I just read a few articles about the hazards of long term storage. I used to drink Pepsi exclusively. 1-2 two liter bottles per day. Now I drink Kool-Aid. I hate water because it has no flavor. I hate it. I HATE IT. I can barely tolerate it if it is very cold, but I will drink it. I want to stock up on water in the event of a long term need. If you store it in plastic bottles or jugs the plastic can leech chemical and it will eventually kill you or screw you up. Get this filter, geet that filter because this filter sucks. Use Polypropelene jugs not plastic. Use plastic number 4 not number 7. 867-5309, Jenny what do I drink. Holy crap. WTF do I do?

*sigh* No it won't. Go ahead and store the water in well-cleaned (to remove any sugar that would feed bacteria) pop bottles. Refill once a year or so and key an eye out for leaks. You'll be fine.

-Blast

I can't drink water unless its really cold and don't care for the taste of it out of bottles as I can taste the bottle in it, it just doesn't taste good to me. I've stocked quite a bit of those single size lemonaid and gatoraid packets to add flaver, that might help some.

Are those 5 gallon water cooler jugs safe for long term storage?

Your consumption of 1-2 litres/day of high fructose concentration water solution should be your main concern rather than any issues with regard to water storage in a plastic PET bottle. The Diabetes Mellitus type 2 will get you way before the BPA exposure will.

If plastic bottles concern you then just use 1 Gallon glass demijohns to store your water.

http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/invt/0022556

I no longer drink soda but I do drink 2-3 quarts of koolaid. I am concerned about the amount of sugar content but it's sooooooooooooooo good!

There are a lot of past threads that deal exclusively with water storage. A general search should provide great kernels of information.

If your in an city area and your plan is for an extended stay at home without clean potable water I'd suggest investing in the 5 gallon water bottles and a spigot jug to sit on. If its to much to buy the bottles you can buy 5 or 6 gallon water carriers for about half price. I'd suggest 1 gallon per day per person. I usually keep 20 gallons for the three people in my house. Every six months I exchange the water in the carriers for use.

If your at home during or for an emergency, fill up your bath tubs with water right away. The water in the pipes won't be contaminated. One tub should provided at least 40 gallons of water that can be used for a number of other functions like flushing the toilet a couple times a day and hygiene.

For flavor, you can certainly invest in flavor packets. For true emergency, I keep powders like gatorade or kool aid or tea in large quantity. You don't need a whole single serving packet to mask the 'taste' of chemicals in water and it will stretch a long time.

I will hasten to add this and its not an admonishment, please don't take it as such. It's important to plan for emergency's and its great to plan for comfort but clean water in critical situations is a commodity and taste is a preference. If you have a choice to buy a $6 five gallon water container or $6 in flavored powder, buy the container.

BTW, if there is a Big Lots store near you, its a great place to find powdered drinks cheap.

Got any idea about the safety of drinking the various Crystal Lite drinks???

Everything gives you cancer.
There is no cure,
There is no answer.

Yup. And give me cancer any day over alzheimer's...

A lot of those crystal lite things are labeled sugar free but then have the sugar substitutes which are not much better, they usually give me a migraine.

"... have the sugar substitutes which are not much better..."

Just my luck. Not having lot of freezer/refer space, we went to them as an OJ subsitute. The stuff is great with vodka!!!

I drink 2-3 (1) liter bottles of water a day, I put in 2oz of lemon juice and two teaspoons of sugar (makes it palatable)

Mike

KD7, 2oz of lemon juice and sugar per liter? If so, I will try that.

yes the lemon takes the edge off the plain water taste and the sugar is for the lemon taste

Sweet! Is it artificial lemon juice in those little lemon shaped containers? Do they keep long? I can do that.

The (2) two bottles I just bought (1-13-09)say they expire in Oct of 09 production date was 12/08 so about a year from production,
I really enjoy the taste. Not sure about the lemon shaped ones but maybe presume the same?

Mike

Thanks!

Believe me, you'll drink water if your life depends on it.

I am lucky enough to have an artesian spring just a couple miles away with the best drinking water I've ever tasted. I drink 1-2 liters a day, and prefer water over any type of soft drink.

I have 7 - 6gal hard plastic jugs at home I try to keep full ($7 at Wally World), and have never tasted the plastic. I have however tasted serious plastic in commercial water bottles packed away in my BOB in the car. They were stored in there for about 6 months and tasted pretty bad.

I don't have any real evidence either way about the dangers involved with chemicals seeping into the water. Anyone have a source they can cite that says something about that?

Regarding taste, keeping some packets of Kool-Aid in your BOB is a great idea. The sugar can give you a boost in an emergency and if you have kids, will make the water more palatable.

El Diablo,

+1 on the Wally World containers, that is what I was referencing in my response without getting specific.

I keep a couple bottles in my trunk and after a summer of +100* they taste terrible. The local news did a story on keeping water bottles in your car in the summer and how the heat leaches chemicals from the thin plastic bottles into the water. Also any bacteria or chemicals that may be in the water itself from the source will affect the taste.

I have a pal who has a business that tests medical equipment. Part of his testing process is to use 100% pure H2O. His set up is identical to any other water bottler, except for one thing. He doesn't have a machine that adds minerals back into the water which gives it the 'taste'. If he did such he could actually make money on the side bottling water.

Those milky gallon plastic water bottles + heat = major melted-plastic taste. It's awful, truly awful. Freshly filled three days earlier.

Sue

I feel it depends on the plastic- PET#1 (thin bottles referred to above) versus HDPE#2 (milky jug referred to above) versus LDPE#4 (I think Gatorade uses #4?)- all have different reactions to different liquids, in my opinion.............

But I would love to see real evidence on the plastic leaching into the water ongoing debate. I can't find anything- this came up on another thread and it seemed we could find no empirical data. I thought it had been debunked. I seem to always find only data that states the opposite- it is the quality of the fluid, not the container, in most cases, right?

Snopes says no?

Debunked?


On the other hand- John Hopkins-

BPA

I still feel safe! Not!

Everything
Everything gives you cancer
Everything
Everything gives you cancer
Theres no cure, theres no answer
Everything gives you cancer

Dont touch that dial
Dont try to smile
Just take this pill
Its in your file

Dont work hard
Dont play hard
Dont plan for the graveyard
Remember -

Everything
Everything gives you cancer
Everything
Everything gives you cancer
Theres no cure, theres no answer
Everything gives you cancer

Dont work by night
Dont play by day
Youll feel all right
But you will pay

No caffeine
No protein
No booze or
Nicotine
Remember -

~Joe Jackson~

Ya dude, heard you the first time ... "and don't play that piano!" ... I think I have that on 8-track, which is kinda embarrassing in itself ... :-)

I like Ribena, and have 4 2-litre bottles of it stockpiled. Should last me for a few months.