We had an interesting discussion at the "pure water" store today. We went in to look at what they had, to price out their storage systems, and after general perusal, were discussing our needs with the salesperson. We have recently finished building a medium sized greenhouse and we plan to configure our water storage system to be converted to the greenhouse as soon as we no longer need it for the "big house", so we approached the aspect of water storage from the greehouse angle.

We figured out what would work best and were discussing the details of the set up. The sales person said "Well, it's amazing but these things have been flying out of the store. In the past two months we have sold twice as many as we normally sell all winter." He then proceeded to fill us in on the fact that all the utility employees, the police and firefighters have been in to buy water storage systems for "the Y2K thing".

I found this very interesting. We said nothing about Y2K but he brought it up and the fact that our utility folks and safety personnel are preparing water storage is telling. Just thought that folks on this forum would be interested.

Stepping up my prep program....

-- Ramp Rat (Aviation_R_us@noname.nocity), March 06, 1999

Answers

Bought a 50 foot roll of quarter inch copper tubing today for $11.50 and two fittings to connect to a pressure canner to make a water distiller that will work with any heat source. Cheap, easy solution for the times when you need really pure water.

-- Ann Fisher (zyax55B@prodigy.com), March 06, 1999.

Last time I looked the 75-gall rainwater barrels I bought from Gardeners Supply (gardenerssupply.com) in early winter have gone from about $80 to $100 apiece. (Fitted with screens, grids, overflows, spigot and short hose, etc.)

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), March 06, 1999.

How reliable is a filtration system from a camping store? Is it a good long term solution for purifying water? (A hand pump plus plenty of filters)

-- Alison Tieman (fearzone@home.com), March 06, 1999.

Sorry about this, you guys must consider me a nuisance... I've just recently started my preps and although I don't think it'll get quite so bad up here (Canada), I've recently become rather nerve racked by the enormity of the task. Anyway, I forgot to ask in the above post if it is safe to store purified water in the drums it comes in for a good length of time. Do you have to add bleach? And if so, what kind? Plus I was wondering if someone could give some info on creating a distiller. E-mail would be great.

Thanks, and sorry again.

-- Alison Tieman (fearzone@home.com), March 06, 1999.

"Bought a 50 foot roll of quarter inch copper tubing today for $11.50 and two fittings to connect to a pressure canner to make a water distiller that will work with any heat source. Cheap, easy solution for the times when you need really pure water. "

Good start...

If you are going that far, research distiller design. I think you will find that the simple type of distiller you are describing will not remove as many impurities as you seem to think. There is a second, more complex distiller that uses a LOT more heat, which does remove everything (I think de-salinization plants are based on this), but it is too complex to "try at home kids".

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@Anonymous.com), March 06, 1999.

Also,

Good URL for water info

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@Anonymous.com), March 06, 1999.

Re the pressure canner distilation system.....I agree with the above, that it won't take out many of the impurities....it will kill germs, but so will boiling or bleach. (BTW...what powers the canner?) I would not do it unless I were using a stainless steal pressure cooker....and it seems a shame to not use that for food. An aluminum canner would be putting aluminum back into the water along with whatever else the water had to start.....wouldn't it? Think again.

Mary P..

-- Mary P. (CAgdma@home.com), March 06, 1999.

Exactly what kind of impurities are people talking about? What can be carried through into the distilled water output of the steam and recondensing process that would be done using a pressure cooker and 50 ft of copper tubing?

When alcohol is distilled, the ethel, methel, etc. can all evaporate and re-condense unchanged, killing the drinker, but when you are just evaporating water, the solids and minerals stay in the pot and the germs get dead. Recondensed steam is water that's about as pure as you can get, isn't it?

Me.

-- Floyd Baker (fbaker@wzrd.com), March 07, 1999.

Old Git, looks like the rainwater barrels went up again to $119.

I was thinking of going with that for drinking/cooking. Filter the rainwater through a charcoal filter and then boil it. Or alternately, add bleach to the water, let sit, and then filter it.

Seems to me from what I've seen here in the past that both these methods would take care of pollution/bugs/impurities that would come from the rain off the roof.

It looks to be the most economical and convenient way for safe water. Distilling water seems a big undertaking and expensive on fuel. Plus, from what I've read the water wouldn't keep on the shelf for very long; bacterias have a field day to take hold since there is no competition to inhibit their growth.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), March 07, 1999.