Water Storage

[Rod]

Hi All,

I don't know if any of you have stored drinking water in a plastic jerry can / container for any length of time? I was wondering if anyone has had any experience of how long water can be stored for before if start to develop a taste etc. I appreciate that bringing it to a rolling boil will kill any 'nasties' that may have developed, but I dare say that it won't necessarily keep for lengthy periods (?) I was looking at a situation where you may have to set up a food cache where there was no readily fresh water supply available.

Any help here is appreciated
cheers

 

[AJB]

About 30 seconds in my experience!

 

[NickBristol]

Depending on the conditions that the water is stored (dark, cool, dry) it can be kept for up to two years. However, the containers need to be the highest quality and specifically designed for longer-term water storage. I had a supplier bookmarked but I can't find it among the 1000odd others lol

The bigger problem isnt the container leaching a taste, it's strong odours in the vicinity, such as cleaning products, pungent food, etc that pass through the water container walls, and they're not always the smells that are detectable by the human nose.

 

[Toddy]

If you buy the largest size water from supermarkets the best before dates are usually about 18 months ahead. If they bottles are wrapped in bubble wrap and cached they ought to last just fine. The bubble wrap is cheap and acts as another layer to absorb the dirt/damp/smells, etc., before the plastic bottles do.
If you use glass bottles there's no problem keeping the contents good but they weigh such a lot.
When the water mains were under repair, the waterboard supplied 2L bottles that were just the same as plastic drinks bottles, full of H 2 0. The only advice given was to keep it dark or algae would eventually form within the bottles. Not toxic it seems, just unsightly we were told.
Cheers,
Toddy

 

[Slimey]

I keep one of the large black plastic jerry cans in the back of the 110 and on some occasions it must've been there three months or more. The water was just fine for drinking. I suspect it could stay there an awfull lot longer and still be OK.

Before I used it for the first time I used chempro, the home brew steriliser/deoderiser to clean the can out. Don't know if it made any difference or not though.

HTH.

Simon.

 

[bp1974]

If you're worried about purified water becoming re-infected by bacteria etc, silver tablets are sold. They are as effective as chlorine tablets in terms of purifying, but are more specifically used to keep purified water clean for long periods of time. Weeks, if I remember rightly. I think Micropur is one brand.

 

[NickBristol]

I think Micropur is one brand.

Yep they are - saw them in Boots at the weekend. Not cheap at £6 for a box of about 30odd. One tablet per litre I think.

 

[Rod]

Cheers Everyone - this has all been a big help.

best regards

 

[Keith_Beef]

Before I used it for the first time I used chempro, the home brew steriliser/deoderiser to clean the can out. Don't know if it made any difference or not though.

Chempro is great for cleaning out bottles, demijohns and carboys for first use or if they've got dirty from sediment or floating scum, but leaves a nasty chlorine and TCP taste is not correctly rinsed.

You can use camden tablets or plain sodium metabisulphite tablets with a pinch of citric acid to kick the release of sulphure dioxide to keep things sterile.

You can treat a large container of water like this. Then from the big container, fill up two litre bottles to around 2/3 full whenever you need. Screw down the bottle two and shake vigorously to get rid of as much dissolved SO2 as you can to improve the taste.

Or make it into some sort of tea (camomile or elder flowers, nettle or ash leaves, holly bark, whatever).


Keith.

 

[MartiniDave]

I believe the navy used to keep water from going foul by putting a small emount of rum or brandy in the keg (not TOO much mind )

Dave