I was looking aroung at Emergency Essentials.

Their Aqua-Pak 5 Gallon Water Container is very nice and is $10.99.

Their plain vanilla 5 Gallon Water JUG is more inexpensively priced at $7.49.

Would I be sacrificing anything critical by buying the cheaper water container?

Any and all opinions welcome.

-- Craig

At last, a post to which I can contribute. I have a lot of expirence with both styles of container through adventure travel guiding. The advantage of the Aqua-Pak design is that with the valve stowed, the conatiners may be neatly stacked. The design of the Water JUG doesn't allow stacking. The valve on the Aqua-Pak also seems to be a bit more rugged. One advantage of the Water JUG is that it is clear so the fluid level is easily determined. Neither container is particulalry rugged and will end up with dented corners and scratches but they do the job and hold potable liquids. There is also a 7-gallon Aqua-Pak that I've used as well. Hope this helps.

So the extra money you pay for the Aqua-Pak is buying (1) the ability to stack the containers and (2) a water-level indicator so you don't have to haul the jugs out of storage to get a better look at them to see how much water is in there.

Would that be an accurate assessment?

-- Craig

That is about right. The water level indicator on the Aqua-Pak is just a scale molded into the plastic (think cheap measuring cup) and can be difficult to read in low light since the fluid content is hard to see throught the blue plastic. Stacking capabily is the essential difference, since the Water JUG is clear and the liquid level is immedately obvious.

If stacking is not an immediate concern, then the less expensive JUG would do just as well, correct?

-- Craig

You could try using both of them. That way if 1 of them has problems or is not suitable, some of your water will still be ok.

If you use all the same, you have a posibility of having the same problem with every container and not having any usable water when the need arises.

As suggested by someone else, when I had a question about water storage, I tried the Aqua-Tainer...7 gallons, food grade plastic etc, Got them at Wal-mart for $7.82 each. So far so good too. I don't have them stacked, but the label says I could. I drink a lot of water, so I'm rotating my stock frequently. They are guranteed not to crack of break for 5 years, and I'm thinking they might last quite a bit longer. I didn't wash them out initially either, just started using them and there's no bad taste.

Hope this helps.

Let me throw in my 2c worth...I too use the Aqua tainer from wal mart. I have tree of them and I do stack them in the garage. I use them for holding "wash water" at the sink. It has a valve that can be left in the open position that allows you to wash and rinse things without having to hold open the valve. Granted you wouldn't want to leave it open and allow too much to go down the drain during an emergency but it is handy for the kids to wash from. Not using it for 'potable' water also means I don't have to rinse EVERY last drop of the soap out when I clean them. We have at least 10 cases of bottled water that we use for consumption and also a reverse osmocic H2O system so we only relly needed stuff for the hurricanes for 'cleaning' water' anyway.

We love the containers. They stack well and are well balanced. They do not roll off the counter like the soft sided collapsable containers. They are a little heavy but they are much easier than larger containers and can be handled by all in the family.

Just MHO, but it seems that what you would be doing with them, and how much moving and handling they will be getting, would determine how rugged they have to be.

If they're just sitting on a shelf in a quiet place, they probably wouldn't need to be as strong as something that is being moved around, in and out of vehicles, etc.

Sue

True, but in my experience people buy things for a purpose saying thats all I need, and 6 months later they change and start doing something different.
Some people are like that, I'm not saying anyone here is like that, but sometimes its better to look for that little bit extra just in case.