Juice bottles and water storage

[ruthiechan]

Okay, I know you can use juice bottles to store water. I have thoroughly cleaned the bottles I have with soap and even a bit of baking soda.

However, the bottles still faintly smell like cranberry/raspberry juice. Is that okay?
Or is there something else I should be doing that I am not aware of.

Should I use a bleach solution?
But honestly, treating anything with bleach that I am going to be consuming later rather freaks me out. . . I just read on beprepared.com that you can treat water with four drops of bleach and I'm thinking OH HECK NO. Am I just being paranoid?

And speaking of cleaning, I have a gallon sized brita water filter. I went to clean it and the top part that you pour water into before it gets filtered had all these green dots. I figured they were from the scrub pad from the last cleaning, but they were really hard to get off. . . could it have been algae? And if so, does that cause a problem with the filtering at all? I don't want my family drinking contaminated water. . . And if it is algae how do I make sure that doesn't happen again and how do clean it?

[hankpac]

Bleach is sodium Hypochlorite. It degrades to water. and salt.
A few drops in a bottle to remove scents is just fine, and rinse it out thoroughly.
Your Brita needs cleaning, and a thin solution of bleach will PROBABLY be just fine. Read the directions first.
Plastic water bottles are probably not the greatest method of storage for your water. First of all, tap water has chlorine in it anyway, along with other contaminants. A larger food grade bottle is better, and obtaining it from a filtered, reverse osmosis source with ultraviolet light sterilization is best.
You can use Halozone tabs (military water tabs) to sterilize water from unsecure sources, but it tastes pretty bad. Most hard core survivalists are using elemental Iodine, which is great, has an infinite shelf life, and works perfectly.
One thought about the residual taste. it's not an entirely bad thing. After drinking plain water day after day, the palate craves a bit of flavor. in the war we used Wylers lemonade, and pre-sweetened Koolade, and in later years Gatorade. A slight fruit flavor would not be too bad.
Your going to be picking bugs out of your wheat according to most of the posters on the wheat thread anyway.

You cannot use a bleach bottle for storing drinking water, but you can use it to flush toilets and wash kids. The plastic grade is the issue, and the dose of residual bleach is far too much than what a gallon of water requires (4 drops remember?). But for washing hands that are going to handle foods? Perfect.

[ruthiechan]

The grade of plastic I want is the one with the little number 1 with the triangle arrows around it right?

At some point I want to get a couple of 55 gallon drums and put them in my garage. But I know I need something more light weight/kitchen friendly for water. Hence the plastic bottles.

When you tell me to follow the directions, what directions are you talking about? The brita filter? I can change the actual filter no problem, but cleaning the top part is the issue for me. I also do not have the filter directions since this filter was given to me by a friend who didn't like the bulkiness of it

So, water purifiers are better than filters? In general or for long term storage? Tabs would certainly be easier for the drums, because they are so big it'd take forever to get 55 gallons of water filtered.

Wait, I thought the wheat was safe from weevils if you did that oxy thing. . . I don't want to be picking out weevils!

[hankpac]

the food grade and size I was talking about was the larger (3 gal or 5 gal) size that is used for a water cooler. Easier to handle, manageable if you have to carry it away.
the three gallon is easier to handle than the 5, for changing.
the source I was speaking of is the quarter coin op dispenser. I have seen the windmill type as cheap as 10 cents a gallon, so fillingall the containers at once is still pretty cheap. the Windmill brand has several filters, uses RO, and a ultraviolet light.
You CAN buy a home system, RO and etc, but it is quite expensive.
Our Ward building has it's own well, and the water is tested. Pure and crystalline, with no taste. I fill my trailer there, before camping, and everyone who uses a water dispenser fill bottles out there.
As to the Brita: Yes I was speaking of the system instructions. You should be able to get them on-line at the company site. Look under "support".
Basically, the filter uses a sponge-ike or charcoal filter, so you don't want to run anything through it that will leave a taste or odor. If the top part is just plastic and metal parts, soak it in soapy water with a bit of bleach in it, and rinse very well. No prob.
Storing 50 Gal drums of water is problematical: I store two 55 gal plastic food grade barrels. I use a pump to run water out into the 3 gallon containers.

The pumps are available on-line. there are lots and lots of types, so choose one you like. and pump, food grade, battery powered, crank-type, lots of choices.
Or you can mount them on their sides, in a rack, fill them from the small hole, and put a tap in the large hole. Run a hose to your use site, and you can cut a lot of carrying. Let gravity do the work.
the elemental Iodine I mentioned before is best for large amounts of water, since adding enough bleach to that much water will leave a taste, and it has to be treated again and again, eventually having a really strong taste. and salty too boot.
Remember that the goal is to prevent algae and bacteria growth.
Yoiu could be playing with water chemistry like a pool manager if yoiu really want to elongate the length of time a single filling will sit in the drums.
Weight is a real consideration. You cannot take the drums to a water source, fill them and move them back to your storage site, easily. In fact it is almost impossible. A single drum will weigh almost 459 pounds (55 gal X 8.345 lbs per gallon).
If you cycle it through in a few weeks you really don't have to do anything to it.
By the way, this is all assuming yo are not going to just fill from your tap. Tap water is pretty good, but it has lots of chemicals. Chlorine is not the only thing, plus you have pipes of various ages, and the huge tanks on the hill where it comes from, all in various stages of sanitation. Lots of municipalities use a diver to clean the tank, he scrapes around the walls, to cut the algae and he doesn't come up each time he has to urinate.
Old pipes have a buildup of lots of chemicals that have leached out over the years. the lumen (the hole in the pipe) will be quite narrow (like an artery with cholesterol).
I mention that since I am not sure what your source of water is.
My town has pretty poor tasting water. It has a lot of iron. Fill a tub with it, and it is brown. So we only drink water we get at the Ward Building.
Your town may have the same, so you need to check it at the municipal utility that manages it. They put out an annual report that measures al that, and it is free at the water dept or city hall. and seek a supply of clean water.
I hope I have answered your questions.
If I made any mistakes I am sorry, but I hope you will be inspired to really look into this someplace besides an internet forum. The info is out there.
Good luck.
Hank

[Iggy]

Just a helpful household hint here- DO NOT mix liquid dish detergent with bleach. If you read the very, very tiny print on the dish detergent it states this. I did it out side, using Ajax liquid detergent, and it made smoke. No way was I going to smell it or get that stuff in my eyes.

Ruthie, if you have a dishwasher, put the top part of the Brita pitcher in the top part of your dishwasher. The green spots could be mildew. The automatic dish washing detergent will kill that, but the stain will remain.

I had the washing machine repairman tell me to put some old towels in my washing machine, add one cup of powdered Cascade and use the hottest water possible and let the machine run for the entire wash/rinse/spin cycle. This was to get rid of mildew, mold and yucky growth from being put in storage without being drained.

Worked great! If it kill and clean up that much, it can kill and clean up the spots on your Brita.

You should wash your Brita each time you change out your filter anyway.

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by hankpac

The pumps are available on-line. there are lots and lots of types, so choose one you like. and pump, food grade, battery powered, crank-type, lots of choices.

You can get the pumps at your local Home Depot or Lowes. We just helped one of my Husbands Home Teaching Families find and buy one.

Originally Posted by hankpac

Or you can mount them on their sides, in a rack, fill them from the small hole, and put a tap in the large hole. Run a hose to your use site, and you can cut a lot of carrying.

If you are going to fill using a hose, do not use a garden hose. Go to an RV store and get a hose that is specifically for food grade. They are white with blue stripe down it I believe. It leaves no taste. There is also enough bleach in your city water, you don't need to add anymore. BUT you do need to drain it all and replace every 6 months. When you empty it, water your garden with it. OR use it on a regular basis.

Husband and I will be getting large tanks for water storage, and we will be investing in a Reverse Osmosis filter system for it. We both feel that in the long run, it will be the best move for us.

[Palerider]

Originally Posted by Iggy

You can get the pumps at your local Home Depot or Lowes. We just helped one of my Husbands Home Teaching Families find and buy one.
If you are going to fill using a hose, do not use a garden hose. Go to an RV store and get a hose that is specifically for food grade. They are white with blue stripe down it I believe. It leaves no taste. There is also enough bleach in your city water, you don't need to add anymore. BUT you do need to drain it all and replace every 6 months. When you empty it, water your garden with it. OR use it on a regular basis.

Husband and I will be getting large tanks for water storage, and we will be investing in a Reverse Osmosis filter system for it. We both feel that in the long run, it will be the best move for us.

I love any and all advice of going to a RV store or Dealership.....

This is from my website ....

"If you wish to store water as part of three month supply, you’ll need at least one gallon of water per person, per day for drinking and hygiene purposes. A normally active person needs at least ½ gallon of water per day, just for drinking. To store the safest and most reliable form of water, FEMA recommends that you purchase & store commercially bottled water. Keep bottled water in its original container and do not open until you need it and observe the expiration date. You can prepare your own water storage by using food grade water storage containers or re-use 2-liter plastic soft drink bottles. If you choose this method, you’ll need to thoroughly clean the containers with dishwashing soap and water and rinse completely so there is no residual soap. Additionally, for soft drink bottles, sanitize the bottles by adding one teaspoon of non-scented liquid chlorine bleach to a quart of water, and swish the sanitizing solution so that it touches all inside surfaces and rinse thoroughly with clean water. Then, fill the bottle with regular tap water from a city water supply (pre-treated with chlorine). If your tap water is not chlorinated, treat it yourself with two drops of non-scented liquid chorine bleach per gallon of water. Tightly seal the container using the original cap making sure that you do not contaminate the cap by touching the inside of it. Write the date on the outside of the cap so that you know when you filled it and store in a cool dark place."

My website link above also automatically plays a video from fema regarding this. You can go to my video links section of my website and choose to play "FEMA - Food & Water"

[Maya]

Nice webbside WF!!

Thanks! Actually IGGY is probably one of the leading edge people with regard to food storage that I admire. I need to give her space on my webpage!