Bottled Water

How much water is a good amount to store?

Is it better to store drinking bottles or Gallons?

Is it better to store distilled water or regular drinking water?

Last question is kind of a stupid question. Is there a shelf life on water?

 

Better to have water purification systems. Use ceramic type to filter. Use activated charcoal filters to improve flavor. Find clean source of water if possible -- what I have in mind is up in the mountains where water shoots out of a rock face. Drive a iron pipe back into that spring source.

I find 15 gallon plastic food-grade barrels the best storage mechanism. When you first buy these, bleach them out completely, then rinse rinse rinse. Chlorinated water from the tap will keep for a while, but it is stinky. What amount of chlorine is used in this size barrel is just drops. What you will find on the web is excessive chlorine use ... it won't kill you, but holy crap, no one wants to drink bleach.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=water+storage+drops+of+chlorine+per+gallon&t=hp&ia=web

Start with the best water. Filter/cleanse/boil it, then put it into these tanks.

We live in a place where there is plenty of clean water. If things go sideways, one can fill their bathtub.

If you live where contamination could be a big issue then put back the cleanest of water (post filtrations) then put just a very few drops of chlorine therein. Some people use colloidal silver. Dry tanks can have some colloidal silver splashed onto their interior walls to hold back fungal growth / some bacteria, however this does NOT replace the need for that small amount of bleach that I was talking about. Pioneers used to flip a silver dollar into their water barrels -- didn't prevent them from ALSO boiling the water before consumption.

If you try to put back too much water, you will eat up your food storage space. Think source of as clean of water you can find, then let sediments fall to bottom, filter and boil the top water of the tank for your use.

 

Here's some search results:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=build+it+yourself+home+water+filtration+system&t=hp&ia=web

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=build+it+yourself+home+water+filtration+system&t=hp&iax=images&ia=images

 

No need for distilled water unless you are doing chemistry projects or maintaining non-sealed lead-acid batteries.

I like to keep 2 liter soda bottles filled with clean water, i.e. drinkable water, in my freezer. The mass of this ice acts as thermal capacitance for the freezer and should the electricity go off, it takes forever for a bunch of 2-liter ice bottles to melt. Every so often I replace these bottles. I take the older ones out to the range for target practice. I police the rifle range and recycle the plastic. Say that you are going on a picnic, throw in two 2-liter frozen bottles into your big ice chest. Just two bottles keep that cooler cool longer than you'd ever think.

I freeze one gallon milk jugs to make targets for center fire handguns and rifles. A 20 ga. shotgun slug causes a gallon jug of ice to explode as if you had put an M80 firework into it. I've had ice blown back onto me from the 25 yard target line. This is great fun. I bet a lot of you fold do this, right?! Fun stuff.

 

I'm with you about the jugs in the freezer. Especially the chest type freezers. I put a layer on the bottom and then put cardboard over them. I did appliance repairs for about 25 years and let me tell you I've found some almost prehistoric things in the bottom of chest freezers Brontoburgers and mammoth steaks! Found a giant bass in one that the guys wife had told him she had thrown it out almost 25 years before because she didn't want a stuffed fish on her wall. Nobody digs down into that zone and evidently never totally defrost them either.

If you are on a chlorinated city water supply and fill your jugs with that water it is going to be drinkable for nearly ever. I like to do gallon milk jugs too if I can find them with screw tops. I also have a water cooler in my shop so always have several 5 gallon jugs out there for that. Water is dirt cheap if you don't buy it in those small bottles. I swear I never thought I would see the day that water cost more than beer at the convenience stores!!! Also don't let people tell you that bottled water is cleaner than regular city water sources. The cities are much more stringently regulated and regularly tested than the "spring fed bottled waters". We have a spring here that is one of Ozarka's sources and I KNOW that is not anything special. I flat won't drink Ozarka's water because of that. It is down hill from the danm garbage dump!

 

I store water in small bottles 600ml-1L and in 2L bottles and in 10L containers.
I also store water in large bladders and I have a 500L bladder in my bug out bus

I have lots a bleach, several different types and sizes of filters and a small testing kit
And lastly a distillation plant that is wood fired.

 

You need to get some calcium hypocrite to use instead of bleach. It is a cheap pool chemical that comes in powder form that is very stable and stores much much better than bleach. Bleach loses its ability to purify water over time and you won't know that it isn't working until you get deathly sick.

Good article on this...

http://survivaltopics.com/better-than-bleach-use-calcium-hypochlorite-to-disinfect-water/

 

Unfortunately i live in a rural area on the east coast. The only natural water I have around is salt water. I do know how to boil it and stake the steam turning it into drinkable water. But i do want to keep some stored bottles in both my home and vehicles.

 

Actually you have a great water supply. I was raised on the coast myself. Fresh water is a lot lighter than salt water. Back away from the beach so that you are well above the high tide line and dig a large shallow hole down until you start getting a little water soaking into the hole. Let the hole fill with water and then drink the water that is right on the surface. I use a straw to do this. The water on the surface will be fresh enough to drink. When it rains the water soaks in but then floats atop the salt water in the ground. If there is much wind cover the hole so the water is still and it will separate. This water is usually well filtered and pure enough to drink without treatment.

 

That is awesome and a great idea. But i am in the northeast, so the ground freezes a good 4 months of the year. During the winter I could always melt snow, but we have a long fall and late spring.

 

If you're out in the country, you might be able to dig for ponds.

Maybe having a cistern?

I do like the suggestions here of a filtration system.

 

I'm not sure if the question was ever answered, but how much should you store? Generally recommended you store at least one gallon of water per day per person. That is very much a minimum. If you have the space 2-3 gallons per person per day would be better. If you have pets (dogs or cats) they require 1 ounce of water per pound of body weight per day i.e. a 20 pound dog would require 20 ounces of water per day.

How you store it is up to you. I would opt for a mix of large and small containers giving you the flexibility of how you need to use it. It has been mentioned before but a purification system is an absolute necessity. If you have access to fresh water it will probably need to be purified. Even rain water that is coming from a roof or through a downspout should be purified.

If you have a method to desalinate that is a huge plus. You will have an endless supply of water. You will just have to chop a lot of wood.

Hope this helps.