Cheap Onboard Pressurized Water DIY

***DISCLAIMER***

I drilled my holes for the schrader valve and spigot too big so this review may be flawed. I am planning on purchasing a replacement cap in order to re-drill holes.

***END DISCLAIMER***

I ended up purchasing a

WaterBrick 1833-0003 Stackable Water and Food Storage Container, 3.5 gal, Tan

WaterBrick on Amazon for 19.99. These are made of HDPE Plastic the same material as a Scepter or LC Industries military water can. These are also BPA free. I don't plan on using this particular unit for drinking/potable water but rather for cleaning. These WaterBricks are also a veteran owned company and make some quality products!

Upon receiving the package the waterbrick looks like a huge lego. Which is funny because the design is made so that you can stack these up in order to make a chair, wall, platform, or to just save space overall.



These are the 3.5 gallon jugs and they are pretty beefy. I could stand on these and they would not bend (I'm sitting at around 200lbs). Nevertheless, onto the DIY.

I ended up purchasing a 3/4 inch

$12 Mueller Industries 102-354HN No Kink Hose Bibb, 3/4"

spigot from Ace Hardware which is much like the one that was hyperlinked. I also purchased a brass nut that threaded onto the top of the cap in order to prevent air leakage. However, I cut my hole too big into the cap of the waterbrick and screwed up my whole airtight goal. As you can see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG9iRGlfmtQ&feature=youtu.be there is air escaping from where the hole was too big. I even attempted to add an O-ring to eliminate it but the hole is still a hair too big.

I also purchased a bolt on tire stem (shrader valve) to pressurize the jug. This hole was ALSO cut too thick so I attempted to use washers on both the top and bottom of the lid in order to eliminate any air escaping. For tubing I ended up using a flexible tube purchased at Ace that is about a half inch thick so it would fit my adapter for the spigot to a tube as seen in this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_-LNYu8z2M&feature=youtu.be

If you are going to attempt this you need to get a flexible tube because of the way the waterbrick is designed. Since they have those two holes in the middle of the jug there are thick pieces of plastic inside that block any solid tube to go into the jug.

Here is a video of the entire thing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY94Q62KeiY&feature=youtu.be

You can see that even after fiddling around with various O rings and fittings there is still air escaping from that damn oversized hole that I drilled. It does hold pressure for a couple of minutes but you would need to pressurize again. I do believe that if the hole was the correct size that the water pressure would be increased and the stream would be more steady.

Nevertheless, the jug itself can hold between 5-15 psi depending on how much water is in the jug. It does stretch the jug out but it has not leaked at the seams. The only place that there were any air leakages were from my holes that were drilled.

I hope to update this if and when I order the replacement cap.

The total price if done correctly could be less than $30-40 but since I ordered things that were unnecessary this cost me over $50 including these fancy ass brass fittings and extra stuff.

 

You might have better luck at. Plumbing wholesaler with a bulkhead fitting.