Bottled water. I have 50 bottles in the cellar

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Dh thinks I am bonkers. I think the minimum we need is 100 1.5l bottles. Family of two adults and three kids. Assume we would each drink a bottle a day maybe more, pls cleaning teeth and cooking. Would like to have enough for ten days without water though obv if this happened we would try to ration it a bit if we didn’t know how long it would last. We have purification tablets too and some Jerry cans. What are you all doing re water?

What's the sell-by date on it?

2020

Why on earth are you buying 1.5 litre bottles?
If you were going to use them, you'd be going through multiples a day, so why not buy 5 litre bottles or 25 litre food safe water containers with a tap which are reusable?

If your bottles are plastic, once the water in them has passed it's best before date then trace chemicals in the plastic will be leeching into the water & how are you going to dispose of 100 empty plastic bottles?
If you are reusing them after that point, you should be refilling them every six months & refilling a hundred little bottles is a pita.

Interesting. I agree with PP that when you’re approaching your use by dates on the bottles consider getting a few reuseable food safe containers or buy fewer bigger bottles. Keep a few smaller bottles for shorter outages, or making it easier to pour down the loo etc, but having to wrangle lots of little bottles sounds like a hassle you won’t need in an emergency!

If you’re thinking long term outage, consider getting a water butt for the garden (if you have one). Even the slimline ones are 100L and that’s suddenly 100L of Water you can use for washing etc. That way you’re not wasting drinking water. If you get some bleach or purification tablets, then you could drink it as well. Easier to store than lots of separate little bottles, plus day to day you can use it as well confident it’ll refill next time it rains!

I agree with @Snugglepumpkin where will all those plastic bottles go when you’re done? Are you unaware of the campaign to reduce disposable plastics? They may never break down & decompose, or get leeched out into our environment, waterways and the sea. Was your only choice really 50 plastic bottles?

I'm with your DH! Either buy fewer larger bottles or don't bother - this is likely to end up with BPA in them, and also is hugely wasteful of plastic.

I get 2l bottles as and when from supermarket. Maybe about 15 bottles. However, I also have rainwater collection, lifestraw and purification tabs and the means to boil. More sustainable in long term, in my view.

buy a 2nd hand cold water tank, they are designed not to leach chemicals into the water.

Don’t store them on your concrete or stone floor. I read on here a few years ago that it makes them perish quicker.

What a waste of bloody plastic... so sad.

For goodness sake, all those plastic bottles.

Yuk I hate bottled water - think how long it's been sitting around for. If you feel you must buy bottled, at least buy glass bottles as stuff doesn't leach through glass like it does plastic.

OP I would recommend that instead you buy large food grade plastic jerry cans with taps. You can buy 25l ones for about a tenner.

Then all you do is fill from the tap. Every 9 months you use the water on the garden and replace.

Then buy a lifestraw each and have a couple of large waterbutts in the garden.

Just remember the guidance for 2l of water a day includes washing and food and teeth brushing. You can brush your teeth without water, you can cook without water (or very little water) and you can clean without water. You also can drink other stuff (fruit juice, milk etc).

Agree with everyone: a water butt, a few bottles, and if you really think there may be an occasion when water will be out for that long then some water purification tablets, straws, a whilstling kettle for your hob, and large refillable containers :)

Yep, I’ve got some bottles of water but purification tablets are cheaper and waaay easier to store. Life straws are way cheaper now than they used to be.

I have a spring

I have food grade 25lt water containers but how long will tap water keep? Is it 6 months or 9 months if stored in a cool and dark place? And do I need to add any further treatment to it?

Ooo @Weedsnseeds1 - cool!

@HalloumiGus - I'd personally go fo the shorter period and filter and boil - but that's me. You'd probably be fine without.

why?

@billybagpuss - who is that addressed to?

Ooh, on that note - those who have some bleach kicking around to treat water: how much would you recommend adding? A few drops? Or is there some sort of ‘x’ ml per L type calculation? And stupid question - does it need to be a certain kind of bleach or will the cheap supermarket’s own toilet cleaner do?

Always cheap thin bleach. I think it's two drops per gallon if you are storing it. www.doh.wa.gov/Emergencies/BePreparedBeSafe/SevereWeatherandNaturalDisasters/WaterPurification
Other than a few bottles to tide us over (no pun intended), I don't store water. I live in a rainy part of UK so would rely on that. However, we had moorland fires near me due to lack of rain so it has given me pause for thought.

In emergencies the recommended volume of water per person per day is 7.5-15l. to maintain health. Only around 2l of that has to be drinking water quality, with exceptions for the very young and old or anyone immunocompromised.

What scenario are you prepping for that water won't be available? I work in disasters around the world and every one is different depending on the circumstances. You need to write down your possible scenarios and figure out your plan, including water sources and duration.

There are lots of water treatment options available, but they vary depending on the quality of the water you have access to e.g. is it silty or clear, could animals have pooped in it etc. Chlorination is effective on clear water but you have to be careful messing around with bleach. I honestly wouldn't recommend it unless you were very confident. A lifestraw is a good personal option. But again, it really depends on what the problem is likely to be and what water sources you have access to.

There are lots of resources online. Google water in humanitarian response, or development and you'll see what people do in countries where potable water isn't on tap.