For now, I am stocking bottled water from the store.  Eventually I plan to upgrade to something bigger, like drums or something, but for now, it is cases of water from the store.  We also rotate water out, as the kids take a bottle to school, and the wife takes some to work.  Now, my question is, is this water ok to store in the garage as we rotate through it?  It will maybe stay out there a max of 6 months before it is rotated inside and replaced.  I do live in Houston, so it does get hot, and my garage is not climate controlled.  It is insulated, so it doesn't get too hot, but it isn't cool either.  Thanks for any input.

Bottled water has an "expiration" of 1 year from the store. Rotate and you are GTG. May get a slight plastic taste, though.

For the SHTF, be able to purify water from any source. You'll need to store a flocculat such as Alum to reduce sediments prior to filtration.

bottled water is damned expensive.  It made more sense to me to store containers, and to have the ability to fill them quickly when there was a crisis looming.
Being able to purify and/or filter water is a must.  Not just with a Steripen, but in bulk.

I have a pantry well set up to rotate bottle water.  We drink it anyway so it was just a matter of buying twice as much as usual for a while until we had lots of it on hand.  I keep about 6 months worth on hand which, in an SHTF, might last about 2 months.  

I also have a generator for my well, two 330 gallon storage tanks that are full and treated, and a large metal building that I can use to collect rainwater with the necessary filtration equipment to last for years.

You have to have water....

I raised up the full size bed in my guest bedroom a few inches, and I'm able to store 18 (I think) cases of water (24 16 oz. bottles, or 12 quarts, or 3 gallons per case). They are out of the way, in the dark at a controlled temp. We drink bottled water daily, bought during regular weekly or so shopping trips, but the water under the bed stays where it is. Ever May or June (when it gets hotter than blue blazes) all the under the bed water comes out and gets stacked in the kitchen for drinking, and its a trip back to Wally world to replace it all the same day. We get some weird looks with 2 shopping carts completely filled with nothing but water, but not weird enough to make it on the web site- so far. We will go thru all 18 cases in about 6-8 weeks. The water has never tasted bad or anything. By doing this, it insures that it never stays around more than a year or so, and in the hottest months we have at LEAST 18 cases, or maybe as much as 36 on hand, depending what day it is. The only drawback is that for a month or 2 there's cases of water all over the kitchen and in the hallway, etc. I prefer this method VS drums because I don't have to worry about the cleanliness of drums, etc., and its alot easier to fill up a nalgene, canteen, camelback, etc. from a 1 pint bottle than a drum, as well as being able to move water from place to place in any amount I want, and the ability to get an accurate count of what is on hand.. In addition, we have 2 katadin backpacking pump filters to purify water anywhere as an alternate, several bottles of mil purification tablets as a contingency, and a gallon of bleach with an eyedropper as an emergency (along with a whole bunch of propel packets)

you'd be well ahead of the game with a reverse o filter and a few nalgene bottles.

Can you elaborate on this, please

I wanted to get the 5 gallon LCI water cans, but my wife was concerned about lifting a full one into her car if she had to leave in a hurry while I was out of town (she was pregnant at the time, so that was the main concern with lifting).  So we decided to use the 1 gallon Arizona tea containers along with a method of purifying water on the spot if we had to.  The arizona containers work really well and have proven to be very durable.  We don't drink a whole lot of tea, but every once in awhile we will buy one and after it is empty I clean it out thoroughly and fill it with filtered water from the fridge.  We have accumulated close to 20 bottles that we rotate through.  Soon I will get a few of the LCI cans just to have on hand.  I'd like to have 100 gallons of portable drinking water on hand at some point.

Avoid the plastic jugs that are the same plastic as milk jugs.  These will deteriorate and leak.  The bottles made of the same plastic as pop bottles is good.

Don't worry about the expiration date.  Some state, possibly New Jersey, mandates that every food product have an expiration date.  The water will not go bad.  How could it?  If there were bacteria in the water what would it eat to survive?

Rotating is not a bad idea because the plastic will age and possibly leak. Also the water could get a plastic taste.  But it is not something you need to do too often.

Rotating bottled water I think is the key.  We've stored bottled water in our garage and as long as I rotate it then I don't get any weird plastic taste.    

I did take a case of bottled water on a family vacation that had been in the garage for about a year and it definitely tasted like plastic.  Just rotate it.

I live in North Dallas. When I moved 6 years ago I put some stuff in storage, including about a dozen of the 1-gallon Ozarka water jugs, and 3 or 4 cases of 16 and 20 oz bottles, where it sat for 2 years. I then moved a lot of that stuff into my garage 5 years ago.  

So that water has sat in storage for 7 years, including 5 in a garage that is NOT climate controlled.

I've been drinking through that supply lately, and it's all still fine.




I have about 20 of those Arizona gallon containers as well - nice thick plastic, and as you said they are durable.





I have about 90 2-liter Coke type bottles which I filled with water about 4 years ago. They seem durable as well - not a single leak in the 4 years.