Hello again, SF!

Based on the recommendations of several members, I went ahead and got four of these LCI 5-gallon water cans, as a beginning for my hurricane/busted-ass water main/bad news preps; I figure 20-gallons of good-to-go water, in combination with the cases of bottled water we keep around, would be as good a start as any while still being "portable."

Anyway, they're just sitting in my closet for the moment, because I have INQUIRIES:

First of all, with regard to just filling the things in the first place: do I need to treat these cans with bleach or anything when I first put the water in them? I have read a couple of times that if I'm filling them from a clean, chlorinated source (e.g., tap water) that the water should be good to go as is. Would adding bleach to this be excessive, or just a good idea? Also, what should I use to clean these out prior to their use for storage?

Secondly, once I've got my water laid up, has anyone had any trouble with LCI cans leaking or failing? Is there anything I need to watch out for with regard to their caps or construction? Any frailties or shortcomings I should keep an eye out for?

Thirdly, in the event that I need to actually use these cans, what is the best way to get the water out of the cans in a controlled and convenient manner? I know it sounds like weak-sauce, but picking up a 42 pound can of water just to dump a few ounces of water into a glass or into a bottle or a hydration bladder seems unwieldy and that it would be prone to spills; does anyone make a simple hand-pump to make getting at the first few gallons a little easier? Something that could be disassembled and cleaned would be best, I guess.

EXTRA CREDIT:
We have a couple of 55 gallon rain barrels snuggled up under our gutters around the house, and I'd like to look at these as a potential source of drinking water in an emergency. I know that they would need to be filtered and treated in the first place (I need to get a sensible filter, and some pool shock or something), but one thing that concerns me is that I have read that rainwater collection tends to also collect the gross pollutant crap that accumulates on your roof between rains, like nasty chemicals and such. Is there a way to generically neutralize or filter or otherwise sequester these pollutants, or will I just have to relegate rainwater to toilet flushing/garden watering duy?

As far as cleaning them up goes, I added some baking soda to maybe a gallon of water and swished it around and let the can sit a while then shook it some more and just played around with it for a half day or so while working around my place.

Then I dumped it out and filled with just tap water.  I plan to play with these soon to see what I think of them and their cute little lids and what not.  I like playing with things every year or so and won't be adding bleach later either.

For around my home I plan to use a 5 gallon round water cooler jug thing, the 5 gallon round coolers you see on work trucks and what not with the spigot down low.  Just fill the cooler up and use the spigot to let out how much water you need.  I plan to change my spigots to something better from lowes, I got some of my coolers used and slightly broken so cleaning them up and replacing the spigot was planned already.

I used coolers for a week or so when the well at my old place died and I took a long time running the water from the street down to my place.  I think I used em a lot longer than that but don't feel like digging in the archives to remember the fun that I had back then.

I plan to store my water cans upright in the long term but will be playing with them on their sides and upside down to see how they do with leaking or not leaking.  I also want to see how controllable the little spouts on the lid are for controlling water flow.

But regardless of what I decide, the water cans are more for transporting water while the 5 gallon coolers are for holding and distributing water.

And when doing dishes the cooler just gets filled with hot water for rinsing dishes.

Some people who rely on cisterns have setups that allow the first bit of rain to clean the roof and then once that is done the system kicks over to filling the cistern up.

I have heard of people who had to go out and turn it by hand, basically they had the dirty water going to one 55 gallon drum I guess and then after it had rained for a bit they swung the downspout over to their water storage for the clean water and that was a cistern that fed the house.

Don't know about something that would work automatically.

I would try to set it up so the dirty water is kept for toilets and what not and the cleaner stuff could then be filtered and used for other stuff as you needed it.

Consider RO to process rainwater and remove chemical polutants. A carbon block filter could be used with less performance, I'm going to use both.

You can search reverse osmosis and see a detailed descrp or I can bump my thread. Cost should be less than $200.

I cleaned my water storage with a solution of 1 tablespoon of chlorine (no perfumed or soap additive crap) with 10 gallons water. I let this sit for 24 hours and then rinsed them out with tap water several times.

As for adding additional chlorine to tap water, well it depends on how long you want to store the water and in what environment. My water is for long-term storage so I added additional chlorine to the tap water. 1 Tablespoon for 55 gallons. I got this from the book "Dare to Prepare" by Holly Drennan Deyo, great book BTW. You can use that ratio to figure your additive needs. You should keep the water covered (out of direct sunlight) and at a constant cool temperature to increase the life of the water stored. There are other additives that can supposedly increase stored water life to years, I change mine out annually with this setup.

YMMV.

wash the plastic pieces out of them, fill with bleach sit over night then add water after rinsing.

Make sure you get the vent caps on tight, seen those leak

AFA a easy way to use it, you can tap.drill one of the caps, or use the small cap, with a brass water fitting then add whatever plumbing you want form there, 6" od tube, with a ball valve, attachment for a inline filter is you need it.

this was a good idea



http://www.northwestoverlandsociety.org/Discussions/tabid/166/forumid/31/postid/23250/view/topic/Default.aspx

I fill up my new cans in the bath tub 1/2 way and swish the water around to remove any plastic inside and dump. Baking soda and a little lemon juice and fill 1/2 way up again and swish and dump. After these steps are complete I fill all the way and dump to rinse. Fill 1/2 way and add 1/2 teaspoon of bleach then fill to the top. I store them in a hall closet and repeat the process annually.

Funny, I found that same thread today and was going to post a link but did a search to make sure I would not be posting something old and found this thread...

I am curious if anybody knows of a source for replacement caps for the LCI cans?  I just ordered my first three and I plan to order more when I have some money and I was looking for ideas how people were using these when I found that other thread at the link above.  This would be helpful to refill hydration bladders.

Images from that thread:




I also like the pressurized washing idea posted in the following thread but obviously that idea requires compressed air which is really beyond survival uses:

http://forum.ih8mud.com/ca-socal-80s/294349-advbuddies-spotted.html

Here is another way to run a hose from one:

http://www.sportsmobileforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3198

put a tire type fitting on there and use a bicycle handpump. that would be easy to do. just get a car tire fitting, the kind that just snap in the hole, drill the right size hole, and then you can use a 12 v pump jobby, or you can use a hand pump.

Wow! I justgot 4 of these from LCI.. Built like a brick shithouse!... I'll be ordering a few more to replace the chinamart blue jugs..

I like that manual pump. going to get the stuff tomorrow for sure. Since I store my water in the cans for long term. Does anyone know where I can get an extra CAP to drill and setup like that? I dont want to mess with the caps on it. THanks


Just checked the net on that pump. ouch 78bux. hmm, think ill just pour for now. lol.

I was kicking around the idea of a 12volt pump setup and still may. stay tuned...........

I have not found extra caps and I spent about an hour at home depot trying to come up with an alternate way to hook the jug upto a hose for filling things like hydration bladders.  I finaly found a 1/2 O.D. smooth adapter that was threaded on the other side that I was able to attach to a 1/2 Ball Valve.  The ball valve then opened up to teh standard 3/4 Garden hose threads and I was able to find an adapter that I could attach flexable tubing too.

I have not really tried it yet other then fitting everyting at the store but I will be posting pics and the parts list when I get some time.  I had to use far more parts then I would have liked but I had a bugger of a time finding parts that would connect that would not require me to modify or destroy a cap which was what I was trying to avoid.

The bottles are cheap enough, I may just end up making the modification perminant as I did buy all-purpose plastic cement to glue my contraption but I really would like a different valve then the one I have before I do anything perminant.

I will be home late tonight so I doubt I can post pics tonight but I will see what I can do.

OK, here are the pics of my three cans and my water spout experiment!

NOTE - the can I was experimenting with has a problem now in that the larger pour spout has a very small leak (drip) and I have no way to know if it was because of my spout experiment or if the can might have leaked before and I just didn't test it.  Just a warning and my water spout may well end up getting glued to that cap now...

Here is a photo review of my three LCI cans...

















Now, my attempt to adapt it to a hose:


GENOVA INC P/N 50305 1/2 IN. CPVC FIP ADAPTER SIZE:1/2" (CPVC SPECIAL FEMALE ADAPTER Adapts metal MIP to CPVC Hand tighten only)


Note - I would rather have a straight valve for my use - I couldn't find a working solution so I got this one plus the barb adapter below.  It works but given the cap may be roated differently on differnt bottles I would have rather this be straight out and the barb for the hose points directly out so the jug can be used in any orientation.







Following is the hose I will be using - just ordinary 3/8 pvc plastic tubing.



Below it is emptying my bleach water out of the container - no leaks and good flow (you need the vent open obviously)



I discovered the very slow leak as I filled all three cans with water with a couple GLUGS of bleach to sanitize them.  I left them sitting in the tub overnight and this morning there was a water trail from the leaking can.  I could not hand tighten that cap tight enough to prevent the drip.  

The jug would still be quite usable, I marked it and if I don't find a straight valve I like better then the one in the pics above I will likely just glue that one in place and use the leaky cap as my bladder fiilling cap.  Note however that this did not leak when that adapter was sqeeze pressed inside of that opening.

Anyways, I am running late to get to work so I will add to this post when I get some time but I wanted to get pics up...

FYI - LCI carries replacement caps for $5.99/ea in tan and OD.  Just search "water can cap".

These are the best water cans you can buy.  Clean them out as specified by prior posters. I fill mine with tap water and add 1/2 teaspoon of unscented bleach.

I have about 10 of these cans which I leave at my camper site filled year round.  Typically the temps can go down to the single digits during the winter. I've never had a leak or any other problem. I will say that prior to the winter, I remove about 1/2 gallon of water for expansion.

Remember, it's alway best to rotate your water.

I searched before and didn't find them but you are correct, they have them!  I ordered three more of these cans (that will get me upto six) and I also ordered 3 replacement caps so I can modify the one I have where the pour cap leaks and have two extras for now.

I also went shopping last night and finally found the type of setup I wanted in the first place.  I will post pics of the new valve and setup when I get a chance but basically I bought a piece of galvanized 1/2 pipe, a 1/2 ball valve and finally a 1/2 to 3/8 Barb fitting.  The ball valve I bought also had a threaded drain that had a knurled thumb removable bolt to make it much easier to drain water from the hose ( I am a microbiologist and I know how well things grow in water so it was a worthy investment in my oppinion).

Note the drain on this similar valve:


Here is a pic from the web that basically shows the same setup except I needed the pipe between the cap and valve to get space for the valve handle and to connect the female to female ends.  I didn't check if I could have just reversed the hadle and if I can then I may not need to use the pipe extension at all.



I don't mind spending some money to put the hardware away as if I ever had to rely on these jugs it sure will be nice being able to set them up where they will be easy to use.  The valves were the expensive item at about $10 but finding a solution when SHTF would be much more difficult!

Heck, just the barb fitting so you can hook a piece of flexable plastic tubing to a regular water faucet might be VERY IMPORTANT in SHTF and I think I need to buy a couple and add them to my BOBs (pic posted above)

Thanks again for the info on the caps!

Here are the parts numbers (You can search for these numbers!)

600409 - Plastic Water Can - 5 Gallon, OD Green - $16.99
906396 - Plastic Water Can - 5 Gallon, Desert Sand - $16.99
600118 - Replacement Cap - Desert Tan - $5.99
906841 - Replacement Cap - OD Green - $5.99

So, I am upto 30-gal in very robust and portable water cans...  perhaps next month I can get three more and then I think I will have enough of these

So you couldnt find a fitting that would screw directly onto the spout?? If I have time tomorrow I'm going to drive a bit to a real hardware store (not the wannabe HD and Lowes) and see if there is something that will screw onto to spout allowing a hose to be added...

I'm also gonna order another 4 of these fine cans and a few spare caps..

I had no luck at all.  I tried Lowes, Home depot, as well as my local Ace hardware and I didn't see anything that worked with the Acme threads.  The other problem is the size looks to be metric to further add to the frustration.

If you find a solution, I would love to know...

Hmmm didn't realize you had already Ace... I went ahead and email'd LCI asking if they had or knew where we could get a spout of some sort..

Ebay Cap