I was heading back to work from my lunch break and cut through the Loewe’s parking lot and beheld these:
Hmm. Interesting. I was curious so I pulled over to get some detail. Its a 260-gal emergency water storage tank. Conveniently, it’ll fit through a doorway. Inconveniently, it’s about 2200# when filled…so strictly a basement or garage item.
I try to keep at least 75 gallons or so of water on hand at all times, and theres another 50 gallons or so in the water heaters, but if you ever need to break into your stored water you probably won’t think that a larger tank is ‘too much’.
The reason I posted this is because I find it interesting that something like an ’emergency water storage tank’ has gone mainstream enough to be at Loewe’s. I should also like to point out that if youre in Missoula or thereabouts, Murdoch’s and Mountain Supply both carry a very large variety of water tanks…from the convenient and small 35-gal. all the way up to the monstrous and useful 2500-gal.
When I get my little hideyhole squared away there will be at least a couple of these sitting around ‘just in case’.
Think about the world we live in where this is an in-stock item at the local hardware big-box….
An excellent find!
In Mexico, even the poor people have a 100, 200, or 300 gallon poly tank on their roof above a cinder block load-bearing wall. The wealthier people bury them as a cistern and pump the water up. It’s a necessity there, not an insurance prep.
Every hardware store there sells them. If I remember correctly, they cost about $90 Pesos/liter which is about $2/gallon USD. I remember they were significantly less expensive than in the U.S.
Following. Interesting. This may be one of those multi purpose items that as a product has evolved or found markets or customer bases needs for that items appearance as a stocked and in inventory product, (not just a special order item only) at a loewes home improvement type store of all places. Folks on wells may desire them for a barn or work shop so their pump does not have to cycle and run as often. The farmer types may need them for the critters and live stock and don’t want a broke down well pump to interrupt their animal husbandry operations in a power outage or equipment failure situation. Maybe remote off grid dwellers use them in conjunction with a potable water delivery service guy that comes out with their delivered drinking water. There are quite a lot of bare existence types out there in the boonies. This may be indicative of the favela, hooverville trend in America with the slow sliding economy and degrading nation state causing some interesting lifestyle changes, and adaptations. Thanxs for the field report Commander.
Stay hydrated, stay frosty
If you know anyone in a largish food supply/service type job, you could probably get food grade 55 gal barrels free.
When I was working at a restaurant supply delivery service, they were always throwing out empty Ethelyne glycol and sanitizer barrels we used for heating the recirc pumps on cooking oil storage tanks and general cleaning on our trucks and fill boxes.
Used “food grade” IBC Totes might be available and cheaper. There is a place near my range that makes syrup or molasses or something like that and they sell them for about $35. We thought about filling them with dirt and using as backstops. If you decide to consider a rainwater collection system at your beta site, a tank like this would be a key part of it.
The IBCs’ I used (see below) were from a soft drink bottling plant. All I had to do was steam clean the insides out (once rinsed doesn’t mean clean) and shock them with pool shock.
Got pool shock to slay the critters that will colonise it?
I keep pool shock on hand for whatever might need purification. I keep it in individual Nalgene bottles because it will leak out of most anything else and break down plastics or corrode metals.
Plus, it’s CHEAP. And one pound of pool shock will purify as much as 10,000 gallons of water.
Problem with IBC totes or 55 gallons in a garage or a container on the roof is freezing risk – not to mention algae from the sun/heat. I want to bury a couple of these plumbed between well and household plumbing so the well pump doesn’t have to run so often. Would also be much easier to access on an as-needed basis during crisis situation (once a week laundry/showers/fill all household 5 gallon jugs) with a 120 volt pump and a solar ‘generator.’
https://www.infiltratorwater.com/products/infiltrator-tanks/water-tanks/im-series-potable-water-tanks/im-series-potable-water-tank/
https://www.tank-depot.com/water-tanks/tank-orientation/underground-water-tanks/
Plumb them into the water supply to the house, so the water is always refreshed.
When I had the ranch house built, I did that with 3 IBCs. I put them (empty) in the basement before the first floor went on, and stacked two, feeding the third with the well supply. So, 900 gallons of stored water as my alternate.
In the current house, I have two of those containers plumbed in.
Nice!
That tank is $950 here in SC…
It always surprising what your stores carry in regards to preparedness. Wish more stores in other areas did it.
We use galvanized steel stock tanks with a simple painted plywood lid. Keeps water fairly clean before running it through a fiber filter then going into the Berky. Being able to access it for cleaning was important because harvested rainwater is full of nastiness.
Here in Texas, Home Depot carries several sizes of water tanks, up to 2500 gallons. They will deliver. Tractor Supply has some too, but no delivery option.
Amazon used to carry those tanks, they don’t seem to have them any more. But they do have some interesting storage opportunities, including water bladders – softsided, heavy duty, easy to move empty.
And they’re not very expensive…
Might be getting old, but I thought I learned about –
https://waterbob.com/
from you…
I have two on hand. It is really only good for an emergency and not a long term use kind of item. I was in the Northridge quake in 94 in LA and the water didn’t stop immediately, there was time to fill one, if I had had one. Ditto with a lot of emergencies, if you act quickly, you will get it filled before they shut off the water.
Unrelated, Frontier has a couple of what I think are 20 round mini 14 magazines in their used magazine box.
One is kind of rusty, but I bet you Dustin would give you a good deal.
:::thumbsup:::
Just curious. Why is it “Loewes”? Inside joke?
Im a gun nut…my first inclination is to spell it the way its spelled on the old Ludwig Loewe Mausers.
Most excellent! (I am not as well versed in firearms like the Mausers)
I passed this on to couple friends and each of us had different prices based on our areas from Lowes. Bless their little hearts.