There are a few reasons why you would be interested in having an ample supply of drinkable water stored. Whether you want to be prepared for an emergency, such as a natural disaster, or you have a cabin that isn’t connected to the local water supply.
Whatever the reason, storing a large amount of water is always a smart idea. The easiest way to do this is to purchase a 275-gallon water tank.
Right now, buying a brand new 275-gallon IBC caged tote like the one in the picture above costs between $595 and 625 before shipping, depending on whether you purchase a steel or plastic tank. Home Depot sells a 275 gal. Intermediate Bulk container, IBC Tank, for $399.00 right now as well.
To buy it on Amazon costs $717. That’s why I like to buy these used. The best place I’ve found to buy these is through local classified sites like Craigslist or even the local classifieds.
Who Sells Large Water Tanks on Craigslist?
As always, be careful with Craigslist. If you’re buying from an individual, it’s best to meet at a safe place like public parking for these transactions. But what you’ll find if you search for a “275-gallon water tank” on Craigslist is that these are usually being sold by companies, which makes buying them relatively safe.
See, here’s how it usually works. Companies buy large quantities of liquid materials from their suppliers. Their suppliers ship their materials in these caged totes. When the company gets their tote filled with material, they drain it and now have a used tote. In many cases, shipping the tote back for reuse is not feasible, so they just sell them locally. We’ve found companies selling these totes after they were used to ship things like wood glue or syrup.
Just make sure that if you want to store drinking water in one of these tanks, that it contained only food-grade products before purchasing it. You may spend a little more for food grade, but you won’t want anything else if you’re going to drink water from one of these tanks. In general, these types of totes are built to food-grade specifications. But a tote would no longer be considered food-grade if it contained anything that doesn’t meet food-grade requirements. So when you buy a water tank, ensure the company selling it to you specifies that it is indeed food-grade. In fact, you should ask what it was used to transport just to be safe.
How Much do Used Water Tanks Cost?
I’ve spent some time searching Craigslist in various cities. In each case, I found at least one company selling 275-gallon water totes. But the prices varied a bit. I looked in Nashville, and there were many for sale under $200.
I found many options in Los Angeles, from $150 to $200. This is the typical range I found in most cities, so you can save a lot of money by checking Craigslist.
Some even offered free shipping if you ordered a certain amount, so you could go in with friends and family and take advantage of the no-cost shipping.
People usually want a substantial discount from “new” when they buy used stuff, and water totes are no exception to this rule.
If you don’t see any at a reasonable price right now, keep checking back. The availability of these things on Craigslist can vary widely depending on where you live. If you live somewhere without much industry, you should look a few towns over. At some point, the cost and hassle become such that you may look for companies selling these brand new for around that $400 to $500 mark.
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How Big is a 275 Gallon Water Tank?
A 275-gallon polyethylene Intermediate Bulk Containers (IBCs), is specifically made with a nominal tank thickness to handle dense fluid solutions of up to 1.9 specific gravity. These IBCs boast dimensions of 48″ in length, 40″ in width, and 46″ in height, aligning closely with standard pallet measurements.
275 Gallon Tote –> 48 x 40 x 46 inches
The polyethylene tote models have a 6″ vented, threaded screw cap inlet, ensuring smooth fluid transfer, and a 2″ NPT male quick connect ball valve for efficient dispensing. For those preferring composite IBCs, they feature innovative 4-way directional access channels, optimizing maneuverability using pallet jacks and forklifts. The ingenious cubical design of these IBCs facilitates seamless integration, stacking, packing, and overall organization.
275 Gallons Tote = 5 55 Gallon drums
It’s worth noting that a single 275-gallon polyethylene tote offers the volumetric equivalent of five conventional 55-gallon drums, making it a strategic space-saving solution with enhanced handling capabilities for various operational needs. Embrace the efficiency and functionality of our new 275-gallon poly IBCs, designed to elevate your fluid storage and transportation endeavors.
How can I get great water pressure from one of these tanks?
I don’t know about you, but I hate when water comes out slowly, especially when showering or trying to fill a bucket. But how can you get good water pressure without a significant pump and a pressure tank? It’s actually quite simple, especially if you’re in the mountains. Just keep a water tank uphill from where you want to use it.
A good rule of thumb is that 100 ft of elevation change will give you water pressure similar to what you are used to in the city. A 100-ft drop of water equals 43.3 psi at the outlet. But once you cancel out the friction in the host or pipe you’ll use you’ll end up with 30-35 psi. That’ll give you great water flow. The height-to-water pressure formula is also linear, meaning that 50 feet will provide you with about half that pressure (about 20 psi).
Just remember that if you’re using water tanks to store water, the water is limited. The more you use, the more you need to bring in. And the higher the water pressure, the more water you’ll use, even for small things like washing your hands. So don’t go overboard on your water pressure. We store our main tank about 30 feet above camp right now, and it provides good flow for things like dishwashing and even filling the concrete mixer. It’s a bit slow for a good shower, so consider the tradeoffs.
How to Store a 275 Gallon Tank of Potable Water?
First of all, if you want to store drinking water, make sure that the tank you buy has only contained food-grade contents. You should make sure the company you buy it from can say, with certainty, that it didn’t contain anything that does not meet food-grade specifications. It’s probably a good idea to ask what it was used to transport.
Another thing you need to consider is the hose you use to pump water to the tank and the hose you use to pull water from the tank. You shouldn’t use a regular garden hose for drinking water. Water running through garden hoses have been found to contain lead above the levels that have been established as safe for drinking.
Go with a hose that’s designed for drinking water. This is a great one available on Amazon that’s 50 feet long. Depending on how far uphill you want to store your water tank, you may need 2 or 3.
Another option would be to run PVC or Pex tubing underground from your water storage container down to a hose spout that you place where you want to use the water. This would take a lot of work digging a trench below the frost line depth and running your PVC or Pex from your water tank down to the hose bib, but it would be a more permanent water storage solution.
If you want to do something like this, make sure you know the frost depth where your cabin is. Our cabin has a 3-foot frost depth, which means that in the winter, the ground freezes to a depth of up to 3 feet. So for underground water lines, we would need to dig a trench at least 3 feet deep. We just don’t store water outdoors at the cabin in the winter and use a hose.
If you’re storing water in a tank for drinking, there are a few things to keep in mind to keep the water safe to drink and free of algae. If the water you put in the tank is clean and safe to drink, then you shouldn’t need to treat it if you’re going to use it fairly quickly. But if you’re storing it for a while, here are a few tips to keep in mind.
- Keep the container out of the sun and away from heat sources. Sunlight and heat will deteriorate the plastic, leading to leaks, and sunlight will aid in algae growth in the water.
- Keep the container sealed shut. If the top and bottom openings are closed, the water should stay good for long periods. Even years.
- Keep the container away from gasoline, kerosene, pesticides, and other similar chemicals. The plastic can actually absorb the vapors from these chemicals and taint your water.
- If the water starts to get an odd flavor and you want to treat it, you can actually chemically treat your water in a very safe manner to kill any bacteria and make your water safe to drink.
How to Treat Your Water in Your Tank?
To treat your water, just add basic household bleach (5.25% to 8% sodium hypochlorite) that is unscented and doesn’t have any other soaps, cleaners, or color-safe products. Just the raw, basic, household bleach.
Use 1 tsp for every gallon of water in the tank. A full 275-gallon tank will take about 5 3/4 cups (sources: the University of Florida and EPA.gov). Mix it into the tank the best you can, and then let it stand for 30 minutes before drinking.
This will disinfect the water and help clean the tank and hose. I would suggest doing this one every 2 or 3 tank fill-ups, unless you let the water sit for several months at a time. In that case I would probably chlorinate it every time I fill the tank.
If your bleach is not 5.25% sodium hypochlorite, I suggest you go to the EPA website link above to see a table indicating the right amount of bleach to use based on the concentration of your bleach.
How do I Fill my Water Tank?
If you’re storing your tank up the hill from camp, you may be wondering how you’re supposed to get water to it. If the road in to camp or to your cabin comes downhill from above, maybe it’s not a problem. Just bring in a full tank and siphon the water from the full tank down to the storage tank.
But what if your road comes into camp from below? How do you get your water uphill?
If you’re thinking about moving a full water tank, think again. 275 gallons of water weighs about 2,200 lbs (1000 kg). Unless you have a forklift, you’re not moving that water tank anywhere. So what do you do?
Here’s how we handle it. We’ve bought several water tanks now. One sits toward the bottom of the property, not too far from a stream. The next sits about 100 ft away up the hill a little ways, and so on.
Submersible Sump Pump
For non-potable water that we use for basic cleaning and mixing concrete, we just pump water from the stream. We use a little 1/2 hp submersible sump pump, which we drop in the stream and connect to a hose to pump water up to the lowest water tank.
Once it’s full, we can drop the pump into there to fill the next tank and so on. It takes a while to get the top tank filled, but we just fill up all the tanks along the way every so often that we don’t ever have to fill them all at once anymore.
There are a lot of options when it comes to these pumps. Everything from very inexpensive plastic pumps to heavy cast-iron. Some 1/2 hp pumps can pump water a total height of 40 feet while others can only pump about 20 feet up. That’s not 20 feet horizontally. I’m talking about a rise in elevation.
Some pumps will move 30 gallons per minute of water max while others will do 65. So these are the trade-offs, along with price, that you’ll need to consider when buying a pump. Here’s one that I like that you can get on Amazon. You can see current pricing there.
One more thing to think about is if you want to use a submersible pump like this and if you’re going to pump from tank to tank like we do, it needs to be small enough to fit through the top hole in your water tanks.
These totes, in particular, have a 6-inch diameter hole in the top. For our pump, it’s not quite big enough to fit the pump in, so we had to cut a notch on one side of the hole to get the pump in. We can still thread the cover on that hole, but the tank we did that too doesn’t seal now—so submersible pumps like this work great for pumping from a stream. But not as well when pumping from one tank to another.
Non-Submersible Pump
One way around that would be to use a non-submersible pump. I will switch to this pump, available on Amazon for tank transfer. You need a short hose running from the outlet of a water tank to the pump and another hose to run from this tank to your next tank uphill.
It would also be great to pump from the water tank you used to bring clean water to your cabin to the water storage tank at the cabin. You have to put a little water in the pump before starting it to prime it, though. It won’t just suck the water from the tank to the pump further uphill.
But it should work great if you have the pump around ground level and connect from the outlet port on the water tank you’re pumping from. The pump should be below the water level inside the tank, especially for getting started.
If you want to store drinking water that you’re hauling in from home, you can take the same approach. Use one water tank to actually bring the water in on a trailer or pickup. Get it as close as you can to the water tank where you want to actually store your drinking water, and use a clean sump pump and drinking water hose to pump the water up to your water storage tank.
Using elevation as your water pressure source adds some inconvenience and complexity. You have to pump your water up to it. But it’s the best way to get pressurized water with minimal cost.
The alternative is to use a large pump and a pressure tank, which is what most people use in conjunction with a well. It takes quite a pump and tank to get good water pressure, which just doesn’t make much sense when you’re hauling in water.
It’s a great way to maintain consistent pressure, even when usage is high. It’s such an excellent way to keep water pressure that cities have used this method for years. This is exactly how water towers work. Water is pumped almost constantly up into water towers so that consistent water pressure is still available even when water usage is high or even when power is temporarily lost and the pumps can’t run.
How Long Does an IBC Last?
One of the remarkable advantages of intermediate bulk containers lies in their reusability. When maintained adequately, an IBC can enjoy a prolonged lifespan, lasting for several years.
Conducting a quality assurance assessment on an IBC water tank every two to three years is advisable to ensure its continued compliance with safety standards. Specific components of a rigid IBC can be substituted, and a steel frame, when well-maintained, can endure for up to a decade.
However, longevity can differ, particularly if substances other than water, such as hazardous chemicals, have been previously contained within the IBC.
How Long Can You Safely Store Water?
Water storage within an IBC water tank is safe over extended periods, yet it necessitates rotation every six months.
Prolonged contact with plastic containers may render water potentially harmful, necessitating regular refreshment for safety reasons.
When water has been stored for an extended duration, it might be prudent to administer a quality test before consumption.
Final Thoughts
Storing drinkable water is essential to protect and provide for your family in case of an emergency. Thankfully, these 275-gallon water tanks will help you be on your way to being prepared.
Fortunately, you don’t have to rely merely on the water you have stored. There are ways to capture and store rainwater and use it to supplement your water tanks.
For more information on how to do this, check out our article, “How to Capture and Store Enough Rainwater.”