On another board I've been lamenting the difficulty of finding some good, leak-proof containers for carrying a few gallons of water in a car over long periods. I've had trouble with the usual plastic 1 gallon screw-top jugs from the bottled water store leaking as the temperature in the car changes. If the bottle gets knocked over so it's upside down or on its side, then as the car heats up during the day, air in the bottle expands and forces water out through the threads. Some maps in my car got messed up by that. I'm trying to find containers that won't leak in any orientation and that are tough enough to deal with being squished under things or shoved around in the car, and poked by sharp corners of stuff. They won't literally be thrown around so they don't have to withstand long drops, but they'll get bounced around on the road etc.

Some people suggested Sigg aluminum fuel bottles or 32-oz Nalgene bottles, but that's not appropriate for this usage. 3 gallons in 32-oz bottles would need a dozen bottles, over $100 for bottles alone at $8 each, plus they would end up scattered all over the car. I'd like not-too-expensive containers somewhere between 1 gallon and 3 gallons in size. The car is small and space is at a premium, so larger containers should have a slim profile.

I'll skip some other alternatives that weren't really satisfactory either, including various models of Reliance jugs.

It seems to me that what I really want is sealed #10 food cans with water in them. #10 cans are the big steel cans used for stuff like tomato sauce sold to restaurants. They're about 3 liters in volume. They are made in humongous quantity for the food industry and filled and sealed by automatic equipment, so they're relatively inexpensive. They are strong enough to take quite a lot of physical abuse without leaking. If filled with sterile water, they should have very long shelf life. If they freeze solid, you can melt them by putting them in a fire (they should not be completely filled, to allow a little expansion space if they freeze). In short, they're much better for vehicle storage than those silly 4 oz packets or 8 ounce aqua blocks. Once you open one, you can't re-seal it, so you'd need a 3 liter collapsable canteen to hold the contents, no big deal. They're just about the right size to shove into odd corners of the car trunk and with 3 or 4 of them tucked away in the car, I'd be able to go on long road trips and have a few days worth of water if something happened in the middle of nowhere.

Is there some reason nobody's packaging water this way? Would any of the usual suppliers possibly be willing to give it a try? I'd buy a case or two (I think those cans are usually packed six in a case) at a few bucks a can.

what about using 1 liter (or the new 1.5 liter) coke bottles?
they can seal pretty tightly and can take a beating.
i use a few of those if i go out for the day, not too heavy and easy to carry.

You might want to pop open your phone book and look up Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. If a cannery is listed, call them. The one near me has a full, assembly-line cannery but it also has small units one person can operate to fill #10 cans he buys from them (and no, they don't gouge prices). Ask if they'll let you can water.

If no cannery is listed, call the ward closest to you on Sunday. If you don't get an answer, keep calling about once an hour. Ask for the number of the ward canning specialist. If they don't have one, ask for the Relief Society president. That person would be able to help you.

Good luck,
Ingrid

What's wrong with Platypus or Camelback type containers? I have several Platypus 1-liter colapsable bottles that have performed well so far. They have large sizes too, such as the Platypus 3 Liter Reservoir at REI fo $10. Or the larger Platypus Water Tank - 6 Liters , which also has a carrying handle. I'm considering getting a Platypus Big-Zip Hoser 3-Liter Reservoir for my trip to Philmont later this summer. I've never used a hydration system before, so I'm a little leary. But many folks swear by them these days. I'll also get the water filter adaptor so we can use it as the source reservoir to gravity feed our water through the filter. (note: only the 3-liter size has the grommets to hang the bag.) Both this and the 6-liter mentioned above use their "big zip" top, which sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. But I've read several reviews where experience backpackers have used the product over an extended period of time and purposely tried to abuse it (step on it, drop it from 6 ft., etc.), and it held up. One mentioned that he now uses it as a pillow. I like that idea! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Brigade Quartermaster's in Kennesaw, GA has a product that might be a solution for you:

http://tinyurl.com/347dw

Mentioning the freeze-thaw cycle that water can go through in car storage brings up another question.

Is it safe to transport canned food with water, juice, or gravy in a vehicle where it is likely to go through the freeze-thaw cycle? Most foods that have any kind of liquid in them are filled to the rim and would be in danger of splitting thier seams.

I know that fully dried food has less potential for spoiling in a freeze-thaw cycle, but what about things with reduced water content like prunes, apricots, etc.?

Bountyhunter

Ingrid, the LDS pointer is interesting--thanks!

BIllvan, I've had not-so-great results with Platypus bottles. They're not so bad against impact but they don't handle abrasion very well. They spring small leaks after a while. I think I need hard containers. I sometimes use the car to move heavy stuff around like xerox machines, which can sometimes slide around and bang into the bottles and which have sharp corners, you get the picture. (Yeah, banging around isn't too great for the machines either).

The Scepter (BQ/Actiongear) bottles do look interesting. When I phoned up the vendor with some questions, though, they were pretty clueless. Does anyone here actually have any of those bottles? My main concern is how securely all the caps (fill cap, pouring cap, and air vent) stay shut. My main gripe with the thin Reliance jugs is that the air vent just has a friction plug that can fall out easily. I'm encouraged by the Scepter jugs claiming to be stackable--that means they're supposed to be ok to use lying flat. Using the Reliance jugs that way is asking for trouble.

I've tried PTFE bottles (like coke bottles) and I always seem to lose some water to evaporation over a several month period, which means the bottles aren't really sealed. I haven't had any real spills yet though. So my current strategy is just buy bottled water in 0.5 or 0.7 liter six-packs. They are handy for drinking and the six-pack means I have 3 or 4 liters per bundle in the car, so maybe 3 packs total, instead of a dozen separate bottles scattered all over. Maybe I can find a Rubbermaid container of the appropriate size and shape to put loose bottles in sometime, as someone on the other board suggested.

But steel food cans are really close to the perfect solution. They're leakproof, near-indestructable, relatively cheap, can be made sterile inside, and can be thawed in a fire. The one thing they lack is re-useability, but so do those foil pouches and blocks. Maybe some vendor will read this and do something about the omission.

Paul R:

While I do not actually own any of the Specter water cans, I have access to some when needed. These storage containers are very robust, they need to be for military use. I have seen them fall from the back of a BLM fire truck in the desert onto lava rocks without breaking; this was at slow speeds though. I would not know how exactly they would hold up having fallen from the same height (about 4-5 ft.) at 60 MPH onto asphalt, such as, the I-5. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

The container is a food grade plastic to keep taste out and to increase the durability. The lids (3) are Large; for filling and quick dumping, filling a pot etc. Small; for filling smaller water vessels and the vent lid. Both the big and the small lids thread on and off and the vent lid is just lifted. They are sealed with very good quality O-rings to prevent leaking and I have never seen one leak yet. Though not shown in the picture on the actiongear website, is a smaller 2.5 gallon container I am also familiar with. If I needed a rugged, well made and inexpensive water storage, I would buy a couple of these.

Hope this helps you.

Stargazer

ASAP = Always Suspicious, Always Prepared

Thanks, yes, it's worrisome to me that the vent lid is not threaded. I'm not concerned about dropping the whole container and having it burst. I'm concerned about the vent lid coming open somehow and slowly dripping water all over the car trunk. Oh well.

I wouldn't be too jazzed about the idea of putting a sealed metal can full of water into a fire. Hot water turns to steam, and; sealed metal container + steam = grenade . The idea of a plastic container set NEAR a fire sounds a whole lot more appealing from a safety standpoint.

Troy