Water bladder for the tub

[Odahi]

I found this the other day. A bladder to fit in the tub, fill with water ahead of the storm, to keep soap/dirt out of the supply. It says it will hold up to 100 gallons. I'm a bit suspicious of the low price, but it's not intended to be reusable, just slit the side to drain the last of the water out of it when the emergency has passed. What say you, worth it or not?

http://www.campingsurvival.com/waemdrwast.html

[Aglifter]

It sounds about the right price - we use irradiated, one time 315 gal bags all the time, and that's about what I'd expect the price to be on retail.

[randy]

Price seems right to try one out.

They do go overboard a bit on the situations it can be used for. Never had enough warning for a tornado to fill one of these up, and most tornadoes tend not to damage water mains much. (Of course a hit on a water treatment plant or taking down power if you need a pump to bring up well water would suck, but there's that advance warning thing again).

And by the time you hear about a water main break, it's usually too late to get good water from the faucet.

Still, I guess you could use it to store captured rain water if the mains are out.

[Odahi]

Mrs. O would like to have one or two, mainly for her own peace of mind, I think. If you have advance warning, as we did for the hurricane, you'd have plenty of time to fill it. I already have several smaller-capacity storage containers, and of course the 50-gallon tank in the utility closet, but if it makes her feel better, it's worth ten times the price.

[dpatten]

They have them for the same price at Cheaper than Dirt too. you can check and see which has cheaper shipping.

http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/CAMP205-1.html

[workinwifdakids]

You know, something's been bothering me about this, and I just figured out what it is:

For this to be useful, you have to know something bad is coming, or the something bad has to be not bad enough to have knocked out the water, but you think coming bad-related badness will knock out the water in the near-term. I mean no disrespect, but it seems like not so much a useful thing to have.

[randy]

You know, something's been bothering me about this, and I just figured out what it is:

For this to be useful, you have to know something bad is coming, or the something bad has to be not bad enough to have knocked out the water, but you think coming bad-related badness will knock out the water in the near-term. I mean no disrespect, but it seems like not so much a useful thing to have.

Hurricane. You usually have days of warning time. If you're not in the primary hit zone, you might not evacuate but you might be close enough to get hit if it changes course, or to lose power or otherwise make your water supply iffy.

I could also see it useful is special situations such as you know your water supply is going to be temporarily cut off due to construction, replacing a well pump, etc.

If you're in an extended power outage and you use a pump for well water, you could hook up a generator to the pump to fill the bladder and run off the bladder and use the generator for other uses the rest of the time.

[Odahi]

Our primary use would be in case of hurricane. We have had two come close, neither of which have caused major problems for US, but for others in the area. I can easily see how it could be very useful to have a hundred gallons of water on hand, and this is a good way (I think) to keep it, and not have it contaminated by dirt or soap in the tub. We got a couple of them, and they're in the storage/pantry/safe rooom. The peace of mind it gives Mrs. O is well worth the few dollars.

[308Mike]

Having a bladder and being able to step the pressure down from the well (if it's high pressure) allows you to better be able to step the water down and filter it much more efficiently (most water filters don't work well at high pressures). I mean pumping the water into a pond with a bunch of water hyacinths covering the surface will clean the water to a MUCH higher degree than many chemical and physical filters. Just a few plants scavenged from a local sewage treatment facility will grow and spread to cover all the surface water in a pond and clean it to a degree which is actually cleaner than many/most biological/mechanical filters.

Unfortunately/fortunately, they won't live inside an enclosed bladder, so you need some kind of pond, but having a bladder will do a LOT to smooth out any/all pressure surges in your home water system so you don't feel the system pressure pulses while getting something to drink, washing dishes, or even taking a shower. Having a water bladder inline on a pressurized system smooths out the water pressure significantly.

[Windy Wilson]

You know, something's been bothering me about this, and I just figured out what it is:

For this to be useful, you have to know something bad is coming, or the something bad has to be not bad enough to have knocked out the water, but you think coming bad-related badness will knock out the water in the near-term. I mean no disrespect, but it seems like not so much a useful thing to have.

Yes, I can't see this being useful for an earthquake; in that case I'd have to close the water line at the meter and drain the system as needed out of the lowest tap on the property.