Fuel and Water Storage Possibility Question

[barfife]

Can you store gas, diesel and kerosene in the 55 gal "blue plastic barrells" you see for sale?

I found a source for used blue barrells (hundreds) for $8/each nearby. They also have the 250 gal containers (white plastic within a wire cage like landscapers use-hundreds) for $70. Discount for bulk purchase.

Before they were cleaned/washed out, they formally contained phospherous that is used to make the "tang" in coca cola. Any thoughts?

If they are useable for either fuel or water storage, I will be glad to share my source in Northwest Georgia.

[harrya]

barfife,
Sorry, I can't answer your question about the fuel end of it, but washed out good will work for water AND at 8 bucks each you need to get a load of them, they are 18 bucks each about 80 miles east of you. One good thing, they won't rust. You can always use them as extra water supply off the roof for a number of things just like it is and then filter if you must for drinking. I have some set up off the gutters we use for watering fruit trees, etc, but wanted some 'extra' water just in case, painted them to match the house. Set them up on blocks, upsidedown, using the bung holes one for an outlet and the other for linking two or more together with a short made up water hose. Works good and think of how many square inches of roof you have going into the drums with only a 1/2 in rain.

[barfife]

barfife,
Sorry, I can't answer your question about the fuel end of it, but washed out good will work for water AND at 8 bucks each you need to get a load of them, they are 18 bucks each about 80 miles east of you. One good thing, they won't rust. You can always use them as extra water supply off the roof for a number of things just like it is and then filter if you must for drinking. I have some set up off the gutters we use for watering fruit trees, etc, but wanted some 'extra' water just in case, painted them to match the house. Set them up on blocks, upsidedown, using the bung holes one for an outlet and the other for linking two or more together with a short made up water hose. Works good and think of how many square inches of roof you have going into the drums with only a 1/2 in rain.

He is a great site for fiquiring sistern sizing using square footage and rainfall amounts.

If you want to come 45 miles west of Atlanta, i will be glad to share my source.
barfife

[wnchstrtnfldvlle]

I would be interested in picking some of these up. This weekend possibly. Would you be willing to share the source?

[kihnspiracy]

For portable H2O containers, we use the ones from buylci.com They work pretty well.

[harrya]

He is a great site for fiquiring sistern sizing using square footage and rainfall amounts.

The site didn't make it...
I'd like to know this info.

[Grinnan Barrett]

You would probably be fine for fuel storage if you keep then vertical (Bung caps up). The ones you describe are DOT rated and pretty heavy duty. The exception comes if you try to store something like a delimolene (Heavy duty citrus peel product like Orange extract degreaser.) That will tear up a blue or white barrel. You have to use metal or opaque containers for those type products. As for water this gets a bit touchy. Any plastic container will keep a certain amount of the product it stores in the walls of the container even after cleaning. NEVER Ever use a barrel for water if it contained chemicals other than food grade products like sweeteners, food flavoring etc. A container that held Fuel, Degreasers, cleaning chemicals, pesticides, paint, sealers, strippers, floor finish, etc. should never be used for water under any circumstances. If there is any question about a container use it for fuel, lamp oil, grease, lubes etc. Check out places like Kraft plants for food grade containers. Also remember if the container is 30 gallons or more it is going to be really heavy. A thirty gallon barrel with water weighs over 275 pounds. A 55 gallon drum with water weighs nearly 500 pounds. You will need a really heavy duty dolly to work with them. Best wishes to you. GB

[barfife]

Sorry for not checking what I was writing. Having a power outage at the time. The site, by the state of New Mexico, for figuring the size of cistern needed for storage is listed below. It goes into water storage, how to convert rainfall amounts into gallons, how to design water storage systems, etc. If you back up on the site, the article is 10 chapters and is worth copying the pdf files.

http://www.ose.state.nm.us/water-info/conservation/pdf-manuals/Roof-Reliant-Landscaping/RRL-Chapter-3.pdf

[barfife]

I would be interested in picking some of these up. This weekend possibly. Would you be willing to share the source?

Anyone interested in these barrells and 275 gal containers I mentioned, can send me an email and I will get the business name, address and phone number for you. They have hundreds of each.

[Grinnan Barrett]

The White ones in wire cages at 275 gallons and one larger than that up to I believe around 350 gallons or more are called TOTES. They are DOT rated and are used multiple times to ship chemicals across the interstate highway system. Each time they are reused they have to be inspected and rated by a certified company for use again. $70 is a fair price. You probably can get them to come down even more. It costs them a fortune to get them inspected for use again. Just be careful about what they stored in them. If there is a question at all don't use them for drinking water. Plastic walled containers will retain chemicals from whatever was stored in them. GB

[thedreamers]

The totes are good for aquaponics or just raising some fish in a container thats easy to hide around the house.

[Klayton]

Can you buy those totes from say a soda company that used them for syrup? That would seem ideal. Anybody know of a good source for those totes?