BE AWARE: Hyperchlorination of water is not good...

[ElevenBravo]

Well, I reckon it happens to the best of us! I forgot the water bill, and... it was already past due. The termination notice sat on the table unacknowledged... Until they shut our water off.

Oh joy... The wife is holding back a panic but my calm demeanor reassured her "NO PROBLEM". I get paid in two daze, and it will be back on that day.

So, to make a long story short... Ive got several USGI water jugs filled with water, and a 7gal Aquatainer too... Not to mention a metric butt load of 2l bottles. But
the topping is the 55gal rain barrel... thats right, not drinking water... FLUSH water. 2.5 gal (1/2 a 5 gal bucket) quickly sloshed into a potty will cycle the turds away. Bad side, the hassle... Now me, I could give a rat's ass... but the wife I think its a little soft and not as patient.

So I describe that were in good shape.. No dirty dishes and no dirty clothes, that puts us ahead of the game.


I show her how to fill a flush bucket and use it... to her obvious delight.

I also fill a pot of water to heat on the stove, a 110 deg F. pot of water emulates a HOT shower! (I did the research, put a thermo in the shower stream).



Using the Zodi camp shower, I pull about 4 gallons of water out of a heated stock pot for her to shower. The joy on her face was not observed... BUT she had a hot shower (Me, I enjoyed the whole ordeal).


The Aquatainer was stationed on the kitchen counter to water the dog, make ice cubes, tea, etc..

I tried the tea at 3:30am the next morning as I was getting ready for work. It tasted like she used pool water, and the shower I took this morning... You could SMELL the chlorine!

So, what happened is I used three cap fulls of bleach to each 5 gal container of water to shelf stabilize it for LTS... and that was a butt load TOOO much because when it was all over I looked and it was one TEASPONE per 5 gal water.

I suffered that day at work... I do NOT work in the A/C so I sweated a bit... The back of my neck and my crotch was RAW from the hyperchlorinated shower I took, the dog hardly drank her water and the tea tasted like a swimming pool.

For the love of everything, use the right amount of bleach in your stabilized water!

I hope my story brings to the forefront of paying attention to detail in all aspects.

Cheers,
EB

[piranha2]

Hint - get a pool chemistry test kit. 1 part free chlorine is enough.

[Gunfixr]

Hint - get a pool chemistry test kit. 1 part free chlorine is enough.

Very good, I hadn't thought of that.
Thanks.

[Grumpy Old Man]

Filter all treated water with a ceramic type filter!

[ElevenBravo]

Ceramic takes out small bits... CARBON removes offensive taste, IIRC.

Still circles back to, use the right amount of bleach. :-)

EB

[David Armstrong]

I've got a notecard taped to the wall by the spare water that lists what is appropriate by method and water. Clean stored water versus lake or stream water, liquid bleach versus tablet, etc. Makes it easy to remind oneself of the correct doses.

[bacpacker]

Excellent idea DA!

[Katrina]

Very good idea DA. Hadn't thought of that. Thanks

[Gunfixr]

Is there any reason that the chlorinating tablets for pools cannot be used instead of liquid bleach?
I realize that you'd probably have to break off a small piece, but the tablets are dry, and concentrated, meaning storable.

Liquid bleach loses its chlorine to evaporation, especially after opening.

Seems the only tough part is figuring out how much to use for a specific amount of water. It might prove best to simply pound it into a powder, where it would be more easily measurable. Plus, it could be vacuum sealed, maybe in pre-measured sizes, ready to use for the forseeable future.

[ditchmedic]

We recently had extremely hyperchlorinated water in an area of town, due to construction.

The official story was the contractor screwed up, but the chlorine is added at the treatment plant so I don't buy it. A few people ended up hospitalized.

I say its their own fault, when you can go on the news and say there was a "strong chlorine" smell, yet still drank it, thats on you.