I've been browsing and visiting stores and I'm just not having any luck. Maybe you guys know!
 
I regularly lurk other survival sites and they have great advice for mainland conditions and availabilities.
 
Last place I visited was Lowes in Waikele. They have HDPE2 buckets, with lid even, but it's $7.69 or so per bucket. Home depot in town has the orange HD buckets and that's HDPE2 as well. $3.65 or so. Just having bright orange is an eyesore and highly visible. I've come to the conclusion that I'll have to go online and purchase rubber gasket lids separately.
 
Another option is, after checking craigslist, this place in Waipio gentry selling the buckets real cheap. Doubt gasket lids though. But we'll see.
 
The other issue. Water storage. I've had almost NO luck with that. Walmart in town. Nothing. Kmart in town. Some, but not-stackable. They're going into my closet and other small places. I'm thinking I'm going to have to buy them online and suffer the shipping charges.
 
If you guys have any advice, please let me know!

You can find Gamma lids at City Mill.  I dunno about storing water in 5 gallon buckets.. but shoot, give it a try I guess.

Closest thing to reasonable size stackable containers I've seen are the 7 gal aquatainers from Walmart, bout $12 a pop.  I have a few, I would not stack them though.  7 gal x 8lbs per gal = 56 lbs.  I'd be nervous about that.   The sides are bulging with them being filled up.  They also have the 6 gal ones with the slim profile, I don't care for them.  You could stack the 5 gal Menehune style jugs sideways, that could work I guess.  Seen those at Walmart and Home Depot.

If you have the space, search Craigslist for 55 gallon drums.  Can usually find cleaned out food-grade plastic ones for $20-30.

Otherwise, start saving beverage bottles 2 liters and up in size.  Costco sells a lot of juices in 2-3 liter and 1 gallon size containers.

I called up Leonards Bakery asking about 5 gallon buckets. They said they had them for $1.00 a piece (food grade) with a lid. I picked a few up, and I think they are actually 3 gallons

Wow actually that's pretty good to know too. Leonard's though....what exactly did it contain at first? 

If you are storing these buckets in closet then why does the color matter? Even if stored outside who cares what color it is.

If you require food grade buckets just ask around at your local restaurants, most times they just give them to you.

For water storage in the closet I would build a shelf. For containers I have 6 gallon jerry style plastic jugs from walmart at 6 bucks each. I don't think they sell those any more.

How much are you looking to store?

Don't forget you might have to bug out quickly. Maybe 17 buckets of water and 30 buckets of food is too much. 

I have seen a inflatable type of water jug where you can fill it up with 5 gallons of water then put it in your freezer.

Well, I picked up 10 5 gallon buckets. now I have to wait for my darn mylar bags to come in and also get started on water storage. Hehe!

I've been using 5 gallon buckets for water storage for some time.  Haul 'em up the mountain for camping, stack 'em under the garage for emergencies.  A few drops of bleach and they keep for weeks.  Plus, they nest when empty, which is nice. 

I used to scrounge containers.  Empty kitty litter jugs, old oil jugs from restaurants, that sort of thing.  Those all photo degrade pretty quickly, though.  Had 3/4 of my water supply rupture on a trip to the campsite once.  After that, I invested in 5 gallon buckets.

Do note that while bleach kills almost everything, it doesn't bother green algae.

I've been trying to get a friend to ask supply to sell him some of the military jerry jugs ( I love those things!). I know I can buy it online from stores but $35 each is kinda of  .

Unless you guys have some connections with supply?   

Yea its called craigslist! Use it!!!! Lol

I've bought some used once food grade 5gal buckets from Sekiyas Restaurant before little cheaper than HD and they came with lids.    I have the blue Walmart water cans, I have plugs for the shower drains, but I plan on getting the tub bladders.  I also have a couple large sized air mattresses that I could use to store water for flushing if it were a SHTF situation.  Fail 2 plan, plan 2 fail.

Dregs- Just wondering if you sorted out your water storage.  I picked up a pair of the blue aquatainer jugs at wal-mart Mililani.

I actually picked up a pair of the blue aquatainer jugs and a pair of the green jerry can style ones too.

The blue aquatainers - the plastic appears to be super thin. Afraid to stack more than two and probably shouldn't when I buy some more.

I've been using 5 gallon buckets for water storage for some time.  Haul 'em up the mountain for camping, stack 'em under the garage for emergencies.  A few drops of bleach and they keep for weeks.  Plus, they nest when empty, which is nice. 

I used to scrounge containers.  Empty kitty litter jugs, old oil jugs from restaurants, that sort of thing.  Those all photo degrade pretty quickly, though.  Had 3/4 of my water supply rupture on a trip to the campsite once.  After that, I invested in 5 gallon buckets.

Do note that while bleach kills almost everything, it doesn't bother green algae.

There is algae in the potable water tanks on military ships. I am pretty sure it just filters the water.

I actually picked up a pair of the blue aquatainer jugs and a pair of the green jerry can style ones too.

The blue aquatainers - the plastic appears to be super thin. Afraid to stack more than two and probably shouldn't when I buy some more.

Thanks to the tsunami scare, I was able to test some of my gear.  Yes, I didn't test my gear before the actual emergency like a jackass.  I have a few of the plastic aqua-blue "jerrycan" looking containers from Walmart.  These are the ones that hold 6-7 gal of liquid.  2 out of 4 containers FAILED after sitting 24 hrs full with water.  The problem is that the plastic is too thin to handle the weight of the water and they sprung small leaks on the bottom near the seams in the corners of the containers. 

My advice, I would not recommend these containers.  I think for the money, you're better off getting 5 gal gas containers (the red ones) in the automotive section of Walmart and using those as dedicated water storage.  I will be considering this if I can't find better containers. 

Seriously? I'll have to check my water jugs. All 4 have been filled since I bought them months ago. I haven't noticed 28~ gallons of water on my tile floor but like I said I'll have to check. I easily miss things. Maybe I got lucky and all have been ok lol.

yeah, it's possible I got a bad/old batch of containers.  I bought them all at once, but they are a couple years old.  I WILL no longer be using these containers for sure.

Quote from: Dregs on February 09, 2011, 06:27:57 AM

I actually picked up a pair of the blue aquatainer jugs and a pair of the green jerry can style ones too.

The blue aquatainers - the plastic appears to be super thin. Afraid to stack more than two and probably shouldn't when I buy some more.

Thanks to the tsunami scare, I was able to test some of my gear.  Yes, I didn't test my gear before the actual emergency like a jackass.  I have a few of the plastic aqua-blue "jerrycan" looking containers from Walmart.  These are the ones that hold 6-7 gal of liquid.  2 out of 4 containers FAILED after sitting 24 hrs full with water.  The problem is that the plastic is too thin to handle the weight of the water and they sprung small leaks on the bottom near the seams in the corners of the containers. 

My advice, I would not recommend these containers.  I think for the money, you're better off getting 5 gal gas containers (the red ones) in the automotive section of Walmart and using those as dedicated water storage.  I will be considering this if I can't find better containers.

Walmart also had the yellow and blue "gas" containers. I would buy one of those so you can color coordinate what is water and what is gas.

here's a product that may meet your needs, although it seems expensive.

http://www.shelfreliance.com/waterbrick.html

i imagine the tub bladders are a more simple idea if you have an extra bath tub.

I actually like those bricks  they look cool and functional.