How long do you think bottled water can keep?

ERdept

ERdept

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Say a person is in an apartment situation where they cannot store 55 gallon drums of water or have and outside pool or natural water source.

If their only source of reserve water was to order more of the 5 gallon "Sparkletts" jugs and keep them on reserve, how long do you beleive that the water will be potable?
 
What's a "sparkletts" jug?

The American Red Cross suggests that you rotate your water supplies once every six months or so. If you use commerically prepared spring or bottled drinking water, rotate it once every year, at least. I imagine these storage guidelines are quite conservative, but I try to meet them anyway.

I keep 20 gallons of water in 5 gallon jerry cans designed for storing water (get these at any camping supply store or hardware store), and I rotate half my supply every 3 months. We also have a supply of bottled water around the house, but that's because my wife likes to buy it in bulk from the local Costco. And then there's always water in your hot water heater -- in our house that holds 30 gallons.

The Red Cross says people living in earthquake country should have between 1 and 2 gallons of water per person per day for at least 3 days. For a family of 4, that's between 12 and 24 gallons, which actually doesn't seem like enough to me considering what an earthquake can do to CA's water supply, so all told I'm keeping around 60 - 70 gallons of water around for emergency usage (if I include the water heater in my supply count).

Note that some people will suggest that you treat the water you're storing with some bleach (can't remember the exact amount of bleach you're supposed to use per gallon, but it isn't much). The idea being that you can store water longer that way. The Red Cross says you don't need to do this so long as you use commerically treated water such as what you'll get from most city's water supplies.

Personally, I hedge my bets by keeping a backpacker's water filter stored next to the jerry cans. That should take care of any crud that might grow in my water if I've somehow waited too long to rotate it.

When planning your emergency water supply, don't forget to consider any pets you might have. A cat doesn't take much I suppose, but a large dog probably needs as much water as a human.
 
Sparkletts/Arrowhead/Oasis, etc. is a brand name that I thought most people were familiar with, kind of like "Kleenex" tissue instead of facial tissue, or "Xerox" copy instead of photocopy.

Anyway, what I mean is the clear plastic 5 gallon jugs of water that is delivered to your door and that you have to put top end first into a dispenser.

Is it preferable to leave them capped, since the bottling company treats the water, or add some sort of preservative/purifier, and which method keeps the water drinkable longest?

Oh and thanks for the reference to how much is needed per person/per day. This is valuable to me.
 
Sorry about not getting the Sparkletts reference. I'm not a customer of bottled water companies like that.

My guess is you want to leave those jugs sealed if at all possible. I'd also treat them as if they're stored in a jerry can -- rotate once every six months at least. But that's just because I have no idea how good the quality control is for those kind of companies.
 
Unless something is getting into your water, like gasoline vapors that permeate the container, there is very, very little that can go wrong with it.

Consider this:

A lot of groundwater that is perfectly fine to drink has been sitting "stagnant" in an aquifer for hundreds or even thousands of years. The water sat in sediments that probably have on the order of 1000 to 10,000 bacteria per gram of sediment, which have been there all along (bacteria are everywhere). This water gets pumped out for drinking without any treatment, gets tested regularly, and is perfectly healthy.

The main thing is to make sure you have uncontaminated, clear water to start with. Then keep it sealed. Unless you thoroughly disinfect it or start with distilled water, you will have some bacteria in the water. This is not normally a problem though, since most bugs are totally harmless to humans. You can start with distilled water, which basically has no nutrients for bugs to eat. Even if you do get a few bacteria in distilled water, they will not reproduce.

What I do is treat my stored water with ~2 drops of fresh, unscented household bleach per quart when it goes in the container. Use fresh bleach because it degrades with time. Household bleach older than maybe 6 months or a year generally is not very effective as a disinfectant.

Scott
 
bulgron said:
...And then there's always water in your hot water heater -- in our house that holds 30 gallons...
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Just remember to kill the water intake valve on the top as soon as you're aware of a water quality problem... if there's anything affecting your drinking water, it will get into your water heater if you don't. Remember that as you take water out of a water heater, it replenishes itself from the same place you likely get your drinking water!
 
Keep them out of the light to prevent alge spores from growing. Bottled water should stay good for at least five years.
 
In case if the water taste stale you can always add some baking soda it would make it taste better. I just dont remember how much to add. I did try it once a while ago just for kicks and it did work it sure made the water taste much better.

Sasha
 
I heard 6 months is good rule of thumb. Even for the 5 gallon jugs.

Don't quote me, but, i think it has something to do with molecular breakdown in the plastic, the water starts to slowly absorb as it exchanges eelctrons and protons with the plastic over time.

Back in the old days, they had problems with food and water in plastic, until they figured a way to stablize it.
 
Watchful said:
Just remember to kill the water intake valve on the top as soon as you're aware of a water quality problem... if there's anything affecting your drinking water, it will get into your water heater if you don't. Remember that as you take water out of a water heater, it replenishes itself from the same place you likely get your drinking water!
Click to expand...

Yeah, in general everyone in the neighborhood will shut their water off at the street come the earthquake. Everyone has the wrenches to do it, and the valves are very easy to access.

So, come the earthquake:

1. Shut off your water at the street.
2. Go shut off all the other water valves that you can think of in and around your home, including the water valve on your hot water heater.
3. While you're at it, take the opportunity to sniff for gas leaks and shut off your gas if you think it's necessary. (But be careful about that. An earthquake flexs the pipes in your house, including the gas pipes, so you should expect to smell some gas in the immediate aftermath of a quake. It's only if the smell is very strong and persistent that you want to shut off the gas, because if you do it unnecessarily, you aren't getting it turned back on until the utility guys can make it to your house -- which can take 6 weeks or longer if the event is big enough.)

Just living in the 'burbs in California is enough to turn you into a survivor nut, let me tell you....
 
From what i undestand 6 months is a good rule of thumb, there are anti microbial products avaiable that can make water last longer.

I dont know about the large water jugs but i know that the regular one gallon "Milk" jugs will go bad, form leaks and degrade in 6 months or less, this is not a rule just something i have experienced with bottled water stored at home.
 
It seems 6 months is the general rule of thumb for store-bought bottle water, so long as it is kept out of sunlight. Any ideas about regualar tap water stored is 5 gal (blue) camping jugs? I notice on Katadyn's site they say water treated with their MP1 stuff will have a shlef life of 6 months.
 
If you are using bottled water anyway, 6 month rotation isn't bad, when it gets to 5 months, or so, buy a new one and proceed to use old one.
 
You know what, come to think of it, I have some water that has been stored for about 300 years, it comes out of my well. ;)

From what I have read, it's more about the container than the water itself.
But, if there were a way to keep it in a cool place, out of light, like a wine cellar, basement, etc. Then that would be the best case scenario.
 
SkunkWerX said:
You know what, come to think of it, I have some water that has been stored for about 300 years, it comes out of my well. ;)

From what I have read, it's more about the container than the water itself.
But, if there were a way to keep it in a cool place, out of light, like a wine cellar, basement, etc. Then that would be the best case scenario.
Click to expand...

I keep my water stored in a shed outside of my house. It's pretty cool in there. Heck, when the temperatures hit 110 outside, it's only 95 inside the shed. ;)

I rotate my water once every six months. Seems like the prudent thing to do.
 
Hey Guys...

Keep it chlorinated and a few drops of algeacide in it and should be good for a Very long time..

Even if it goes bad,, boil it,,and it's good again..
or run it through a filter pump,,and that should be fine as well..

If theres a pool or a pond,, simply filter it through a pump,, or cheesecloth to get the chunks out and boil..
If you run it through a water filter pump,, your good to go right there on the spot..

When picking out a water pump,, make sure you get a cleanable ceramic filter..once the filter is plugged,, reverse the flow to clean,, and you are good to pump again.. A prefilter inline will also save the main filter..

ttyle

Eric
O/ST
 
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