*Increasing Your H2O Stores In A Hurry*

By Jaden

01 April 2004

You’ve got the heads up that a severe winter storm is coming or that some uncontrollable weather/manmade or whatever malfunction is coming to your AO soon. Authorities are saying to expect long-term power outages. Your alternate power system is ready to go. You’re preps are ready to go. However your power system can’t run your water pump. You’re water stores are topped off…but being a survivalist you think "How long is long-term?…maybe I should get some more water on hand." All of your containers are full…but are they?

Go fill your bathtub up. Use cold water. No need to use hot water cuz it’ll soon be cold anyway.

A bathtub will hold a lot of water.

I don’t recommend drinking or cooking with bathtub water…. little microscopic crawly things. However it can be used for toilet flushing, sponge baths and anything except consumption.

Hit the kitchen and fill up pots and pans. You can get a few more gallons this way.

Pot & pan water can be used for anything.

Next stop, the Tupperware storage drawers. Dump out the drawers and fill ‘em up. A few more gallons. I wouldn’t recommend consuming this water either…germs ya know.

Ok, you’ve got everything you can find filled up, but you’re not done yet.

Go to your water tank. There you will find a gauge, a valve and a pressure switch. My drain valve is to the right of the gauge. The gray box with the wires is the pressure switch. This is what turns the pump on and off.

This switch is set to 35PSI max. I haven’t bothered to change it.

Come to think of it…I think I will.

During your container filling frenzy you used a lot of water. The pressure might not have gotten low enough by the end of your last fill to turn the pump on. This means your tank isn’t full. Here’s how to manually start the pump.

Remove the plastic cover from the switch. Be careful...there is 220 volts AC in there. It bites, how do I know this? Inside you’ll see this-

Don’t use your finger for this next part. You might get bit…. Trust me..ok :o)

Use a NON-conductive object (like the edge of the plastic cover) and lightly hit the contacts. The RIGHT pic shows it best. You see the screws; just to the left are the contacts. Using the cover push them toward the screw. A little love tap should force them closed. It’ll snap closed and you’ll notice the PSI on the gauge rising. This means your tank is filling.

Now…if you want to cram your tank full-

On your tank there should be a label. On this one underneath the WELL-X-TROL name there is info. It says "max working pressure 100PSI) That means you can wind the pressure right to it.

Let’s say in my case the pump shut off pressure is set at 35 PSI. I want to put more water in the tank even though the pump automatically kicked off. Using the plastic cover, just hold the contacts closed. Even though you’re going over the switch setting the pump will run. When you release the pressure on the contacts they’ll pop open shutting off the pump. Just keep a CLOSE eye on the gauge to make sure you don’t over pressurize the tank. If you somehow do… turn on the sink for a few seconds to release some of it. Even though my tank is rated to 100 PSI I’d only take it up to about 90 PSI…just to be safe.

Worst case scenario…you’ve used all your water. You can’t get anymore out of the sink upstairs cuz there’s not enough pressure. Go back to your tank. You can get a little more water from the drain valve.