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Water storage questions
Hi, relatively new prepper here and I had a couple of questions about water storage.
I picked up some of the blue 5 gallon stackable containers off Amazon, the Saratoga Farms brand. Everything I'm seeing is saying that if we are using treated city water that there is really not a need to add anything to the water as long as we rotate it every year or so. Is this advisable or should I add some bleach or water treatment?
When filling the containers should I get a food/water safe hose and fill from the spigot outside the house or would it be safer to fill from the water sprayer in the kitchen sink? Seems like the spigot outside would be quicker but it also does not seem as clean as the sprayer in the kitchen sink.
I plan on storing these in the house in a location where the bug guy sprays for pest control. Should I have him not spray around these since they are for long-term water storage? I was going to double stack them and also considered wrapping the bottom layer in plastic, or something like that, to protect them. but didn't know if I should be concerned about this or not?
Thanks!
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If they will fit up under the faucet in the tub, just use it. What I do when filling cans for scout camping and no problems so far.
2nd choice would be unscrewing the strainer off the kitchen faucet and rigging up an adapted hose to go back in to it.
Outside spigots can have critters nest in them and any kitchen faucet sprayer I recall seeing would take forever to fill.
As for the rest, I have no idea on necessity. It can't hurt to keep a filter and back up chemical treatment handy though. I am pretty well settled on Sawyer squeeze filters, but that can end up being a debate like anything else. I have a thread going here on chemical treatments also and Aquatabs seem to be about the cheapest option if cryptosporidium isn't a concern.
There is also boiling and SODIS (solar in plastic drink bottles) as treatment options.
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Thanks for the advice. I'll check out the Sawyer and Aquatab products.
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I like the idea of filling them via the bathtub, much faster and if you spill over you don't have to worry. As far as the pest spray area, I would try and protect them to some degree. I don't think the spray would affect the containers but definitely wouldn't want that spray near the nozzle when you go to use the water. I would probably try and not store them in that area or wrap them to protect against the spray, especially the mouth/nozzle area.
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I store in FDA approved containers. 2-5 drops of bleach per gallon to keep them sterile.
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City water, at least in my area, already has like 1.5 parts per million of chlorine. So filling straight into a storage container would work. I've stored reverse osmosis water in canteens and camelbacks for years with no noticeable issues. (no taste or odor)
I have some 40 gal storage barrels in the garage I should check/refill. They've been out there for years.
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Thanks for the responses. The containers I have are food grade and came with drops to sterilize. I checked our local water and it was around 1.25 PPM of Chlorine. I had some water in 2 liter soda containers from around 7 years ago, untreated, so I opened one of them since I was upgrading my water storage and the water was as fresh as the day I originally stored it so that was a good sign.
I did use the tub to clean, rinse and fill the containers and that was a breeze, thanks for the tip on that. I plan on stacking these two high and have wrapped the bottom containers in a layer of clear plastic to give it extra protection.
All in all, I'm in a better position than I was a couple of months ago. Thanks again for the advice.
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I have a bunch of those and just fill them from the spigot outside by the garage and add a few drops of bleach. At least once a year I’ll pull them all out, empty them, let them dry in the hot sun, and refill again with bleach. Never had a problem.
I keep a bunch of flats of bottled water on a big heavy duty metal shelf from Home Depot in the garage. They also get used first in first out, and that’s the phase one go to water for emergencies. I realize a lot of the 5 gal cans will be used for flushing toilets. Unless the emergency is really bad. Then we will be peeing in buckets to throw in the woods, and crapping in 5 gal buckets with heavy duty trash bags with kitty litter in them.
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Looks like you are headed in the right direction Slasher. You are right, clean them out and put in normal city tap water will do fine. It is a cheap and safe way to store water. I haven't seen anyone comment to heavily on the bug spraying near your water containers. I would avoid this if I were you. Plastic is known to absorb chemicals around it, so I would not spray in that room or move your water if you do need to spray in there.
Water can safely last 3-5 years, but I recommend rotating it every 2-3 years.
I wrote a very detailed article about water storage options here if you would like to read more about different techniques.
Let me know if you have any more questions, I would love to help out if I can!
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Most city water is already full of chemicals but you could just a small amount of bleach proportionate to the container as well.
Be sure to elevate larger tanks to allow ease of obtaining water after the fact.
When we first moved to our retreat in 1999 we had a 210 gallon poly tank that was elevated for our main water system. We have since scrapped that and have (4) 42 gallon pressure tanks as used with wells in it's place. This is tied into our water grid and allows the water to constantly circulate.