I was surprised to see a brownish sediment in my 55 gal drum. I had washed the Mountain Dew drum very well and rinsed it with chlorox when I first got it. Some time in late winter or early spring I added Chlorox and filled it with water using the potable water hose we used with our camper. We tasted the water after several months and didn't taste any Mountain Dew taste and all looked well. However, since I had the time, I decided to siphon the old water out and replace it. I siphoned down to about 2" and the water had a slightly tan color and when I twisted and turned the drum, I could see sediment swirl.

I've cleaned and chloroxed some more and will refill. Better safe than sorry! Siphoning was easy with my self priming hose from Handsome Rewards 909-943-2023. It's 6' long and can be connected to a garden hose with a 1/2" adaptor; just jiggle it up and down to start siphoning action. We have an additional hose which we plan to use for transferring kerosene and gasoline from 55 gal drum to smaller container.

-- Sylvia (bluebirdms@aol.com), October 29, 1999

Answers

Yeah, those siphons are pretty cool. I picked mine up for $9.00 at a gunshow a few months ago.

-- James Collins (jacollins@thegrid.net), October 29, 1999.

Yup, got one from Lowe's, about same price.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), October 29, 1999.

The best thing that you can do for stored water when it comes time to actually drink it, in my opinion, is run it through a high quality water filter such as the British Berkefeld (can be ordered at www.pwgazette.com for example). This not only will help purify the water, but also rid it of any strange tastes or dingy colors.

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.~net), October 29, 1999.

Does Handsome Rewards have a web site?

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), October 29, 1999.

If there is any iron in your water, any chlorine solution (Chlorox) will remove it and the resulting compound will settle to the bottom. That is probably what you are seeing.

We have a lot of iron in our well water and go through this saga every year when we fill our pool.

-- John (jh@NotReal.ca), October 30, 1999.

I have to agree with the comments about iron sediments. Even though we are on rural water (the country version of city water), we have a very high iron content.

-- Beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), October 30, 1999.

We have been drinking some of the reverse osmosis water we stored last June, both in glass and in the big soda bottles. Really can't tell any difference from RO water right out of the spigot. Anyway, we are drinking the "old" water and refilling the containers and dating them. We plan to stay "prepared" for whatever comes down the pike.

-- Shivani Arjuna (SArjuna@aol.com), October 30, 1999.

I don't see any web site listed for Handsome Rewards. My packing slip listed the company as Signatures, but with the same adress as I had on the sheet I ordered from. Item #14-55496-8. $13@ or 2 for $12; however I was charged $10@ for two hoses and $3 shipping.

-- Sylvia (bluebirdms@aol.com), October 31, 1999.

Did I make a big mistake by filling my barrels with a regular garden hose? What's the big deal?

-- (rcarver@inacom.com), October 31, 1999.