[boardrx]

Hey all, I'm new here and I signed up because I'm looking for some advice/opinions on water storage.

I live in the Portland, OR area and found a guy who sells 'recycled' 55-60 gallon drums for water storage so I picked one up recently. I sanitized it by filling it with several gallons of bleach water and coating the inside over and over for about two days. I then fully rinsed it out, drained it, then filled it with water and a four teaspoons of bleach to keep it clean.

The one thing that concerned me while filling it is that I noticed the Chinese name on the top. I Googled this name 'Xíngfa' and all I could come up with was a company that ships chemicals.

Although the guy who sells these maintains that they are all food grade, safe, and steam cleaned by him, keeping water in something that 'may' have once had an unknown chemical in it kind of worries me.

I'm keeping it filled for now because my water actually did go out for a few days a couple of weeks back and I felt stupid for not having this already filled. For now, it's at least a little peace of mind that I can use this water to cook or clean if need be. I'm worried about it as drinking water, though, and hesitant to use it for cooking also, since I know so little about where it came from.

What do you think? Am I right or wrong to worry about it? Not knowing what was in it, what would you do?

Edit: Here is the website for the company whose logo is on the barrel. http://www.xingfagroup.com/EN/products.asp. Under the Products section, they list the following categories: Phosphates Technical Grade Intermediates Flame Retardant Herbicide Tooth Paste Addititives Phosphates Food Grade Feed Grade Phosphate

 

[Ripon]

I wouldn't be too concerned. Most of the nasty stuff goes into metal barrels and the blue polymer / plastics are usually food grade.

 

[TxCombatMedic]

Knowing the Chicoms they probably painted the barrels with blue colored lead. Nawww...we're gonna freak this guy out for no reason. I currently have 22 barrels at my place. 6 blue like yours but I know tomato sauce was in it because I picked them up at the food dist warehouse. In regards to your situation you sound like you did a great job in the sanitation process. I use my 6 for rain catch. After a while the barrels get real funky inside anyway. I always filter the rain water in my Berkey if we are going to drink it. For the last year we've been using the unfiltered water for our garden and rabbits/chickens with no issues from "the funkiness within". When I say "funkiness" I mean algea and scum that growns in them. As a note...be sure to keep the top either screened or covered until the rain comes to keep the 'skeeters from breeding.

Maybe the funkiness that will grow in yours will naturally clean it at a molecular level in time??

 

[GTGallop]

Unless you own a barrel factory, you will always be taking someone else's word.

 

[boardrx]

Thanks for all the replies. I will try not to let it worry me too much. After cleaning it out with bleach, it didn't smell like anything but bleach. I'll never know what was in there but we stock cases of bottled water for drinking, I'll just try to use this big barrel for cleaning, and if necessary, cooking.

Thanks!

 

[punch]

Unless you own a barrel factory, you will always be taking someone else's word.

food grade 1s usually white and will have a NSF logo. I would use those for rain barrels or showering but not for potable water. Just have separate container for drinking water. Around here we have 275 gallon totes on pallets from Honey Distributors so I know they are food grade but I think its too big for drinking but fine for the garden or showering. Just my $.02

 

[Dunbar]

I would also have some water purification packets on hand as well.