Posted: 10/30/2012 12:22:33 PM EDT
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My wife and I now have 4 young kids, need to up my water supply. I have (2) blue plastic 50 gallon water storage barrels. Filled them up from my home water system 3 years ago and they are sitting directly on the concrete floor of my mechanical room in the basement. I'm going to go in and replace the water, add 2 more barrels and place them on plywood or 2x8's to get them off the concrete. It is part of my climate controlled home although slightly colder because of the air ducted into the room from outside for the furnace.
I'm really tempted to taste the water after 3 years or storage, any reason not to? Can water really go rancid or bad after 3 years in a brand new, sealed container sitting on concrete? Any suggestions or improvements while I'm redoing my water storage? Area is supposed to have a large earthquake in future, add straps to concrete foundation walls to prevent them tipping over? I have the tool to open the water barrels placed right above them for easy access and the pump too. Luckily there is a floor drain right in the middle of this room to easily replace the water. |
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Might be a good idea to have the water tested first, then keep a little in a bottle to taste
If you get a gtg report. I would use a pallet to keep the barrels on. Definitely report back how it taste if you get a clean report. If you get " no go " then absolutely report back the findings. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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If the water was orginally utility tap water and the barrels were closed properly, I'd have no hesitiation to 'taste' the water.
If I were going to actually drink it in quantity, I would run it through a carbon filter at the minimum and preferably also a ceramic candle. We do this all the time with water stored as much as a couple years. |
| If the water you put in it was city water (e.g., chlorinated), it'll be fine, if not, it might taste stale. If the water's clean (treated) going in and you store it properly (air tight container and dark area) it'll come out clean. We've used five y.o. water in the past that was treated w/ bleach prior to storing (came from our well) and we've had no ill effects. |
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Good to know, thanks.. Yes, this was city treated water (chlorinated) and has been in sealed barrels in a dark room for 3 years. 3 Years! That's it??? I've got stored water from 2004 that I taste from time to time, well actually, I have my son or my wife do it - no, no it's not that! - it's because I can't smell, hence can't taste worth a shit. On the other hand, my wife can smell ants in the house. My 2004-era water is always fine. It's stored in various potable water containers like MWCs, German water cans, 2 and 3 liter soda bottles, juice bottles and 15 and 30 gallon used Coke syrup barrels. Store clean water in clean containers and keep it in dry dark environment, it should last for years and years. Good luck! |
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Might be a good idea to have the water tested first, then keep a little in a bottle to taste If you get a gtg report. I would use a pallet to keep the barrels on. Definitely report back how it taste if you get a clean report. If you get " no go " then absolutely report back the findings. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile Just out of curiosity... How would you get it tested? I am in a similar situation. |
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Good to know, thanks.. Yes, this was city treated water (chlorinated) and has been in sealed barrels in a dark room for 3 years. If you get a little aquarium air pump and an airation stone and let it bubble for several hours the flavor of the water will improve bigtime. 
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That's a good idea to aireate it that way.
Also, my biggest concern [that might be completely wrong] is dissolved/leached plastic compounds from the barrels. Hence why we run old stored water thru a carbon and ceramic filter, at the least. I'd guess if the water was only going to be consumed for a brief emergency, filtering it this way wouldn't be necessary. We use this stored water regularly and drink a lot of it so I play it safe. In fact we added RO to the system last year and the water tastes and works great. You can got to Google and search Expy and RO for more info. |
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Might be a good idea to have the water tested first, then keep a little in a bottle to taste If you get a gtg report. I would use a pallet to keep the barrels on. Definitely report back how it taste if you get a clean report. If you get " no go " then absolutely report back the findings. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile Just out of curiosity... How would you get it tested? I am in a similar situation. Generally your county extension office can do the testing or direct you to someone who can. Around here, when you buy a house on a well, they require the well water to be tested. |
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Might be a good idea to have the water tested first, then keep a little in a bottle to taste If you get a gtg report. I would use a pallet to keep the barrels on. Definitely report back how it taste if you get a clean report. If you get " no go " then absolutely report back the findings. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile Just out of curiosity... How would you get it tested? I am in a similar situation. Generally your county extension office can do the testing or direct you to someone who can. Around here, when you buy a house on a well, they require the well water to be tested. Yea this. There probably places near you that can, you can call a well drill outfit and they could also point you to one. Water may be just fine, but it does not hurt to find out for sure. You never know, " Murphy's Law ", besides, I considering what we all store water for, we should all it checked now and then, and not just take the suppliers word for it. |
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Put in 4 or 5 table spoons of unscented regular bleach and mix it up if you can with a small pump. Do a Cl2 test like for a swimming pool. Try to get it over .5ppm once that level drops below .2ppm it will be safe to drink. BTW in the USMC-R I am a 1171 - Water Support Tech and in the real world I'm a Water Quality analyst |
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With that many people, you might want to bolster your water preps with additional filers and cartridges. Water has two aspects: 1) having it 2) making it safe If you can get 1) done you can do 2) later when you are ready to consume. Or if 1) happens on it's own naturally in your area, etc. Be mindful of opening the barrels to taste and contaminating it, get a proper valve or siphon, and start it without contaminating the barrel (mostly, adding organic material from the environment in the basement or from your hands) or even use a dedicated dipper that's only used to put water in another container. For example in my case, I have some naturally flowing sources that would need hauling, settling, filtering and probably boiling. So I just use a small buffer to take care of oddball stuff and leave TEOTWAWKI planning towards "gonna have to forage for it".
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Quoted:
Put in 4 or 5 table spoons of unscented regular bleach and mix it up if you can with a small pump. Do a Cl2 test like for a swimming pool. Try to get it over .5ppm once that level drops below .2ppm it will be safe to drink. BTW in the USMC-R I am a 1171 - Water Support Tech and in the real world I'm a Water Quality analyst So I am now officially naming you our " Go to Guy " for all things H2O. |
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I once drank water from a cache I had set up that was over 7 years old...it had been stored in 5 gallon cans, with 1 TBS bleach added to each can.
I had no issues. Here's the link to that thread, if interested. |
