If properly stored, water will not spoil. The contamination that gets into it is what actually makes water go bad. In theory, your water could store and stay good forever if you take the proper precautions by sealing and storing your water so that bacteria or other contaminants don’t get into it and cause it to go bad. But that’s easier said than done. Just make sure your IBC is food safe and BPA free, making it suitable for storing liquids for human consumption including drinking water, milk, alcohol and oils. Then if storing water make sure it is in a dry dark place and covered away from anything, if the water is already purified then once every two year add a little pure bleach none coloured none scented type, if uncertain just empty and clean out tank and refill one a year. It’s up to you, Iv used this technique for many year’s and used water that’s been stored correctly that’s six years old and was absolutely fine, if in doubt you could still then filter it and boil. Trust me don’t believe all the crap out there.

I have 2, 55 gallon blue barrels, 3, 275 gallon IBC totes, and several 5 gallon jugs for potable water storage. I also have 4, 1000 gallon tanks of water, a gasoline fired Honda water pump and 250’ of 2” firehose for firefighting. I treated my IBCs and fire suppression tanks with bleach after filling them with our well water and they were outdoors in the shade. No algae grew in 1 year. We live in the Nevada desert and the drought is a little scary. I have decided to move my totes into the garage which is on a concrete slab. I think the security and accessibility will be better. I have no problem with the stability and effectiveness of plain old bleach. In 3 years of using the totes at 2 different locations I have not had any UV failures.

You can get a hose filter commonly used with RVs to filter the water while filling

Have one set up in garage and one that catches rainwater down the hill from garage in a small shanty built for the tote. Every year I drain the water from the garage drinking water tote via hose to fill the garden rainwater tote . I’ll do this if we haven’t had rain for a while and the rainwater tote is empty. Any excess I’ll fill up some plastic drums for overflow garden water storage or hand washing , clothes washing ,etc.

Thank you very much for posting this. It is very helpful!

Thanks for making this. About to pull the trigger on 3 good grade ones looking to do the same thing.

Good information! Thanks

The totes I bought at The Tractor Supply Store were sitting covered in my garage for a year. Bought them for this reason. Thanks for this video.

This is more important than any solar prep in my opinion, will be investing in this and a rain water collection system

Thank you for this video and the information. God Bless.

Thank you for making this video! I am about to make the purchase and was told the water would not last more than 3 months! Thanks for great insight!

As for water storage, seems like people want to be able to directly drink from the storage. I disagree. Always treat and filter the water immediately before use. That allows you to keep it simple.

spectacular upload Urban Survivor. I killed the thumbs up on your video. Keep on up the very good work.

So you can also take your cold water line and run it to the tank and then the house this way you are circulating the water.. or if that dosnt work for ya use the hose bib and whenever you use the hose its circulates or sprinklers etc you get the idea

Thanks for the video. Here is what I'm doing. I have seen different measurements of Chlorox amounts per gallon. I'm going with 1/8 teaspoon/gallon of water instead of higher amounts because my tap water has already been chlorinated. 1/8 teaspoon = .125 teaspoon. I have 275 gallons of tap water. 275 gallons x .125 teaspoons = 34.375 teaspoons of Chlorox. 1 teaspoon = .16667 oz. .16667 oz X 34.375 teaspoons = 5.73 oz OR 6 oz of Chlorox Do you agree or is my math wrong?

Can someone help answer a question? I have had 4 ibc 275 gallon water totes for 4 years. We decided to put fresh water in this year. One of the top ones started leaking from the bottom. Also it has what looks like iron or rust particles in bottom but otherwise water is clear. They are kept inside and dark

So you just essentially filled it from the hose and treated it with the almost 4 treatments and then u use the water filter pitcher prior to drinking? I’m not sure I understand exactly how u filled it. I live in California and I just got my tote and I want to be sure I do this correctly. Also my tote is new and food grade what do u suggest I do to prep the container prior to filling?

hello Mr Urban Survivor i got a silly question, is it safe to collect rain water and store it this way?

275 gallon edc wallets prepping life ibc tote water ok

I have new 330 gal water emergency tote, outside in my back yard, what I did first, was to wrap up te container with 6m black plastic sheet for sun protection and as second backup measure, I constructed a little PLAYWOOD room around the tote and painted it White, for even more sun protection..................I live in southern California when in summer is very hot and in winter some what cold...............AM I going to be ok with my set up to last this water, a least 3 years ??? any comments will be apreciate it.

About how many bottles of aquamarine do we need?

Should always add enough kerosene on the top surface it won't let anything breed in it, and won't mix with water

I wanna install caster wheels on ibc tote give me a support which power tools should i use please reply to this !

Is the water treatment really necessary, since tap water is already treated?

This is how I do it. You might want to consider spray painting it black with a few layers of paint instead of covering it with a tarp/other cover. It's easier and IMHO, better for blocking out sunlight. Also, I attached a solar powered water pump to the drain(you can get the adapters at lowes) and ran a water line under my house and up to my kitchen sink to a RV water tap. When I lose power, getting water is as easy as pushing the lever on the RV water tap and boom, I have fresh clean water.

This video is incorrect becuase if you do a bit more research you cant store water in ibc for longer than 6 months. They straight up say the plastic can affect the water after 6 months

I just use the water when it rains. Yes I think everyone does that. Anyways I don't mean it like that. I use that water to water my plants. I use the other water inside my house to take showers and drink. I rather use the rain water to water my plants. That way I don't use the water that the government provides and my water bill won't come as a lot. But then I realized Ima have to start using water from rain to drink. Not because I won't too. But to help the workers build more water tanks and so the that rivers can at least maybe grow again. And yes I would let others use my water because I don't wanna be a cheapskate. And I don't wanna keep the water all by myself because it's bad luck and you all people would know that if you happen to do the thing I said. Anyways yeah letting others use the water to water there plants would be okay with me.

You need to edit your message and somewhere in there tell the listeners that this is way too much weight to have on a wood floor, even in a corner. You know that, I know that but cover your arse and add it to your otherwise informative video. Also the tank should be removed from its cage, 4 bolts on most devices, and given a coat of opaque paint that light will NOT penetrate. You don't see it happening but UV catastrophically degrades the plastic and one day, surprise, it crumbles. Thx for your post.