[Farmer]

Here in aus you can get a diverter so the first 20 gallons runs off elsewhere to clean the roof then it fills the tank. Basically its a tennis ball in a tube, the tube fills then the ball closes off the opening and the water diverts to the tank.

By the way i live in the country and have drunk straight tank water all my life, if you drink a little a few times you might get sick once but then your imune and can drink it anytime.

[sunwheel29]

The problem isn't the water, or the gutters on your roof. Its the mosquitos who take up lodging inside it and other polywogs that wind up using your collected rain water for a pool.

[wunhunglo]

Oh come on, the mosquitos can't drink that much??

[oldjarhead]

Quote:       Originally Posted by BloodRedStratus

Just wondering, would it be safe to use the water from a rain water barrel for drinking water if you boil it first? The type of rain water barrel I am talking of are the type that hook up to your home's gutter system and collect the rain water. Mainly they are used to water you garden and yard. Of course this is provided no nuclear blast.

Yes...bring it to a rolling boil for about five minutes and you should be good to go. If it's small quantities you need, run it through a coffee maker.
Purification tabs may make the water taste different.
You can also get a Brita filter pitcher to run the water through.
Just strain out the roof dirt, bugs, and bird poop before using...lol

[oldjarhead]

Quote:       Originally Posted by wunhunglo

Oh come on, the mosquitos can't drink that much??

You are so right!
And consider all the additional protein.
Polywogs grow into frogs who have legs which are edible when fried up in butter. Man, your own little ecosystem in a barrel.

[Deersniper]

A metal roof is better than a older composition roof, but you could collect it, pump it to a collection tank and filter and chlorinate it. Then put it in your Berky. I understand that rainfall collection is unlawful in Colorado, so check on that aspect.

[blaster]

the people who I know that live off the grid and drink their cistern water run it thru filters and a ultraviolet light device that kills the bacteria. when their water was tested, it had high fecal coliform bacteria counts from the bird and coon crap. they also had those diverters to rinse the roof & gutters. it doesnt take much for the bacteria to reproduce in a tank.

[DaTeacha]

Cisterns are fairly common in NW Ohio in rural areas. The ground water tends to have a lot of sulfur in it and stinks. They use the cistern for washing, buy bottled water for drinking and cooking.

Also, as Deersniper said, collecting the water that falls on your roof is illegal in many places out west. It seems the water is so in demand that the folks with the water rights to the river have managed to extend that claim to any water that might run into the river also. It's an international agreement involving Mexico and basically all the western states in the Colorado river watershed. California, which has very little land in the watershed, has managed to convince congress to give them a huge amount of the water. If you collect your roof water, some Californian may not be able to wash their car, so you're the bad guy. Nice, huh?

[thrillbilly]

^Now that is the craziest sh*t I've ever heard! Now they want to arrest me for collecting rainwater?
"You can have my drinking glass when ya pry it from my cold, dead fingers!" lol

[Farmer]

i know you can get sick from drinking the water but unless your very fraile it wont kill you and then your imume anyway, we call it bali belly and it lasts about a day.

[Farmer]

I think this is a big part of the problem of the world, everyone is so scared of getting sick they never get dirty, so they never get sick and their immune system isnt good enough to cope with a flu or another thing and you die. Catch 22, in the old days kids played in the mud and muck but were much healthier than now.

[blaster]

^ I agree 100%

[Dragunov]

Quote:       Originally Posted by Deersniper

A metal roof is better than a older composition roof, but you could collect it, pump it to a collection tank and filter and chlorinate it. Then put it in your Berky. I understand that rainfall collection is unlawful in Colorado, so check on that aspect.

That sounds like an idiotic law...... Why?

[Archetype_wyo]

I've drank out of mountain streams where livestock have been around before and been pleanty fine. As for collecting rain...whos gonna try and enforce such a law? Not like the gutter from your house is gonna feed the creek/river/lake 2 miles away or even 100 yards away.

Hey Drag....im gonna rain in your barrel. LOL!

[tamalpias]

To be safe just get a 3 stage filter from home depot. I have a 5 micron filter(removes physical sediment), carbon filter(removes any chemicals), and Reverse Osmosis (removes the remaining contaminants) that I paid 140 bucks for. In a scenario like you speak of as long as I can pump water through the system the water I get will be more pure than any city or even bottle water.

[Dragunov]

Quote:       Originally Posted by Archetype_wyo

I've drank out of mountain streams where livestock have been around before and been pleanty fine. As for collecting rain...whos gonna try and enforce such a law? Not like the gutter from your house is gonna feed the creek/river/lake 2 miles away or even 100 yards away. Hey Drag....im gonna rain in your barrel. LOL!

Yeah, I've done that too! And wound up with cryptosporidium.
I had diarrhea for a month before it was diagnosed, I didn't die because I was smart enough to stay hydrated and ate salt. Good thing I had insurance as the pills to kill it are $25 APIECE and I had to take two a day for two weeks. I BOIL all my wild water now regardless of how clean it is.
I never EVER want to go through that ever again.
BTW..... Crypto will ONLY be killed if the water is rolling boiled for 15 minutes, no less. I boil rain water too as bird crap tends to have salmonella in it. I've also had that and Escherian Coli. The worst part of salmonella was the bloody diarrhea and 104 degree fever. With E.Coli it was the projectile vomiting, bloody diarrhea, extreme vertigo and the 103 degree fever for a week.

BOIL your FRIKKIN' WATER for 15 minutes for Gods sake!!! Screw water purification tablets, they don't kill Crypto.

BOILBOILBOIL!!!!!!!!!!!! (Insanely ranting and babbling incoherantly)

[GlockMeister]

Quote:       Originally Posted by Archetype_wyo

I've drank out of mountain streams where livestock have been around before and been pleanty fine. As for collecting rain...whos gonna try and enforce such a law? Not like the gutter from your house is gonna feed the creek/river/lake 2 miles away or even 100 yards away. Hey Drag....im gonna rain in your barrel. LOL!

FWIW, mountain streams are usually pretty clean as the water gets naturally filtered from the sand and rocks in the stream and the rocks it runs through before it reaches the streams. It's generally pretty safe to drink.

As for who'll go around enforcing those kind of laws, well, in those states where droughts can occur on a regular basis, they do actually have people specifically to do it.

[Archetype_wyo]

Yeah I've never heard of it enforced here...and we've been in a drought for like 10 years. I believe this is the first year since that we haven't had watering restrictions.

[Archetype_wyo]

Quote:       Originally Posted by Farmer

Here in aus you can get a diverter so the first 20 gallons runs off elsewhere to clean the roof then it fills the tank. Basically its a tennis ball in a tube, the tube fills then the ball closes off the opening and the water diverts to the tank. By the way i live in the country and have drunk straight tank water all my life, if you drink a little a few times you might get sick once but then your imune and can drink it anytime.

What happens is your body isn't used to certain minerals in different concentrations so most like "getting used to the water" is you having the ability to shit through a screen door at 50 paces for at least a month or so.

[blaster]

when I was a kid we used to drink the swamp water in the Everglades with no problem. now they tell you not even to eat the fish there. all kinds of chemical pollutants from mercury on down are in the water. they said that the panthers were dying from eating the coons that had large buildups of those chemicals. water even in very remote places is still affected by civilzation's pollution. I know someone who got girradia(?) from drinking from a mountain stream high in the Rocky Mts.