I have been considering a emergency water storage system for my home. My current thoughts are to "plumb in" a 50 gal food grade plastic barrel into my basment water line feeding a exterior faucet. The occasional use of the faucet should keep the water fresh and a valve above would allow the source to be cut off if needed. A faucet would also be placed in the barrel at its low point to allow direct access from the interior of the basement. Any thoughts or comments on this idea would be welcome.

Just be sure you don't set up a siphon situation with your outdoor faucet - most do-it-yourself plumbing manuals discuss this problem.<br><br>I prefer storing water in smaller, separate containers, so that all my eggs are not in one basket, so to speak. I am also concerned with earthquakes, where a single container might be ruptured or otherwise rendered unusable. Of course, that means I have to change the water regularly - a good chore for the Fourth of July and Christmas.

Any ideas on water storage for apartment dwellers that don't have a basement or separate room to put a 50gal storage drum. Is a water purifier an adaquate measure?

Gulliamo2,<br><br>That won't help you if the water is turned off, so you would need at least a water reservoir and if you want to keep the water fresh for a longer time treath it with some water treatement drops/tablets.<br><br>I've read about flexible flat containers that can hold up to several hundreths of gallons.<br>The smaller ones could for example fit under a bed.<br><br>Other possibility would be a waterbed and not use the waterbed chemicals but real water purification stuff to keep the water inside "fresh" then having a portable filter with carbon top-stop could be used to extra filter the waterbed water in case of anemergency.<br>Just a thought nothing more.<br><br>Best Scouting wishes from Holland,<br><br>Bagheera

There are several references, both on and offline. www.MajorSurplusNSurvival.com has a brief discussion on water storage, books and materials. You can start there and then price shop based on your location.

If you plumb in a water barrel make sure that it is rated for the water pressure in your area. Otherwise there will be a wet explosion in your basement. None of the plastic water barrels that i know of are rated for pressure. If you put in a pressure tank put a check valve on the inlet side so that if you lose water there will still be pressure in your tank. And hikerdon also mentioned syphon problems so be sure that the vacuum breaker is installed and working on your outside faucet.

Thanks folks. The anti-siphion valve remark jogged my memory. Knew there was something I was forgetting. The big worry in my neck of the woods is hurricanes and the occasional tornado. Earthquakes are possible but very rare here.

Don't forget that you should have about 40 gal. of water in your water heater(as long as it's not contaminated). Just drain it into something like a large bowl, pitcher, etc. a little at a time using the drain spicket on the bottom and possibly a short piece of hose. Make sure you turn off the breaker before draining it of you will burn it out.