Posted: 8/1/2026 4:47:47 PM EDT
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I really need to revamp my water storage and plans. I have three of these white 55 gallon drums, no idea what was in them before. Any idea if they are food grade or not or safe to use for potable water? Attached File Attached File I have one of those farm water storage tanks with the metal supports it sits in. Was water storage before from someone but it has sat in my yard for many years and don't know if it would hold together? Any thoughts? Attached File I have several of these that I never used, worth messing with? Attached File How are you all doing your water storage? |
Dare to tame me. Nothing can hold back my rage. Dare to tame me. You can't fool the faithless. Dare to tame me. Fear the man who lost it all.
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Originally Posted By MarkHatfield: For unknown containers such as that, use them only for water which is not used for drinking etc. Use for flushing toilets, etc. Egg Zach Lee.... Rainwater catchment for the garden, a big MAYBE after rinsing and bleaching a time or three. |
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Reverse osmosis filtered water is 25 cents a gallon near me. OP do not risk your family using those agent orange nerve agent barrels for $26 worth of water. You have said that you do not know their history. The tote tank may be bad. They break down in the sun. The aqua tainers are an ok container. |
| For those plastic bottles that get filled at water stations at Walmart that you pay for, can you still treat it for long term storage? |
Dare to tame me. Nothing can hold back my rage. Dare to tame me. You can't fool the faithless. Dare to tame me. Fear the man who lost it all.
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Originally Posted By Ronnoc: For those plastic bottles that get filled at water stations at Walmart that you pay for, can you still treat it for long term storage? Available at TSC I like military water containers best. I didn't respect them when I was active army. Now after decades and trying other ways I really respect them. I haven't broken one. I can strap 2 down under a seatbelt. I can reach in with a dish rag or bottle brush to clean them. I can fit 8 in the cargo area of the corvette or whole bunches in an suv. To treat water. Do what people have done for centuries. Treat water as you put it into use. That is how public water supply is done all over America now. When I was overseas it would be tropical hot and humid yet the locals drank hot tea because the water is boiled to make the tea. What is your goal? We can give better answers with a clearer goal. |
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My goal is to have at least 14 days of water for 8 people, a lot of water, for drinking, cooking, cleaning, basic hygiene. I am planning for eight though just three in my house. If something truly goes wrong, my oldest son and his family would be coming to my house. By treating, I was thinking of the bleach in water. I have a temp controlled garage to help with temp fluctuations. I do also have a Big Berkey, and two Katadyn Combi water filter systems, plus the tablets, as well. |
Dare to tame me. Nothing can hold back my rage. Dare to tame me. You can't fool the faithless. Dare to tame me. Fear the man who lost it all.
Not to be an asshole but why aren't more people using actual water tanks and plumbing them into their home/homestead water systems?? This along with a simple 12v on demand pump can allow you to have pressurized water in an emergency and not play eff eff games with hoses, buckets, barrels, etc. Might not have the extreme pressure you used to in the city, but RUNNING water nevertheless. 
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You seem well set to filter so that is good news. TLDR this is the first year I have gotten to store more than 50 gallons of water. Onto storage. You want to store more than I have set to do. I just do drinking water. Cooking, washing, and the toilet all get tap water. A food grade IBC tote could be nice. Keep it out of the sun. I had one outside and it rotted in from sun damage before I could fill it. Once filled you will need some leverage like a tractor to move it. Barrels would be like totes with one more safety consideration. Washing them out through the 2 inch bung opening is difficult. Have you considered a livestock water tank. If you have a place to install one that would keep a lot of gallons for you. You would just prepare the water as you draw it out to use. Just like a municipal water system...lake to treatment to water tower to houses. You could stock tank to filter to dispenser. What I have. 10 MWC containers Some food grade 5 gallon buckets from TSC Some 2L soft drink bottles bought 8 at a time with the crate so they are stackable. Some Nalgene bottles Some ice chests A restaurant water dispenser that sits on the counter. I harvest rain when I have the chance. When we have no rain I have to buy and transport filtered water. This is the first year since I have started catching rain that I have filled all my MWCs. My standard method was go get filtered water in MWCs then fill the dispenser from MWCs. I slowly gathered 10 MWCs to make the trip for water worth the drive and still have a stash at home. This year we have gotten enough rain that I have filled the containers on that list above and my automatic pet water dishes that hold 4 gallons each. |
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Originally Posted By MarkHatfield: For unknown containers such as that, use them only for water which is not used for drinking etc. Use for flushing toilets, etc. This. I get my totes that have had liquid cleaner in it. Still wouldn’t drink from them. But good for animals and such. |
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Originally Posted By Lowdown3: Not to be an asshole but why aren't more people using actual water tanks and plumbing them into their home/homestead water systems?? This along with a simple 12v on demand pump can allow you to have pressurized water in an emergency and not play eff eff games with hoses, buckets, barrels, etc. Might not have the extreme pressure you used to in the city, but RUNNING water nevertheless. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/92237/IMG_7924_1_-3784641.jpg this, and i'll go you one further, which is toss a pressure tank in there and you will have excellent water pressure between 30-60psi, for not a lot of money. i made a yt vid about off-grid rainwater collection, filtering, plumbing etc. if anyone wants the link. not trying to spam |
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Originally Posted By taliv: this, and i'll go you one further, which is toss a pressure tank in there and you will have excellent water pressure between 30-60psi, for not a lot of money. i made a yt vid about off-grid rainwater collection, filtering, plumbing etc. if anyone wants the link. not trying to spam Nice. Ya post the link, folks get a better idea what we are talking about. We have a mix of poly tanks and some metal pressure tanks in our water grid. The metal pressure tanks are inline with everything just with the normal can be shut off ball valves if need be. This moves the water around and avoids the stagnation often seen in "back up only" poly tanks. This can be a problem with water like ours that has a lot of calcium and iron, etc. We have a few poly tanks including a 500 gallon by our solar submersible well. A while back we had that well pumping first into a metal pressure tank (just 35 gallons) and then going out from there to orchards, to the house, etc. Sunpumps advised NOT pumping into a pressure tank but into a poly tank, and we were seeing some issues here and there, so we put the pressure tank out of that part of the water grid. Now that well pumps into orchard or towards house or to the 500 gallon poly tank, which also can feed these things. However since the poly tank isn't designed for pressure it's separately from always on with ball valves. We did plumb an overflow but having seen a poly tank bust before from pressure, I'd rather not risk a 500 gallon tank. A while back Lowes started carrying 500 gallon and larger upright poly tanks in our area. I knew they wouldn't sell so we kept an eye out for them to clearance them. They eventually did and us and a local buddy picked up all the clearance ones in our area. He got an 1100 gallon one and I got a 500 gallon one we use with our greenhouse. His 1100 gallon had a small hole in it mid way up- looked like some dunskie from Lowes used a screw to attach the sign for it... One of the guys we do combatives with works with this type of stuff and he suggested JB water weld. I climbed in it, sanded inside and out and used the water weld. It's holding up well from what I hear with no issues. Be good to have some of this around if you have poly tanks!!!! Another thing we need is on some of our rainwater catchment tanks we have them where they could tie into our water grid on the homestead. Not necessarily towards the houses but mainly for augmenting garden and orchard irrigation, but with a flip of a couple ball valves that water could go to the house if need be. After Hurricane Helene, we added a way to flush one of our toilets with water from one of the collection tanks. It's just too much of a PITA to carry a bucket in to make toilets flush and it's a waste of drinking water to use it that way. I very much regret not plumbing a second, separate water system inside the house that could be used separately with rainwater. To do it over again or build something new, I would definitely add that in. |
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In business since 1992- Over 30 Years in business- Thank you for your business!
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https://youtu.be/32yE_FTF2vg?is=rbw7B_c9gEJ59ehD Kinda long and covers lots of related topics. Feedback welcome. But that was great info and very interesting about your pump stuff. If you have a diagram of your plumbing I’d like to see it. On the hole thing, you can always use a hole saw and drill a bigger one around it and put a pvc port there and cap it |
| Seriously folks, you can get brand new FDA certified, food grade 55 gallon drums for a little over $100 from the major supply company Grainger. Why would anyone want to cheap out and take the chance of making your family ill? |
"Go low, go slow and preferably in the dark", the old Sarge.
"Every man needs at least one good rifle and know how to use it," Dad.
"Dad, we either kill them in their country or they will kill us in ours"
"Every man needs at least one good rifle and know how to use it," Dad.
"Dad, we either kill them in their country or they will kill us in ours"
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The pricing on tanks is interesting to me. 55 gal isn’t much for homesteading or survival. Even for one person. The 275 gal ibc totes that are popular are a little more reasonably sized but you still see people chaining a few together. They run $480 new. So like $20 cheaper than 5 55gal. The 1100 gal tank like I have is $1500 and holds 20x 55gal so is $500 cheaper and way simpler to plumb and keep from freezing. For whatever reason the used market seems much more popular for the 275g ibc totes at $80-100. So I can see why someone would be interested in saving 80% if it wasn’t used for toxic sludge. I’d rather just go bigger to get a discount. |
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I can buy food grade IBC totes locally fairly cheaply. Check your area….Facebook marketplace and maybe Craigslist. Someone is probably selling food grade ones. The AquaTainers aren’t bad but the spigot caps will fail eventually. They break. Specifically the spigot itself. If you keep them out of the sun the caps will last longer but they will still fail eventually. You can find replacement caps. On my older ones we take camping, I’ve seen them split eventually at the corners if they impact things. They are cheap so easily replaceable. I store most of my water inside my well. As long as I have fuel for my generator, I’ll have water. But that plan isn’t feasible for a lot of people unfortunately. |
"It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things."
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
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Originally Posted By ColtRifle: I can buy food grade IBC totes locally fairly cheaply. Check your area .Facebook marketplace and maybe Craigslist. Someone is probably selling food grade ones. The AquaTainers aren't bad but the spigot caps will fail eventually. They break. Specifically the spigot itself. If you keep them out of the sun the caps will last longer but they will still fail eventually. You can find replacement caps. On my older ones we take camping, I've seen them split eventually at the corners if they impact things. They are cheap so easily replaceable. I store most of my water inside my well. As long as I have fuel for my generator, I'll have water. But that plan isn't feasible for a lot of people unfortunately. Aquatainers are "under bench" type storage and do not stack well even two high. Also store them handle up as they "belly out" around the label axis and can fail if on their side. They are GREAT for camping and stuff like that and a decent "landlord has the water off again" storage. |
Mercy on the criminal is cruelty to the innocent.
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Originally Posted By RR_Broccoli: The replacement caps are poorly sized but decent plastic. Buy two or three extra sets if you buy them. Aquatainers are "under bench" type storage and do not stack well even two high. Also store them handle up as they "belly out" around the label axis and can fail if on their side. They are GREAT for camping and stuff like that and a decent "landlord has the water off again" storage. Good points. I only stack them when empty. I have a 3 gallon water container I got off Amazon that I take when Jeep camping. Doesn’t have great reviews on Amazon and actually isn’t available any more so I won’t bother posting it. But it has worked well for me. I have been thinking of getting a 2.5 gallon Scepter MWC and adding a small pump. I do like the gravity drain though. Simpler and less to fail. It would be nearly impossible to break a MWC!! |
"It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things."
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
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Two points in favor of 55 gallon drums as opposed to large totes. First, a fairly fit adult male can move 55 gallon drums all day long. Not so much totes. Being more expensive per item, totes are more likely to be "used". If you employ any used container without direct knowledge of everything that's ever been in it, it's just not smart. Suppose you use one that is contaminated and get intestinal issues at a time when your water source is compromised? |
"Go low, go slow and preferably in the dark", the old Sarge.
"Every man needs at least one good rifle and know how to use it," Dad.
"Dad, we either kill them in their country or they will kill us in ours"
"Every man needs at least one good rifle and know how to use it," Dad.
"Dad, we either kill them in their country or they will kill us in ours"