How long does water last in a sealed container?

R

Rich_S

Joined
Dec 3, 2005
Messages
1,391
Thinking about throwing a GI canteen, SS cup, and cup stove in each of my cars. How long does water last before having to be replaced?
 
Rich, I heard after 72 hours you might as well be drinking lake water. Water at room tempure in a bottle that is not truely sealed just breeds bacteria. Anyone with a Nalgene that smells like feet will tell you this. The seal on a canteen wil not halt the growth of bacteria.
 
You'd be better off throwing some _________ Brand bottles of water in your car (fill in the blank with your brand of choice). IF the canteen was sterilized and IF the water was disinfected and IF you could get a good seal on the canteen then it could last indefinitely. Bacteria have to get into the canteen to make the water go bad. They don't have arms, legs, flippers, or wings so an air tight seal really isn't necessary (they can't crawl or fly or otherwise shimmy their way anywhere). Pasteur proved that (that an air tight seal isn't necessary to prevent contamination) with a goose neck flask in the 1800s. However, you are more likely to get mold growth than bacteria. Bacteria need a carbon source. There are varieties of mold that can fix CO2 out of the air and thus don't need a soluble carbon source.

That being said, I have double distilled deionized and 0.2 micron filtered water sitting on my lab bench in a 50 mL falcon tube (factory sterilized) that is opened daily and has failed grow anything yet. It has been sitting there for months.

And, what's comming out of your tap isn't much better (if any) than lake water anyway.
 
I keep a jug of water in my Jeep that me and my dog drink out of, when it gets low I top it off out of the tap. I have been doing this for years, I might drop dead tommorrow but as to right this minute I can't tell any ill effects to myself or Rusty. Chris
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top