I have four old plastic pickle barrels 55 gallon size that I am going to fill with water. They have screw on lids so they will be sealed. How much bleach should I put in each one and how often should I open them and add bleach an how much should I add. The end goal would be to have it and boil it then drink it. Thanks in advance.

I looked that up somewhere at one point. I think it was 1-2 drops per court or something like that. Will see if I can find the site..

The table below shows how much regular household bleach to add to various size water containers to disinfect relatively clean water.

If you are treating water from a lake, stream or shallow well, use twice as much household (5%) bleach as indicated in the chart below and wait twice as long before drinking it because it is more likely to contain chlorine-resistant parasites from animal droppings.

Let the water stand for at least an hour after adding the bleach before you start drinking it. If the water is colder than 10°C or has a pH higher than 8, let the water stand for at least two hours before drinking.


Gallons of water to disinfect (equivalent shown in brackets)

Amount of household bleach (5%)
to add *
1 gal. (4.5 litres) 2 drops (0.18 mL)
2 1/5 gal. (10 litres) 5 drops (0.4 mL)
5 gal. (23 litres) 11 drops (0.9 mL)
10 gal. (45 litres) 22 drops (1.8 mL)
22 gal. (100 litres) 3/4 teaspoon (4 mL)
45 gal. (205 litres) 1 1/2 teaspoons (8 mL)
50 gal. (230 litres) 1 3/4 teaspoons (9 mL)
100 gal. (450 litres) 3 1/2 teaspoons (18 mL)
220 gal. (1000 litres) 8 teaspoons (40 mL)
500 gal. (2200 litres) 6 tablespoons (90 mL)
1000 gal. (4550 litres) 6 1/2 ounces or 12 tablespoons (180 mL)

Are the barrels opaque or see through? If they are opaque, and you plan to boil any water from them before drinking, you wouldn't need to put bleach in. or visa-wersa, if you are bleaching, then you need not boil. I am assuming at this time, you will be using tap water to fill them with. Unless you have a spring/well, then the water would already contain a certain amount of bleach.

Thanks this will be from a County water supply from my home just put in the barrels for storage just in case. Should it be reteated from time to time as I plan on sealing them and leaving them unless needed.

The barrels are a hard plastic black, So no light can get in at all. They are food grade used for pickles.