Canned water is $$$$$-What about seltzer, soda, flavored water for long term storage?

wildfireexpert - August 10, 2022

The available info on storing water is to rotate anything in plastic every couple of years.   It seems far better to buy water for storage in aluminum cans, but still water in cans like Blue Can Water (guaranteed good for 50 years even when stored in hot conditions) is horrendously expensive to buy and ship.    Is there any reliable information out there about storing cans of water that have zero to minimal calories that is “Flavored” or “Carbonated”?

On amazon you can pay $11, shipped free to your home with Prime or minimum purchase, 18 cans of, for example:   bubly Sparkling Water, Tropical Thrill Variety Pack, 12 fl oz Cans (18 Pack)

There are many examples similar to this that are readily available, cost $.50 (or less on sale) per can, and should theoretically also be good for decades with no downside since it is, basically, water.   If you have a Berkey, Sawyer Mini, Lifestraw, etc. you could also plan on filtering out any thing that may turn “bad” over years of storage.

I may prefer high quality tap water from my municipal supplier, but seems that drinking, washing, cooking with Bubly or Perrier in cans that have been stored in my garage for 12 years beats the heck out of drinking from a polluted ditch.

Staff at The Prepared–Any information on this specific topic?    Thanks!

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I am not staff, but I have been drinking (mostly water) for a long time….

Don’t over think a simple operation.  Store enough water in suitable, clean containers., inspect before you guzzle, and you will be fine,  Change the water at intervals with which you are comfortable..

I have been drinking for 85 years, climbing, hiking, and rambling through the  desert Southwest during a career as an archaeologist.  I have drunk from springs, streams, and puddles, often with no treatment at all – never had a problem..

digging on the Navajo Reservation, we once drank from a nearby stream, extremely muddy, for a month.  There were people living upstream with sheep herds.  We let the water settle ovenight, poured off the top, and boiled it – never an issue.

Dehydration will kill you quicker than any water bourne illness – first things first

 

“often with no treatment at all – never had a problem..”

I drank ONE sip of untreated water ONE time on ONE trip in the wilderness and contracted a parasite, ascaris, commonly known as heartworm. The lifecycle of it involves the heart.

Indeed, it left microscopic “scratches” on my heart valve. Which later became infected.  One week in the hospital, three months with a PICC line and almost losing my life after becoming bacteremic with MRSA and a 7mm growth on my valve to which I could have stroked out at any moment at only 35 years old.

Thousands of dollars and trips to Mayo Rochester, not to mention years of my life on hold…the doctors told me I was lucky that I did not need a valve replacement. Needless to say, I will NEVER drink untreated water or recommend doing so to anyone. 

 

😱 YIKES!! 😱 

I am sorry you had to go through that, but at least your story will keep myself and hopefully many others from making that same mistake.

Modern medicine saved your life, if you were born 100 years earlier you wouldn’t had been so lucky.

So what did they do to kill the parasite? Antibiotics would have been used to kill bacteria but how do you kill a parasite?

 

It was a prescription from the doctor; I believe it was Albendazole.

Yes, Molly, you are correct. It was hard enough to get through this ordeal with modern medicine, I can’t imagine trying to do it 100 years ago

 

Good question!

If you’re storing water long term it’s still recommended to store it in proper water containers.

Jut a few advantages of jerry cans over normal cans:

• Jerry cans are more portable (for most people): you could literally grab one by the handle, throw it on the back of your car, and evacuate with that.
• A proper water container will also be more crush-resistant (just go for either the Scepter of the Rhino). I would not feel comfortable to throw a tray of carbonated water in the back of my car (they could easily get crushed or pierced).
• A sturdy jerry can could also survive being buried under the rubble of a house, meaning that after a disaster you will have better chances to access you water cache if it’s stored in a proper container. I would not bet my money (and water cache) only on cans that could easily be crushed and pierced. The Scepter is used by the military–what best endorsement do you need? 😉
• Jerry cans can also be refilled in perpetuity: great survival item. And when you need to refill them, you can refill more water in one go and transport it wherever you need more easily.

But if you’re already drinking carbonated water, then it could make sense to FIFO it: store what you drink, drink what you use. And you would probably be fine storing carbonated water for longer than the usual 12-18 months ‘Best By’ date. If the water is flavored, the flavor after that time might degrade but the water should still be safe to drink. 

And if you’re still set on storing water long term in cans then it would make better sense to do that with Blue Can Water. At least they are make their product specifically with long-term storage in mind: they don’t use any linings that would degrade over time, they sterilize the water, etc.

 

My fear with the canned flavored water is that it might have some sort of sugar or other chemicals that will grow nasty stuff over time. Hopefully it will just degrade the taste like Carlotta says. I would still rotate through the canned flavor water every year or two and not try and drink one 50 years in the future.

 

Not sure if this is helpful or not, but whenever I’m canning, if there is space in the canner I put in a jar of water. It gets sealed and then stored in the pantry. I figure is my vegetables are good for several years, water should be too. I don’t have an extra space often so I don’t have tons of jars, but it’s slowly growing

 

@Momof6 – First–Dang woman, if you’re the mother of 6 and still canning, you are to be looked upon with awe and respect!   

Your personal solution of canning sterilized water in glass is brilliant.   From the research I’ve done, glass+sterilization+canning jars = indefinite shelf life.

However, I was mostly looking to see if any of the researchers here on this site had any definitive information about storing something other than the very expensive “Blue Can Water”.    Thank you everyone who responded.