in line water storage

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by cool hand luke, Mar 10, 2011.


  1. cool hand luke

    cool hand luke Monkey+

    One of the things I've been pondering is how to do water storage for a short term bug in situation. None of the options I saw really impressed me, until I went to fix a plumbing problem.

    My house used to have one of those huge old fashioned water softeners that took 50 lbs bags of salt. The previous owner took it out and now there is just a big hole that has the incoming water pipes running into it. I was about to fill this in, when I realized it was about the right size for a 55 gallon drum.

    My idea is to take a close top poly drum like this
    [​IMG]

    Luckily I can get as many of these as I want for free.

    and plumb it in that old hole. One bung will have the incoming water from the city supply, the other will hook up to the line going into the house. the water will be constantly circulated in the drum. When the water system goes down all I have to do is turn off the water supply in the alley, and use either the electric pumps I have, both 110 or 12 volt, or a manual rotary pump to get the water out.

    any comments, reasons why this won't work?
     
  2. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Should be OK, just don't forget the vacuum breaker in the inlet side.
     
  3. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    There are a few Issues, that you will need to address in your plan.
    First, What is the Max Pressure that the Utility can put on your incoming water line, and is the drum rated to handle that pressure. Pressure can get upwards of 90 PSI around here, and if you spring a leak, in your drum, or fittings, you can flood yourself out, rather quickly.
    Second, You should put a Check Valve in the line between the drum and you incoming water line. This ensures that your Storage water will NOT be sucked back into the Utility Lines, should you not be around when the pressure drops to zero on a line break external to your place.
    Third, if you have pumps, you should install them, with isolation valves, so that you are not trying rig that up, when things go south. All you should have to do is throw some valves and your now online. 1 Minute, NOT hours, looking for the right fittings, to make it work.
    Fourth, if you do use pumps, have their Emergency Power source readily available, because if you lose water, you likely will also have lost Utility Power as well....
    .....
     
  4. cool hand luke

    cool hand luke Monkey+

    The drums have either a 150 psi or 200 psi rating, so that's no problem. The more I think about it the more I think I'll just go with the hand pump on standby. I'm a big fan of simple and cheap. good idea on the check valve that's something I should have thought of already.
     
  5. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Check valve = vacuum breaker in some, but not all jurisdictions. Something you need to know ahead of the time the building inspector makes a call for some reason.
     
  6. cool hand luke

    cool hand luke Monkey+

    shouldn't matter should it? I'll still have the one in the meter box, so it's not going to get back to the city line anyway.
     
  7. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    Kind of hard to take a shower, with a Hand Pump, down in the basement. A small 5GPM 12 Vdc Diaphragm Rv Pump with a 25 Psi Pressure Switch, builti-in wouldn't break the bank, and Momma would LOVE you forever..... and if you can get those barrels for free, having 5 or 6 with stored sealed water in them would go a long way, in a pinch....
     
  8. cool hand luke

    cool hand luke Monkey+

    good points all.

    Right now i'm working on getting started preparing stuff. My first goal is to be able to "bug in" for 2 weeks, and was thinking of 1 or 2 barrels, but it wouldn't be that much more work or money to do a bigger system like that.
     
  9. tacmotusn

    tacmotusn RIP 1/13/21

    Those barrels go for $20 each here used food grade (orange juice)..... $10 on very rare occasion. Check around, if you can get them for free, it might be a survival preps money source reselling them.
     
  10. cool hand luke

    cool hand luke Monkey+

    good idea. These had concentrated hydrogen peroxide in them. But peroxide decomposes quickly to water and oxygen. Transporting will be a pain, but I'm on i-40, so maybe I can get someone coming through town.
     
  11. hminus

    hminus Monkey+

    hehehe... his post has "bung" and "hole" on the same line..... bunghole....heeeee
     
    VisuTrac and melbo like this.
  12. hminus

    hminus Monkey+

    sorry... it just came out... won't happen again
     
  13. ColtCarbine

    ColtCarbine Monkey+++ Founding Member

    What, out your bung hole

    Sorry couldn't resist [winkthumb]
     
    Falcon15 likes this.
  14. ColtCarbine

    ColtCarbine Monkey+++ Founding Member

    What kind of plastic tanks are these? I was not aware of there being any pressure rated plastic tanks to that psi. I'm not doubting you, I'm curious.

    Are they ASME pressure rated?
     
  15. melbo

    melbo Hunter Gatherer Administrator Founding Member

    Colt, Quig had an idea similar to this a few years back. I remember that pressure was going to be the problem in the system. I'll try to find the old thread but I know you commented on it.
     
  16. melbo

    melbo Hunter Gatherer Administrator Founding Member

  17. ColtCarbine

    ColtCarbine Monkey+++ Founding Member

    Yes sir, pressurizing a plastic tank that is not rated for pressure would make a mess of things. He could utilize a plastic tank but probably not in the manner he is thinking, unless it is rated for the intended use. Directly connecting that barrel in line pictured would not be good. It does not look like a pressure rated tank to me. It does not look any different than the barrels we get our food grade glycol in for fire sprinkler systems.

    I was trying to ease the OP into his answer w/o being too rude, since I posted such a guarded reply in one of his other threads. I did not want to offend him. I'm trying to not be so guarded and be a little nicer. ;)
     
  18. cool hand luke

    cool hand luke Monkey+

    dang, They are rated, The barrels al lhave either 100, 200 or 300 ratings on them. I thought I would be good to go. Then I read and realized that the ratings aren't in PSI, but megapascals! who the heck uses megapascals! stupid international units!
     
  19. Country_boy

    Country_boy Monkey+

    I'd say this is a bad idea. For one, thats a lot of pressure. Drums are about 2' in diameter, thats about 452 sq in. At 50 psi, thats, 20,000 lbs pulling your drum apart.

    What does 55 gal of water cost? Just vent one bung to the garden via a garden hose (no nozzle) and water the garden once a year, then turn the valve off.

    Some suggest doing this with old water heater tanks- not inside a house. Water heater tanks usually have a finite life, and it can get very expensive when one fails.

    As to the backflow preventer- I've never seen a city require more than a double check valve for a residence. Vacuum breaker are usually required on hose bibs, not at the meter. Plus vacuum breakers need to be above any flooding, which would rule them out in many cases. Some of our facilities at work are considered higher hazard, because we have a private water system cross connected (not at the same time) with the city water system. We still only have to have a reduced pressure zone blackflow preventor and annual tests, not any kind of vacuum breaker. For security the whole thing is burried.
     
  20. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    100 psi is roughly 70 megapascals according to the conversion tables on line here -

    Megapascal Conversion

    Unless, of course, I blundered again. Checking is a requirement; take my word for it at your own risk.
     
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