Water storage - freezing

[38thfoot]

Given the recent passing of the beast from the east; for those who have stored bulk water in either those plastic cube things or anything else, has anyone had any problems with water freezing?

Do you have any insulation or plans to warm the storage room.

38

 

[Offgrid hero]

My link pipe/outlet pipe froze but I had already foreseen the problem and drawn off a week's worth into Jerry cans and stored them inside,if I had run out I would have drilled a hole in the ice(if frozen inside the tank) from the hole in the top of the tank and dropped a small 12v water pump into the water and pumped out what I needed then removed the pump and kept it dry for reuse.

 

[Ystranc]

My IBCs are in an old carriage house which is used as my store. They have warehouse racking above them with my canned goods so I have to prevent it freezing.

 

[38thfoot]

With IBCs or any bulk container I'm assuming that if they freeze it will be a layer on the top rather than all the way through.

For context I've only ever seen water freeze completely in an army 20l black carrier once butt that was minus 30 in Kosovo. We were taught to store water bottles upside down so ice formed at the inverted base rather than the neck of the bottle of tithe same reason.

38

 

[Ystranc]

It's also important not to overfill

 

[Offgrid hero]

Because I had water in containers I didn't check if the bulk of my water was frozen but I would be surprised if it was,my tanks are a couple of feet of the ground(outside) and wrapped in insulation, the cold months are better for me using stored water than the summer the water is more abundant and stays sweeter.

 

[The Cat In The Hat]

I did a bulk order of water during the beast of the east from tesco online, The delivery guy was not a happy bunny, The minute he got out of the truck he said "this whole truck is just your order" He also arrived during torrential rainfall and then proceeded to lug about fifty trays of bottled water through the rain haha. I think he thought I was barking mad. He was seething when he left and did his best to make me feel really bad muttering under his breath the whole time. I am happy with my stash of water though ha!

 

[The Boogie Man]

Starting to up my water storage, pulses, Rice & grains.

 

[ALX]

I'm wanting to store tap water in used plastic milk containers, in my shed. I have some bottled water stored in my house but room is limited. Would there be a problem with plastic from the milk containers leaching into the water? I would only use the shed stored water after boiling it. Any advice please?

 

[Ystranc]

Most products stored in plastic will eventually pick up a taste of the plastic, truthfully I'm unsure as to how safe or unsafe this is but but it certainly makes it unpleasant. If you were to rotate out old bottles and replace them with fresh ones on a regular basis it would help. Perhaps you could use the old ones for watering the garden.
Even bottled water from your supermarket has a limited shelf life. Using proper food safe water containers may mean that they're robust enough to stack or be moved/handled without splitting or leaking. Many people use the ex-MOD black plastic Jerry cans, they're not expensive if you keep a sharp eye out for them.

 

[ALX]

Most products stored in plastic will eventually pick up a taste of the plastic, truthfully I'm unsure as to how safe or unsafe this is but but it certainly makes it unpleasant. If you were to rotate out old bottles and replace them with fresh ones on a regular basis it would help. Perhaps you could use the old ones for watering the garden.
Even bottled water from your supermarket has a limited shelf life. Using proper food safe water containers may mean that they're robust enough to stack or be moved/handled without splitting or leaking. Many people use the ex-MOD black plastic Jerry cans, they're not expensive if you keep a sharp eye out for them.

Thanks for that. Yes rotating makes sense. I'd heard that bottled water had an indefinite shelf life but I'm skeptical about most things these days. Again rotation is the key but in a desperate situation any water would be better than none IMO. Al.

 

[Ystranc]

Absolute agreement on that Al, especially as you're already intending to boil it....