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The Ultimate Water Storage Guide and Water Storage Calculator
Water is one of the basic necessities of life yet in a recent survey, nearly 57 percent of Americans said they don’t have any drinking water supply in case of an emergency.
You might be able to live a while without food or shelter, but you won’t be able to live long without water. You’ll need it to keep your body working properly, prepare your food and even for hygiene.
This article delves into the necessities of water, helping you understand the importance of water, tips on how much water to use for your food storage, and even a water storage calculator to help you figure out how much water you and your family will need in case of an emergency.
Benefits of water
Sixty percent of your body weight is made up of water – it’s an essential part of your body’s make-up. Every system in your body uses water. For example, water flushes toxins out of vital organs, carries nutrients to needy parts of the body and creates a healthy environment for tissue.
If your body hasn’t had water in a while, it could start to shut down. You’ll feel your mouth start to get dry, your urine will get darker and have a stronger odor. Your heartbeat will increase and, if you’re severely dehydrated, you could begin to vomit or have diarrhea.
How much water does my body use a day?
We’ve all heard the recommendation that one should drink 8 glasses of water every day. However, the amount of water that you need every day might be different. Studies have produced a lot of different recommendations and in truth, the amount of water you need, depends on your health and activity along with a lot of other factors.
Every day you lose water through digestion, perspiration and even breathing. In order to keep your body functioning properly, you need to keep yourself hydrated. The Institute of Medicine has determined that an average male needs to drink about 13 cups (0.8 gal) while a female needs about 9 cups (0.5 gal) of water a day. However, remember that this is only for consumption. You’ll also need water for cooking and hygiene.
Depending on how active you are throughout the day, you’ll need between ¼ and 1 gallon of water just for drinking.
How much water do I use in my food storage?
The other point that a lot of people don’t think about is the fact that they will be using water to cook. Whether you are boiling water or just adding it to freeze-dried just-add-water meals, you’ll need to plan on water to supplement your food storage.
After looking at some of the cans in our warehouse, we figured some averages of how much water you’d need to prepare a variety of freeze-dried foods.
| Mountain House Meals | ||
| Water per Serving | Avg Servings per Can | Water Req. per Can |
| 3/4 cup | 11 servings | 0.3 – 0.5 gallon per can |
| Saratoga Farms Meals | ||
| Water per Serving | Avg Servings per Can | Water Req. per Can |
| 3/4 - 1 cup | 20 servings | 0.6 – 0.8 gallon per can |
| Saratoga Farms Fruits | ||
| Water per Serving | Avg Servings per Can | Water Req. per Can |
| 1 cup | 24 servings | 1.5 gallons per can |
| Saratoga Farms Vegetables | ||
| Water per Serving | Avg Servings per Can | Water Req. per Can |
| 2/3 – 1 cup | 24 servings | 1 – 1.5 gallons per can |
So in other words, in order to prepare freeze-dried foods, you’ll probably need 1/2 – 1 1/2 gallons of water per can. Figuring that most 3-6 month food storage kits have dozens of cans in them, that would mean that you’d need somewhere between 70 to 100 gallons of water just to prepare your food.
If you’re preparing food by cooking, you’re obviously going to need a lot more as you boil or mix the water with other cooking staples. It’s recommended that you have between ¼ and ½ gallon of water just for cooking.
Hygiene
You’ll need water for cooking and body regulation, but how much water do you need for hygiene? I guess that really depends on how clean you need/want to be.
During an emergency, preventing illness and the spread of disease is a major concern. Usually a disaster can decrease the water available and contaminate water supplies. Humans also tend to have less-than-desirable hygiene habits during a disaster. Even in an emergency situation, it’s important to have water to wash your hands, clean your dishes and treat wounds.
Considering that you need to wash your hands, brush your teeth and wash different parts of your body, it’s recommended that you have about 3 cups (0.18 gal) – ¼ gallon for hygiene purposes.
Water Storage Calculator
So, now that we know that you’ll be using water in your food storage and to keep yourself healthy, how long do you want to plan for?
This calculator below will help guide you to know what the minimum water requirements are in order to help you prepare.
Water Storage Calculator
Conclusion
Well, we hope that helps you understand how much water you’ll need to be fully ready for an emergency situation. Comment below to let us know if you have any questions or to help others with their preparation needs.
I maintan food stores for my pets and food and water for the family, but until I read this article, I never considered water storage for the animals. Any idea what the anticipated consumption would be for small (20#)and medium (60#)sized dogs, and my old mouser cat (12#). Thanks for more great information.
November 1st, 2012 at 4:44 amWhile this calculator is great, could you maybe add options for Adults + Kids? Obviously, 2 adults + 2 kids uses less water than 4 full grown adults and the calc doesn’t account for that. This is awesome though – thanks!
November 1st, 2012 at 7:52 amI have continers for water, what prep do you do for the water or just water?
November 1st, 2012 at 10:15 amThanks for the great information. I am with Frank B. about anticipated water storage needs for animals. We have 2, 80 pound dogs and a small mouser cat.
November 1st, 2012 at 11:58 amThanks for this …!
November 1st, 2012 at 12:47 pmThis is for Frank B. We have been storing food and water for many years. Our “rule of thumb” is 2 gals of water per person per day. That’s a little more than usually advised but you never know when more will be needed. We have several dogs and cats so we add 1 or 2 gals/week for them.
November 1st, 2012 at 3:37 pmThis is for Michael. Whenever you store drinking water you should treat it with something to keep bacteria, etc. from growing. There are products on the market you can purchase, but we just use household bleach. 6-8 drops per gallon. It’s cheap and effective and if the taste is too strong leave the lid open for a while and the taste/smell will disapate. Your water containers should be clean, of course.
November 1st, 2012 at 3:44 pmoptimum water consumption is 1 oz of water for every kilo/or @2 pounds of body weight. whether that works for animals I know not but better more than less. So a 60 # dog would need about 30oz of water or approx. a quart (32oz.) A 160 # person would need 80 oz of water or approximately 10 8 oz glasses/cups of water. Seems you could ask your vet about animal needs for H2O
November 1st, 2012 at 4:20 pmThe water containers are quite expensive for my family’s budget, but we are still wanting to store emergency water. Would the empty plastic containers that white distilled vinegar come in be good for water storage if it is cleaned and sanitized well?
Thank you for all the posts! My family & I have just started our preparedness and have learned quite a bit from the Ready Store, as well as the posts from others.
November 1st, 2012 at 4:39 pmWhile in the army planning for desert or low water environments,they figured 10 gallons of water per day per man.. Cooking eating drinking brushing teeth and washing body..
November 1st, 2012 at 9:06 pmI believe you are underestimating somewhat.. Minimum start with 5 gallons per person per day. some days more some less.. collect enough of less nice shower once per week..plan for worse,hope for best.
I have a Big Berkey and saltwater pool. Figure I can filter all I need in an emergency
November 1st, 2012 at 9:35 pmCan I reuse some of the water after I’ve used it to cook? Specifically, when boiling pasta. I wonder if I can put a lid on the pot after the first batch, and then reboil the water again to make another batch the next day. I know it won’t be pretty and might smell, but wouldn’t the temperature kill harmful contaminates that may start to grow in the water?
November 2nd, 2012 at 8:26 amI put in 6 because we have 2 adults 2 kids and a med 40lb dog not a pet it is a family member. It said 35 gals if renting or even owning how the heck you store all that..
And a way you can store water with very little warning is clean tubs out and plug fill.
Don’t forget that if you have no water and still in house you can use toilets by gravity pouring. Cup of water and he high and pour.
I figure where I live at the moment I would need about 3 days till they can get boats here to get us off our island.
And rember the simples things like can opener.
November 2nd, 2012 at 8:07 pmIf I got some of those water storage containers could they be outside in the Phoenix AZ summer heat and be okay? No more room in my house.
November 4th, 2012 at 10:14 amThank you Robert
This is to answer Robert. We also live in AZ and the answer is yes. It is certainly not ideal, especially if not protected….but….we had some (a couple blue barrels and a couple white) in our back yard – no tree protection. The blue barrels only lasted about 3 years, but the white ones we’ve had about 10 years and are going good, though they are starting to show some wear. The sun will break them down over time, so try to find a spot where they are somewhat protected. We got the white barrels from a pepsi bottling place – just cleaned them and used bleach for storage as Mela mentioned above. We also have water bricks inside; love them. Hope this info helps.
November 10th, 2012 at 6:49 pmWe have a 650 gallon black water storage tank under shade. I have not maintained it religously but have added bleach several times over several years. I figure in an emergency I could boil and filter the water. Is this correct?
November 10th, 2012 at 11:19 pmThis is to One:
January 7th, 2013 at 11:24 pmBoiling and filtering sounds good to me!
I have a tarp over my wood pile that is probaly a 12ft by 20ft. Recently we had maybe a fifth of an inch of rain and the tarp had at least 2 gallons of water in where the tarp sank and allowed the water to collect. This is mostly rain water but you could have bird droppings and other stuff in it but it would probaly be cleaner and safer than getting water from most creeks, ponds, or rivers. I imagine that you could dig a good size hole in your yard and then cover the hole and the area around it with tarps or plastic and you could get several gallons of water from very little rain. Just a thought.
March 9th, 2013 at 11:10 am