I have been looking for a good solution for storing some water in my car.  I keep a few supplies in the trunk of my car and would like to store some water.  The difficulty is that I live in Minnesota so it will freeze at some point.

I would like to buy something that is sealed rather than me just partially filling up a container with tap water.

I have been unable to find any solutions where the container has a little room (purged of air I would guess, for freshness) to allow for the water to freeze.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Bag

The water bottles that bulk water bottles come in, 500ml type.

Try to buy non eco bottles, with thicker plastic.   Abrasion is your enemy, not temps.

There are special camping bags for liquid including for wine just underfill a bit for expansion.

I know you said sealed and so on, but I've used a 10L mil-spec water jug with no issues. I'd only put 2 gal of water in it with a cap load of bleach. Would rotate every 6 months or so.

Attached File


10L/2.5gal Specter Water Can

How about just buying cases of bottled water at Cosco?

I vacuum seal ice, double bagged.  I rotate every couple of years, but have never had a leak.  Doing the vacuum seal while frozen gives it space to go through a thaw freeze cycle without issues.

You can also freeze pre-measured water for freeze dried food and label the bag.

I use pop (soda) bottles.   I keep a 35 quart cooler in the back of my truck.  It has a dozen or so water bottles, some cans of food, a Tupperware of granola bars, a Tupperware with batteries in it, and a few other items.   If I put two 2-liter bottles of frozen water in the cooler it keeps everything cold for 48 hours easily.   Keep in mind that my goal isn’t to keep things from spoiling, I just want to keep them from being temperature cycled.   As a bonus, I can drink the two liter bottles if push comes to shove.

I carry a 1lt smart water bottle (pet) in my truck for 15 years. I lived in AK and the desert.

Its still good.

PET bottles will expand with the ice even better when you leave some headspace.

I've been using these for a year now.

I usually either use the water or swap it out with a wash every few months as needed.

I put half a case of cheap bottled water in my truck every fall, and replace whatever is left the following year. They go in a small cooler, only for protection.
If they're frozen solid when I need them, I peel the plastic off and dump in a cook pot, set over a burner to melt.
Never had any problems.

I live in the same state as OP, so the bottles stay frozen from late November through mid March, give or take.

Thanks for all of the suggestions, I was still hoping for a fully sealed prefilled solution that had room for expansion due to freezing but that may not exist.

Like the standard 500ml bottled water that many of us have said..?
Or are you looking for a 5 gallon size container?

If you go with an already sealed bottle, just freeze it at home to test whether it'll burst or not.

Just buy a case of bottled water. They thaw/freeze just fine.

But why take my word for it? Go buy some bottled water and cycle it in/out of your freezer a few times and prove it to yourself.

I keep bottled water in my vehicle year round and have not had a single one fail.

This.

I work for a utility company, and i routinely take off for 2-14 days with little to no notice when the power goes out.

I always keep a couple of standard issue cases of water in the truck, in all seasons. Never had an issue. Ambient temps in my area are a max of 105, and a min of -20 (both neglecting dew point and wind chill).

No idea on long term though, since i do use them and rotate them through.

I've occasionally drank my water stash (5+ years old) with no ill effect, aside from the bottle becoming hazy due to friction of them rubbing against each other.

Yep.

The cases of good bottled water freeze without problems (look at the caps. There are cheap brands where the caps are super shallow and look like they're held on by only 2 threads). The caps on those can pop when they freeze. The decent brands are fine, and hold up to freezing and thawing in the winter.

The main reason to rotate them is the heat in the summer degrades the plastic, and can cause a plasticky taste (sealed bottles that had sat in the car for 2 summers)

I use the thick plastic gallon bottles that Snapple comes in. They are very thick.

Gatoraid  will not freeze until its really cold, like below 15F.

Gives you the added bonus of calories and electrolights
if you need to hike home.

WHat good is frozen water?

8nBAIT

Plastic bottles lose water over time. If you’ve had some sitting notice how they are much looser than fresh bottles. I’ve started buying Sams choice at Walmart because of this. The bottle is thicker so it doesn’t lose water as quickly and are 20 oz. vs. the 16.9 in regular bottles. I also drink/rotate them.

Not tactical enough is my guess.
I've  been using 500ml water bottles as ice packs for years.  Never have had one burst.  I keep a handful of them  in my truck all the time.  Never an issue.
OP is overthinking the issue, I'm afraid.

From an older blog post:

See, the problem isn’t really about the water freezing. The problem is about how you thaw the water. The solution, of course, is pretty freakin’ obvious – the smaller the quantity of ice, the faster it will thaw.

Imagine a gallon of ice as a frozen block. Now imagine 128 1-ounce ice cubes lined up in a row. Which one will thaw completely faster? The ice cubes, of course.

There’s two ways I keep water in the vehicle – I use either the small 4 oz. ‘lifeboat ration’ water pouches or the small hand grenade sized plastic water bottles. Both are small enough you can shove them in a pocket or under your butt and thaw them out. The pouches are the easiest to thaw..they are about the size and thickness of a Pop Tart and you can thaw them in just a few minutes by sitting on them. Yes, it takes a lot of them to add up to a couple gallons of water (which you should always have in your vehicle). So what? Whether its 2 1-gallon jugs or 64 4-oz. pouches its still the same amount of water…the only difference is that it wont take two days for the pouches to thaw.

The pouches freeze quite well and I’ve never had one fail from being frozen, but, of course, whenthey are frozen try no to bang them around. The plastic water bottles have also never given me any problems and I’ve had them go through several freeze/thaw cycles. Fact is, most bottled water is packaged in bottles that are so darn tough you can pretty much ignore them. Roll a couple under the seats of your car and forget about ’em.

I have never bought the cute 2.5 gallon or so scepters, but I always felt they were perfect for vehicle stuff.

Most bottled water will expand and not leak when frozen.  It also won't sit properly once the bottom pops out and even when back to liquid form sometimes the bottle is unhappy and wants to lean a little left or right, adjust for how you vote, after a good solid freeze.

I usually keep a cooler in the vehicle these days, during the hot summer I cool it down before a big grocery run and then it helps groceries stay cold for the trip home.  During the winter the water bottles live in it and rarely freeze but east tn is not so terrible a winter either.

The current run to save plastic is making bottles thinner and caps a lot less robust.  So test in your freezer at the house first would be my recomendation.

I work at a place that requires I bring in sealed drinks so rotating cases of water is easy.

I have also done the bag of water, I mostly just buy ziplock gallon freezer bags for stuff like this cause I have had the best luck with ziplock gallon freezer bags.

I have some of the old solid plastic quart canteens, some of the 2 quart flexible plastic canteens, and all sorts of hiking water bottles and stuff as well.  Given air space to let the water expand as it freezes they all work but a water bottle is nice and conveinent bought a case at a time.

This is what I use. Frozen many times and no problem.

Although it may not be necessary for water, would a regular ice chest serve to buffer the highs and lows in the summer and winter for other heat sensitive items (lithium ion batteries, electronics, medicine, etc)?

Yep - it sure would.

Biggest down side is that it also buffers moderate temperatures while you're driving.

Thanks for all of the replies.

This is more or less what I was looking for.