hr freeze dried food, it is good for 25yrs storage. Just a thought

http://shop.honeyville.com/water-bricks.html

http://shop.honeyville.com/lifestraw.html

[The emperor has no clothes]

Would 28'x14'x5' swimming pool count ?

[dreamaker]

Probably could, if everybody didn't piss in it, the pool filters don't filter the uric acid out.  You can also buy a bladder container you can put in the bathtub and sink.

[desertrefugee]

There's no "p" in my ool, so I've often thought it could serve in an emergency.  Even for extended outages, the supply is still there even if it needed treatment before use.

Also, I keep the fresh water tank on my bug-out camper full - and treated with chlorine.   

[scooperhsd]

My usual hurricane / ice storm prep is to fill one or 2 beermaking barrels with potable water, and confirm the pool (19,000 gallons) water condition is fine.  Pool water would be used for toilet flushing, and the beer buckets for cooking / drinking. Use the pool water for washing as necessary. Fortunately, I've never been without power for more than 24 hours (good thing with us on our own well). With us on propane grill and inside cooktop - we're all set.

[Oss]

We have gravity fed water here in the Hudson Valley which runs downhill from the
reservoirs in the Catskill Mountains

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_water_supply_system


I suppose in an emergency my pool (assuming I finish it next Saturday- see my mothers day post)
could supply 10000 gallons for washing and flushing.  Its a salt water pool.  7  40lb bags per 10000 gallons and no chlorine needed.

The best way to store water IMHO is an old hot water heater, 40-50 gallons in a very small footprint and you can run the water thru a filter to remove any chemicals like chlorine using the gravity from the drain valve of the tank

Check that plastic water brick is non bph so you dont get the estrogen that leaches out,  I dont trust any stuff made in china

[dreamaker]

The Specs. on Water Brick,

Product Details (per container):
 WaterBrick Stackable Water Container: 1.6 Gallons of Liquids or up to 13 Pounds (127 Adult Servings) of Dry Foods. Made of rugged, high density polyethylene (HDPE) with an easy grip comfort handle. These unique water containers, unlike any other, can also hold food and other life essentials while adding value by cross stacking up to 4 feet for maximum efficient storage. Wide diameter lid opening with notched easy grip lid allows for an average adult to pull stored contents out of the container by hand. Stores water, food or anything you want to keep dry or store efficiently while eliminating most food odors. Meets FDA standards and BPA free.

Product Specifications (per container)

Size: 9" W x 9" L x 6" H (half the size of a standard 3.5 Gallon WaterBrick)
Product Weight when Empty: 1.29 pounds
Stacking Strength: due to 1 interior conical reinforcement columns
Interlocking Strength: they interlock using their male and female connectors
Wide Lid Opening is 3 1/4'' in diameter - can fit average adult hand to reach inside
Full rubber gasket creating a tight seal is included inside the lid
Recommended Stacking Height: 4 feet
Average wall thickness of container is approximately 3/32 of an inch (.090)
Meets FDA standards and BPA free
USA Made!!!

Additional info.

http://www.waterbrick.org/product-specifications.php

Additional how to store water and treatment, reference.


http://www.waterbrick.org/how-to-store-water.php