Comments (9)

• 3

  Tiger - September 27, 2022

  Perhaps people buying the bottled water know of no other bulk containers to store tap water in. In the future, if you come across someone who’s plan is to just buy bottled water, teach them how something like an aquatainer holds so much more for the amount of space it takes up.

   
• 4

  Courtney - September 28, 2022

  To be completely honest, bottling my own tap water makes me a bit nervous, as I’m never sure if the containers I put it in were completely clean or if contaminants get into it. I could see the average non-prepper going this way.

  But having said that, I solved that problem for myself by getting a berkey filter and a bunch of lifestraws. I would filter any water I had stored, just to be safe.

  However, it occurs to me that in those first hours after a disaster, it might be nice to have a few “ready to go” containers of water I trust, so I have a few gallon jugs of commercial water to get me started.  And of course, whatever is already in the berkey.

  And at this point the source of the water I would be filtering is several 55 gallon rain barrels I have in the backyard.

   
  • 1

    Frank Sampson - September 28, 2022

    That’s where I’m coming from as well. Store water the best I can, have filter backups if something went wrong with that stored water, and having some reliable short term sources is comforting.

     
  • 4

    hikermor - September 28, 2022

    After making the original post, i looked up “bottled water” on Wikipedia and found a most informative article, especially a paragraph which cited a study of the bacterial levels in bottled water, actually higher than a tap water source….

     
  • 2

    Frank Sampson - September 28, 2022

    Maybe that’s why bottled water has an expiration date? Higher amounts of bacteria, probably no chlorine inside, and clear plastic that allows for sunlight and growth?

     
  • 3

    JBinAZ - September 29, 2022

    Courtney, you can add a couple drops of bleach to your container after you fill it with tap water.

     
  • 3

    wildfireexpert - September 30, 2022

    @Courtney and @Frank Simpson–   This is my solution as well.  Have 2 berkey’s (crown and imperial) that I got before they weren’t allowed to sell in California.   Have a bunch of Sawyer Mini’s and some Lifestraws as redundencies (one is none, two is one…) and for others if water ever becomes scarce.    Got rain barrels when they were on sale early in 2018 as drought products.   We’ve got a WaterBob for each bathroom.  I’ve been prepping water and food, etc. supplies for about 15 years now, as things go on sale and I can afford it.  

    Had to buy replacement WaterBob’s when our city water went down for a couple of weeks.   They worked great with a battery powered pump, but were nasty and NOT reusable after use.

    In addition to all that, our family group of 6+ usually tries to have about 50+ gallons of 1-gallon commercial water (in containers like those used by Crystal Geyser–NOT one-gallon-milk-jug-style containers).

     
• 3

  M. E.Contributor - September 28, 2022

  I used to be very anti-bottled water. I have to use distilled water for a CPAP, and my genius plan was to refill the distilled jugs as a water source. But honestly it is SUCH a pain, and wastes a lot of water in the process of washing, disinfecting, etc.  Not to mention the fact that they invariably spring leaks somehow, somewhere.

  So my primary backup water source is a bunch of Scepters (properly disinfected).   But then I also buy some of the readily available, easy-to-carry, already disinfected gallon jugs. I mean they’re 99 cents. It is hard to argue with inexpensive convenience when a monster storm is headed your way. I’d rather people buy bottled than have NONE, which is often what happens. All of my friends know if they have less than three days’ of bottled water on hand I will ghost them!

   
• 2

  River - October 5, 2022

  I keep bottled water in my car emergency kit. I worry less about contamination (vs my storage container possibly being contaminated because it’s not sterile and it is 120+ degrees in my trunk). I also like the fact that they don’t take up much space and they are convenient (inevitably someone forgets their refillable water bottle before a sport practice).  I rotate them fairly quickly but not nearly as fast as I would a jug I fill myself. If I’m going out of town I ditch the bottles for larger refillable storage containers.