Water storage

[Josh89]

I have a chance to pick up some food grade 55 gal plastic drums. I'm told they had a bio degradable soap in them. Just curious on if they could still be used to store drinking water or if I should pass on them. Thanks guys

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[Alexx1401]

I have a chance to pick up some food grade 55 gal plastic drums. I'm told they had a bio degradable soap in them. Just curious on if they could still be used to store drinking water or if I should pass on them. Thanks guys

I can't see why not. They would need to be cleaned and soaked for a while. Suspect if you fill them they would soon have a soap taste the first time. There are ways to help fix this. Do you want to store that much drinking water? If so go for it. Something that size even is it did "flavor the water slightly" would still work great to keep emergency water for other things though. I have always stored many jugs of water from the store. Every so often dump them and buy more.

 

[RLS]

They will be fine for drinking water. Lay them on there side and fill with water and roll to mix good and drain. Do this a few times and you should not have any soap left.

I have used these in the past and they work great.

 

[DB is Here]

Mine had onions, cleaned them out then bleached them...good as new.

Youll be fine.

 

[Josh89]

Cool thanks for the reply guys.think I'm gonna pick a couple up tomorrow and clean them out a few times. Figure I'll drink a bit from them before shtf. Figure it's better to find out soon lee than later.

 

[BSDave]

Try mixing in vinegar to kill the soap smell and taste. But me personally would pass on drinking water. I've stored RO/DI filtered water for just several months at a time when I was in the Reef aquarium hobby. It doesn't take long for it to degrade and smell/tast funny without plenty of circulation. For drinking water prep I would start buying a couple extra distilled gallon jugs each week and stock pile in a cool dark room.

 

[DB is Here]

Then get one of these if you ever need to tap into it.

LifeStraw Family

Protects against viruses, bacteria, parasites, microplastics, dirt, sand, and cloudiness Independently lab tested, durable and BPA Free Every fill avoids single use plastic bottled water! Get replacement filters and accessories here

www.lifestraw.com

 

[Josh89]

Try mixing in vinegar to kill the soap smell and taste. But me personally would pass on drinking water. I've stored RO/DI filtered water for just several months at a time when I was in the Reef aquarium hobby. It doesn't take long for it to degrade and smell/tast funny without plenty of circulation. For drinking water prep I would start buying a couple extra distilled gallon jugs each week and stock pile in a cool dark room.

I've been doing this as well.just thought that this would be a quick bump up in the amount that i have.

 

[Josh89]

Also have a good stock of filters for some pitchers and all water from barrels or tap get ran through them. I grew up on well water back East and now live in town out here and the city water is just awful.its like drinking pool water.not that I drink pool water.

 

[Sirius]

We store about 80 gallons of well water in a mix of stainless steel 5gal kegs and glass carboys. A little more than we need, but want to have some on hand for friends and neighbors. The way we cycle through, the oldest water we are drinking is about 2-3months old, it's been no problem. We keep everything very clean. I pour the water into a 3 gal countertop crock. If I'm not home, for the rest of the family, I set up a pump arrangement should the crock run dry. The 5gal kegs are from my homebrewing days as well as a couple of the glass carboys. I've put the glass carboys in milk crates with foam pool 'noodles' cut down and shoved into the corners to stabilize the carboys. The glass carboys do make me nervous, I've had one break while cleaning it and wow what a mess that was, lucky to not have drawn any blood. For long term storage, I just prefer glass and stainless, so willing to accept the risk with the glass. With the milk crate arrangement I feel pretty good about the safety of the 5 gal carboys. The ss ones could bounce out of the truck onto the road and they'd likely be fine. Everything is cleaned periodically with brewery cleaner or if I'm in a rush H2O2, hydrogen peroxide. Four 55 gal rain barrels (food grade plastic) outside serve as general utility water. Would need to treat that if used for much other than watering plants. Don't forget you might have 40-50 gallons of non-potable water in your hot water heater. I'd use that container you came across for drinking water if I hadn't had a good supply of smaller containers. I'd drain, clean and refill every 3-6months, and use it until I built up my collection of 5 gal containers. Then relegate it to utility water storage. So my post is way more than you asked for, but thought I'd share none the less.

 

[JeffPDX]

Do they still have the labels on them? I would recommend doing a little research into the chemical that was stored in them.

 

[a6m5]

I have couple of storage containers(3.5Gal) called Waterbrick. You can find them on eBay, Amazon, etc., nice & compact for apartment dwellers.

Thinking about adding bleach though. I don't know much about storing water, but figured it would be really nice to have in case of the Cascadia earthquake.

 

[GWS]

Cool thanks for the reply guys.think I'm gonna pick a couple up tomorrow and clean them out a few times. Figure I'll drink a bit from them before shtf. Figure it's better to find out soon lee than later.

Even if you can't store drinking water you still may need water for other purposes like washing or waste disposal. If they're cheap and you have the space I recommend you get them,especially if they only held soap.

 

[Vendor Hidden]

Mine had onions, cleaned them out then bleached them...good as new.

Youll be fine.

Mine had kikoman soy sauce... I call that gourmet water ...

 

[Idaho44]

Soap! One of the many bowel cleansers. Go for it and schedule your colonoscopy ASAP!

 

[edzz]

At my old house I always had a few 55 gal barrels of water stored in the basement. I kept them over chlorinated (Clorox bleach) these barrels were primarily for flushing toilets during a power outage. My drinking water backup was stored separately and rotated regularly. The chlorinated water in the barrels could have been used for cooking or drinking if push came to shove by neutralizing the bleach or just allowing it to burn off.