water bottles at Meijers

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Today I bought a seven-gallon water bottle at Meijers for $7.34. It was on sale, but I don't know what they usually cost. There is a spigot that can be used to dispense drinking water.

-- Pearlie Sweetcake (storestuff@home.now), July 19, 1999

Answers

Pearlie: That seems a bit high for a 7-gallon water bottle. Wal Mart is carrying 50-gallon water drums for $22.00. Also, Lucky's recently had their 2-1/2 gallon distilled water for $1.97. Wal Mart carries distilled water for .57 cents a gallon. I would opt for distilled water over tap water any day. Bardou

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), July 20, 1999.

Bardou,

Am interested in where you purchased your Wal-Mart 50 gal drums. Might you give more specifics, such as a State and City. Haven't seen any around Omaha, but really hadn't been looking for them at Wal- Mart either. Thanks.

EM

-- Eyell Makedo (make_do@hotmail.com), July 20, 1999.


Wal Mart in northern California. We also have two Army surplus stores that carry them too, but they are $25.00 each. Ask Wal Mart there is they can order them. Good Luck

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), July 20, 1999.

bardou:

If the water bottle Pearlie bought had water in it, the price is actually quite good, as those bottles tend to be high-quality plastic versus the thin plastic used in the 1-gallon and 2.5-gallon varieties. We can get distilled water around here for $.50/gallon, but as I mentioned in another thread, they leak after a while....a while being as early as 6 or 7 months. I had them stored in closets at one time and this leaking created quite a mess. I moved them to the garage, and they're STILL leaking and something is apparently slicing into them. The larger, higher-quality plastic bottles don't seem to leak.

-- Anita (spoonera@msn.com), July 20, 1999.


Sams Club in Northeast Ohio has had 55 gallon blue drums for 19-24$ each lately- they get a wall full and sell them out before ordering more- Just remember to measure whether or not you'll be able to get them AND the siphon pump(s) you'll need into a space with enough headroom to make it all work --- Tari

-- Chuck, a night driver's wife (rienzoo@en.com), July 20, 1999.


Had a similar problem with a leaking jug. Had bought 8 - 2.5 gallon jugs of bottled water for $1.59 ea. at Albertsons. Cost was a little more than Wal-Mart's 1-gal jugs, but I liked the convenience factor - they had a built-in handle on the top, a spigot on the side, and the bottles were square (as in would stack real nice on my shelves), and were pretty portable if need be. But they appeared to be made of the same stuff that milk jugs are made out of (I'd heard stories about them) so I thought I get a few and let them sit around for a while. After about 3 months one of them started to leak at the seam where the jug was formed. So far the others are doing fine (going on 6 months now), so maybe it was just a fluke. Where they were stored would have allowed someone to kick the jug if they weren't careful, and that may have been what happened. A piece of tape would have been enough to stop the leak. Guess I figure if I get some more jugs later this year they'll survive long enough to be used if needed.

By the way, here's my plan for storing additional water. I wrote to Rubbermaid to find out if there was anything different between the plastics they use for their "food storage containers" and their "roughneck trash cans". Their response letter basically said that their roughneck refuse containers were designed for the typical residential storage, misc. bulky items, and other non-food products. The polymers that they're made of comply with food additive regulation 177.1520 for olefin polymers (just what exactly this means I'm not sure, but I'm betting if it complies with a food additive regulation, this is a good thing). They went on to say that since the containers weren't designed for food storage they have never been submitted for NSF or USDA sanction, but they were aware of them being used this way without problems. In a nutshell, my guess is they are coming out of the same plant. Anyway, I figure, get bottled water for drinking, but a couple of 45 gal Rubbermaid trash cans will be good enough to store some "other water" such as for washing, etc. And afterwards I'll also have a couple of nice new trash cans. As with other ideas, this one will be tried out in the next week or so... figure it's always good to try stuff out before you have rely on it - later would be a bad time to find out you had a problem.

MH

"If I'm wrong about Y2K I won't be out much, but if the pollys are are wrong they'll be out in the cold...which kind of wrong would you rather be...?"

-- Eyell Makedo (make_do@hotmail.com), July 21, 1999.


For those who may be wondering, found this today after a lot of searching... It comes from the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)

TITLE 21--FOOD AND DRUGS

CHAPTER I--FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED)

PART 177--INDIRECT FOOD ADDITIVES: POLYMERS--Table of Contents

Subpart B--Substances for Use as Basic Components of Single and Repeated Use Food Contact Surfaces

Sec. 177.1520 Olefin polymers.

The olefin polymers listed in paragraph (a) of this section may be safely used as articles or components of articles intended for use in contact with food, subject to the provisions of this section. (a) For the purpose of this section, olefin polymers are basic polymers manufactured as described in this paragraph, so as to meet the specifications prescribed in paragraph (c) of this section, when tested by the methods described in paragraph (d) of this section.

-- Eyell Makedo (make_do@hotmail.com), July 21, 1999.


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