Good News for Extending Your Water Storage Prepping
Water storage prepping is an important aspect of emergency preparedness. In times of natural disasters or other emergencies, access to clean water may be limited. This article discusses the benefits of water storage prepping and provides tips on how to properly store and treat water for long-term storage.
Previous Extended Water Storage Prepping Testing
It's been a thundering, rainy day. So, I thought it would be fitting to go ahead and write this blog on such a day. The pictures above should show you how much water can be available to take advantage of. Well, a few months ago, I set up a collapsible rain barrel so that I could capture some rain water and then put it through a survival/camping water filter. The point of this was to see if it's a viable option to use a rain barrel and a survival/camping water filter to extend my water storage prepping supply. A couple of water testing kits were obtained. I took a sample straight from the water I had recently collected in the rain barrel, as well as a sample of that same water put through the survival water filter.
The raw sample was a little concerning due to the bacteria and other things present. But that was to be expected. The filtered water looked good, but it didn't test for bacteria. So, I needed to compare apples to apples in a sense, and got the same type of testing kit used for taking the raw rainwater sample. So, I got another rain water testing kit.
The Results are In, Folks!
This sample was taken over two months from the first ones. And I didn't empty the rain barrel since it collected rain near the time I took the first sample. This was near the end of January 2023. Guess what that means? The barrel got some new residents which were discovered when I drained some of the water from the rain barrel to collect a sample. I saw what may have been mosquito larvae and algae.
I collected the bucket sample and used the survival/camping water filter to purify the water. That water went straight into the sample containers. I can say that the water did look quite a bit better. It was shipped out on April 4th, 2023, the same day it was collected. I was a little anxious to get the results back, and I received them on April 14th, 2023. The filtered water had a pretty good score. It looks like it would be safe to drink that water. But I definitely don't want you to take my word for it. So, how about a link to the results so you can see for yourself? You can find the report here.
I do want to note that the report mentions potential plumbing issues. However, that doesn't apply here since the water went straight from the rain barrel to a sample bucket, and then it went through a survival water filter. It's final stop was the sample container.
Great News for Extending Your Water Storage Prepping Efforts
I'll say that I'm pretty glad, overall, that I live in a part of the country that gets a lot of water. But that water won't mean much if it isn't of such quality that I can make use of. The testing results show that the survival water filter was pretty effective at purifying the stagnant rain barrel water. I'm glad because although I've explored more conventional means of storing water, the containers were a bit expensive. And they don't hold the water that that one rain barrel holds!
So, if you are looking for a fairly inexpensive way to make your water storage prepping efforts go the distance, you could do well with the rain barrel and survival water filter combination. To put things in perspective, it was a little over $100 per pack of four five gallon water storage containers. And I got three sets of them. That brings me to 60 gallons. The rain barrel cost about $70 at the time of purchase, and has a100 gallon capacity. Lastly, the survival water filter was about $70. It turns out that I can get close to twice the capacity for around half of the cost. Go figure!
If you like informative posts like this, join the newsletter below for more free information. You never know when disaster might strike. So, it's high time you get a move on in better preparing yourself. After all, you are your own best advocate for your well-being. And if you aren't, you should be! Feel free to ask questions or drop a line with a comment or use the contact form in the navigation. One last thing, while the state that I'm in doesn't generally have an issue with collecting rain water, your state might. Contact me if you need help finding out what your state requires.