# Water storage



## jmh033089 (Oct 23, 2012)

So I don't have a lot of money right now lost my job about two months ago,So I wanna start prepping to take that time up, I figure since I don't pay for water(thank you landlord) I will start storing water.

what is the best way to do so, what is a free or very cheap container to store the water?

what should I put in the water or where to help keep it the longest?

Thanks for all the help....


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## PrepperThyAngus (Sep 30, 2012)

I've been very interested in this subject recently and have been doing some research. My work has tons of these empty 5 gal water jugs.








I was concerned of BPA content in the plastic but recently discovered BPA's website with much dismissed studies that BPA does not have significant effects on humans. You can check out their site here...Bisphenol A (BPA) Information & Resources Most of these jugs are plastic type 7 (other)

With that said, since these jugs are freely available, I am going to use them to store some water for my girlfriend and I.

Pros: fills 5 gallons each, great grab handle for portability and carrying, durable and will last years
Cons: Clear (must keep away from light to preserve), can become very heavy, not stackable.

So there ya go, its not the perfect solution but I think its a cheap solution. If you need lids, I buy from ebay member (mattjwiese) Cheap and great quality.

There are other larger and more stackable jugs available from places like Walmart but you will find they are $15-20 each. Good luck


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## jmh033089 (Oct 23, 2012)

thanks for the idea of the container, is there anything you put in the water? How long do you think they can last?


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## WVTactics (Mar 26, 2012)

Here is what I do. When I empty a 2-litre soda bottle, juice container, milk jug, anything household related. I take it and add about 5 drops of bleach or a little more to the containers of water then store it. NOTE: Store the water off of the ground as plastic can take in chemicals. I hope this helps you.


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## PrepperThyAngus (Sep 30, 2012)

Yes, add a 1/2 teaspoon of bleach into the water. Be sure to use new bleach as the primary chemicals in bleach degrade relatively quickly so using an old container of bleach will not be effective.


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## jmh033089 (Oct 23, 2012)

Great thanks guys, last question how long do you think it will last?


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## WoadWarrior (Oct 10, 2012)

A friend of mine is a little weird... but has some interesting ideas. He has been buying baffel-free waterbeds... and has about 6 of them stacked up on top of each other (full of water) in his garage. I don't know what he puts in them to keep them fresh but he says he only rotates out the water once a year, in the spring, and then refills them.

He prefers the baffle-free kind... not sure why... and he is using "full" sized, not singles, and said Queens take up too much room for him.

But basically... he has several thousand gallons of water stored that way since I think each one stores about 400+ gallons.


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## jandor123 (Oct 24, 2012)

I store my water in 30Gal food grade plastic barrels. You can pick up used ones for about $15-20 each, (give them a good cleaning before you put water in them!)
1/2 tsp of bleach for every 5 gallons, so for the 30Gal I used 3 tsp. It purifies the water of bacteria, same idea as like chlorine in a pool.
I like to change out my water every 6-9 months. I think it would probably last longer. I like to have about 5-6 barrels filled at all times.


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## jmh033089 (Oct 23, 2012)

These are all great ideas I don't know which one to use lmao, what about radiation? Can I put something in the water that will make it safe after and during a fallout?


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## jandor123 (Oct 24, 2012)

Fallout? lol - wrap in a lead blanket?

Realistically, I would think that if you keep them covered, so that anything falling would not come in contact, say in the garage and them cover them individually, with a plastic garbage bag say, to keep dust and dirt off them, probaly bout the simplist way to take care of it.


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## jmh033089 (Oct 23, 2012)

I know it sounds funny but I live a few miles away from downtown chicago,So God forbid if a nuke went off and somehow I did survive I would think the public water supply would be affected. So I was think some type of tablets to ensure no matter what the water will be safe...


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## Irish (Oct 5, 2012)

WVTactics said:


> Here is what I do. When I empty a 2-litre soda bottle, juice container, milk jug, anything household related. I take it and add about 5 drops of bleach or a little more to the containers of water then store it. NOTE: Store the water off of the ground as plastic can take in chemicals. I hope this helps you.


I will try and find the link but DO NOT use milk jugs its been proven that we CAN NOT get all the bacteria out of the milk jugs due to the style of plastic and that its milk!!

I will try and find that page but it was VERY convincing for me . . . Everything else was great though


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## Irish (Oct 5, 2012)

Gregs///M said:


> View attachment 474
> 
> 
> Cons: Clear (must keep away from light to preserve), can become very heavy, not stackable.


Against a wall on their sides with something bracing the other side stack them like wine bottles for say? You can stack them to the roof that way!! I love these and have a handfull I also buy mine from army surplus stores, pretty much the same thing. But mine are square about $5-6 bucks each and come with a lid thats a spigot and rubber O-ring seal around the lid plus you can buy them in black blue that sorta cloudy clear and a handful of others but are super strong and work great!!


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## jmh033089 (Oct 23, 2012)

Irish said:


> Against a wall on their sides with something bracing the other side stack them like wine bottles for say? You can stack them to the roof that way!! I love these and have a handfull I also buy mine from army surplus stores, pretty much the same thing. But mine are square about $5-6 bucks each and come with a lid thats a spigot and rubber O-ring seal around the lid plus you can buy them in black blue that sorta cloudy clear and a handful of others but are super strong and work great!!


Do you mind giving a link for the website?


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## WoadWarrior (Oct 10, 2012)

jmh033089 said:


> These are all great ideas I don't know which one to use lmao, what about radiation? Can I put something in the water that will make it safe after and during a fallout?


JMH... if you are really worried about protecting water from the effects of fallout from a nuclear exchange... then you need a crash course in what a nuclear detonation will actually do. Let's think about this: We will assume that you have created the perfect BOL that is radiation proof and you are able to protect your water and supplies. Meanwhile... any fallout has penetrated everything not in your fallout shelter. All of the animals that you would use for food are now dead... both domestic and wild... all of the birds... all of the fish... What plants manage to survive are probably highly radioactive, inedible, and probably sterile... the soil is contaminated and the radiation will most likely prevent anything new from growing for "quite some time" considering the half life of most of the stuff our enemies use. Meanwhile.... the dead plants whither up and blow away... the radioactive dirt is no longer held down by the roots from these plants and you spend the rest of your life outside your shelter (however long that is) dealing with radioactive sand storms that get into every nook and cranny of your cloths and slowly cook you to death. And that's assuming the initial thermal radiation, the blast overpressure, and the subsequent fire storms don't get you first. Now... if its just a nuclear disaster or residue from a smaller terrorist attack... I'd advice you to abandon the crap that's keeping you in the contaminated area and get the heck out of there. Just my two cents... (ok... maybe that was about 10 cents worth...)


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## jmh033089 (Oct 23, 2012)

so basicly I would be screwed, so nvm thanks for all the time you have saved me...


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## jandor123 (Oct 24, 2012)

I gotta agree with Woad. Just throw the bag over your shoulder and get outta Dodge. Btw I bought two more 30gal barrels today - $12 each. That makes 8. Gonna stop at 10. That would be 300 gallons. I live in the desert so, i dont think that's overkill.


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## WoadWarrior (Oct 10, 2012)

JMH... i'd plan a BOL FAR FAR away from any major city or target. Store stuff there... and try to get away before the SHTF... cause once it does... you and half a million other screaming citizens of Chicago are all going to be fighting to get away. 

So how do you pick where to live? Well... Russia was always a hard-target enemy... meaning they would hit military, govt and infrastructure. China prefers soft targets (big populated cities) to cause strife and panic... and keep us focused at home. Non-state sponsored terrorists prefer population centers that have an American "identity" to make a point. State sponsored terrorist prefer to make a bigger point and would hit a medium sized city of say... 50K people. Cheyenne Wyoming would be an ideal target... 50Kish population, state capital, military base, nuclear base, 20th Air Force Headquarters, major intersection of two interstate highways, etc. 

However, I'm in your boat... Colorado Springs is a prime target as well... and because most of my career has been dealing with nukes (yeah... I spent 5 years in Cheyenne as a Launch Officer)... every assignment I've had has been a prime target. But... that also means I had access to the best intel on where and how we think our enemies would attack... and a few of us mapped that against prevailing wind patterns based on the time of year... and I can honestly say I have NO plans for staying in this area if tensions in that particular area start becoming tense.


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## SSGT (Jul 29, 2012)

jmh033089 said:


> I know it sounds funny but I live a few miles away from downtown chicago,So God forbid if a nuke went off and somehow I did survive I would think the public water supply would be affected. So I was think some type of tablets to ensure no matter what the water will be safe...


Water contaminated with radioactive fallout is contaminated....PERIOD! If you have water stored in a good sealed container its safe from any fallout...perfectly drinkable! Water will not absorb radioactivity but can be contaminated by radioactive dust and dirt and the actual Isotopes themselves if not in a sealed container.

There is NO pill or chemical that will help your water once its been contaminated AND! no pill or chemical will keep your water from getting contaminated if its not in a sealed container!

SSGT
EX US ARMY NUCLEAR / BIOLOGICAL / CHEMICAL WARFARE DEFENSE NCO


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## nadja (May 1, 2012)

I would recomend the 55 gal blue plastic drums, which are made for water. New, our little grocery store sells them for around $60.00 ea. Then the pump costs you another $11.00. The little blue plastic water company bottles are fine, but most of them we have around here are actually only 2-1/2 gal, not 5 gal. Measure them out. The one gallon milk containers , have a tendancy to disolve after awhile, as they are designed to. Epa you know. Also, keep in mind that water is very heavy . About 8 lbs per gallon. So, if you live in an apartment, be careful as it would be very easy to overload the floor and break through if you store a lot of water.


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## PrepperDad (Oct 13, 2012)

Does a backyard in-ground swimming pool make for a good source of water storage?


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## jmh033089 (Oct 23, 2012)

This info is amazing I have got some knowledge that I will put to use, Thanks guys...


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## Irish (Oct 5, 2012)

jmh033089 said:


> Do you mind giving a link for the website?


The Army Surplus stores I go to are lil shops that are wickedly over packed with great stuff but they dont have the website or internet stuff at all just lil holes in the wall that you could drive by 10 times trying to find them kinda places.

Just google army surplus stores in your area they have all sorts of fantastic stuff for the day SHTF or just to have as well!!


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## Irish (Oct 5, 2012)

PrepperDad said:


> Does a backyard in-ground swimming pool make for a good source of water storage?


I wouldnt think so because dont they get pretty dirty in the off months even with the covers? On the other hand if it was a swimming pool of tap water thats A LOT of water just waiting to be sterilized so possibly?


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## nadja (May 1, 2012)

You can use a back yard pool, if you have a means to purify the water before drinking, IE: big berkey water filter. You must remove the clorine and or anything else that may have gotten into your water before drinking. Then you should be ok with it.


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## nadja (May 1, 2012)

jmh033089 said:


> I know it sounds funny but I live a few miles away from downtown chicago,So God forbid if a nuke went off and somehow I did survive I would think the public water supply would be affected. So I was think some type of tablets to ensure no matter what the water will be safe...


If I were you, I would invest in the Big Berkey water filter. You have at your disposal one of the largest fresh water supplies on earth, it is called the great lake. Trust me, it's there, and available all year long.


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## jmh033089 (Oct 23, 2012)

nadja said:


> If I were you, I would invest in the Big Berkey water filter. You have at your disposal one of the largest fresh water supplies on earth, it is called the great lake. Trust me, it's there, and available all year long.


I know when SHTF I will have a lot of fresh water lol, but water is included in my lease  stupid landlord...


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## WoadWarrior (Oct 10, 2012)

Water in a city requires electricity to work the pumps to get it to you. Small country towns have gravity fed water towers... but they will run out eventually and need electricity... or lots of manpower... to refill. Don't assume you will ever have domestic water supplies. Prepare for the worst and you will always be pleasantly surprised... or... maybe the worst will happen and you won't have to worry about it anymore.


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## jmh033089 (Oct 23, 2012)

What I met by that was in can do some crazy like fill a pool and not worry about the price of doing to


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## WoadWarrior (Oct 10, 2012)

Awww... I understand. Do you actually have a pool to fill? And can you keep the neighborhood kids from peeing in it? Just kidding.... but can you fill it and still keep it hidden from any neighbors that might decide they are too thirsty to be polite about it?


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## jmh033089 (Oct 23, 2012)

No, but if I did Doughty it. I do live in Chicago


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