tips for long term water storage?

F

Foilist

Joined
Dec 20, 2004
Messages
3,863
I've decided that it would be a good idea to keep a few large containers of potable water on hand. We have a well, so no power = no water. When there is a threat of wind or ice, I usually just fill the bathtub, but I'd like to do better in case of a more serious, longer term emergency.

How does one store water for a long time in, say, 5 gallon containers without it getting funky?
 
I sanitize the blue plastic drums with idophor and then rinse them and fill them up. The well water is sterile so it keeps a long time.

I put a hand pump on my well right after it was drilled. Even though I have a generator we have had to use it twice in the last 13 yrs. Last winter we had 11 outages and one of them was for five days. It is a Baker and works great but it takes around thirty strokes just to get the water up 100'. Then it takes about as many to clear it out. It uses a seperate uptake pipe so it does not get used much.

http://www.deanbennett.com/handpumps.htm

I have seen less expensive ones that use PVC (#80) that do not require a boom truck to install. I spent about $1200 on mine because that was all that available at the time.

Or you could just go to Costco and buy several cases of bottled water. It will last a very long time.
 
I have 4, 7 gallon water containers that I store water in. I use the 7 drops of bleach per gallon (49 drops per container) and rotate it on a 6 month basis. After 8 years, I have yet to have any nasty critters grow.

After living through quite a few hurricanes in NC, figured it is cheap insurance.
 
Use bleach. Get the 7 gallon aquatainers from walmart ~$8. They're the blue square ones in the sporting goods section. If you want something bigger you can go to a soda bottler and get a food grade 55 gallon drum and rinse it out too.
 
Here's an idea that I've been kicking around a while for an emergency water supply. Buy a large (50 gallon? 100 gallon?) tank and plumb it in-line with the main water supply coming into the house. Put a tap in the bottom and include a bypass circuit around the tank. That way, you always have a large reserve on hand that is always exchanging itself. 50 gallons would take what, 2-4 days, on average? If the water stops flowing, you can draw off the tank. If the incoming is at risk for contamination, switch to the bypass for the toilets and such and use the tank for food and drinking. What do you all think about that?
 
We keep a number of 3 gallon bottles of water on hand and bought a 2 gallon ceramic crock style of dispenser that takes 3 and 5 gallon bottles. This way we can rotate our water stores into our daily needs. Filling as we empty with filtered water and no chemicals added for storage.
 
Bleach bottles are FANTASTIC for storing water in.

We have a massive blue drum that we store ours in.
Fill it up with tap water, add a few drops of bleach, and you are good to go.

One very important tip though:
Do not store your plastic water containers directly on cement.

We have always put ours on some 2x4's and garbage bags.
Rumor has it that storing plastic containers on cement will allow some nasty tastes to leach into the water.

If you use a big water tank, be sure that you have a pump to get it out!
 
Making sure your holding tank is properly pressurized will give you 40 gallons+/-. I checked mine once and it was 18 psi vs 40. After re-pressurizing it we get a whole lot more water after the power is out then before.
 
Blue Sky said:
Here's an idea that I've been kicking around a while for an emergency water supply. Buy a large (50 gallon? 100 gallon?) tank and plumb it in-line with the main water supply coming into the house. Put a tap in the bottom and include a bypass circuit around the tank. That way, you always have a large reserve on hand that is always exchanging itself. 50 gallons would take what, 2-4 days, on average? If the water stops flowing, you can draw off the tank. If the incoming is at risk for contamination, switch to the bypass for the toilets and such and use the tank for food and drinking. What do you all think about that?
Click to expand...


You already have that system and may not know it, your waterheater. Make sure you turn the circuit breaker (if elec.) off first so that when the power comes back on you do not burn out the elements before it refills.

If you want larger storage put in a cistern, I ordered a concrete septic tank without the baffles or side ports and had them made on the top.

Stan Deyo has a ton of good water purification/storage info on his website, click on the preparedness link.
 
One problem I can see with having your water supply in line with main water line is, that it does change out all the time and if there is a contamination in the system, for whatever reason, then your home water stores will also be contaminated.

If there is an event that could contaminate the wells or other water sources, which an earthquake can, then the water heater should be shut down immediately and the tank drained. The toilet tank should be drained as well and then allowed to refill with the contaminated water, if water service is still operating.

We placed a carbon element filter on our kitchen sink, which removes most chemicals and bad taste, but in an emergency I think that I would also pass the water through our field filtration system and apply a chemical treatment for virus'.
 
longbow50 said:
One problem I can see with having your water supply in line with main water line is, that it does change out all the time and if there is a contamination in the system, for whatever reason, then your home water stores will also be contaminated.
Click to expand...

That's the reason for the bypass circuit, to isolate the tank if necessary. Of course to be effective that means you must have some forewarning the tap water may become undrinkable. Some risk there, but last winter there was a freak snow storm in my area and we did get just such a warning, and believe me a large reserve tank would have been a huge help. Maybe it would be better to leave it isolated at all times, and only draw through it periodically as a refresher.
 
Blue Sky said:
That's the reason for the bypass circuit, to isolate the tank if necessary. Of course to be effective that means you must have some forewarning the tap water may become undrinkable. Some risk there, but last winter there was a freak snow storm in my area and we did get just such a warning, and believe me a large reserve tank would have been a huge help. Maybe it would be better to leave it isolated at all times, and only draw through it periodically as a refresher.
Click to expand...

I would definitely say to leave it isolated, and rotate the supply occasionally.

In Pittsburgh, the water pipes were 50 years old, if we were lucky, and would burst at the drop of a hat.

When one of those pipes went, the entire water supply was immediately contaminated.
You have a fantastic idea with having your storage in-line for easy purging, but you must remember that in the event of a disaster, water lines will immediately become contaminated, so the name of the game is to have a water supply that will not become contaminated.

That being said, one of the best water storage options every one of us has is our hot water heaters.
You should also remember toilets, and if anything happens, run to your bathroom and fill up your sinks and bath tub.

You may have to boil the water, but it will be a huge supply ready for your use.

Also, an anti-siphon valve may be something you want to look into (if you don't already have one).
These prevent water in your house from back-flowing into the main water lines, so if something does happen, you will at least have the water that is still in your pipes.


One of the best sites I have come across for water storage, and other emergency preparedness topics is ProvidentLiving.org.
It is run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Yes, it is a church site, but there is a lot of good information there.

Water storage:
http://providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,7534-1-4065-1,00.html
 
Good tips. I think I'll get some of those 7 gallon square containers and put them in the garage. Seven drops of bleach per gallon, right?
 
led4them said:
You already have that system and may not know it, your waterheater. Make sure you turn the circuit breaker (if elec.) off first so that when the power comes back on you do not burn out the elements before it refills.
Click to expand...

Waterheater is a great emergency watersource. You should have a clean hose ready for it and drain yearly to remove sentiment from the bottom where the drain is so when you need it you start off with clean water.
 
I have a water bubbler in the kitchen for drinking water, it uses the standard 5 gallon water containers, I have a delivery service for the 5 gallon containers of water. When the water is delivered it is sealed and sterile with a factory installed seal. I have 5 of those factory sealed containers squirreled away in the corner of the garage.

We won't talk about how much rice, beans, canned goods, vegetable seeds and 22 ammunition I have stashed, I think I am normal it is everyone else who has a problem. :o ;)Chris
 
IMHO everyone intersted in effective water storage needs to start by doing the math. (One-gallon per day X Number of persons to support) X Duration (Days) = Needed Storage Capacity. Example (4 person family, supported for 90 days): (1*4)*90 = 360 gallons (required storage capacity). If your serious about water storage you can see that it's gonna take a boatload of 5-gallon containers to meet your goal. I have 7 of those blue WalMart containers, but they hold only a drop in the ocean. However, I have a man made pond in my back yard that has a 2,500 gallon capacity and I've recently invested in a better filter and a UV light processor that will keep the water in pretty good shape. As soon as the grid fails we'll have to process the pond water before drinking...but we can deal with that. $0.02
 
Foilist said:
Good tips. I think I'll get some of those 7 gallon square containers and put them in the garage. Seven drops of bleach per gallon, right?
Click to expand...

Actually, the makers of Chlorox regular bleach, which is the only bleach you should use, say that 2 drops per qt. and 8 drops per gallon are suggested. Once the chemical is added, wait 30 minutes before drinking. There should be a slight odor of bleach. If not, repeat the treatment and wait an additional 15 minutes. If still no odor of bleach, discard the water.

For cloudy water, use 16 drops per gallon and wait 45 minutes.

If sediment is present, pre-filter to remove the sediment and treat as posted above. The reason for removing the sediment is that the active ingredient in bleach that actually kills the bugs, will attach itself to the sediment, instead of the bugs, lessening it's effectiveness.

I'm wondering if large quantities of water, like in a 55 gallon drum, need to be stabilized. Anyone know the answer to that one? If so, how is it accomplished?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top