Hello All,

I have been reading quite a bit about storing water and i was wondering how most people approach this task. Do most people have a bunch of 55 gal drums? Looking to store enough for a family of 4.

Dave

Sorry for the noob questions.

Depends -- lots of people use 1 gal jugs, or commercial cases of water or 10-55 gal drums.

55 gal drums weigh 440 lbs (not including the drum). Unless you plan on not moving the drum, think small (remember, 1 liter of water is, by definition, 1 kilogram. In English, that's about 2 lbs per quart).

Take a look around, is there any large body of water close to you? A swimming pool,lake, creek ? It might be better to think about makeing your water. Useing filter and sanatizing it yourself.

I try to mix things up a little. Same size family, + 2 dogs. (4) 7 gallon Aquatainers, (2) 5 gallon jugs, roughly (5) 1 gallon jugs, always at least 2 cases of half liter bottles, plus (2) 40 gallon water heaters. The 7 gallon jugs are at the upper end for portability, and then for only short distances by hand. I keep a limited supply of chemical purifier pills and there's always a couple jugs of bleach in the laundry room. Bugging in, we're ok for at least a couple weeks; bug out by car, several days; on foot - limited to what we can carry, collect and purify.

I use mainly Aquatainers (7 and 4 gallon - I have begun to favor the four gallon aquatainers as they're easier for me to carry) and 2.5 gallon jugs that I rotate frequently since I drink the water. The larger aquatainers seem nice, but are just to heavy and bulky for me to carry any appreciable distance (Like two feet)

Dave in St Paul..
outside of keeping a few cases of drinking water around
i don't see any need to keep a lot on hand around here..
i'm in Mpls..we could take a short walk--or ride..to
one of the lakes for water..i think things are so stable
around here that our only worry is a winter power loss that
would last for weeks..

Ditto here. I store a lot of water in 2 liter bottles.

Hello Big Al,

Nope I am really in the middle of the city. There are lots of lakes here in St. Paul, but I am thinking that it will be a shooting match in times of trouble.

So I am thinking about getting some some 7 gal containers. Maybe I need to build some selving or something to save space.

Dave

What do people thing about building some low, low racks so the barrels are not right on the cement floor and putting a drain plug near the bottom of the barrel for easy draining?

Dave