Canning Water

Have you ever thought to can water? I never had then I ran across an article and instructions on how to can water. One would have to can a lot of water to meet the recommended 1 gallon per day per person but it is an interesting idea. Many people buy the gallon jugs of water and store that but as it has been discussed, those leak. And if you have not had one of those one gallon plastic jugs of water leak then you are lucky.Then I started doing the math and maybe canning water is not such a silly idea. I have spent $$ on those leaky gallon jugs of water but canning jars last and so do the rings.

So canned water; is it worth the effort and resources? Here is the instructions and article that is floating around regarding canning water.

How to Can Water for Emergencies
time-10 mins
Cook time- 5 mins
Total time- 15 mins
Author: Loaves and Dishes How to Can Water for Emergencies - Loaves and Dishes

Ingredients

• 1 large stainless steel cooking vessel (I used my 22 quart stew pot - but your typical 6 quart soup pot will work fine)
• Canning Jars, lids and rings
• Water
• Stove top

Instructions

1. Fill your stainless steel cooking vessel with water and heat on the stove top on high until boiling. Boil for at least 5 minutes.
2. Heat your canning jars in the oven at 175 or wash in the dishwasher just prior to your canning project and use the jars while they are still hot.
3. Have your lids and rings ready - do not need to preheat
4. When water has been boiling for 5 minutes and your jars are preheated, dip the water into the jars with a pyrex measuring cup or with a ladle and fill the jars to within ½ inch of the rim.
5. Screw the lids/bands down onto the hot jar (be careful not to burn yourself) until finger tip tight.
6. Turn the jars upside down immediately and place in an out of way place. Do not set directly onto a hard surface, put a kitchen towel down first. Allow the jars to stay upside down until cool. Jars will seal while upside down. When turning right side up, check to make sure the lid sealed by pressing the center of the cap - if it doesn't pop in and out, it is sealed. If it didn't seal, empty contents and use jar again for the next batch.
7. When cooled, mark the lid with the date and "water"

How to Can Water for Emergencies - Loaves and Dishes

The only issue with her recipe is that many (myself also) are disagreeing on her sterilizing and boiling times. I always boil my jars for at least 10 minutes, usually 15 due to elevation. Also when boiling water for purity sake, I was taught 10 minutes minimum. Some may do less but I think 10 minutes is safer.

In the article she suggests-

Some of the resources I read suggest adding an 1/8 of a tsp of sugar or salt to the water before canning. Without the sugar/salt the water may taste flat after canning. I did not do this, but thought I would mention this here in case this appeals to you. I figured I could add sugar or salt later if needed.

That is interesting and easy to test out.

 

Proper water storage is so common and easy, this "canning" seems to me to be simply a waste of jars and rings. I simply don't see the logic in it.

 

It would be easy to carry for youngsters but then so is plastic. They say that water taste funny after years of storage in plastics and allegedly, canned water tastes better. Believe me, when I first read it, it made me thing of dehydrated water (joke). It could be a health thing because plastics, leaching and chemicals are a concern for some. I have oodles of canning jars just sitting there because a prepper always has extra. I am thinking why not fill them with water.

 

I used to think water tasted funky when using GI and foreign milsurp canteens. But I found that after several fillings and changes, the plastic taste goes away or is much reduced. Some say treating with sodium bicarbonate can take the taste away too.

 

Water that sits for a long time has oxygen and nitrogen gas off, yes though sealed containers. This gives it the flat taste, so pouring back and forth adds it back in. Having a place that has multable water sources and treatment systems, I put food in jars, water in barrels just sand filtered.

 

Too bulky if you have to bug out. I'm going with these instead.

 

I'm doing good to not burn the darned stuff, let alone can it!

 

They've changed the size since 50 years ago, and now it's pop top, how easy can that be, I'll loading up on them.

Rancher

 

I know dehydrated water would be lighter but....

 

I used to send boots to Gunny or 1St Sgt
To get dehydrated water tablets all the time some time the boots were 2nd Lts I did love to run and do push ups back in the day

 

We had canned water in our survival capsules offshore, Tried some once, Pretty nasty stuff!

 

Many years back, during some serious flooding, a buddy got some emergency handouts from the Red Cross. One was a six pack of canned water, by Budweiser. He gave me a can. I keep it as a "collectible". Basic white can labeled "water".

 

I wash my jars prior to any canning but I've never boiled them to pre-sterilize - not once. Why would you need to? The reason you process them in boiling water after filling the jars with food is to kill bacteria in the food that would cause spoilage later...that's the whole point. If you don't kill the bacteria then over time your food will spoil in the jar. The reason processing times are 15 minutes or more is to provide ample time for the heat to penetrate the food in the middle of the jar. By the time bacteria in the center of the food is dead the processing itself will have killed any bacteria that is on the jars themselves so I don't believe you need to do a pre-killing.

In general I find that canning water is a waste of supplies and is completely unneeded anyway as there are so many other water storage methods to use. I have two 250 gallon tanks in my basement and that water hasn't been processed by boiling nor were the tanks pre-sterilized before I added the water. Tens of millions of people have their water in concrete or plastic cisterns and those tanks aren't sterilized.

 

If you have nothing else , use 5 gallon buckets.
Fill with tap water, add a few drops of chlorine close seal and mark and date.
When the time comes you need it, boil it and aerate it for drinking.
I have a few thousand gallons of water in all kinds of containers including old water heater tanks i've restored.
All water is going to be considered needing to be treated and or filtered one way or another .
I have a 6 gallon bucket set aside as a filter for this event .
Activated charcoal at the bottom ,fine stainless steel screen , washed sand, screen, and gravel ,and coffee filters as a pre filter.
Also have a steri pen and PPM meter for extensive testing as well as fish tank and pool testing kits. I do aqua-ponics.
Water your not drinking only needs chlorine and it's is advisable to learn how to use pool shock to make your own chlorine .
I believe that is is important to have distilled water on hand and those are in plastic gallon jugs . doing just fine.
You need distilled water for battery bank support .
Distilled water is also good to drink, ridding your body of minerals you body does not need or absorb ,some of why we have circulation issues.

 

Canning water is not a bad idea, although it quickly becomes expensive with the use of canning jars.

Let's say you want a 55-gallon home reserve, which isn't a bad starting point.

If you store it by the quart, that'll take 220 canning jars at $8.99/dozen. That's the Walmart price, and includes lids and rings.

That comes up $164.82, plus tax.

Any way you slice it, that's expensive.

There are advantages to canning water by the quart. The water is easily transported in small quantities. Easily divided up, apportioned, or rationed. It's a standard size for barter, and the value of the jar increases the trade value.

But if water is so scarce that if people are trading for it you probably wouldn't want to trade yours away.

The expense of canning jars is significant, and there's quite a bit of work involved if you can water like you'd can a jar of peaches.

Water isn't a food. It's a chemical, like salt. It's eternal. It doesn't degrade in storage. Put H2O in a sealed container, and it'll still be H2O a hundred thousand years later.

It can be contaminated by unclean or decrepit containers, or occupied by a very few opportunistic lifeforms. But that's not hard to prevent. Two drops of plain bleach per quart will make water adequately inhospitable to unwanted lifeforms.

But all you really need to do to make clean water storable for a lifetime is boil it, pour it into a glass liquor bottle, and screw the cap back on.

If, forty years later, the water comes out tasting "flat", that's no problem. It's still H2O. All that's missing is the spices we're all used to. A little absorbed oxygen and nitrogen, which slowly out-gassed into a bubble on top of the water over time. Want those tasty spices back in the water? Just shake the bottle a few times to re-aeriate it, and it'll taste as good as the day it was canned.

Hint: don't overcook your drinking water. Just bring it to boil, and bottle it. The longer it boils, the more flavor you lose.

It doesn't have to cost a lot of money to can water.

You can scrounge an infinite supply of glass liquor bottles at no cost just by making a "recycling" arrangement with a few bars. They go through a lot of bottles, and they usually have to pay to throw them away.

It's true that most liquor bottles are plastic, these days. And they can store water almost as well as glass. They won't melt if you fill them with boiling water, and the water won't evaporate out of them.

Unfortunately, the "spices" will out-gas over time, but manual aeriation will easily replace them.

So can all the water you like--just do it as cheaply and lazily as possible.

And it's okay if you empty out a few of those liquor bottles in the process.

Canning water is thirsty work.

 

They gave these out during a storm once