Originally Posted By: Arney
Originally Posted By: Krista
I was intending to rotate every three months, but even still, I don't know what kind of nasties could grow in there in that amount of time with it not being airtight...?

If you're otherwise happy with the container, I would try to exchange it. Now that you know what a potential pin prick hole looks like, hopefully you could inspect the replacement for one before walking out of the store.

Water does not need to be kept in an airtight container during storage. Clean water, stored in a clean container, kept out of sunlight, should not grow anything, regardless of whether the water is sealed or not. Unless you're getting a strong plastic taste (which probably would go away with a number of water changes...or not), I think rotating every three months is unnecessarily short. You could easily go six months or even a year between changes.

By the way, I wouldn't call the vent hole a defect. If water is coming out out of the vent, my opinion is that you overfilled the container beyond what the manufacturer intended.

But good for you for making the effort towards preparedness! smile


Arney, you are right about the vent hole, I guess I was filling it up a little too enthusiastically! And once I took out some water, it wasn't coming out of the pinprick anymore either. Maybe I should just dump out a little more of the water. I have to admit, I was nervous about the bleach, and wanted to make sure I had the measurements as exact as I could. I figured since the container said six gallons, that meant up to the top. lol. Survival's a learning process! smile

I keep reading varying opinions on rotations. Like you said, FEMA agrees that 6 months is good. But I came across a couple of other sites that said if you use tap water to do every 3. My logic was that if I make every three months water rotate day, I could also use that time to check my food storage expiration dates too. Make sense? Or could I push that out to every 6 months as well?
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