Waterbutt drinking water

[mikefranks]

Hi everyone. Hope everyone is doing well. My new place has 2 water butts 210L each. What’s the best way to clean / purify this water for drinking purposes in the event of no running water. Anyone tried this? Is there anything that I could buy to process the water and make it safe to drink

Thanks

[Yorkshire Andy]

Hi everyone. Hope everyone is doing well. My new place has 2 water butts 210L each. What’s the best way to clean / purify this water for drinking purposes in the event of no running water. Anyone tried this? Is there anything that I could buy to process the water and make it safe to drink

Thanks

Fill with fresh if you think shtf is coming water butts and stagnated water are a recipe for legonella and Garda


From a us site guessing it's us gallons not UK

https://njaes.rutgers.edu/fs1218/#:~:te ... of%20water.



Corse filter first using a millbag then boil then drink via something like a sawyer filter or a lifesaver bottle

[Yorkshire Andy]

Autocorrect

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/giardiasis/

[Frnc]

Puri tabs and a filter are a good combination. Sawyer make good filters. As Andy said, fill with fresh water if you think the s is going to htf.

I like the idea of catching rain water on a tarp. If you put a clean tarp out when it's raining, you should collect several litres and it should be pretty clean, but I would stilll use filter/puri. Boiling is good, but you aren't gonna be wanting to waste fuel.

I keep about 60 litres in containers, and change it every 6 months. I keep them covered to keep light off. I would still use a puri tab, but filtering shouldn't be necessary.

Legionaires grows above 25, so could be an issue in the summer, but more likely outdoors in the sun.

[GillyBee]

Making water butt water drinkable CAN be done but it is a huge amount of work and special filters etc. Drinking water should be free of many things including bacteria, parasites, viruses, chemicals etc which is why it is hard to do. You can look at the specialist suppliers for aid work to see what they suggest. (e.g. Berkey/British Berkefeld Sawyer etc)

You may be better to think about water use in functional layers.
e.g.
Untreated water but water will flush the loo, preserving your "good" water for drinking.
Rough filtered and heated to 60C would wash clothes but not OK to drink. It may be OK to wash hands, face, body too.
Stored drinking water - for drinking, cooking, cleaning teeth & babies.

Prepping in the UK for an outage of up to a week or a boil notice is eminently sensible. Prepping for never seeing water again is another matter completely so decide which one youwant to put your money and effort into first.

[jennyjj01]

Prepping in the UK for an outage of up to a week or a boil notice is eminently sensible. Prepping for never seeing water again is another matter completely so decide which one youwant to put your money and effort into first.

It's a tough investment choice: The concept of a long term outage of domestic water that has flowed 24/7 for a lifetime is almost unthinkable. So unlikely, but so devastating if it happened.
Anyhow, my suggestion is get a few hundred Purification tablets which would work with water butts or any other harvesting source.
https://evaq8.co.uk/oasis-water-purific ... 62861709a2
Cheap and easy to store.
Couple with individual issue water straws.

Also, store what bottled drinking water you can to get over the smaller, but more likely, hiccups.

Boiling water would be a luxury if tshtf.

Pre-shtf, if there's a warning, fill every big vessel, such as wheelie bins and hot-tubs. Just volume of water will be the aspiration, purification will be for later.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Boiling water shtf isn't a luxury puritabs / bleach / chlorine will eventually run out....

There's always someway of making fire be it matches lighters flint & steel magnifying glass / fire drill /chemicals / electrical

A Kelly type kettle will minimise fuel consumption / increase productivity of boiled water ...

Shtf dirty water will kill you faster than many other issues dirty water = dissentary / cholera


Be aware that boiling / puritabs / filters won't remove chemical traces so some activated charcoal might be handy to stock

[ForgeCorvus]

Hiya Mike
How much do you want to spend?
There are nearly as many answers to your question as budgets.

The other thing to think about is what your catchment surface is (you said waterbutts so I'm going to imagine its your roof)

Its a serious question, bad water kills.

[mikefranks]

Hiya Mike
How much do you want to spend?
There are nearly as many answers to your question as budgets.

The other thing to think about is what your catchment surface is (you said waterbutts so I'm going to imagine its your roof)

Its a serious question, bad water kills.

Hey!
So it’s flat roof, down the gutter and then into a Waterbutt 210L, was thinking of using this for washing clothes, veg (that I’m growing) / bathing etc. from the answers I have gotten now maybe not drinking. I feel water supply is important so would allow to buy a filter system and testing kit to test the water once filtered so it can be used

[ForgeCorvus]

Flat roof.... Roofing felt?
If so, not so good for drinking.
Ditto a lead roof, a metal roof in zinc, copper or stainless steel are best for harvesting drinking water.

As others have said, use your water butts as a source of clean(ish) water for non-drinking uses.

Theres loads of information in the "Water" section of "Food, Nutrition etc" Here