Water from Snow

[phrag_girl_WI]

Ok, having not thought about melting snow for pure water, and after hearing the suggestion, I started melting some snow yesterday. OMG, you guys, you'd think its easy -- snow + heat = water.

After 12 hours inside, the 5 gallong bucket of snow is now about 7" of some water and mostly slush.

A good idea -- I have a yard FULL of snow ripe for the melting ... but this is going to take a while LOL Hopefully my orchids appreciate the effort!! LOL

 

[goldenrose]

:rollhappy: It is amazing how long it takes to melt!
A couple of tips - can you put the bucket in sunshine? or .... Do you have a deep tub in a laundry room? Give the 5 gallon bucket a hot bath!

 

[Clark]

Hello.
Any particles on the bottom of the container?
If so, discard?

 

[Yoyo_Jo]

Oh yeah, did forget to mention that it does take awhile to accumulate a decent amount of water. It's worth it though. We're losing our snow rapidly right now as it's unseasonably warm, so I'm back to 50/50 RO and tap water...

And yes, sediment is an issue; I dump the last bit of dregs from the milk jugs I store the snow melt in into a pail and toss it outside.

 

[NYEric]

Get an R.O. system.

 

[Clark]

And don't eat the snow.

 

[Ayreon]

...especially if it's yellow

 

[phrag_girl_WI]

...especially if it's yellow

That cracked me up. ... I have 2 dogs and had to find a non-dog area to get the snow from LOL

 

[SlipperFan]

I used to collect snow & melt it -- until I got too many orchids. But I got quite good at packing it very tightly in buckets to give me over a half bucket of water.

 

[Kevin]

Get an R.O. system.

Snow is free.

 

[Kyle]

I think you've just discovered one of the most amazing things about chemistry and clmate change; Waters abiltity to hold and resist/buffer heat(temperature change).

 

[NYEric]

Snow is free.

Not in the Summer in NYC! oke:

 

[Kevin]

Snow in winter, rain in summer. I myself don't use snow. We can collect enough rain water in the summer to last most of the winter.

 

[lindafrog]

I used to collect snow for the phrags. Nasty work in cold weather. We live in the country with good air-- or so i thought until I saw all the tiny particles in the bottom of the melted water.. It takes so much snow to get a gallon of water. Seems like it would be better to buy refillable gallon jugs of water.
The cost is there but much less trouble.
Lindafrog--

 

[cnycharles]

if you buy one of those 50- 100 gallon stock tubs from farm supply stores, you can just shovel away and fill it up. a stock water heater could melt the snow since it's purpose is to heat water just enough for stock to drink it. neither is very expensive, and if you just have a few plants then you can drain off water as needed and set it somewhere to warm up. where there's a will, there's a way...

always seems funny to me to be talking of buying water, of course I live where there is a good amount of it, usually, year-round. not so in a lot of other places

 

[tocarmar]

I use a rain barrel all year-round. The winter I have to chip the ice, put it in 5gal buckets in the laundry room till it melts . Then I use a flour sak & large strainer, to filter out the particles. Then I have 2 35gal garbage cans in the basement to hold the water, I use fish tank filters to filter the water until I use it. I've been doing it this way for about 5 years.

 

[SlipperFan]

I also have a rain barrel. I use a horse tank heater in it in the winter to keep the water above freezing -- around 40ºF. I siphon out the water into buckets and bring them into the house to warm up before I use the water. Works fine, but I'm getting tired of hauling buckets.

 

[tocarmar]

I am tired of it too!! But I have real bad sulfer water, we added a Culigan System w/chlorine & salt to help with the sulfer so I don't use my water for the kids or house plants. It cost a small fortune to rent it each month. But with the sulfer so bad it eats everything it can. The house is about 45 yrs old. We will be moving in a year or two. so I can deal with the water problem a little longer.
It is only bad for about 2 months in the winter. I try to save as much water as I can. We have been lucky with the weather this year I think I had to break the ice 2 times. I have filled the cans in the basement + some 5 gal pails & use them 1st.

 

[Corbin]

Does anyone add anything to their stored rainwater to prohibit "souring" of the water? If so what do you use?

Thanks,

 

[SlipperFan]

Does anyone add anything to their stored rainwater to prohibit "souring" of the water? If so what do you use?

Thanks,

In the summer, sometimes I add a little bleach. In the winter, the cold takes care of any problems.