Storing Tap Water

what's the best way to store tap water? plastic pop bottles? white plastic bottles? glass bottles? something else? bleach? chlorine? salt? something else? rotate every ... ?

EDIT: Does the colour of glass or plastic matter? clear? white? green? brown? blue?

I've been storing tap water untreated in 5-gallon water carriers. The water still smells and tastes good after six months. I've read that if you clean them well, 2-liter pop bottles work very well.

If your container is clean and your water is clean, I don't know any reason why rotation is strictly necessary.

depends on the quality of water where you live i would say.i have kept well water from my cabin near the St Croix river,untreated,in a five gallon glass jug for over a year and it was good then as the day in went in..in the city,Minneapolis,i did the same thing with the same results.there are places in Minnesota,the far South West farm country,where they have a notice on the public drinking fountains and next to some creeks like the one at the Pipe Stone Quarry that the water is not fit for children,or at the quarry,dogs, to drink because of farm run off..it's so local there is no pat answer.

Put into plastic bottles (not too full) or other containers and put into freezer.

It will stay fresh (although, depending on how you stored it, might take on the freezer taste), will help your other frozen goods in case of power outages.

And tap water's cheap enough so you can just toss some out if you need more room in your freezer.

I think the main points is to use really clean vessels and keep them out of direct sunlight.

I wouldn't use salt for water storage, unless you face some circumstances where you need large amounts of salt water quickly. It might not be fit for drinking.

-jh

Sunlight is not the friend of stored water (algae). If your tap water is up to snuff, I wouldn't put anything in it. I prefer a variety of relatively small containers that one can easily move about. Glass is heavy and can break but is inert; plastic can leach which may or not be an issue - an old goat like myself can drink stuff I would not give to my child, although I think leaching is an overrated problem.

As far as I know, the color of the container is not particularly significant, although darker colors should inhibit sunlight.

It certainly can't hurt to change water periodically when you need to water your plants. If any water is growing stuff when an emergency happens or you have any suspicions, just treat (boil) it. Another reason for small containers and variety.

The milky white bottles (like milk comes in) simply do not last very long. I don't know why. But water stored in these containers tends to eventually leak out, even if you buy the water in them, store them upright, and they've never been opened. You go out to your storage area, and you'll find empty or partially-empty collapsed containers.

The clear plastic bottles store far longer. Just be sure to wash them thoroughly if juice or something came in them. Soak with soapy water and rinse very well. Trying to hurry this step could be counter-productive when you need it.

Glass is very stable, but I wouldn't recommend them in earthquake areas for obvious reasons.

And I wouldn't bother adding anything to the water for storage. If your tap water is good enough to drink, it's good enough to store. As mentioned above, keep it in the dark. And I store mine low -- they might bounce after falling 18", but they're not going to bounce from four or five feet.

Chlorine is safe enough for purifying water contaminated with organic materials (after filtering out chunks), but I would keep it tightly sealed for specific use when and where you need it. It outgases, so investing in a fresh supply every six months would be cheap enough.

Sue

I have been rotating 5-7 gallon food grade plastic contaners since Y2K. I rotate out when the plants first come in, so I water with them, and then again toward late in the growing season.
All of it gets used, always mark month/year on a peice of tape.
Any larger containers are too hard to move, any smaller is kind of irrelevant... until I would really need it.

Milk jugs are made to deliberately degrade over time. A green thing I guess.

2 liter pop bottles do not degrade all that much.

Personally, all my water storage is in 5 gallon jugs that coincidentally fit my water cooler. I have 6 5 gallon jugs. They get rotated regularly. Most of the time I have at least 20 gallons of water in the cooler or the jugs sititng next to the cooler.

A side benefit is our Saturday morning excursions to the water store to refill them. The beagle has a good time because she gets a donut hole or two from the water store and a nice ride.

Water generally does not have long term storage issues unless stored in direct sunlight which can result in algae growth, especially for well water. That's why you put chlorine in it. In fact, that is the main reason chlorine is put into public water systems. It is not about germs, it is about controlling algae.

The big water bottles that come from water distributors (e.g. Sparklets) are really nice.

Otherwise, I generally use the 6-1/2 gallon plastic containers that are available from the hardware store. I just added 2 more of these containers to my home supply this last weekend. I need to add more ... doing this on an incremental basis.

Pete #2

the blue 6 or 7 gallon containers with spigots are convenient( I have 2)... I rotate water from pre hurricane season to next... freeze 2 liter bottles for ice in my 5 day cooler with approaching storms (limited freezer space)....store 33gal non potable water in a Rubbermaid trash barrel in my tub/shower... gives me access to flush toilet (pour into bowl...very slowly) and still have a drain to take a shower.... another 33gal container is placed under the eaves in a wind protected area to catch rain water... neighbor has a 20,000 gal pool... have ordered a Sawyer .1 micron 5 gal filter assembly

In my experience stored tap water is very safe. It gets stale and flat. I've had some strange grassy tastes show up, mostly what I assume to be algae, but the water caused no ill effects even after several years storage in less than ideal conditions. Worse case any water with an off taste can be used cooking or washing.

Given that major disease causing organisms are not in the tap water when it is stored it can, IMO, be safely assumed they won't be in water stored for long periods. There will always be some amount of bacteria and algae in the water because it is in the air but my tap water isn't nutrient-rich enough to support more than minimal growth.

That said changing out the water every year doesn't seem an unreasonable burden. And tap water, at pennies per thousand gallons, is a whole lot less expensive than commercial bottled water.

I rotate out the stored water every 2-3 months. Our tap water is usually not chlorinated. I would still consider the water fine after 6 months or so, but other members of the household are dubious about drinking it when it has been stored that long, so I change it more often than that and note the date on stick on labels at the time. Half the supply is stored in a large cooler (one of those tough ones with wheels that you can sit on). This keeps it out of the light and I reckon that even if the house fell on it the darn thing would survice.
I've got a mixture of recycled soda bottles and white plastic food grade bottles. Nothing above 5 liters as I have too much trouble lifting them when changing the water.

Check this out for emergency water storage.

http://mywatersafe.com/

I want a bathtub watersafe!!! To bad my tap water is garbage Darn you untreated well water!

The trouble with the larger water bladders such as the "Watersafe" is the prevention of bacteria and mold growth in the bladder after you use it.

Sure you could attempt to completely dry the bladder somehow or treat it by adding bleach or chlorine to the bag before emptying out as much water as possible. However once the small remaining amount of bleach or chlorine looses it's effectiveness after a few weeks, the confines of the bladder are the perfect bacteria and mold breeding environment which would be difficult, if not impossible to eradicate afterwards.

The WaterBOB is cheaper at $25, and it does say it is 10 mil, the WateSafe doesn't say.

Keep in mind that these are single-use because once filled, they can't be dried out inside, and will eventually mold.

Sue

What about installing a large plastic tank in-line with your water supply. Say 100 gals or so. This takes out the effort of having to manually rotate your water in containers. Mount it relatively high on concrete blocks so it can gravity feed your water heater. Thus you would have the water STORED in the water heater and the water stored in the tank. An extra spigot at the bottom of the tank would allow for easy drainage into smaller containers. Since the tank would be in-line, the water would never be stale.

flush your hot water heater every year or so to make sure that sediment has not blocked the bottom drain... this is very easy to forget or overlook...my house is an old Fla frame house about 2ft off the ground, so a short piece of old garden hose works fine... gives me an additional 50gallons I've never had to use

Water, as long as it is relatively pure, doesn't really go bad if well stored. People have used cisterns for water storage for thousands of years. Even minor contamination with small amounts of every day crud and dirt tends to be self-correcting as long as oxygen is present and light is limited. While it is best to keep insects and debris out a few leaves or insects are going to be consumed, their nutrients used up and broken down, and the resulting simpler material settles out.

In traditional English plumbing water pressure for the house was maintained by a cistern on the roof or in the attic. This saved wear and tear on the pumps and the need for complicated pressure valves. The cisterns were supposed to be covered loosely and screened. According to literature finding a dead rat, and/or a bird or two, in the cistern was pretty common. Funky as that sounds it was quite rare for anyone to get sick. Of course, being English, they usually took their water in the form of tea or whiskey. Safety from both ends.

In a well maintained cistern, one that excludes the rats and birds, small amounts of bacterial algae and spores are still pretty much impossible to keep out because they come in on the air. If the water they land in doesn't have enough food they die out. If it does, they multiply until they consume the available food supply, and then die out. Their tiny corpses settle to the bottom where they are removed in the regular bottom cleaning that is scheduled ever year or three.

Thanks everyone! I had a "Duh!" moment today. While reading through your insights, a couple of lightbulbs turned on.

First - why not store tap water in all our water carriers? We've got a few of the big blue cubes and a gazillion nagalene and stainless water bottles stored in the house and garage. They might as well be in use at the same time as they're sitting collecting dust.

Then a second lightbulb - why not make use of all the potential carriers that come into the house as well? All the bottles with resealable lids are perfect candidates. pop, juice, wine and liquor bottles with screw-top lids are now going to be diverted from the recycling bin.

Good prep for us and good for the earth. So simple! I feel like a dope for not thinking about it sooner and wasting all that money buying bottled water. Duh!

Ah, another of Life's Whack-Yourself-in-the-Head moments!

Habit gets in the way of things, sometimes, doesn't it?

Sue

Seriously Sue. What's up with that?! I guess being on a much tighter budget is broadening my perspective.