I have long been planning on buying several of the big blue 55 gallon water barrels for long term storage but recently I decided to try a different approach. I've ordered some of these 5 gallon containers instead. Here's my thinking; these are $7 each, so 11 x 5 gals = 55 gallons for $77 (plus shipping...more on that in a minute). The bare 55 gallon drum is about $76 each. But the bare drum doesn't have a bung wrench, spigot or any means of filling the barrel. The deluxe kit is around $88. Now, three of the 5 gallons containers ship together for a total of $6- that's not bad! IIRC the drum costs $12 to ship.

Now overall the cost is about a wash. The real advantage of the smaller containers is the ease of filling, dispensing, rotating and more importantly moving. Five gallons of water weighs around 40 lbs vs 440 lbs for a fify-five gallon drum.

The reviews are good but obviously I'll see how durable and well constructed they are once they arrive next week. If they seem well made and sturdy my plan is to buy three each time I get paid until I have perhaps 150-ish gallons of water stored.
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“I'd rather have questions that cannot be answered than answers that can't be questioned.” —Richard Feynman