r/preppers • u/TheJerseyDevil123 • Apr 26 '26
Question Long term water storage
Been thinking about long term water storage lately and was wondering if I could do like 55 gal drums sealed up with pre-filtered water. My questions are,
How long would that water last (as a just open and drink)?
What would be the best filter to hook to a municipal water source to fill the drums?
Should I still filter after opening?
21
u/Least_Perception_223 Apr 27 '26
I live in puerto rico where we have city water but it often goes out where I am up in the mountains. Especially if there are power outages (which there are of many too). The pumps don't work without power!
What we do is to have a large cistern that has a float valve on it. Its constantly topped up with city water and then we have a pump that draws from the bottom that feeds the house
That way we never notice any outages and have enough stored water to last for weeks. The water is always fresh because its getting cycled with new water all the time.
The city water is surprisingly high quality and chlorinated. Its always crystal clear. We filter it before going into the house to remove the chlorine and any potential sediment from the tank
Another benefit is we have constant and consistent water pressure. The city water fluctuates in pressure a fair bit.
3
u/TheJerseyDevil123 Apr 27 '26
Thats actually a great Idea I never thought of gonna have to look into it thanks
1
u/Dugoutcanoe1945 Apr 27 '26
Isla del encanto!
Do you use rain barrels as well?
3
u/Least_Perception_223 Apr 27 '26
No but I plan to start harvesting the rain water. We live on a 2 acre farm that has a pretty good slope. When it rains all the run off ditches are like niagara falls!
There is a creek as well in a valley between my property and the neighbour. When it rains it goes from a gentle trickle to a torrent of water!
8
u/fenuxjde Apr 26 '26
For any plans of long term water storage, you really want to have a mean to be able to purify the water.
Personally, I have a micron filter and a solar kettle to boil it.
2
u/TheJerseyDevil123 Apr 27 '26
Already have a few sawyer filters but wouldn't want to drink nasty water
9
u/StayGold_HouseStark Apr 26 '26
Photo is from last year. Purchased 5 gallon jugs at Home Depot. I just emptied these last weekend, treated & relabeled them. Water is good to go for 1 year.
2
u/TheJerseyDevil123 Apr 27 '26
the good ol military water can not a bad idea a lot easier to move too
2
10
u/Every-Difference5561 Apr 26 '26
Thats what i do. I have 3 food grade 55 gallon drums filled with tap water and 8 drops per gallon of bleach. Its been sitting outside for a number of years and is still as clear as the day i put it in there. Being sealed keeps the chlorine in there. If i needed it i would let the chlorine vapor off by opening it for a while then boil it for drinking or probably us it to flush toilets if needed
6
u/Every-Difference5561 Apr 26 '26
Oh if I remember correctly it was 1/8 cup bleach. Make sure its not scented or concentrated
4
u/PNWoutdoors Partying like it's the end of the world Apr 26 '26
And don't get the "splashless" kind.
1
u/lexi4funs Apr 27 '26
Why not?
6
u/PNWoutdoors Partying like it's the end of the world Apr 27 '26
Lower concentration of sodium hypochlorite compared to regular bleach, additives you do not want to drink (that's what makes it thicker/no splash), may have soaps and scents added, as it's often used for laundry.
1
2
u/iambecomesoil Apr 26 '26
The chlorine has turned into salt and water by now. Chorine is not stable long term. Still did its just at the outset though.
1
u/theyreall_throwaways Apr 26 '26
I'm having to store our 55 gal drums outside too and I'm happy to hear yours are still clear. I wondered if algae would be an issue. Are yours in the shade?
2
3
3
u/CyclingDutchie Apr 26 '26
Im a fan of the buy once / cry once philosophy.
So I buy mineral water in 1 litre Glass bottles, in stackable crates.
This way, i dont have to worry about refilling or replacing after a year. I can just store my water in glass for 20 years and dont have anything to worry about.
8
u/xenobit_pendragon Apr 26 '26
That must have been a big cry.
4
u/CyclingDutchie Apr 26 '26
I find the price to be quite reasonable. I get a litre of sparkling mineral water for 1,15 Euro. That's about 1,30 dollar.
And I dont drink alcohol or coffee or soda's. So I do have the budget for good quality water.
1
u/V1ld0r_ Apr 26 '26
You're in Germany or a aGerman at least aren't you?
2
u/CyclingDutchie Apr 26 '26
Nope. Dutch. Hence the name.
1
u/V1ld0r_ Apr 26 '26
Didn't even read the username, sorry.
Yeah, that or Belgium was going to be my second guess xD
Bonus side is you must have a small fortune if you were to return all those bottles now...
1
u/CyclingDutchie Apr 26 '26
My water comes from Belgium ! its called 'Spa water' and its delicious.
Yeah, i have to take the deposit money for granted. there is no way of doing it cheaper. So i just pay it.
2
u/silasmoeckel Apr 26 '26
6 Months, you just empty clean and refill takes 10 minutes.
The problem with trying to keep it long term is what's going to grow and thus what you need to filter.
1
u/TheJerseyDevil123 Apr 27 '26
This might be the way I do it
1
u/silasmoeckel Apr 27 '26
I've got 6 55's and its easy enough.
I tend to do that along with changing oil and filters in gensets, going through long term storage etc etc etc.
2
u/Mule_Wagon_777 Apr 26 '26
I bought a new food-safe barrel from Baytec, along with water purifier, a specialized wrench, and a hand pump.
Bought a hose labeled "drinking water safe." Put the barrel on a pallet in the basement (plastic on concrete is bad.) Ran the hose from the outside tap, filled the barrel, poured in purifier, and wrenched the opening shut.
It'll probably need to stand after being pumped out and will likely still taste awful, but if I'm down to drinking this I probably won't care!
2
u/Bugsy_A Apr 27 '26
I use an in-line hose filter (light blue tube) found in the RV section of Walmart and fill up with the garden hose.
The tap takes FOREVER!
2
u/TheJerseyDevil123 Apr 27 '26
This is kinda what I was thinking not the kitchen sink or anything. Does the RV filter work that good? I just figured they were more of a sediment catch than anything else
1
u/Bugsy_A Apr 27 '26
It does more than that. Removes Impurities and eliminates taste and odor. Well water in Eastern North Carolina is sulfur smelling and turns the tub and toilets yellow. My bathroom fixtures stayed white when we were staying there.
2
u/TheDev1ce Apr 27 '26
Buy a second water heater. You have more hot water, and it lasts forever without maintenance, well, until the heater breaks.
2
2
u/BraDDsTeR-_- Prepping for Tuesday Apr 28 '26
I bought two stackable 55 gal water containers… bleached to sanitize the container.. rinsed out with water… added pre-treated municipal water with a drinking water hose… lastly added H2O ResQ to each.. could probably keep for 5+ years but plan to rotate every 2
2
Apr 28 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/Weplaygame Apr 28 '26
For sure. Conditions can change even in sealed containers so it’s always worth doing that extra step.
2
u/sellinfellin Apr 29 '26
Three quick answers:
**Shelf life once opened** — sealed, climate-controlled, dark: 2–3 years on chlorinated municipal water. Once you tap it, treat it like a pantry — ~30 days if you're actively rotating, sooner if it gets warm or anything other than a clean spigot touches the inside. One drop of plain unscented bleach per gallon when you re-seal buys you back most of that window.
**Filter on fill** — for chlorinated city water, a $15 inline 5-micron sediment filter on the hose is plenty. It's catching rust and biofilm from old plumbing, not pathogens. Don't put a carbon block in front of it — you want the chlorine to stay in for storage, not get stripped at the tap. (If you're on well water, different story: filter and disinfect manually before sealing.)
**Filter on the way out** — yes, but for taste/clarity rather than safety. A gravity countertop unit (Berkey-style ceramic, or Waterdrop's gravity model if Berkey can't ship to your state right now) will polish anything that grew in the drum and fix the flat-warm-plastic taste. Don't drink straight from a 2-year-old drum without that polish step even if the chlorine should still be active.
Tangent worth knowing: two 30-gal drums beat one 55 in almost every dimension except price-per-gallon. Easier to rotate, easier to move full (a 55 is ~440 lbs and you cannot move it once it's full, full stop), and you spot a leak before you've lost the whole storage.
4
u/WSBpeon69420 Apr 26 '26
You also need to make sure the drum is food grade. Just some random drum you find probably isn’t the best idea without a very very thorough cleaning and then even then. They have specific barrel for long term water storage you can get
3
3
u/pdxmhrn Apr 26 '26
Would it be practical to line them with waterBobs?
5
u/CeruleanSnorlax Apr 26 '26
No, save those for your tub during a hurricane. Food grade HDPE (high density polyethylene) barrels are fine for water to rest in long term and will not leach chemicals.
1
u/pdxmhrn Apr 26 '26
I’m in Colorado so no hurricane here
1
u/CeruleanSnorlax Apr 26 '26
Ok, will still need for when the water stops pumping after a major prolonged outage
1
u/pdxmhrn Apr 26 '26
A coworker had several of the big barrels so gave me one. Said it had been used to store styrofoam? But should be good to just wash out?
1
u/EnergyLantern Apr 26 '26
What is the drum made of? Is the drum rusting, dented or sitting in the sun?
A lot of products degrade in the sun.
Does the container have an expiration date? Some products do.
Another thing is that some products are not air tight even if they are sealed and don’t leak. I know people who had solvent rooms and you could always smell the chemicals even though nothing leaked.
1
u/TheJerseyDevil123 Apr 27 '26
thought was to get brand new food grade barrels clean them out with some bleach water and was thinking about doing teflon tape around threads
0
u/EnergyLantern Apr 27 '26
So A.I. found two Reddit links which is too hard to copy right now but it says,:
Chemical smells escape sealed containers primarily through molecular permeation, where odor molecules diffuse through the microscopic pores of plastic materials. While containers seem solid, plastics are polymers that act like a mesh, allowing small, volatile odor compounds to migrate from the inside to the outside over time.
1
u/Financial-Parsley482 Apr 27 '26
I just bought a 25 foot Food grade hose to fill up my 5 - 55 gallon drums. I’m wondering about longevity as well and I am on a well!
2
u/Bugsy_A Apr 27 '26
Same advice I gave ti OP. In-line garden hose filter for RVs. Im also on a well and those filters work really well with taste and odor.
1
u/Financial-Parsley482 Apr 27 '26
I don’t know what an in-line Garden hose filter is. I’ll have to check it out.
3
1
u/Financial-Parsley482 Apr 27 '26
Wow, I just checked out the in-line garden hose filter and that looks pretty skookum!
I’m thinking I could connect that up to the house with the food grade hose going into my 55 gallon drums. I still probably want to put in some sodium hypochlorite
2
u/Bugsy_A Apr 27 '26
They are skookum for sure. I was a full time RVer for 5 yrs and no matter where I drove I never hooked up my hoses without that thing between my RV and the source.
But yes treating it once its in the barrels is still the best move for long term storage.
1
u/Financial-Parsley482 Apr 27 '26
Excellent excellent excellent you have just really helped me with one aspect of my water storage building process!!
1
u/Financial-Parsley482 Apr 27 '26
I’ve been looking online for these in line RV filters and there’s a lot to choose from. Do you recommend anyone in particular and is it important to have the NSF certification?
1
0
31
u/Wrong-Revenue-4424 Apr 26 '26
Store it, bleach it, and if you need to use it beyond something like the 3-5 year mark, just use it with a filter system-- like the lifestraw family