Long term Water??

[mastery]

Originally Posted by W9ZEB

How frequently do you rotate supplies? Or do you intend to purify the water with bleach in an emergency? I'd imagine 110gallons (two drums, you may have more) take a while to drink.

Well, I'm on city water, even living out in the country. There is already chlorine in the water. When filling the barrels, I did put in about 1/2 cup of non-scented bleach in the 55 gallon drums.

I rotate each year. If worse came to worse, I have jugs of non-scented bleach available, and will boil the water for drinking/eating/washing purposes. I envision my water supply would last 30 days easily, and I'll use a Katadyn later to purify water from a couple of nearby water sources.

[W9ZEB]

Originally Posted by mastery

Well, I'm on city water, even living out in the country. There is already chlorine in the water. When filling the barrels, I did put in about 1/2 cup of non-scented bleach in the 55 gallon drums.

I rotate each year. If worse came to worse, I have jugs of non-scented bleach available, and will boil the water for drinking/eating/washing purposes. I envision my water supply would last 30 days easily, and I'll use a Katadyn later to purify water from a couple of nearby water sources.

That answered my question. Thanks Mastery.
I was just curious if it was something you drank from one barrel over the course of the month while storing 2 additional or something similar.

[mastery]

Originally Posted by W9ZEB

That answered my question. Thanks Mastery.
I was just curious if it was something you drank from one barrel over the course of the month while storing 2 additional or something similar.

No, just emergency supplies. We went through a SHTF in our family back in the 1980's. We've been prepared ever since for most contigencies. We have a big home now, so plenty of storage room. Probably never need to use any of it...but I'll not be one of the sheep standing in a long line at Meijer to get supplies during an emergency.

[Farmritch]

Main thing to do also with water storage is keep it out of the light
Light promotes bacteria growth

Farmritch

[PapaScout]

The family and I put aside some water in 1999 just in case. I opened one of them last year and they still taste great. Here's what we did:

Big plastic juice bottles (Juicy Juice, Welch's Grape, etc)
Three drops of bleach per bottle
Filtered water from the fridge
Stored in the basement away from sunlight

The trick when opening is to pour the water from back and forth to another container (to re-add oxygen?) and remove the stale taste.

[Electronrider]

I have started getting those water cubes from Wal-mart, theya re a 7 gallon cube that you can stack pretty easily. We are going to get about 4 of them, and call it good at that. I am on a well, and have a hand pump for it, if I need to convert, as well as a generator that can be hooked to the pump. This really is the way to go.

If you are in a suburban area, where you can't have a well, why would you want more than a week or so worth of water? If the situation is going to get that bad, shouldn't you be bugging out to the retreat? NBC/Tornado shelter aside, why store more than that?

[Lefty 21]

Homepage - KATADYN International - the global Number One in individualized water purification systems and water purification products

Just get a hiker pro for $200-250, filter from the creek or ditch and have approx. 5000-10,000 gallons available at all times, from anywhere for half the work.

Just my opinion. Happy Independance Day!

[rhino]

Originally Posted by Farmritch

Main thing to do also with water storage is keep it out of the light
Light promotes bacteria growth

Farmritch

Do you mean algae growth? You can actually sanitize water with sunlight in some cases (i.e. kill bacteria).

[rhino]

Originally Posted by Electronrider

If you are in a suburban area, where you can't have a well, why would you want more than a week or so worth of water? If the situation is going to get that bad, shouldn't you be bugging out to the retreat? NBC/Tornado shelter aside, why store more than that?

For a lot of people (maybe most), trying to "bug out" would do more harm than good. If your situation dictates that staying put is your best option, then plenty of water is indicated.