Handy Drinking Water

Swap the water out every 2 months or so - more often in summer. Tapwater isn't sterile so whatever goes into the container stays there and multiplies. It always amazed me that biofilms would form inside the vessels containing the purest distilled water we can make. NASA finds it something of an inconvenience for water recycling in space too.

There isn't ... unless you include ice cubes

Buy a can of water every few months and replace it. You can buy canned water in Tesco.

Bottled water may keep, check the dates on the bottles.

Run the tap for at least a minute before filling your container. That should ensure that you get mains drinking water and not water that has been standing in your pipes, breeding bacteria. Drop a couple of water sterilising tablets in before sealing the container. Change the water every few months.

If you're really concerned, boil a kettle of water. When it's boiling, flush out the metal flask with some of it. Then fill the flask with more boiling water and seal. Leave to cool. Whether it will still taste the same - or not - as fresh cold tap water I can't say.

Or just buy a bottle of water from a shop. I don’t normally approve of bottled water but if you’re keeping a supply for emergencies in your boot, pre-bottled water will keep much longer. A lot depends on just how long you might it expect to be festering in your boot for.

Tim

Why should it last any longer than water prepared the way I suggest?

If you use water purification tablets, it shouldn't fester at all.

First get your purification tablets. Right, I’m sure I have some here somewhere… Nope, off to town to an outside door shop to buy something I’m gonna use once in a blue moon, OR, I buy a bottle of water from just about anywhere.

Seriously, not worth the hassle.

Tim

Amazon is simpler.

I find them quite useful to have around. Then again, I drink a lot of tap water with added CO2 and the pressure bottles need occasional sterilisation to avoid becoming musty.

If you enjoy an extra dose of plastic microparticles.

You obviously lack the prepper gene.

Keep two cylinders of Hydrogen and Oxygen and make your own on demand.

I'm not in the UK right now and out here we have similar issues caused by an unreliable electricity supply which often causes the water supply to shut down.

Our routine is to keep several bottles of fresh tap water on the premises, use the oldest to water the houseplants then refill the bottle and put it at the back of the queue. Rinse and repeat.

Maybe you could do something similar? Use the bottled water from the car whenever you want to wash the lights, plates and windscreen then put a fresh bottle back into the boot afterwards?

Nick

I say support local shops. Use it or lose it.

My Brita filter unit say to use the water within 48 hours. Does unfiltered water last longer?

Filtered water practically guarantees there will be photosynthetic algae and bacteria in it (especially if the jug is in sunlight). Water from the tap once it has run for a short while is fairly clean. It goes downhill from the moment that you put it in a non-sterile bottle.

Always assuming that you have a local shop selling what you want.

Thanks. This makes sense.

I keep four bottles in a cooler box obtained from Halfords a few years ago, permanently connected to a cigar lighter socket so it's chilled whenever I go out.

What happens when you are not using the car and it is 35C outside though ?. How often do you empty and refill those bottles with fresh water ?.

I don't have it there for emergencys, I have it there for drinking when not at home.