Small problem with my 2 liter bottle water storage

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Hello everyone, Today while I was filling up my 2 liters with water once again, it occured to me that I was filling them all the way to the top, putting in the bleach and storing them. I left no room for freezing whatsoever. Just thought I would pass this on in case others were doing the same thing. I won't have much use for all this water if the bottles freeze next winter and explode. Just a thought to leave room for this.

-- shellie (shellie01@hotmail.com), April 13, 1999

Answers

Shellie, It's been my experience the 2 litre pop bottles just swell when frozen and do not fail.Toss one in your freezer and see. What I've done with the ones in the camper was to leave about an inch and a half of air space from the bottom of the flange. I then squeeze out most of the remaining air and seal the bottle.Bottle freezes but doesn't care. Another thing you might think about is sewing a bottle carrier out of webbing so you can carry a bottle like a purse.

-- nine (nine_fingers@hotmail.com), April 13, 1999.

Hi Shellie. This might be a silly question, but... er.... why are you filling up bottles of water with bleach NOW? Won't this just add 8 months of contribution to the degradation of the bottles themselves and the lousy taste of the water? Are you suspecting that you're not going to have water in the last quarter of '99 for example? I'm just curious. I have put water somewhat to the last of my preparations, even though it is the first in importance, simply because I feel I can obtain (at least for now... the world climate may change my opinion on this!) containers, drain pipes, etc. to get all that together toward the end of the year. You're in TX you said in a post somewhere -- it gets really hot here -- that won't affect all those bottles filled to the brim with water at all (I mean helping break them down)? Or am I missing something, like maybe all 2litre soda bottles will exist several thousand millennia after we're gone? ;-)

PJ in TX

-- PJ Gaenir (fire@firedocs.com), April 13, 1999.


PJ, How are you. Nice to hear from you. Yes, it does get extremely hot here as we both know. To tell you the truth I didn't give alot of thought to the heat damaging the bottles. I just figure I would rather fill them up now instead of waiting till the last minute because I figure I will be very busy during the last part of the year. So I wanted to at least do this part along the way. Hope you are doing well. --shellie

-- shellie (shellie01@hotmail.com), April 14, 1999.

PMFJIH--MOst 2litre bottles can withstand the 10% INCREASE in vol for freezing water, at least once or twice. Beyond that, my car gets wet sometimes!! LOL!

Chuck

-- chuck, a Night Driver (rienzoo@en.com), April 14, 1999.


A plastic bottle can be squeezed inward a bit prior to screwing the cap on. This should allow for any expansion if it occurs and better than leaving an air space.

-- Floyd Baker (fbaker@wzrd.com), April 14, 1999.


I agree with PJ - wouldn't recommend anything now past getting the ability to store enough water to maintain your desired survival "comfort zone"

= 2 gal person per day x how many days you choose to plan for.

Get them, clean them, make sure they ar esanitary and "closed" to bugs and dirt, then leave them be until late in Dec. Fill them at time, not now.

-- Robert A Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (Cook.R@csaatl.com), April 14, 1999.


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