Posted: 10/30/2015 12:00:14 AM EDT
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Hi All,
I've been getting better about storing water for the family. Every time I go to Costco or Home Depot I pick up a couple cases. I have about 3 months for the family so far. Last week my brother mentioned that bottled water isn't good for you because of some chemical in the plastic.... Is this a legitimate concern for survival or is it just not the best quality water??? Something about hormonal interaction or something. I know survival is survival... so even crappy water is better than death. But is there a better way? Thanks, |
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In my opinion the scepter water cans are a better deal than buying cases of bottled water. I have the green military style.
What I do is rotate the water every six months. I am on city water so it's already treated. I have done this with my water cans for about 4 years now and no problems with anything growing in the water. |
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Quoted:
Ok thanks. I'm on city water as well. Would a faucet filter such as pur affect the storage duration? Or should I just use plain tap water? IMO, you would be better off to store water in the best way you can... And later, when you need to use it, filter it THEN [just for consumption purposes] We haul utility water and store it in large ag tanks of 65 or 135 gallon capacity, and transfer it to our 40 gallon tank at the shipping container we live in... We use a small 12vdc RV pump to pump and filter out of the 40 gallon tank. |
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Quoted:
Hi All, I've been getting better about storing water for the family. Every time I go to Costco or Home Depot I pick up a couple cases. I have about 3 months for the family so far. Last week my brother mentioned that bottled water isn't good for you because of some chemical in the plastic.... Is this a legitimate concern for survival or is it just not the best quality water??? Something about hormonal interaction or something. I know survival is survival... so even crappy water is better than death. But is there a better way? Thanks, I have not heard recently about harmful chemicals in bottled water. Tons of people buy bottled water in every store in the Nation. I'm sure such a thing would be all over the news and the panicked soccer moms would be demanding a change if there was anything going on. I'm going to guess and suggest he heard about something a few years ago. A lot of consumer drink containers are made of polypropylene (like Nalgene sports bottles, baby bottles etc..) and they had an additive called BPA. There was some suggestion that BPA might be bad and that got big press everything was yanked off the market. He may be referring to that. NO drink containers have BPA anymore. There are some, who wish to eliminate our consumer culture - the plastics and other materials that we use (and capitalism itself) who push all kinds such scares. Then there are legitimate problems from time to time. I am a bit 'picky' and I drink bottled water, tap water and restaurant water all the time. I think it is good to have some bottled water around for convenience for everyday use and as a backup. Its something you can put in your car or cooler and you can hand it out and no one will bat an eye. I keep a six pack in each car. But those containers are thin plastic (the manufacturers are trying to please the environmentalists by using less plastic...) so they are not rugged and may even leak when handled much or stored on your shelf under any weight. So I keep some bottled water and (as others have mentioned) I have some USG! / Nato Scepter water jugs. They are bomb proof. But they are plastic......so they too will kill you. So will metals ones and ceramic and leather and... And as others have mentioned, you need a filter. I have a portable (hiking filter) and a larger one for home or base camp. Keep some bottled water for convenience - especially if it promotes drinking water . Keep more in the Scepter type. To the Scepter/USGI jugs, add about 8 drops of bleach per gallon and store it away. They come in 5 gallon and 2.5 gallon. Women and kids or older people will be able to handle the 2.5 gallon ones much easier. Rotate the bottled water and the big jugs every so often - 6 months or a year maybe. |
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BPA is the main 'villain' among others, but many manufacturers are moving away from using it, like Nalgene and many 'baby product' makers.
Bottled water has a shelf life of generally a year and a half on the stuff that I've bought. I think the bigger issue is the plastic breaking down and changing the taste of that great spring water. I have a case of spring water sitting in my kitchen and I get one before every hurricane season. I have the Sawyers and the LifeStraws and live on a big lake, so I won't be hurting for water, but having the bottled stuff for <$5/cs is a no brainer for me. As it approaches its expiration, I just make coffee, or iced tea with it. It's an easy asset to manage, IMO. Chris |
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I change out my two Scepters and Aquatainers at the beginning of hurricane season...add 2ml (approx. 40 drops) Clorox and date peace of mind are the Sawyer filters... a .1micron bucket system and Sawyer .1 micron mini LA, still need some activated carbon of some sort in the loop for through processing... A basic drip system thru a carbon block filter in a standard 10 inch housing [cheap] I think would do fine... |
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Quoted:
IMO, you would be better off to store water in the best way you can... And later, when you need to use it, filter it THEN [just for consumption purposes] We haul utility water and store it in large ag tanks of 65 or 135 gallon capacity, and transfer it to our 40 gallon tank at the shipping container we live in... We use a small 12vdc RV pump to pump and filter out of the 40 gallon tank. Quoted:
Quoted:
Ok thanks. I'm on city water as well. Would a faucet filter such as pur affect the storage duration? Or should I just use plain tap water? IMO, you would be better off to store water in the best way you can... And later, when you need to use it, filter it THEN [just for consumption purposes] We haul utility water and store it in large ag tanks of 65 or 135 gallon capacity, and transfer it to our 40 gallon tank at the shipping container we live in... We use a small 12vdc RV pump to pump and filter out of the 40 gallon tank. Are you using RO for the bulk of your drinking water? |
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Are you using RO for the bulk of your drinking water? Quoted:
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Quoted:
Ok thanks. I'm on city water as well. Would a faucet filter such as pur affect the storage duration? Or should I just use plain tap water? IMO, you would be better off to store water in the best way you can... And later, when you need to use it, filter it THEN [just for consumption purposes] We haul utility water and store it in large ag tanks of 65 or 135 gallon capacity, and transfer it to our 40 gallon tank at the shipping container we live in... We use a small 12vdc RV pump to pump and filter out of the 40 gallon tank. Are you using RO for the bulk of your drinking water? Yes, pretty much all we drink that we source ourselves at home or in the mtns [of course at other locations we drink what's available] |
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Not a bad idea to keep a couple cases on hand but an attempt to store water in bulk should not be via bottled water... JMHO.
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I have a piped gutter system for use with 5 gallon buckets when necessary. I let it drain onto the ground normally. I just ordered a 42 gallon holding tank to install in line prior to my hot water heater. It will do two things for me, one it will bring the cold well water to room temp (house is heated with woodstove in basement) when setting home alone all day, making the hot water heater more efficient, and causing less wear on it... Two it will always supply me with 42 extra gallons from the time my well pump can no longer pump and I am out of pressure. Hot water heater and auxiliary tank will net me 80 gallons that rotates on its own. Of course I have generators to power my well pump for extra water but if for some reason I can't run it, or its broken, an extra 40 gallons of always rotated water will go a long ways IMO. http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/1000/54/546fc8f8-9719-4089-be06-e32be46c60a1_1000.jpg ***Tank contains neither a diaphragm nor a bladder.*** If my system is pressurized I have well over 100 gallons. I also have a fresh stream behind my house that runs out of the mountain. 
I have a couple MSR backpacking filters that I use while camping/ hiking/ hunting and plenty of iodine and bleach tabs as backup. http://i5.wal.co/dfw/dce07b8c-92cf/k2-_36e0260d-a737-468c-9192-5fe1b421ad19.v1.jpg-8a9e0fd86eacc7fb3e5c97af26c6b0e9447a4898-optim-450x450.jpg Two is one, one is none. I don't store bottled water or anything like that, but I do keep plenty of Nalgene or SS bottles on hand. |
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When we lived in the city we stored six 50 gallon barrels down in the basement. I have a 12 volt pump I can run off my solar set up to pump it out. It was city water but we bought a water testing kit in case we needed to filter it if and when we needed it. I used a Sawyer filter that hooked to the hose that was hooked to the pump. Flip the switch and clean water comes out.
(As a side note, I am setting up my camelbak bladder with a self priming micro pump. I can toss the filter in the lake/stream and fill my bladder with the flip of a switch.) |