Water Storage Question for Preppers. I need a little help :)

Buy a Lifestraw.
They are brilliant :)

Start here, store first then resort to sanitizing for secondary sources.

Research Berkey filters.

I store rainwater in 55 gallon plastic barrels and can distill it as needed...also 8 drops of bleach, just chlorine and no bullshit added, will sterilize a gallon of water too...

So I can use those just then to store the water and they will keep indefinitely if I make sure to sterilize with a few drops of bleach?

water storage is a problem. black fungus will grow in it after a while.

Pop bottles are great for storing water. Just clean them and fill them. I use water purification drops I bought from a food storage company.
They can be stored on their sides and stacked as high as you want to. They were built to withstand pressure.

Milk jugs were not build for pressure. They were not made to last. If you want to use them...use them for beans and rice... dry stuff only.

Also the pop jugs and some good juice product jugs...can be closed up tight with their nice plastic lids...and buried. They will stay save and dry for years.

Animals cannot smell what is inside and the plastic is slippery for teeth in case they felt like chewing they would just crawl away. I have buried things for years and know this to be true.

Can you imagine the joy you would feel if something happened in your area...you were in dire straights...and you could dig up a jug of raisins, or water, or jerky, or jelly beans or pancake mix, or soup mix.

Thanks a lot for that answer, so Ocean Spray Juice Bottles would work for water storage as well?

Yeah, I ran the downspouts into the two inch openings and we get enough rain to keep them full and flooded to keep the water fresh, but I'd treat it as I pump it out to use it...

That is why the prep work on you storage items. Start clean, sanitize, fill with good filtered water...add drops of best suited purifier... seal well and you can be good for years.

You only get bad water if you prepare in a bad way.

It is the same with everything...you get out of it what you put into it.

Think of it this way: what did settlers do 150 years ago? They had rain barrels that could hold 50 gallons, an earlier version of gutters to capture rain and condensate, a few 2 gallon buckets in the house for washing dishes and themselves.

Unlike them, you have the luxury of being able to fill a toilet tank and flush it, at least until the sewage treatment plants back up (unless you have septic system). I had an old hot tub that holds 300 gallons on the back deck so that is my non potable supply. Good Luck.

Yes. If you go to the recycle and ask, they let you choose out some jugs. Many have handles. You will notice the better the brand of juice the better the strength of the jugs.

Ocean spray is good...they have strong jugs! But remember...the pop bottles were built for pressure...so stack well. The Ocean Spray jugs were NOT built with the idea of holding a carbonated beverage...so they would just not be as strong for stacking...

Brillaiant! Thanks alot, I have 6 Ocean Spray Jugs and 4 pop 3 Liter Pop Bottles in the Recycling bin, headed out now, gonna sanitize them and fill them :) thanks again.

I have 3 46 gallon barrels full of rain water, all the rain water that comes off my house roof runs into the barrels.

I can just get the water out, boil it and then drink.

Plus in England its raining every other day anyway.

Last Edited by Ikhthus on 11/16/2013 01:35 PM

And they are free! Do not forget the small pop bottles are great for storing matches, salt, instant coffee, sugar, jerky, candy and of course water. They can also be buried and last for years.

You can wander the streets on trash day and find lots of bottles in the open in the recycle bins. Ya got to think like a scavenger as you plummet into prepperism...

We have The Winco Stores out here. They have an unbelievable bulk food department.

It is fun to walk down the bins and find things to fit into the jugs. Even Gummy Worms.

You can use the oxygen absorbers if you fold them up and no oxygen will cause the product to go rancid. So nuts and dry hot cereal mixes should have them. The bottle will tend to shrink up a little as the oxygen is taken from the product...pack them tight to support the bottle.

You will find all sorts of pastas as well that fit.

I have 5 55 gallon plastic milk barrels from the Dairy.

I bought each for around $10.00 a piece - they are food grade plastic, heavy white translucent plastic. The problem with used is you need to add a gallon of liquid bleach, fill 1/4 of the way with water, then cap it and roll it around to wash it, set it back up on its bottom, continue to fill to the top with water let sit for 24 hours to kill out and germs. Empty and rinse with a pressure nozzle - works best if you can sit the 55 gallon barrel on saw horses with both of the fill lids open (do not try to remove the whole top) - blow water up there and really clean it out.

While you can use it as is once clean, the reality is you want to keep the water in the dark.

I got that roll on/spray on truck liner stuff and painted the exterior of my 55 gallon barrels black. This makes for total darkness inside - this prevents algae growth.

I have my barrels stored in the wood shed up on cinder block. I moved them empty into the wood shed then filled with water.

I added 1 tablespoon of plain bleach (unscented, regular old Clorox bleach) to the barrels before sealing.

This is only 275 gallons of water. This water is reserved for only drinking and using for cooking. Yes it is a temporary reserve for short emergencies. I live on a well and there have been times where the power has been out a few days - that 5 barrel system is for short term emergencies.

I do have back-up plans.

I also have the 20,000 gallon swimming pool, 4 koi ponds with a net capacity of 25,000 gallons. Short emergency I can use the swimming pool for bathing, laundry and doing dishes. I also have heavy duty 6mm plastic to cover the pool with paving bricks to set all around to seal the plastic - I do this automatically each winter and could seal the pool in summer to prevent massive evaporation and to keep algae growth down.

I also have charcoal and know how to make a charcoal filter if push came to shove and we had to drink the pool water.

However I have the old well which is currently capped, but I can uncap it in short order and reinstall the hand pump which I have lovingly taken apart, cleaned, and sized and stocked up on gaskets. It is currently in a wooden box I build for it in sawdust and gun oil (water free oil). It is cast iron (its an old one) thus storing it in a non-water carrying oil coating is important.

When thinking about emergency planning you need to consider that the chances are not that great that the whole of civilization is going to collapse one day. There is most likely going to be emergencies, short term failures of the system which you need to plan for and also have a long term goal/plan such as a well, or having a permanent water resource - cisterns, condenser, some sort of system.

Can you store Pasta for a very long time? As well as Cup ramen?

This is almost all good...I was told not to store my 55 gal drums on concrete...just wood. I cannot remember why.

Life straws rock

Learn to make a water distiller

You are spending a lot when there is no reason to spend much at all. One simple way is with a pressure cooker, just run the condenser off the lid vent.

MRE’s would be great if you had to leave your home on foot. But switch to stocking dry goods, rice beans, peanut butter, flour, sugar, salt, pepper, coffee. All very cheap, buy a few cases of Ramen also, 36 meals for 5 bucks. I acutely keep the Ramen for the neighbors more then my self, you have to keep the neighborhood together if something happens.

Have a way to cook when there is no power or gas.

Donate your stores before they expire.

One more thing spices are not a luxury, there is a reason they were so valuable in the past, you can eat anything with the right spices.




[link to www.youtube.com]

Case of whiskey goes a long way also, can use it to barter with neighbors or drink it.

The "hard" style pastas can store well if they are White...not wheat-brown. Also use the oxygen packets in the jug.

Cup Raman stores a couple of years...is eatable several more years...then is nasty to eat but still edible for several more years.

Store them...but eat them first. Buy quality...you get what you pay for...

Don't use milk-type jugs for any but the shortest term storage.
They are bio degradable.

I've had old distilled water in those kinds of jugs that leaked after a few years of storage. They were the original containers.

great post thanks alot for that. Yea the MRE's I have in a dufflebag in case we need to go on foot. Most of the canned food I purchesed at the Dented can store for like 25 cents a can, I do not buy them at the regular stores. I purchased ten pounds of salt and I do have spices. And I have 3 bottles of Jack Danial's in the cupboard, I do not drink alot so they stay down there pretty much ignored. My brother purchased 2 cases of ciggerettes for my birthday that I placed down there as well for bartering items.

THIS

personally i would say just dont bother with milk jugs
for anything.

soda bottles are much much better.

Also you may try a sheet plastic cistern
dig a hole,line with plastic kind of what you would do if
creating a cheap garden pond.then cover with a roof 2 x 4s
and more dark plastic works great.

you may not want to use this for drinking without purification but you can store water LOTS OF WATER
for a faction of the cost and space of bottles or even rain water tanks.

BTW I learned this trick from some hippy weed grower when I stumbled on his "garden" while out hunting many many years ago it was quite ingenious how he collected the rainwater
from the local rock formation to funnel into his hidden cistern to water his hidden "garden"

Taste will always be important for water.
Treated water will have a taste that kids
and others won't like.
There is no substitute for good filtered
pleasant tasting water.

Don't try to store water...have multiple ways to disinfect and filter it.
Keep some water storage containers on hand for after you do filter it for when you actually need it.

Just an example.......
[link to www.thereadystore.com]

You could use the 5 gallon watercooler jugs too.

Last Edited by Useless Cookie Eater on 11/16/2013 02:50 PM

Lifestraws are good for having a personal water filter to drink from.

Lifestraw also now has a new item called the Lifestraw Family which hold 2 liters of water and run through a filter that is good for drinking or cooking.

One more source you may want to look for treating water you have stored is www.purewatertechnologies.com They have the H2O Rescue, which will keep stored water safe for up to 5 years without changing it out. It's about 35.00 for enough to do 300 gallons I believe.

The Ready Store is one of the good ones. Had a lot of orders and never a mistake. Quick as a bunny to. I like the stackable water blue jugs. In a hurry to go to cover you can carry those. They stack well and take up less space that way. They have a great little bottle of water purifier.

I do store lots of water...in the beginning of a crisis you have more to worry about than trying to start filtering water. You need stores that are ready to eat and ready to drink.

I have a swimming pool full of water....I'm not storing more.

I keep the Kool-Aide lemon flavor crystals. They can sprinkle into water to help the kids adjust.

I open the packs and pour the powder into clean dry little Pepsi bottles.