Water storage question
 

So I'm shopping for my first water storage solution. Go easy on me :)

Found a guy on Craigslist selling 55 gallon white plastic barrels for $12. Seems awfully cheap compared to what I've found online, so I'm wondering if they're useable or not.

Called the guy and asked if they're food grade. He didn't really know. He said they got them from a medical supply business that had stored some type of detergent in there, so at the very least they would need some good washings. He said he thought some people were using them for water, but he wasn't sure.

Any advice here, or other questions I should ask? I could go look at them but don't want to drive an hour if they're totally unusable.

Re: Water storage question
 

If they are they type with the large removeable lid you can use a polyethylene trash can liner to hold the water. I promise you will never get the soap taste out of the barrel.

You know your situation, but I think it makes more sense to keep water in 5 gallon cans so you can carry them if you need to.

Re: Water storage question
 

as long as these liners are not trash bags. those contain pesticides.

Re: Water storage question
 

I am a little bit curious. how much water do people think they need to actually buy a storage container for.

is the plan to fill it up and try to keep it chemically fresh?

or fill it then try to filter or distill it to drink it?

I was looking around my house if the water went off right now i have the following water storage

2-40gal hot water heaters(water always fresh)
5-toilet tanks @ 6gal each (i have the old style)
so that would total for me 110gal of fresh water that could be drained down and used plus what is in my pipes.

then if i had notice i could fill bathtubs...before the water towers drained down

I wonder if swimming pool and hot tub water is drinkable

I do keep a Berkly type filter so i could filter any ground or rain water. and could pipe roof downspouts to places like a hot tub for temporary storage etc.
i also have clorine in my stockpile for sterilizing drinking water/containers etc if i need to

I am just adding to the thread as i am curious about what people think the water needs would be and ideas for dealing with a water loss issue

I am blessed to live in a area with abundant ground water....Spring-Stream-River all within 5 mile radius.

Re: Water storage question
 

I use the PVC covered plastic 5 gallon bottles.

http://img.alibaba.com/photo/1177285...ter_Bottle.jpg

Re: Water storage question
 

I'd set up three systems:

drinking water, general non-drinking water system, and toilet water.

The toilet water system is pretty easy to set up and you could probably use the plastic barrel you found. Simply modify your rainwater gutters to run to the water collection barrel then run a pipe to the toilets. Use a two way valve to control the use of rain water usage and tap water. If you run out of rain water simply switch over to tap water. The system uses no electricity so it should be very easy to maintain.

http://www.reuk.co.uk/OtherImages/rainwater-toilet.jpg

Non-drinking water system is a replacement for your regular tap water. You would ideally want to keep the water at least at pool level quality as you will be bathing in it, washing etc. So you don't want any bacteria or other damaging chemicals in it. There are a lot of different type of systems for this one, everything from large above ground storage tanks, underground storage tanks etc. Just research rainwater harvesting and pool water hygiene.

The drinking water system you should simply use the 5 gallon jugs as the above poster mentioned. The reason is because you will want the cleanest and most purest water for drinking. It is generally too expensive to maintain an at home reverse osmosis, deionization and distillation system. Just buy a bunch of them and store them in your closet or storage area. Use the water for drinking and cooking only.

Re: Water storage question
 

I would never use any plastic barrel to store water that once contained detergent or solvent. Only brand-new food grade barrels or containers...

Find a local manufacturer of water tanks like these guys:http://www.plastic-mart.com/?gclid=C...FScuagod93sQrg

I store ~1000 gallons in vertical tanks in my garage, with another 150 in 30 gallon barrels, and several 5 gallon jugs for travel.

Re: Water storage question
 

I lived thorugh the end of the Soviet Union. I do not think that decline here, sans a nuke/emp attack close enough to you that your infrastructure is affected and far enough that you survive and choose to bug in, or an asteroid with the same conditions, a 9.0 earthquake, or an biological event that water filtration plants US has are overwhelmed (btw, US has one of the best water supply situations in the world) that puts total quarantine on water supply are going to require permanent water storage. Store what your family can use for two weeks. Fema/mormons have those regulations. I am not talking about food, I do know that US food infrastructure is weaker locally than the Soviet was. I think overall it is in a better shape. But locally with inventory on demand in every store it is quite a bit weaker.

When SU collapsed we had energy and water rationing. We had rolling blackouts and the schedule was not always clear, but we had a few hours of electricity per day for a while.

Gas was always on though.

The water pumping stations had I guess low number of pumps working at the same time, water never reached pass 2nd floor. we woudl have to get buckets.

US electrical energy infrastructure is stronger, and even if they do rolling blackouts the water will likely have good pressure

So just get these things in addition of your water in 5 gal bottles.

will save you space and should give you 100 gallons of water for for every bathtub


https://www.waterbob.com/Welcome.do

Re: Water storage question
 

one of the 4 water solutions at my place in the country is a windmill pumps into a cement tank that is under ground on the hill, water line runs to the house and I have 10 pounds of water pressure from gravity.
Well is old, was drilled in 65, the cistern is even older as it was built when the first well was drilled back in the 40's
anyway it works nice.
oh by the way I had the water tested to make sure it was safe to drink, and it came back fine, it is actually better water than the water we have at the place in town, not counting the damd chlorine and the fluoride .
I have a plastic tank in town that is about 150 galon, but if things get to bad I will just mosie out to the farm and say to hell with it