How long we talking here? I have stored water in my CamelBak system which is just a hydration bladder in a backpack form. Had water in some for a few months and drank it after all that time.
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In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons.
Herodotus
Basically, if you use the clear plastic bottles, use the ones with the #1 recycle code - those are made for potable liquids. You want good thick-walled bottles, for best reliability. I have several one-gallon bottled-water jugs that I keep for my 'hurricane preps'. These are the good clear bottles, NOT the 'milk jug' type.
For larger containers, the 7 gallon blue 'water cube' from most large box stores are very good. They include a good spigot, and will keep water for a year before needing to be cycled out. I use a couple drops of clean unscented bleach per gallon, for purification. A half-capful for the entire jug works well.
Some stores sell a green 6-gallon 'jerrycan' style water jug - avoid it! If left full any length of time, the weight of the water will collapse it. It is also prone to leakage. I had two of them - they didn't last.
Best for true long-term water storage are the 55 gallon blue plastic water barrels.
or a Katadyn water filter. Having some bleach on hand will take some nasty plastic taste out of the water. Also, Koolaid works well. My father used that a bunch in Vietnam. As for water quality, keeping it out of direct light also keeps the plastic from turning. If planning to store large amounts, you should buy a few blue 55 gallon plastic drums and have the water filled to the surface, then sealed with a lid.
The first article LivetoShoot posted pretty much reiterated a lot of the stuff I've read. the average houshold waterheater is a storage tank that I think is often overlooked. I'm not big on water storage as a lot of my family members have wells and we even still have flowing wells around here. But I usually keep a few cases of bottled water on hand which are rotated frequently as I keep a cooler stocked at my job sites, and I also fill my empty freezer space with two liter bottles of water. It helps the freezer stay as efficient as possible and is a great way to store H20.
As for long term storage, I just checked one of my cases and it says its good till May of 2011. My grandpa used to always fill a bunch of 3 gallon jugs of water from a flowing well and then haul them in the back of his truck back into the timber to a cabin he owned that was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. He always wanted to dig a well out there but never did, and we always just used the water from the jugs as needed, for drinking and cooking, washing dishes, and personal hygiene. One time I asked him how long the water would be okay to drink and he said as long as it was in a closed container and in a shady cool place it would be good for as long as it lasted. Not a very specific answer, but if you are filling jugs and storing them I would say as long as the jugs are sanitary to begin with and you rotate 2 or three times a year the water will be fine for consumption.
__________________ If anybody asks I spent it on golf balls.
