Storing Water Barrels

[KF7EEC]

Great page on storing water barrels!
http://www.theideadoor.com/Preparedness/storing_water.htm#Storing_Water_Barrels

[TheSwally]

Hey, that is really neat! I may have to build one of those before winter. I am a bit skeptical about their ability to hold over 800 lbs when filled, but I'll give it a try anyhow.

[Noahs ARK]

Oh my gosh - that is so cool!

One of my spring projects is to purchase 55-gallon drums from Emergency Essentials. Unfortunately we don't have a garage, so they'll be going in my basement.

Thank you!

[LEVE]

I am a bit skeptical about their ability to hold over 800 lbs when filled,It looks about right. I've made a 4X8' platform in my garage to store wood pellets. It's about 5' in the air... and holds over 4,000 lbs. I've used 4X4" posts and 2X6"s for the framing.

http://forums.off-road.com/attachments/jeep-short-wheelbase/76299d1255211858-garage-update-finished-garage-small2.jpg

From the looks of the bracing and the frame, the barrels should be fine. If you look closely, the barrels themselves take most of the weight. I would put a brace under the middle of the bottom barrel (there may be one, but I don't see it.) It looks good to me.

[hiccups]

Or you could just buy barrels with the spigot on the bottom...

[KF7EEC]

Or you could just buy barrels with the spigot on the bottom...


Those sure are neat, but expensive.

[phylm]

Food grade barrels are usually available in every state. We have bought them in Vermont and Florida for $15 apiece.

[at2wooden]

Where can I find them?
Most of the mail orders cost a lot more when you're finished paying shipping.
Home depot & Lowes are expensive too and I need about 4 - 55 gal barrels.
Any help would be appreciated.

[hiccups]

Where can I find them?
Most of the mail orders cost a lot more when you're finished paying shipping.
Home depot & Lowes are expensive too and I need about 4 - 55 gal barrels.
Any help would be appreciated.

Check at ranch supply stores. That's where I got my groovy spigot-on-the-bottom ones. They had other types as well.

[LoudmouthMormon]

I just googled 'used water barrels' and found some that had transpored coke syrup for about half the cost of emergency essentials.

It took several hours to wash them out, but worth it.

[DMGNUT]

The drums used by Coke, Pepsi, etc, are great. But they will carry the flavor of whatever syrup they had after they're washed out, and even after the first several times you rotate your water. No biggy, you can cover that flavor with drink mix.

[sunsinger]

There must be thread somewhere on water barrels. There are some that claim that the used barrels cause problems and become undrinkable because of toxins that leak in as a result of the previous contents. Or something like that. if you use those barrel it is recommended that they are rotated frequently a minimum of a year. Try rotating every conference?

[ghostcat]

There must be thread somewhere on water barrels. There are some that claim that the used barrels cause problems and become undrinkable because of toxins that leak in as a result of the previous contents. Or something like that. if you use those barrel it is recommended that they are rotated frequently a minimum of a year. Try rotating every conference?
It just depends on what the barrels were used to transport. If they were used to transport anything unsafe for human consumption then it is very risky to use them for storing drinking water. If however the item previously transported was safe for human consumption then there should be no problem if they are properly cleaned.

[DMGNUT]

Sunsinger,
Here's part of a handout that I give out at our Emergency Preparedness Fairs.

Water is the most important thing you can store. You should use 55 gallon barrels to store water in your garage or on your property that have been treated with bleach, or one of the many other water purification products. Smaller storage containers may be necessary depending on where you live (apartments, condos, etc). If using bleach, use unscented only, and three tablespoons will treat 55 gallons of water for long term storage. If using another product, simply follow the manufacturer’s directions. The barrels you use must be food grade. Never use a container which previously held a non-food grade product, as no amount of cleaning will make it safe for drinking water. You will need a minimum of 1 gallon of water per person, per day. Remember, you can live up to 30 days without food, but only 3 to 4 days without water, and in most cases, after a disaster, the water will be off. Your stored water should be elevated at least 3” above the ground to allow for air circulation, to prevent contamination by Radon Gas (which can occur in as little as 1 years time). It’s important to note that even after treating your stored water, it is still advisable to rotate it. Water should remain fresh for 3 to 5 years, but a good rule-of-thumb, is to rotate it once a year.

The key here is you MUST know where your barrels came from. This is not an optional item.

[thermocouple]

Where can I find them?
Most of the mail orders cost a lot more when you're finished paying shipping.
Home depot & Lowes are expensive too and I need about 4 - 55 gal barrels.
Any help would be appreciated.
When I lived in Southern California the food grade barrels were impossible to find at anything close to a reasonable deal. Areas where there is more of a general preparedness trend going on seem to have more availability for reasonably priced water barrels, available through local merchants. I personally bought the used soda flavoring barrels for $10 each. I heard all about the rumors that some toxins had seeped into the material of such barrels, but I never found evidence to actually support this, and I also have no intention of consuming the water directly out of the barrel, without running it through a filter first. Every prepared household has a water filter. Right?

[thermocouple]

So I emptied a soda barrell a couple weeks ago. It was filled and clorinated about 4 years ago. I was siphoning the water level down thru a tube, and peered inside the barrell when it was about 3/4 full. There were strange gatherings of wispy white material, suspended here and there in the water. Perhaps residual syrup from the soda, which the barrel originally contained?

I remain undeterred from using these barrells though, as they are food grade, cheap, and I still intend to filter anything coming out of any storage barrell intended for consumption anyway.

[arbilad]

There is a local company that offers various food grade containers up to and including a 275 gallon container. They guarantee that their containers were only used to store food, and they leave a bit of syrup in the container to prove it. They can tell you exactly where a particular container came from. Pretty spiffy. I plan to get a container or two from them.

[Toni]

Okay, thermocouple, that sounds realllllly scary. Hallowe'en is coming up. You never know what zombie used to live in your water barrel. :001_tt2:

[DMGNUT]

Anyone still checking out the water barrel situation should go take a look at the Food Storage thread under Oct Preps. The topic kind of shifted over to water drums and Mirk will be posting a few pics of water drums from my garage.

[mirkwood]

Pics posted: http://www.ldsglo.com/forum/showthread.php?p=81123#post81123