Does anybody collect natural spring water and store it for domestic use? I’ve learbed of a spring about 75 minutes away, safe for drinking, and free access. I’m willing to drive monthly to collect water for drinking and cooking use, I’m just not sure how best to transport and store. I don’t have the room or equipment to handle 55gal drum(s), but could probably do a shelf with smaller totes, if acceptable.

Any concerns I should be aware of? It would have to be stored in the garage which gets hot in the summer (as high as 100) but never below freezing.

Water weighs 8 lbs per gallon.

Make sure your vehicle can support 55 - 110 gallons.

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
Water weighs 8 lbs per gallon.

Make sure your vehicle can support 55 - 110 gallons.

Yea, I’m trying to do an honest calculation of how much we use for drinking and cooking. I’m just not sure. Maybe 15 gallons a week? That’s a bit over 500lbs for 4 weeks. Should be no problem for the truck or maybe even the hatchback Nova. Would be an enjoyable drive in that, going up the hills.

Why?

That is not intended as a flippant response, just curious why you want or need to store water for routine, non-emergency use.

Storing water for drinking and cooking is a good idea.

What I don't understand is why would you drive an hour to get spring water? don't you have running water?

2.5 reasons:

1) built in monthly excuse to pack up the family and get out of the house and into the outdoors... let the kids explore and get dirty, chase lizards, get cut and bruised. You know, good stuff for kids that is increasingly disappearing in our culture.

2) my wife (and to some extent me) is/am wary of additives in our tap water. You can smell the chlorine. It tastes terrible. We won’t drink or cook with it unless it goes through our RO system, which works great, but has through-put limits. We have chlorine filters on our showers/tubs and you can tell the difference in skin/hair softness. Soap actually lathers up very well, which it doesn’t do in the non-filtered water.

2.5) this water source has very high levels of magnesium which is apparently supposed to be very healthy? Plus other minerals naturally occurring in it that we surely aren’t getting from the tap water after it goes through the RO system.

30 gallon food grade drums might work.
Bread and bakeries use large quantities of vanilla extract that comes in these.
Also vinegar comes in 50's
They are plastic and very durable.
I collect rain water for my gardens from roof and sheds into six three hundred gallon totes along with six 50 gallon plastic drums and six thirty gallon vanilla extract drums.
These places use truckloads of this stuff,barrel disposal is a problem for some,that is where I came into for some.
Food grade is what you want and a net search will pull up lots of choices ,but they charge.
Me I am a frugal old bastard and like free.
These places rent 40 yard dumpsters ,then get charge for disposal,so it a win to not pay for them gone.
B T W I recovered five gallon of vanilla extract from the thirties[life time supply of the premium stuff].
Stay away from pickle and olive ones also casing ones,you never get the smell out.

Go to the grocery store and buy a couple of these. I use them to bring water when we go car camping.

Got it. I don't think I would try to store untreated water for long, too easy for stuff to start growing in still, stagnant water. I am not sure where the cut off point would be. Stored for one day no problem. One week should be ok. One month I think would be questionable. I don't have any data to back up my timeline so I could be way off.

Get AquaTainers. They make transport easy, and are convient when you want to use the water, with their built-in tap and all. Also, they have a handle to make them easy to carry, and are BHP free.



Reliance AquaTainer on Amazon

Those look pretty good. I’ll have to check Bass Pro as I have gift cards there.

quote:

Originally posted by 1967Goat:
Go to the grocery store and buy a couple of these. I use them to bring water when we go car camping.

Do the lids hold up ok?

Two questions:

1. Could you drill a well your property and get good water that way? We have always had well water and really enjoyed it.

2. Are you 100% sure there is no bacterial contamination in the water. Virtually all surface flowing water/streams have some and could pose serious health issues.

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
Two questions:

1. Could you drill a well your property and get good water that way? We have always had well water and really enjoyed it.

2. Are you 100% sure there is no bacterial contamination in the water. Virtually all surface flowing water/streams have some and could pose serious health issues.

No well possible. Not much in the way of real property in our lot and well permits are very hard to get due to receding ground water tables. Plus, we are in a heavily agricultural valley and who knows how much has leached into that. The spring is up in the hills and I would think that isn’t an issue.

As far as bacteria, it seems a lot of people have been using it for a long time, including 2 commercial bottlers. I’m not against some testing before diving into it, though.

If you have a truck, or can justify renting a pick up, try finding a couple 55 gallon water containers. (There's someone on CALGUNS who sells them occasionally around $25 ea.) There is also the cheap moving dollies Harbor Freight sells to rest the containers on.

Buy four of the drums, a transfer pump, and some large dollies. Take two drums with you to the spring and fill. Once home, wheel out the two empty drums and transfer the water from the two [400 lb+] drums in the truck's bed.

Repeat as necessary.

Reliance makes these collapsible plastic 5 gallon water jugs that have a handle and nice spout on them for $12.99 a piece at West Marine, you can probably find them cheaper online.

https://www.westmarine.com/buy...-232678?recordNum=16

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
If you have a truck, or can justify renting a pick up, try finding a couple 55 gallon water containers. (There's someone on CALGUNS who sells them occasionally around $25 ea.) There is also the cheap moving dollies Harbor Freight sells to rest the containers on.

Buy four of the drums, a transfer pump, and some large dollies. Take two drums with you to the spring and fill. Once home, wheel out the two empty drums and transfer the water from the two [400 lb+] drums in the truck's bed.

Repeat as necessary.

I’ve got a F150 so I’m sure it could handle that weight, I’m just unsure how long it’ll store for safely and how fast we’ll go through amount for just drinking and cooking.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
Reliance makes these collapsible plastic 5 gallon water jugs that have a handle and nice spout on them for $12.99 a piece at West Marine, you can probably find them cheaper online.

https://www.westmarine.com/buy...-232678?recordNum=16

Are those sturdy enough to last for repeated use? The non-collapsible ones are only a few dollars more on amazon.

We have some "water blocks" something like these. Although I'm sure I didn't spend nearly as much as in the link. They are very solid and sturdy.

We also have a "water BoB," a heavy-duty plastic sack that fits the bathtub. This has proven handy for extended power outages, e.g. in hurricane season.

But, tap water in both. I see no need to investigate "spring water," natural or canned, for emergency purposes.

The collapsible ones will last for repeated use, but the non collapsible ones will last longer, no doubt.

You could fill a 55 gallon drum for transporting it and then just syphon it into smaller containers once you get home. Clean 55 gallon drums can be had for next to nothing if you look around.

Have you considered just getting a filter? Berkey & Santevia make really good counter-top systems.