# Rain water



## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

With a little bleach and a filter to catch the bugs do you think rain water would be OK for showers?


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

Sounds good to me. If push comes to shove, rain collection is all I will have after four months or less. I plan for filtering and purifying. I do have lots of homes around me with pools, but I'd prefer not to leave the house since I want to be in hiding. My house has a 5 foot high block wall, type fence to conceal my movements at dusk. It has always astounded me how much water comes off a roof. When we get rain that is, only 11 inches per year average.


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## Medic33 (Mar 29, 2015)

yep, some guy in TN gets like 50,000 gal of water a year uses for everything catch another 5000 or something just for drinking no filtering he had the water tested and it was more pure than the local tap water. I think he's got a bamboo farm or something and has been living off grid for some time.


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Yes I do.


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## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

I intend to drink it.
I catch it in a tote tank out back. I keep the water chlorinated and clean while it's just sitting. (takes 1/2 tsp to do the whole thing ever other week or so)
If the time comes to use it, I will run it through the normal purification and sterilization steps that I would with any unknown water source.
Coffee filter -> Sawyer PointOne filter -> activated charcoal filter -> mouth.


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## Jakthesoldier (Feb 1, 2015)

It would be fine with no bleach or filter. 
Soap is what's cleaning you, water is just activating the soap, and rinsing it all away.

That is, of course, provided your rain water isn't growing algae or mold.


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## rice paddy daddy (Jul 17, 2012)

Gutter downspouts feed 50 gallon blue heavy duty plastic barrels. Mounted 3 feet off the ground on pressure treated lumber framework, garden hose bibs (aka faucet) allow us to water the garden or animals.
In a no drinking water situation it will provide for us, too.


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## jdbushcraft (Mar 26, 2015)

Kauboy said:


> I intend to drink it.
> I catch it in a tote tank out back. I keep the water chlorinated and clean while it's just sitting. (takes 1/2 tsp to do the whole thing ever other week or so)
> If the time comes to use it, I will run it through the normal purification and sterilization steps that I would with any unknown water source.
> Coffee filter -> Sawyer PointOne filter -> activated charcoal filter -> mouth.


Don't constantly chlorinate it. Do it once before storage and again before use if needed. You are just adding salts that aren't needed.


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## Jakthesoldier (Feb 1, 2015)

jdbushcraft said:


> Don't constantly chlorinate it. Do it once before storage and again before use if needed. You are just adding salts that aren't needed.


I'm asking here, so don't take this the wrong way, but doesnt the chloride level decrease over time?

I understood my short and relatively useless field sanitation course to have said that.

Chlorine reacts with the water, and stuff in the water, and (dissapates/evaporates/chemically reacts) it's way out of the water, leaving it clean and usable, and keeping the container cleaner longer.

Something about maintaining a certain PPM?

Not an expert on mass water long term storage.


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## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

jdbushcraft said:


> Don't constantly chlorinate it. Do it once before storage and again before use if needed. You are just adding salts that aren't needed.


It's not a closed system yet.
Other than a screen at the opening to keep out bugs, other contaminants can still get in. Algae growth starts about every 3rd week. The activated charcoal will take care of the salts that the filter misses.


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## Spice (Dec 21, 2014)

Light-blocking tank materials will cut down on algae growth too. Not that the algae are the real health issue, but I would consider them at risk for clogging hoses and valves.


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

Still think pool shock is better than bleach. Has a lot longer shelf life and not as many additives. Not sure how many 1 lb packs come in the latest box I bought the other day but each bag can make 10 thousand gallons of pool water as pure as the driven snow.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

If I had to just keep it out of my mouth and use it for showers.

Save the bleach and filters for drinking!


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## jdbushcraft (Mar 26, 2015)

Jakthesoldier said:


> I'm asking here, so don't take this the wrong way, but doesnt the chloride level decrease over time?
> 
> I understood my short and relatively useless field sanitation course to have said that.
> 
> ...


it does dissipate and leaves salts behind. As he says below that he doesn't have a closed system, his situation is a bit different. If you are sealing and storing, treat, store, treat again prior to use. If the water and container are biologically clean when the lid goes on it should still be that way when the cap comes off. If you had an open cistern you would have to keep it treated or treat before use..



Kauboy said:


> It's not a closed system yet.
> Other than a screen at the opening to keep out bugs, other contaminants can still get in. Algae growth starts about every 3rd week. The activated charcoal will take care of the salts that the filter misses.


Yeah. That's different.


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## Ripon (Dec 22, 2012)

Filter once for the big stuff, treat with bleach or chlorine, and then filter again for the little stuff and you can drink and be merry.



budgetprepp-n said:


> With a little bleach and a filter to catch the bugs do you think rain water would be OK for showers?


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## rice paddy daddy (Jul 17, 2012)

Our home system is a 225 foot deep well with one pump to draw water up and send it to a 200 gallon aerator. This removes some of the iron taste. Then another pump sends it into the house. (We are out beyond any kind of municipal water supply).
Every 6 months or so we put a few ounces of chlorine bleach in thru a port in the top. Once a year we drain out the red iron sediment that collects in the bottom.

But this is not stored water, it is constantly recirculating.


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

Hope yall arent getting too much iron in the diet. Had a crazy doctor try to convince me I had too much one time...but them another doctor said he was full of sheeet. I aint sure about that. We eat off a lot of cast iron skillets.

What Happens if You Get Too Much Iron From Foods? | Healthy Eating | SF Gate


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## rice paddy daddy (Jul 17, 2012)

bigwheel said:


> Hope yall arent getting too much iron in the diet. Had a crazy doctor try to convince me I had too much one time...but them another doctor said he was full of sheeet. I aint sure about that. We eat off a lot of cast iron skillets.
> 
> What Happens if You Get Too Much Iron From Foods? | Healthy Eating | SF Gate


Folks been living with this water for generations out here.
Once a year, to keep my VA medical benefits, they give me a physical complete with extensive blood work. Having been exposed to the herbicide Agent Orange the VA keeps an extensive file of ultra sounds, specialized x-rays, EKG's, other stuff, and blood work. And I carry copies of this info to my own family doctor to look at every year.
They have never mentioned iron levels to me.


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## alterego (Jan 27, 2013)

The water that pours from our roof in a big rain is stunning. We have no rain catchment because I have a small spring about 90 feet from my house and we put a water box made from a plastic tote in there it has a stream half the size of a sink faucet running 24 7 365. I wish I had made a better box. I did it cheap because I was unsure of how it would work. Now after a couple years I am supper happy to know it is right there percolating water for us.


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## SecretPrepper (Mar 25, 2014)

On one of the islands we visit in the Bahamas all of the homes are on rain water cistern. The locals drink the water untreated. We have never had a problem bathing with it. It is a closed cistern l. As far as drinking when I'm there it is mostly rum.


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## Kumarkalliente (May 1, 2015)

So you guys have enough chlorine and bleach like chemicals to last you how long? What if you can't find any? Do you have the materials to make a natural water filter system? You can make a small one with a five gallon bucket but if you use it often you'll have to change it very often you just need cloth,gravel(clean),sand and charcoal from a campfire( or activated charcoal). In a long shtf situation I would have to one for storing the water and then again before using it.


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## Medic33 (Mar 29, 2015)

yes I do,
Simple Water Filter out of a Waterbottle
Simple Water Filter out of a Waterbottle
there is a couple
heres how to make a gas mask
DIY Gas Mask

lastly rain water is about the cleanest water you are going to get it already is filtered before it hits the ground by the best filter of all Mother Nature.


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## Medic33 (Mar 29, 2015)

the gas mask is only for tear gas not a full blown NBC mask.


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## Hawaii Volcano Squad (Sep 25, 2013)

Water Distillation a good solution too but most commercially available systems way too pricey.
Got an email from Living Survival to a Water prep Webinar that I looked at but $300 for two medium size cookware items was astronomically ridiculous. Emergency Survival Distiller or something like that.
Build your own.


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## RNprepper (Apr 5, 2014)

bigwheel said:


> Hope yall arent getting too much iron in the diet. Had a crazy doctor try to convince me I had too much one time...but them another doctor said he was full of sheeet. I aint sure about that. We eat off a lot of cast iron skillets.
> 
> What Happens if You Get Too Much Iron From Foods? | Healthy Eating | SF Gate


What does your hemoglobin level run? If it's over 16, you are too high. Too much iron contributes to hardening of the arteries and heart disease. That's why men's and seniors' vitamins do not contain iron.

If you run high, start donating blood regularly. It's good for you and helps a lot of people.


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## jdbushcraft (Mar 26, 2015)

You can't donate plasma if it's high. Whole blood is fine though.


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

Well aint never donated much but have sold quite a bit. Seems like they normally nag at the ladies for having not enough iron.


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## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

Kumarkalliente said:


> So you guys have enough chlorine and bleach like chemicals to last you how long? What if you can't find any? Do you have the materials to make a natural water filter system?


Yes, a t-shirt and fire.

K.I.S.S. :mrgreen:


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