Really, it’s the “Unfrozen” Water Test.
Remember week before last when we knew this weather was coming and I hauled 46 gallons of water into the house from the garage, along with quite a few cases of Dr. Pepper? I was afraid it would all freeze in the garage and I didn’t want to lose the bottled water if the plastic jugs cracked.
I save my one gallon milk jugs and large juice bottles, rinse them out, fill them with tap water and put a big “X” on them and keep them for flushing toilets and washing dishes if something happens to our water.
Here’s a story I saw on the news the other night and I may have mentioned it already. Abilene has three water treatment plants and my understanding is that they can supply water from all three or two and if necessary but not ideal, just one. They also have them set up so each one can run off at least two power substations. If one substation goes out, they can flip a switch (or something like that) and feed off a different substation. What they never planned on was ALL substations being out so Abilene has been totally without water for at least two days. Sometimes, when everything fails, no amount of forethought and planning can escape a catastrophe and that’s what happened this week with Abilene’s water and though unlikely, it’s possible that something similar could happen anywhere. So, we keep lots of bottled water. Vince uses distilled water in the CPAP, we buy drinking water because he won’t drink the tap water here, I use spring water for making bread since I don’t want chlorinated water messing with my yeast. I know . . it may not hurt but it may.
Anyway . . I left this bottle sitting on a cabinet in the garage. I put it near the garage door and near the walk through door and in the far corner away from the inside so no escaping heat could keep it warm. Monday night it was -13 when I got up and this bottle of water had zero ice.
The “flush” water also had no ice.
What I learned from this experiment is that so long as the temp isn’t going to be below -13, I don’t have to bring all the water inside. I’ll probably still bring the Dr. Pepper in or, better yet, I’ll stop drinking them! I’d hate to have that sugary mess to clean up. I should have left one sitting out in a plastic bag just to see what it did but I didn’t want to waste one. 🙂
ruth says
I, too, keep ‘toilet water’ in my garage, but not in drinking water/plastic milk jugs ever since one sprang a slow leak on a wooden shelf. I use the hard plastic Juice bottles and the empty plastic liquid laundry jugs. They last a lot longer. It never freezes in my Maryland garage.
Judy Laquidara says
The water sits on a shelf unit and I have a long “mat” but it has sides and it’s for keeping boots on so the snow doesn’t get on the floor. If there’s a leak, it would leak into that tray but if not, it’s just the cement floor and there’s a drain. I thought about using liquid laundry detergent bottles. Do you rinse them out really, really good? I was thinking .. it would cost me more in water to rinse those out than it would cost to buy a gallon of water but then, having a little detergent left in there might clean the toilet. Kill two birds with one stone!
Karen J. says
Judy, check out the Berkey filtering system. We’ve been using it for over a year and love it. Although we have bottled water for an emergency, we no longer need it for drinking and cooking. I’ve even gone back to using ice cube trays.
Judy Laquidara says
Vince has checked into those and it isn’t for us. The main reason I don’t want one is that if the water is out for several days, we would still need bottled water. Since I pick up a couple of gallons every time I place a grocery order, which happens once or twice a month, we have plenty. For one thing, Vince figured out the cost and it would take a whole lot of 58 cent gallons of water to justify the cost of the Berkey and filters, but there are other reasons for Vince.
Vicky says
Being on a well, during weather like this we fill our washing machine beforehand and use that water to flush toilets with if necessary. I used to fill the bathtub for this purpose but the washer works better for us.
Nelle Coursey says
They have just put out a boil water notice for the people in Brownwood TX. This is really a mess here! A mess that never should have happened! Heads are rolling in Austin!
Judy Laquidara says
Brownwood said that’s a rumor – Brookesmith has the boil advisory but Brownwood doesn’t. I will be surprised if heads roll. I hope I’m wrong because this has been handled horribly.
Nelle Coursey says
Still 2 million people in Texas without power tonight!
Susan Nixon says
Great test. I’m glad everything passed. I know our garage doesn’t get as cold as outside, but I also don’t have most of my water stored there.
Twyla says
Thanks for all the water storage ideas. I will start using my detergents bottles. And recycle the empty water bottles with an X. I will set on newspaper on one of those boot-shoe things you put by the door. I already keep about 6 gallon jugs of drinking water at all times. I am going to increase to 10 or 12 plus the detergents bottles for toilet. We have melted snow now for the toilet. It takes a LOT of snow melted to accumulate enough for commode tank.
Carol says
Abilene was only totally without water for a bit over 12 hours. One plant was up the next day. (My brother lives there.) This whole mess has been tragic for so many. We are Dallas area and to our shock, we’ve never lost power at all tho being very conservative has not been very pleasant at all. It’s still an emergency situation and we know things can change any second.
Judy Laquidara says
Thank you for that correction. I got it from a friend who lives there and had seen part of it on the news. Obviously I am not there so I appreciate the correct info.