Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

Hi all,

I started a thread a while ago (see this forum) called 'Best food storage solution'. A lot of great ideas and insight has come from that thread.

I wanted to do the same for water. Obviously, water is just as important as food so let's hear what you guys are working on.

The importance of Water storage/filtration is overlooked I feel. it is hard to store large amounts, etc. I have filters and some small amount of fresh stored. I'd like to hear more on this too.

big berkey.

Friend at the red cross turned me on to them. Assuming your water doesn't have major chemical contamination, it will take most surface water and render it potable.

Filters are cleanable, and reusable, and last for about 6000 gallons each. I've got a setup with 4 filters, and it sits on the kitchen counter. It will filter 2-3Gal/hour and is more than able to keep the whole family in as much fresh water as we could want.

It is also very nice tasting water, and has gotten me to just about kick the soda habit. I drink way more water now, and its an in-plain sight prep.

We have several spring fed creeks within walking distance, so if the town supply was disrupted we could filter our own for quite a while.

I will definitely look into big berkey.

My issue is that I don't have creeks/rivers/lakes nearby. I mean, I guess I could drive to a water source and bring the water back...

I'm interested in the possibility of storing a large capacity of water long term.

bryanrheem wrote:I'm interested in the possibility of storing a large capacity of water long term.

bound the problem.

large. 100, 1000, 10000 gallons
long 5 days 6 months, 10 years

Well I would like a week's supply of water for 2 adults and 3 kids. I don't have a problem periodically emptying and re-filtering/filling the containers, but would prefer to do that on the magnitude of once a year instead of once a month.

You might consider making it part of your daily water supply, which replenishes constantly?

Water silos.

bryanrheem wrote:Well I would like a week's supply of water for 2 adults and 3 kids. I don't have a problem periodically emptying and re-filtering/filling the containers, but would prefer to do that on the magnitude of once a year instead of once a month.

substance, or cooking, cleaning, bathing too?

short term about 4-5 gallons per person per day will allow for all the drinking and cooking needs for an adult human. Figure your family at 3-4 adults and you need about 85 on the low side, and about 150 on the high side.

2 blue plastic 55 gal drums in the garage, and a few cases of bottled water on the shelf, and you're there.

Use the bottled water for normal around the house use, and restock as it gets used. That keeps the drinking water VERY fresh.

Empty and refill the blue drums 2x a year, and everything is fresh enough for survival use. Add a reasonable filter and you can knock the slight plasticy taste out of the drum water.

Plastic trash cans rigged as a cistern catch from rainwater http://cals.arizona.edu/cochise/waterwi ... rvest.html .... .also you can buy a 16x48 pool that will hold 5,061 gallons at 90-percent capacity. Also a 26x52 pool will hold 14,667 gallons at 90-percent capacity .

Water is one of the things my wife thought was odd I kept on hand in the car and in the house. I explained to her the many times in my life the public water system was damaged by typhoons, hurricanes, and storms. All it takes is one day of people not being able to turn on the tap and get fresh water for them to start to panic.

Short term are a dozen 7-gallon water cubes. A single cube (50+ lbs) is as much as I want to life at any time.

Long term : Monolithic ceramic/charcoal filters with 2 sets of food grade 5 gallon buckets. While they don't have the same throughput individually as a Berkley when I factor in both sets I have a 10 gallon setup that takes up minimal storage space. Add a few cartons of activated charcoal along with UV light and a few bags of Calcium Hypochlorite (pool shock) adds capability.
At our cabin I have a rain catchment routed through a first-flush system into a 275 gallon IBC tote that we use with a 12v pump for general use such as cleaning and such. Our well is 5gpm and if I fire up the pump it has no problem moving the water 150' up to the garden or down to the orchard. I pump from the catchment through a filter to a 525 gallon tank for the garden which has a 12v pump on a solar panel/battery/timer. I have enough PVC pipe around I can do the same at home if need be.

As a last resort my 10 & 15 gallon brewing kettles can be used to boil water if need be or I could just make beer with it and store it in carboys and 5 gallon kegs