How to store water for emergencies (containers and places to put them)

water is one of the most critical preps when you first get serious about emergency preparedness and prepping we can always survive three days without water before our body simply shuts down in this video we'll discuss water storage container options along with common challenges you'll face living in the urban or suburban environment when trying to store enough water to have on hand should you're a water supply get cut off [Music] what are so critical for life I can't stress the need to focus on water as all life depends on it I live in a desert area so being sure to have enough water is always on my mind often hear people's concerns in the comments section in my videos about storing water especially in an urban environment also in my Amazon affiliate analytics water storage containers are one of the most clicked-on links I also enjoy reading the comment sections of my videos and get feedback from the community and hear comments like this periodically Ruth Conley said I live in a small one-bedroom apartment so how do I store water and how would I cook it's no power Shantay zero said yes I live in Los Angeles about four miles from LAX I recently bought one thousand dollars worth of prepping supplies my family thinks I'm crazy my main concern is water I live in an apartment and it sucks so I've done a couple of videos in the past on water which go into a lot of detail regarding purification and filter I did a video entitled seven steps for emergency water preparation and I touched briefly on water storage container options in that video and I'll go into much more detail in this video about different options you can start purchasing now also recently created another video entitled how to make water safe to drink it discusses purifying and filtering water in this video I'm going to go into a little more depth discussing the specific water storage container options on the market and what I found work and what you may need to think about before investing money in storage containers I'll also provide links in the description below if you want to buy any of these options online when you purchase any of these products it goes a long way to support my channel by the way thank you so here's what we'll cover different storage options on the market different accessories you want to pick up things you need to be aware of regarding water containers where to store water and options to filter water so let's jump in regarding the different options that will be practical in an urban or suburban environment for storing water long term here are some options by type the first option is portable that are non stackable these typically have thinner walls that will work fine if you're not wanting to stack them on top of each other the person is a Coleman water jug that holds about 5 gallon these go for about 11 dollars and have a spigot or a built in the next portable option is a reliance products Aquitaine er which holds about seven gallons of water again when loaded with water you can't really stack these on top of each other the next portable option is a stackable water container now they sold about five gallons of water but they're a lot thicker when I first got serious about prepping I loaded up on these they definitely come in handy when needing to stack multiple containers in a tight environment now as far as non portable options there's the ever-popular 55 gallon water storage option I found two popular places to purchase these on line number one is Amazon and you can pick this up for about $68 and the other one is at Walmart com for about $72 the nice thing about the Walmart option is that it or a ships with a bum wrench and siphon hose and I purchase a few of these from them already another non portable option is the water Bob which I keep stored in my bathroom if there's an emergency like an earthquake I'll stick these in my bathtub and fill them up now obviously you don't need these in your bathtub but think about how dirty your bathtub maybe would build up scum and then putting water in there that you may have to use later since the water will probably stop working shortly after an emergency in an urban environment due to water pump failures being able to extract as much water as possible from the water lines will be important so once you get the water storage container there's a few additional accessories you might want to pick up for your five gallon stackable water containers a water spigot will come in handy for your 55 gallon water containers you'll need a bung wrench to open the top and a water pump or siphon to extract the water also I use water additive to treat my water when storing the containers now it's not required that you use this because what already has chlorine in it but it's just one little extra thing that I like to add in to make sure that there's not going to be issues with my water long term in order to store your water there's some things you need to be aware of first keep the containers out of sunlight sunlight enables biological growth in your containers and also over time the UV will break down the containers especially the plastic ones now your water should be stored in a UV resistant food grade plastic container you'll notice that these containers are often blue and the reason being is that it limits light exposure to your water to prevent biological growth as we just discussed and it's also a visual indicator that these storage containers are for human consumption my 55 gallon water drums are stored my garage while it heats up in my garage should I have a problem with growth I can filter the water which we'll talk about more in a moment as far as the containers go I wouldn't recommend any clear bottle as over an extended period of time if these are expose alive bacteria will grow this is of course unless you store these in a completely dark area like the back of your cupboards also avoid using containers that have had soda or milk stored in them as they're virtually impossible to clean out leaving enough biological material behind that can cause growth over time and cause contamination also milk jugs are biodegradable and they'll break down over time regarding picking up used water storage containers off sites like Craigslist be very careful with these as you don't know the history of what has been put into these in the last thing you want to do is poison yourself in regards to what grade of containers you should be looking for the safest options are polyethylene plastic where the ones at number one number two or number four stamps on the container many of the water storage containers you find are number two and they're bpa-free you'll also typically see the triangle of arrows on these containers before using these containers be sure to wash them out with hot soapy water and it probably wouldn't hurt to rinse them out with a little bleach with water to disinfect them also remember whenever you use these containers have been sitting around for a long time you'll probably want to pour the water back and forth in between glasses as a water will have gone flat so let's talk about where you want to store water for an urban setting like those living in the apartment the challenge of finding a place is to a water may be a challenge but here's a few ideas it might help now you might want to lift up a couch and put it on top of cinder blocks or bricks and you can store water under here this probably is going to be the prettiest option but it's something for you to consider growing up one of my closest friends was a Mormon and when I hung out his house I was surprised to see how much they could store into their beds like buckets of weed sand grain again you could use this approach to store water in these places by lifting your bed up a little and putting it on something like a cinder block as I mentioned earlier storing small or water containers like water bottles in the backyard covers between other items where it's dark could also work as well of course you can use your closets I store a lot of our seven and five gallon containers in the dark places of our closets plus there's the added advantage that these areas are often cooled and just plain out of sight and out of mine if you're going to store water in your garage there's definitely some considerations you need to be thinking about don't store plastic containers directly on the cement I put mine on top of two by fours and the reason being is that plastics will absorb odors and other chemicals that will continue at your water I live in earthquake territory and the garage is the least stable part of the house so I realized that the garage has a potential to collapse so while the home kind is not also have that consideration in mind so that I also have backup water storage in other areas of the house another little tip for you don't forget your hot water heater as this can be used as a source of water I'm also working on setting up a rain catchment system in my backyard and while these may not be the best source of water in an emergency there an option nonetheless regarding storing water and glass if you use them make sure you know the history of what's been stored in them and uses something like a mason jar with the trademark Pyrex on the side as these are a good option as they can withstand temperature changes now regarding filtering and purifying water I did an entire video dedicated to this subject if you'd like to watch it later as it goes into a lot lot more detail but if you want the summary of that video just go to Saul your mini which goes for about 20 bucks or a berkey water filter keep those on hand the berkey water filter is probably the most used piece of prepping gear I own our family actually uses it on a daily basis to remove contaminants and fluoride from our water also don't assume because you bleach your iodine on hand to purify water you don't need a filter well bleach iodine or calcium hydrochloride will purify your water meaning that this will kill the microorganisms in the water they will not filter out the junk and chemicals that may be in your water using water purification methods and a water filter together is your best bet in just a side note I didn't discuss rain barrel as much in the video but I'll cover this option more in the future video which I'll be working on here pretty soon I really enjoy your feedback in the comment section if I missed something or you have some insight into something I didn't share please please please feel free to share in the comment section below again I learned so much from you guys I always appreciate your feedback one other side note while preparing for this video my channel just crossed over the 80,000 subscriber count and I want to thank you all so much to both my loyal subscribers and viewers you guys keep me motivated to continue learning and sharing and I want to thank you so much as always be safe out there

Channel: City Prepping

Views: 138,747

Rating: 4.9482918 out of 5

Keywords: preppers, prepper, prepping, water storage, water, water containers, how to store water

Id: Ju3heLQOx5I

Length: 9min 44sec (584 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 28 2017