Guy behind my neighbor uses one of those cubes you see on farm trucks that have an aluminum tube cage around it-dunno what it’s called. The neighbor was so worked up about it being in his backyard next to his fence he had already convinced himself they were full of hazmat. I asked John if he’d asked the guy what it was-no of course not. I walked over and rang the bell and asked-dude said it was water from the roof to water his plants. He had painted the outside black for some reason.

You can also get plastic large containers from places like tractor supply for storage. Dad had a 500 gal one he used for off-road diesel.

Hopefully this won't sound stupid. What do you need the water for? If its people I would just get a way to treat water sourced from anywhere (reverse osmosis plus filters plus UV would be my first choice). If its agricultural and you need real volume (that's my problem) I would build a cistern. Which is how I do it. i also capture rainwater at remote sites with 55gal poly drums and that works just fine. If I wanted some volume in my basement I would just size poly tanks for what I have in terms of access size, you can get them in any size shape gallonage you want. I use them all the time. Keeping the water in decent shape is pretty easy.

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon: If I wanted some volume in my basement I would just size poly tanks for what I have in terms of access size, you can get them in any size shape gallonage you want. I use them all the time. Keeping the water in decent shape is pretty easy.

This is what I’m after, just trying to decide between 55 gallon drums and dedicated larger water storage tanks.

No offense taken, I think a few of us just got to joking around in the thread. Nothing at this point has anything to do with any extreme mend of the world scenario.

Just wanna have some extra in case it’s ever needed for whatever reason.

55gal drums are a terrible choice in terms of space and volume. IBC totes come in a variety of sizes and poly tanks even more options. forget drums FWIW.

I keep a couple of food grade 55g drums in my shed for an emergency situation. I have a water source behind my property and a well so not as concerned as others. As previous poster mentioned, for indoor storage, there are better options than drums for stacking and space considerations.

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
Hopefully this won't sound stupid. What do you need the water for? If its people I would just get a way to treat water sourced from anywhere (reverse osmosis plus filters plus UV would be my first choice).

For anyone not living on their own property with a water source, you need to store water. If the electricity goes out, we have zero municipal water here. I could walk the 1.5 miles to the nearest mountain stream, but then how much can I carry home? When I get it home I'd have to sterilize it from the various wildlife excrement or dead carcasses upstream from my collection point.

We use Water Bricks. They are stackable 3.5 gallon food-safe containers. IMHO this type of storage is optimal. First of all they are portable, unlike anything larger. So I can put a bunch into the SUV if we ever need to bug-out. I can bring one up from the basement to the kitchen. If a container somehow fails to keep the water safe, only a small portion of our storage is bad. Emptying and refilling is easy.

This particular brand isn't perfect, but it is what we have. The geometry where the lid is doesn't allow a 100% fill. There is always some air remaining, which I really don't like. But the small size and stackability are major benefits.

I built racks for 55 gal water barrels. I stacked them horizontally three high and tipped slightly towards the bung. I linked them and put a spigot on the bottom. I designed the rack to fit a five gallon bucket under the spigot. We stored 15 drums that way. Every six months I drained the stacks into the garden/orchard and refilled the stacks. Took a couple of days to rotate the water so it wasn’t wasting.


The best way is to design a cistern system into your daily use water supply. That way the water stays fresh without having to cycle it out manually. That wasn’t practical for us until now.

My wife buys 275 gallon totes all the time for her job.
As long as the tote is food grade reconditioned you should be able to use it with due diligence and find them relatively close to you like this one…

https://www.ncplasticpallets.c...uUVwBoMaAlznEALw_wcB

Those totes are cool and all, but they won't fit through the door to his basement.

did he say the opening he has to respect? I didn't see it. IBC totes come in a variety of sizes fwiw and poly tanks and infinite variety so he can get something that will fit.

First post:

quote:

…to get through a doorway and can be stored in the cool basement…

Those big inexpensive IBC totes appear to be 40” minimum in each dimension. I’ve yet to see a basement door in a normal home wide enough to accommodate that. Sure, there are other size poly tanks that will fit, but they aren’t as cost effective as a 55 gallon drum, or IBC tote.

It’s a standard door leading to the basement.

Outdoors in Wisconsin, even in the detached garage opens up extra steps I don’t want to take.

I have a few scepter cans. And will probably pick up 3 more now that I think about it.

But space is limited, I think I may go with this product. Buy another one at a later date and stack two of em.

That would be 40 Scepter cans basically. I’m sure I could get by for 2 weeks with that.

Amazon water tank

Get a big berky water filtration system. Get a 275 gallon food grade container. You can hook them up to a hose. Look on you tube. Get 3-4 pallets to lift it off the floor. Water heater has 30-80 gallons of water. They make plastic tillable inserts for a bath tub.

1 gal a day per person.

I have a Berkey that we filter everything we drink through.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
Lake Michigan

14000 swimming pool. Purify water is easy if you can make fire and have a metal pot.

18Z50

One thing that might come in handy as a supplement is the WaterBob. It's essentially a bladder for your bathtub.