55 gallon drums for food and water storage...

[bornthrifty]

where do you get em?

I know car washes use drums but I am not sure about using something that holds/held chemicals

not to mention I think maybe I want food safe...

do have to go pay retail and buy them or what?

what do you use, and where do you get them, thanks!

 

[Farmfresh]

I don't use barrels for storage, but I did make some wonderful planters from barrels.

The ones I got came from Pepsi. They originally held soda syrup. They cost me $10 and $15 each depending on the size. I bought them from a recycling place.

I also found this site on the internet Barrels

 

[philpatton]

A 55 gallon drum is going to be heavy when/if you move it.

Plus if you plan on stacking it you are going to have to have some heavy duty shelving units. Also when you open a 55 gallon drum you have the potential of having the remaining food spoil. These are a couple of the reasons that most folks chose to store in 5 gallon buckets.

 

[SKR8PN]

I had two different source for them and both of them dried up. First one was 30 and 55 gallon food grade barrels that had been used one time with a sugar based liquid in them (Think Smuckers Jams and Jellies ) My second source was a company that made flavorings. Some of those drums still had a heavy scent of whatever flavor was in them (the watermelon flavor smelled GREAT! ) so I just used those for my diesel fuel. The milder ones cleaned up with a light bleach solution and a good rinse or two.
Check out Craigslist for a supply near you.

 

[AnnaRaven]

I know this is an old thread but, I just saw a 55gallon food-safe barrel at Costco for water storage, with a syphon.

 

[AnnaRaven]

So - wondering - we have a pool in the backyard. It gets regular chlorine treatment. If TSHTF, temporarily or longer-term, it seems to me that we have a pretty major source of water for quite a while. Now, I have a waterfilter (katadyn) to run it through. But, I'm just curious what others think - does it make sense to *also* have a 55gal barrel of water as well?

 

[SKR8PN]

I would. The pool could become contaminated. Water is something you can't have to much of in a SHTF scenario.

 

[k0xxx]

We have two 55 gallon drums that we use for food and one that is currently used for water. The food barrels each contain 5 gallon mylar bags of wheat that were vacuum sealed and the placed in the drums when we didn't have enough buckets. The water drum is a food grade drum that we purchased new. I can lean and roll the full water drum on its' edge and move it when needed, and we have a hand pump to draw out water.

We have three 375 gallon tanks for most of our non-potable water needs, but we use the drum for cooking water.

 

[TanksHill]

I bought two food grade 55's on CL. That one at cost co seems a bit expensive. Emergency Essentials sells them for $70. I think if you look around you can find a much better deal.

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