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My wife and I are looking at disaster preparedness - survival food stocks and the like. Obviously one of the most important things is access to clean water. There is a creek directly behind our house, so we have a read source for water, but it obviously needs to be purified. So I'm looking at the Lifesaver Jerrycan - http://www.lifesaversystems.com/lifesav ... r-jerrycan

I'm wondering if anyone has one of these and especially, if you do, if you've used it. Worst case scenario, if the water system fails, this would allow us to have drinking and cooking water.

Here is a link that has some details about the Crown Berkey Water Purification System

It claims to remove pathogenic bacteria, cysts and parasites, particulates as well as certain chemicals.

http://p5preparedness.com/product/crown-berkey/

Look at Big Berkey systems. Looks like they filter more (heavy metals, virus'). I have one, but haven't used it. Yet.

gljjt wrote:Look at Big Berkey systems. Looks like they filter more (heavy metals, virus'). I have one, but haven't used it. Yet.

How does it work? Do you pour water into it? Connect it to a water line?

Poor water into the upper container. It flows through the filters into a nozzle releasing the clean/pure water into the lower container. Highly polished stainless steel. Well crafted. You could make your own and save a few bucks. Buy the filters separate and use two food grade buckets ($5 each) - Lowe's carries food grade buckets. They will be white and labeled food grade. That and a drill and your set. Search YouTube.

I live about a half a mile from grapevine lake I can drive over grab a few buckets of water bring them home and boil them. There's also a bunch of long horns across the street so during the zombie apocalypse I can still BBQ

Richbirdhunter wrote:There's also a bunch of long horns across the street so during the zombie apocalypse I can still BBQ

Of course if the zombies reach them first, that would be some nasty brisket!!

baldeagle wrote:My wife and I are looking at disaster preparedness - survival food stocks and the like. Obviously one of the most important things is access to clean water. There is a creek directly behind our house, so we have a read source for water, but it obviously needs to be purified. So I'm looking at the Lifesaver Jerrycan - http://www.lifesaversystems.com/lifesav ... r-jerrycan

I'm wondering if anyone has one of these and especially, if you do, if you've used it. Worst case scenario, if the water system fails, this would allow us to have drinking and cooking water.

Well, if you're taking the, in case the a problem arises route, my son could teach somebody a whole bunch. As soon as he could (he was always working out of town) he purchased 12-15 Huge Boxes of MRE's (meals ready to eat). Each BOX is 6' long by 14" wide & EACH BOX weighs 88 llbs. They take up an entire "true" walk in bedroom closet. PLUS, 25 "CASES" of bottled water, PLUS over 20 "CASES" of Vegi's ( green beans, corn etc) Many packs of different Batteries, & that's not all. I'm confident that is all of what I know he has, he has much much more stuff in case the a problem arises.

Before you buy anything read read read or for this century YouTube YouTube YouTube. Just filtering water may not alway make it drinkable there are some tiny little boggers tbat pass through filters. For food, freeze dried has longest shelf life of 25 years.

suthdj wrote:Before you buy anything read read read or for this century YouTube YouTube YouTube. Just filtering water may not alway make it drinkable there are some tiny little boggers tbat pass through filters. For food, freeze dried has longest shelf life of 25 years.

The Lifesaver Jerrycan and the Berkey setup filter out viruses, microbes, heavy metals, etc., etc. at a 99.99% rate or better. That's why I'm looking at them. I'm not looking at things that can filter. I'm looking at things that purify.

Richbirdhunter wrote:I live about a half a mile from grapevine lake I can drive over grab a few buckets of water bring them home and boil them. There's also a bunch of long horns across the street so during the zombie apocalypse I can still BBQ

What happens if gas isn't available? Are you going to walk the half mile?

I'm game planning the following scenario. The economy collapses. Grocery store shelves are empty. The city water system isn't working, because electricity is down or the city can't afford to keep the pumps running. Gasoline isn't available, because all the nearby gas stations have shut down, because no one can afford to buy gas any more. You're basically on your own. You can survive in your own home for up to six months until things return somewhat to normal. Lots of blankets in the winter. Open all the windows in the summer. The two things you cannot do without are food and water, and water is super critical. You can only survive three days without water, and that water has to be purified. You can survive three weeks without food. If you have food, you can ration it and survive a little longer. But nothing can be refrigerated, because electricity is down. What do you do?

When I lived in California we had some earthquake preparations.
I had two 55 gallon [plastic] drums filled with water.
They were food grade and had previously been used for curing olives.
Even after washing several times I could never get all of the smell out.
Fortunately we never had to use them.

I don't think that viruses can be filtered out of water unless maybe with a powered RO system.
I think that they are too small for gravity fed systems.
That said I don't think that very many dangerous viruses that live in water.
Maybe someone else knows better than me.

Boiling is a good way to sterilize water, but it takes a lot of energy.
Unless you have a big propane tank on your property I don't think that's a good way to go.

For heating food and cooking I have a small butane stove and two cases of butane canisters.
I also have a gas grill and three 5 gallon tanks of propane and about 50 pounds of charcoal.

For light I have several small solar panels, rechargeable batteries and many portable LED light sources.