Storing water

Hey Folks,

Who can tell me what about storing purified water. I’m still doing some small jobs with a mop and squeegee and I would like to keep about 10 gallons of purified (DI) water on hand for quick commercial jobs rather than breaking out the DI unit every time.

Eric

I would suggest the RHG backpack sprayer… here’s a link to it’s announcement.

http://www.windowcleaner.com/vBulletin/showthread.php5?t=3418&highlight=backpack

Blitz, a maker of plastic gasoline containers, also makes a container specifically for water. I use one of these containers to keep fresh water on the truck to fill my bucket with if I’m not around a water source. I’m not sure what the shelf life of pure water is, but I would think you’re good for a while if you ensure the caps on tightly. These hold 6 gallons.



It won’t rise in tds if that’s what you mean - as long as it’s capped well. I always store mine in 20 gal drums with a thin piece of food plastic covering the hole & the cap screwed on that (no leaks).

I run with a 4 gallon backpack and 1 or 2 six gallon gerry cans every day. Works for me. In the UK where outside faucets are not as popular as in the US a lot of guys use a backpack system all the time.

Gas cans work, but if it’s too small of a job for the whole system why bother?

A redo would be one reason. Just to touch up a few windows a customer is not happy with.

The reason I’m asking is that I’m finding that for small jobs DI purified water might not be cost effective. So, I’m thinking I’ll start carrying purified water for mop and squeegee work on small commercial and some smaller residential jobs.

Eric

I carry pure water in the back of my SUV in a 5 gallon bottle that comes on top of those office water coolers.

I used to use spring water containers until one cracked and leaked all over my van. If a water cooler bottle tips over the water will poor out as well. I think the 6 gallon jerry cans made by igloo are more durable and they have a cap. :smiley:

Will you be adding soap?

Depends on the filth on the window. If I do, it will be at the site, I suppose. Hadn’t really thought of this. Help me out here. I was assuming purified water with soap would clean better and leave less behind than dirty water with soap. True? Not True?

Eric

The minute you put anything in pure water it ceases to become pure. Plus you’re going to be putting a dirty stripwasher into it and then - you guessed it - it’s not pure anymore. It’s the lack of anything in the water that makes it work. Nature abhors a vacuum and once the pure water hits dirt on the window it literally starts trying to pull the dirt into itself. If you put something in it the process stops.

I haven’t tried this yet- but i have a few jobs with small panes, and havin DI water would be a huge advantage for time savings- so I planned on getting a pump up sprayer to rinse with pure water after agitating the debris with a mop os brush. Another idea I had- you can buy small tanks (25 gallons or even smaller) with a sureFlow pump already on it relatively cheap. About 100 dollars or so from Tractor Supply. Downfall to that is its mounted in the truck and your reach is limited by hose…