LDS Freedom Forum

Wow am I proud of myself. I no longer have to wonder what to do about emergency water. Like many of you, I do not have the space to store all the food I need along with the water required for my family. I just bought a Berkey Water Purifier from www.BerkeyProducts.com and I can now purify water from any source to be drinkable and actually good tasting. There is a creek behind my house and I can now use the creek in an emergency as a water source to provide my family with drinking water. Not to mention my tap water tastes so much better. I bought it for emergencies, but I like it so much that I use it every day for my drinking water. Instead of storing water, I can now produce more than 6,000 gallons of pure drinking water from any source (except salt water). and the Purifier cost me $209.00 and takes up about 1 sq foot of space in my house. Storing water is now not necessary for me. This purifier solved my water needs. I strongly encourage everyone to check it out for yourself.

I would still store a little water "just in case". Streams do run dry.

Katadyn makes top notch filters also....

SmallFarm wrote:I would still store a little water "just in case". Streams do run dry.

You are right. It is always a good idea to store as much as you can, but I just don't have the space to store too much. That is where the purifier helps me!

foust1012 wrote:

SmallFarm wrote:I would still store a little water "just in case". Streams do run dry.

You are right. It is always a good idea to store as much as you can, but I just don't have the space to store too much. That is where the purifier helps me!

I started keeping about 50 gallons of water on hand at all times. I wish I could store more. And thanks for the good tips on water purifiers. I can't afford one yet but I am working on it. One other thing that can be done is to get a good solar stove. Then you can boil all your water if you have access to it.

Wiikwajio wrote:

foust1012 wrote:

SmallFarm wrote:I would still store a little water "just in case". Streams do run dry.

You are right. It is always a good idea to store as much as you can, but I just don't have the space to store too much. That is where the purifier helps me!

I started keeping about 50 gallons of water on hand at all times. I wish I could store more. And thanks for the good tips on water purifiers. I can't afford one yet but I am working on it. One other thing that can be done is to get a good solar stove. Then you can boil all your water if you have access to it.

If you want to get a great water purifier for a great price, let me tell you what you can do. Buy the Black Berkey elements from www.berkeyproducts.com and the Berkey light replacement parts kit. That will run you about $120.00. Then buy two food grade 5 gallon buckets and Drill two holes in the bottom of the one you want to put on top (the dirty water chamber) then for the bottom bucket (the clean water chamber) drill one hole on the side about 1.5 inches from the bottom. Now you basically have a Berkey system. The only thing that really matters is the Black Berkey elements. you can even go to you tube and search "homemade berkey" and find videos on how to do this. It will take you about the same amount of time it would take you to put a real berkey system together. I hope that helps the money issue!

Lots of commercial elements that work as well or better for much less $$$$. Place in SLC called NPS that has piles of them for just a couple of dollars....pain is figuring out the fittings to plumb them into a system.

Hmmm...I kinda like my rain barrel. It stores
50 gallons and the water stays pretty clean.
If I need to drink it I have a handy dandy
little water purification straw from Aquasafe
that works like a charm. So simple!

The garden plants just love drinking that
stored rainwater, too.

Best Regards,
Sharon in Mississippi

Have you seen the big self-draining water barrels? We found them at http://familywatertanks.com/
That's a whole lotta water in my garage now, my DH says he feels much better with it there. We just had a few of the blue barrels before. Now I'm thinking we need to strap it to the studs like a water heater tank, in preparation for that earthquake... or would that yank out the wall?

If you're in the Wasatch front these guys have the best deals on the blue barrels....

Industrial Container and Supply
http://www.industrialcontainer.com/

Price list -
http://www.industrialcontainer.com/Food ... torage.pdf

Also good deals on 5 & 6 gallon buckets for food storage.....tons better than #10 cans!

Now if you want something bigger (than 55 gallons) for water storage then these guys are a great way to fly -

Rotational Molding of Utah
http://www.synergyplastics.net/Products ... 0main.html

Upright tanks -
http://www.synergyplastics.net/Products ... right.html

Have to get the 500 gallon or 1500 gallon tank to save money over the blue barrels in terms of $$$/gallons......BUT the bigger tanks (100 and 300 gallon tanks) are taller and thus take up less space in a garage or basement.....so might be worth it if space is a major issue. They also have spigots and a spout on the floor that you could attach a hose/pump to.....rather than use the cheesy plastic pumps for the blue barrels.

Honeyville Grain often has sales on the 100 gallon containers for $88 but you have to pick them up at the store out in the industrial park past the airport.....don't think you can order them over the internet.
http://honeyvillegrain.com/

Man, I am severely wanting that 1500 gallon beast! Money is just too tight though!

Original_Intent wrote:Man, I am severely wanting that 1500 gallon beast! Money is just too tight though!

LOL Leaning towards getting the 500 gal myself. The 1500 would take up most of the garage....and space is already tight with all my gym equipment.

The Lord (and good generous people) provides. I was at Lowe's getting a drinking water safe hose to fill my 55 gal barrel, and in the checkout I asked if they had the blue barrels for storing dringking water. Clerk said no, but the guy behind me in line said he was moving and he had 6 55 gal drum that I could have for free if I would pick them up from his old house. I could only fit 5 in my truck, but my storage just went from 55 gallons to 330 gallons - cost a few gallons of gas and a couple hours drive round trip. They are not the blue barrels they had blueberry syrup or something in them, but they are nice white food grade barrels.

I thought that was very cool

I think that storing water is very important. My problem is that I have no space. Also, if I need to be on the move for some reason, a 55 gallon drum of water or even worse a 1500 gallon tank would be way too hard for me or anybody to transport. This is the primary reason that I think that it is important to have a way to make purified water. And for me, this is where the Berkey system helps very much. I can make 6,000 gallons of drinking water and the thing weighs about 3 pounds. There is a lot of great information abut the Berkey system at www.berkeyproducts.com. this is the site that helped me make my decision.

I just read all of my posts and I realized that I look like I have been paid by Berkey Products. LOL. I have not. I just think they have good info on their site. I wish i got a commission though!!

foust1012 wrote:I just read all of my posts and I realized that I look like I have been paid by Berkey Products. LOL. I have not. I just think they have good info on their site. I wish i got a commission though!!

You should send them an email with a link to your posts

foust1012 wrote:I think that storing water is very important. My problem is that I have no space. Also, if I need to be on the move for some reason, a 55 gallon drum of water or even worse a 1500 gallon tank would be way too hard for me or anybody to transport. This is the primary reason that I think that it is important to have a way to make purified water. And for me, this is where the Berkey system helps very much. I can make 6,000 gallons of drinking water and the thing weighs about 3 pounds. There is a lot of great information abut the Berkey system at http://www.berkeyproducts.com. this is the site that helped me make my decision.

I have a Berkey as well. Never used it but it is in storage just in case. So I will have 330 gallons drinkable on hand and the berky for if I need to go one the move and/or have a source of water.

Original_Intent wrote:The Lord (and good generous people) provides. I was at Lowe's getting a drinking water safe hose to fill my 55 gal barrel, and in the checkout I asked if they had the blue barrels for storing dringking water. Clerk said no, but the guy behind me in line said he was moving and he had 6 55 gal drum that I could have for free if I would pick them up from his old house. I could only fit 5 in my truck, but my storage just went from 55 gallons to 330 gallons - cost a few gallons of gas and a couple hours drive round trip. They are not the blue barrels they had blueberry syrup or something in them, but they are nice white food grade barrels.

I thought that was very cool

Awesome!!!

I've never used Berkey water filters but have had great experiences with Katadyn. Most of the Katadyn filters are good for 60,000 gallons.

This is where our artesian well at our ranch comes in handy. It's not likely to go dry as it was tested at 300-400 gpm. I suspect we will be supplying water for LOTS of folks if and when the grid goes down. It sure tastes better than the water in town. We haven't built a home at the ranch yet so we had to buy a water purifier for our home in town. It was a bit expensive but I couldn't gag down the water from the tap. YUK.

fastest, easiest, cheapest way(even than 55 gal. drum), is get the 2/$5.00/24 pak water in the store, get enough to rotate for six months, you can get by on ONE pak/person/month.........all prepared and ready to drink