Water Storage

CharlieDelta127 · 10-02-2012, 21:38

I'm looking to get into some more detailed preparing. I have my feet wet on my limited budget (college student) and I want to maximize my water storage while minimizing my space.

Currently I am looking at getting 1-2 of these:

http://www.uscav.com/productinfo.asp...d=9556&tabid=1

I hear good things about them, and feel 10 gallons should be good to have on reserve for myself and my girlfriend should the time come that I would need them.

My question though is this: If I chose to store ordinary tap water, how long could I expect it to last? Alone? With a bleach additive? How about with a more expensive "water preserving tablet" (I'm not familiar with these but I know they exist).

Also, is using ordinary tap water a good idea? If not what is a better alternative.

Thanks

SFCSMITH(RET) · 10-03-2012, 07:00

A) USCAV is pretty expensive place to buy from.. I know, I live 4 miles from their headquarters.. They USED to be a good place.

B) Water does not go bad. It can become contaminated in some way, but it does not go bad.

C) Those particular containers have a bad reputation on other boards I am on.

Water is the most important prep. I suggest getting a steri pen of some sort, or some other way to purify "found water", then see what you can do about storage. Honestly, for 10 gallons, just go to wally world and buy two of the filled 5 gallon jugs, set them in the bottom of your closet. Way cheaper. Or a couple of the square blue containers in the camping section. Again cheaper. Fill with tap water. It's fine. After all you drink it every day.

mac66 · 10-03-2012, 07:31

As previously stated buy couple water jugs from the camping area of your local discount store. Tap water will last a long, long time without further treatment.

cowboy1964 · 10-03-2012, 07:40

Get a "hiker" style water filter too, so if you should need more water you can go scavenge it from anywhere.

http://www.glocktalk.com/forums/show....php?t=1443315

Big Bird · 10-03-2012, 07:45

I have 4 of those. Good DURABLE all around water cans. Used them for years in the Army. You'll almost always see one in the back of my truck. Not great for long term daily water preps as its only 5 gallons per. You need a couple hundred gallon capacity for that.

DoctaGlockta · 10-03-2012, 09:32

I have some aquatainers that I bought from Chinamart. I think they hold 10 gallons or so as well. Paid $10 or so couple of years ago. I had some extra water I had put in one from our water delivery company about 4 months ago. Drank the water earlier this week and it tasted fine. Couldn't tell it had been in the unit. Good luck.

wjv · 10-03-2012, 09:55

Get the blue cube shaped aquatainers from Walmart. Cheaper and very good quality.

Avoid the greenish color water containers. The ones that look like Jerry cans. Those SUCK big time.

CharlieDelta127 · 10-03-2012, 11:29

What is the average shelf life of tap water without any addatives (i.e. bleach etc.)? Before it tastes like crap, or becomes contamined? Honestly I havent heard anything bad about the GI water cans. Nothing but good reviews. Im actually looking to put these in my truck. And would defiantly consider some of the cheaper ones for storage at home.

wjv · 10-03-2012, 12:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by CharlieDelta127

What is the average shelf life of tap water without any addatives (i.e. bleach etc.)? Before it tastes like crap, or becomes contamined? Honestly I havent heard anything bad about the GI water cans. Nothing but good reviews. Im actually looking to put these in my truck. And would defiantly consider some of the cheaper ones for storage at home.

Years.

I usually add a touch of bleach just to make sure.

Most places say 8 drops of bleach per gallon when purifying water. But since the water coming from your tap should be reasonably pure already, I typically add 10 drops per 5 gallon container (2 drops per gallon). It probably isn't really necessary, but there is no real down side to doing so.

This site has a nice "how many drops of bleach" calculator -
http://www.csgnetwork.com/h2oemergencypurifycalc.html

Warp · 10-03-2012, 15:44

Aquatainers. Get them.

***Morris*** · 10-03-2012, 18:03

Storage is always a concern. Aquatainers have worked well for us. However, I have been testing these for a bit regarding storage space, seal quality and so on:

http://www.waterbrick.org/

Their storage design, despite the size, makes for a tidy storage package in a size easily totable for my wife and kids. Good seals.

M1A Shooter · 10-03-2012, 19:14

also dont overlook reusing sodal bottles to store tap water. they add up quickly and you can hide several gallons under the sofa and out of sight

also look into calcium hypochlorite powder, sold as pool shock on amazon. its powdered bleach and stores much longer than regular store bought chlorox or similar. can use this to kill the swimmers in water should you have to pull it from local creeks or similar.

get a couple free food grade buckets from your local bakery and get a $40 kit from amazon like the monolithic dome filter from just water. its better than nothing but still needs bleach or something to take care of teh really small nasties. or you can go bigger and buy the berkey filters for a similar bucket berkey or bigger would be the berkey systems and start using it daily.

i also stock the water cooler type 5 gallon jugs over the aquatainers. they are usually a bit cheaper although they dont stack nearly as well. i keep mine in a spare bedroom closet and placed a wooden shelf right on top of them and then stack go bags and such ontop of them.

Carry16 · 10-03-2012, 22:28

I have 8 of these and love them. They have gone up in price, but it used to be free shipping on orders over $50 so that may make the price more agreeable.

http://www.buylci.com//ItemDisplayF.aspx?itemid=906396

wjv · 10-04-2012, 11:12

I have stacked aquatainers 2 high, but put a sheet of plywood between the layers to distribute the weight.

doktarZues · 10-13-2012, 20:43

I saw this the other day on Sam's website, http://www.samsclub.com/sams/augason....ip?navAction=

It's basically a 250 gallon water storage device that looks like a big plastic water heater for $569 shipped. My first thought was "wow, almost six hundred bucks on water storage?" But then I did some quick numbers and it's actually competitive in price compared to simply buying 35 aquatainers, except you don't have to screw with 35 aquatainers

A bit out of scope for a college student getting their feet wet but pretty cool nonetheless.

Carry16 · 10-13-2012, 20:52

It DOES seem high for 250 gallons of storage. Nice that it has a small footprint, but a big price tag for sure. If you want to store around 300 gallons, or in increments of 300 gallons, I would suggest you watch Craig's List for something like this.

http://springfield.craigslist.org/grd/3329727030.html

I've seen these for $50 to $100. Try for one that had soda syrup in it, not cooking oil. Easier to clean.

mgentry · 10-14-2012, 09:34

Go to your local Coke or Pepsi Company - they will sell you a 55 gallon food grade barrel pretty cheap ($12 in my area). Clean it out and put tap water in it with 5 1/2 tsps of bleach in it and the water will last for a few years. Good luck!

houseflipper · 10-14-2012, 09:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by doktarZues

I saw this the other day on Sam's website, http://www.samsclub.com/sams/augason....ip?navAction=

It's basically a 250 gallon water storage device that looks like a big plastic water heater for $569 shipped. My first thought was "wow, almost six hundred bucks on water storage?" But then I did some quick numbers and it's actually competitive in price compared to simply buying 35 aquatainers, except you don't have to screw with 35 aquatainers

A bit out of scope for a college student getting their feet wet but pretty cool nonetheless.

Works out to $2.28 a gallon for a tank you can't bug out with.Smaller might be better for mobility.
The 7 gal. auqa-tainer From WM are 12.88+tax. That works out to $1.95 a gallon

cowboy1964 · 10-14-2012, 14:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morris

Storage is always a concern. Aquatainers have worked well for us. However, I have been testing these for a bit regarding storage space, seal quality and so on:

http://www.waterbrick.org/

Their storage design, despite the size, makes for a tidy storage package in a size easily totable for my wife and kids. Good seals.

At around $6 per gallon I don't see this as viable for large-scale storage unless you have a lot of money to spend.

CharlieDelta127 · 10-15-2012, 11:23

I picked up 2 of the 5-gallon containers from LCI. High quality. I dig it a lot. Very durable... (I mean very heavy duty). Planning to get more in the future. Great for my truck as well.

Carry16 · 10-15-2012, 12:34

Glad you like them. I've never seen a better built water container. Seems like when I bought mine they were closer to $16-$19 each, but with the government watering down the value of our dollar I guess we best get used to things costing a lot more.

CharlieDelta127 · 10-15-2012, 18:22

Might be worth grabbing a couple more before they go up anymore. Shipping was crazy fast from them.