- Used 55 Gallon Drum
- Bung Wrench
- 1 Cup Unscented Bleach
- Hose
- High Pressure Valve Attachment if Available
One of the common complaints about emergency preparedness is this – “It’s just too expensive”. And while my first reaction is to say, “When you’re starving and cold you’ll be willing to sell everything you have for some freeze dried lasagna and a wool blanket”, I do understand the monetary constraints many preppers have on their emergency preparedness budget. Especially in this economy.
Water storage in particular can be very pricey very fast. Considering you need a minimum of a gallon per person per day (2 gallons is optimal) that is a lot of water storage containers to purchase. 55 gallon drums are at a phenomenal price of $69 bucks on average. And with two people to supply water for – that means you need 13 55 gallon drums plus an additional 15 gallons stored in something else. That means you’re looking at nearly a $900 investment. OUCH!
But have hope my friends! Normally if you look around enough, suppliers of different sorts will get their product in 55 gallon drums and are looking to sell them to the first buyer for around $7-$15 each! So now, what would’ve cost you $900 is only going to cost $195. That’s 78% off your water storage! It’s like Black Friday came early.
The only down side to buying used 55 gallon drums is the cleaning you’ll have to do to make them safe for water storage. Personally – I find that kind of savings more than worth the time it takes to clean them.
I personally, just bought 7 used 55 gallon drums containing vanilla extract and peppermint. So let’s go through the steps of cleaning your drums.
Step 1: Spray Down & Rinse Out
Depending on what was previously stored in your 55 gallon drum, you may have the ingredients all over the inside and outside of the drum. You want to clear off all of the residual ingredients so when you fill in your water you don’t contaminate it. Also, fill up the inside with about 5 gallons of water and swish it around for a couple of minutes. You want to get most of the easy gunk out so the bleach can break down the tough stuff.
After swishing it around for about 3 or 4 minutes, dump it out. If you had remaining ingredients in the drum, make sure the water isn’t coming out clear. If it is, swish it around a little longer to break up the ingredients.
Once the inside of your drum is clean, rinse off your bung and the threads around the hole to get any ingredients off of them as well.
Step 2: Disinfect with Bleach
Fill up your bucket 1/4-1/3 of the way with water. Add 1 Cup of bleach. Secure bung with your bung wrench so your can toss this thing around without the water spilling out. Aggressively shake your drum for 5-10 minutes. Hold it upright and shake it back and forth. Put it on it’s side and roll it around. Do whatever you have to to make the water violently hit every square inch of your drum.
Step 3: Dump, Test and Repeat if Necessary
Unscrew your bung and check your drum. Come up with some sort of test to determine if the ingredients have been removed. For example – some of mine contained vanilla. So I would check the side walls to see if there was any visual remnants of the vanilla and I would smell inside of the drum to see if I could still pick up the vanilla scent. If I could only smell the bleach I called it good. If I smelled the vanilla I repeated Step 2.
Once you’ve cleared your drum as ‘good to go’, drain it.
Step 4: Rinse
If you have a high pressure valve attachment for your hose screw it on. If not, get ready to use the old thumb to create a high pressure rinse. Spray out the inside of the drum thoroughly. Once it’s rinsed, drain it.
Replace your bung and spray off the outside of the drum.
So that’s it folks! You are now $705 richer from using used 55 gallon drums versus new ones. Never forget – emergency preparedness and frugality CAN coexist. So get to swishing and happy prepping!
Supplies:
Used 55 Gallon Drum
Bung Wrench
1 Cup Unscented Bleach
Hose
High Pressure Valve Attachment if Available
Process:
Spray down the outside of drum and bung. Fill the inside of the drum with about 5 gallons of water and swish it around for a couple minutes. Dump out the water and make sure you expelled most of the remaining ingredients from the drum.
Fill up your bucket 1/4-1/3 of the way with water. Add 1 Cup of bleach. Secure bung with your bung wrench. Aggressively shake your drum for 5-10 minutes. Shake it in every which way possible, making sure the water violently hits every square inch or your drum.
Unscrew your bung and check your drum.
Come up with some sort of test to determine if the ingredients have been removed. For example – some of mine contained vanilla. So I would check the side walls to see if there was any visual remnants of the vanilla and I would smell inside of the drum to see if I could still pick up the vanilla scent. If I could only smell the bleach I called it good. If I smelled the vanilla I repeated Step 2.
Once you’ve cleared your drum as ‘good to go’, drain it.
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This is excellent. Do you have suggestions where to get these inexpensive drums? I live in the Los Angeles area. Where should I look?
First try local classifieds listings. Most newspapers will list all of their classifieds on their website so you can search the term “55 gallon drum” in their site search. If you don’t find anything there check with your city for the registered businesses in the food industry. Look for bakeries, ice cream shops, etc. Call around and see if any of them have leftover drums from bulk food deliveries. Let me know if that doesn’t work and I’ll see what I can find for you in the LA area.
I think I found some on Craig’s list. I’ll check some of places you mention as well. Thanks
Your local feed stores usually carry used food grade-gotta rinse them good and bleach them then rinse well & treat well with water stabilizer. Ours were only $17.99 versus 59.00.
I have 55 gal drums which contained antifreeze for boats. Any suggestions on how to properly clean out this type of chemical?
Truthfully I would strongly advise against using them. The general rule is not to use storage containers that have been used to store chemicals or other un-edibles. If however you have a heavy-duty water filter (I like Katadyn brand) I suppose you can clean them as best as you can with the bleach and just plan on filtering all of your water as you use it. Just make sure you mark your drums so when the time comes you know which ones contain the contaminated water. Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful :/
Thank you so much. That makes perfect sense. :)
Jen,
I would not use that container for drinking or cooking. I would mark it and use it for flushing the toilets or cleaning the honey dew pots. So it is not a total loss in getting it.
How would you clean a 1000gal container which previously held cooking oil used by a bakery?
I used these to work my horses over and around, for the kids to learn to ‘walk’ around the ring, to set saddles on, and to store water for the horses in the case of impending storms or power outages. HAd them 20 years, never regretted getting 12 of them.
I don’t really understand the longevity of stored water. Does it “go bad” after a period of time? Does where you store it affect it’s useability? I’m curious how long the water stored in these drums is good for.
Or, is the point that I’d be starting with cleaner water from my barrels than I might get from a lake or puddle in an emergency, but I would still need to run this stored water through a filter prior to drinking?
The “shelf life” of water remains an unresolved debate in the preparedness community. Some people rotate their water every six months, others a year, others five years and some not at all. Water stored in leaching plastics like 55 gallon drums should be filtered before drinking regardless, so I don’t bother rotating mine any sooner than every five years simply because I intend to filter it anyways. If you don’t plan to filter it even while using a leaching container I would play the “rather safe than sorry” card and rotate it every year. Hope that helps!