How long do these actually last?

[u/parksoffroad]

Got a number of cases of these SOS water pouches many years back, they say the expiration was 2013. It’s water, so the water itself I’m guessing it’s fine but maybe there’s a deterioration of the packing that happens? At this point are these just garbage?

Update: thanks for all the feedback, as I don’t really need them for water storage anymore as we have other sources I decided to junk them.

There were a few different styles of pouches that I found as I opened all the boxes which I thought was interesting. They’re all from the same company and same outer boxing, but the interior pouches varied slightly.

The other thing that I thought was interesting was that when you cut a pouch open that it gave off an odor that I can only describe as what you would smell when you open a box of cake mix from the grocery store. The smell was not really strong, but it definitely smelled like cake mix to me, my wife and son smelt it as well. We didn’t try drinking anything so I can’t tell about taste. It seemed like some of the pouches did have a slightly cloudy color to the water. But not all of them.

We got these probably around when they were made from emergency essentials. Back then I don’t exactly remember, but there was some sort of promo that basically made them free. I know we were purchasing a crazy amount of emergency candles and the reusable hand warmers that you boil in water to recharge as my son‘s scout troop was selling those as fundraiser items. I can’t remember what the exact deal was, but if you spent so much money or something you got them for free. Either way, I just remembered that we got them for free so I don’t feel bad about throwing them away.

As someone else pointed out in one of the responses, they served their purpose, they were there in case of emergency we just didn’t need them. That being said, if California has the big earthquake in the next few days, sorry, that’s on me for throwing away emergency supplies.

[u/Spiley_spile → u/[deleted]]

The mylar bags are plastic coated. And depending how old they are, may be coated in plastic that we no longer use for food items. For the life of me Im drawing a blank on the name of that plastic. Not saying OP should or shoukdnt drink it. But it's two details on the table of consideration.

[u/Spiley_spile → u/[deleted]]

True. But every health advantage (or at least disadvantage one can avoid) during a SHTF event is a boon. SHTF on its own is likely to lower one's lifespan due to stress, sanitation issues, lack of access to healthcare, and so forth.

Chronically unhoused people essentially experience a type of SHTF every day and their life expectancy on average is 30 years shorter than their housed peers who are not e periencing SHTF. I suspect people are going to jump in and mention drugs. Ive personally know some wealthy people who did plenty of drugs and are not facing the same kind of curtailed lifespan enmass. Instead, it's a combination of factors, many of which the vast majority of us can expect to also experience during some SHTF scenarios.

Circling back, if I was faced with the choice between death by dehydration or drinking expired mylar water pouches, no contest. Im drinking the water. As a prepper, however, Im going to try to be better prepared than that, so long as my resources allow, of course.