STORING WATER IN BARRELS

Used Pepsi syrup barrels were often used during the Y2K prep days to store water. These blue plastic barrels are very sturdy, will not rust, and thus have advantages over steel barrels for water storage. They are also a real drag to clean, as the syrup residue is thick and sticky and requires a considerable amount of flushing and cleaning to remove.

The disadvantage of attempting to use a barrel for water storage instead of a regular water tank is that the bungs are on top of the barrel: there is no easy way to get the water out! That means water must be pumped or siphoned out of each barrel, a tedious process at best.

Water storage tanks, on the contrary, are tapped at the top for an inlet, an overflow pipe, and for a bottom tap. The bottom tap allows water to be drained from the tank by gravity flow alone. The overflow top tap may be connected to the inlet tap on another tank, and the outlet taps connected, so as many tanks as desired may be hooked in series: all connected barrels may be filled from a single source and drained from a single pipe or hose.

With barrels having only 2 bungs on top (at best), and the top not being removable to allow for installation of a hose bib on the bottom, connecting them is difficult. The barrels must be laid on their side, the bungs lined up vertically, then connected in series. The disadvantages are that any space above or below the bungs is wasted, so a 50 gallon drum may actually have only 35 gallons of useable storage capacity.

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