Water in 72hr pack

[WyomingEMT]

22 years ago my wife and I purchased 20 5 gallon Mylar containers. This are flexable bags that fit into a small box that a women or large child could carry from the basement to the kitchen upstairs. I gave a prepardness presentation and passed around dixie cups with water out of one of these 22 year old, tap water filled Mylar bags. The water tasted great. The small 12 ounce mylar bags would be perfect for a bug out 72 hour bag. Mylar is the only way to store water.

[pam]

Did you have to put anything into the water to keep it that long?

[Loudmouth_Mormon]

Originally Posted by Loudmouth_Mormon back in April

Our car's 'get home bags' have a couple store-bought bottles in them only. We're preparing for an 8 hour walk through a town that had some sort of weather-related or man-made disaster - water should be available along the way.

Update: our get home bags now include small backpacking water filters. Further reflection makes it obvious that the wife/kids car is a 'stay put and wait for help' bag, and daddy's car is a 'take upwards of 3 days to get home' bag.

[WyomingEMT]

The question was ask if we put anything in tap water we placed in our mylar water containers. Nothing extra, the water in our area is treated, but thats it. Our basement is alway cool in Wyoming and dark. Hope someone else has had good luck with Mylar.

[pam]

Thanks for responding. I was curious. Unfortunately I don't have a basement so not sure if it is feasible to do this. I'll have to do some research.

[Akita]

Originally Posted by pam

Did you have to put anything into the water to keep it that long?

Water never EVER "goes bad". But bad things can get into water or grow in it. Use normal preparation methods(boiling, fiiltering, chem additives, steri-pen, etc) for any suspect water before consuming. Aerating the water by shaking a partial container helps with the 'taste'.

We dont store more water than we need to flush with when the county main (regularly) breaks as we live about 100yds from a major river, but we do have many filters and ways to procure and sterilize river and rain water.

[pam]

It's funny..then why do companies that sell bottled water have expiration dates on them? lol