The WaterBOB is an excellent tool for last-minute emergency preparedness, especially for those who live in an apartment. Designed to hold up to 100 gallons of fresh tap water, it gives you a way to quickly store water in an emergency – even if you don’t have the ability to stockpile large quantities of it on a regular basis.
Basically the WaterBOB is a large, well made plastic bag, with two threaded connections built into it. Made of heavy-duty BPA free plastic, it will keep water fresh and safe for up to 16 weeks. From everything I can see, it is well made, with thermally-sealed seams that are a good half inch across for strength.
Working with the WaterBOB reminded me a lot of filling and emptying a waterbed mattress, although the plastic isn’t as thick or as pliable. But I’m sure that, once filled and sealed, it would be strong enough to lay on (if you had some reason to want to sleep in your bathtub).
I was able to fill the bag in 18 minutes, with the faucet on high. However, I was unable to put 100 gallons of water in it. Rather, according to my calculations, I put only 73 gallons of water in it, during my test. This was no fault of the device, just that the bathtub I was using wasn’t big enough for it. I was working with a standard size apartment bathtub, which measured 54” long, 24” wide and 13” deep. A good foot of the bag was left sticking up at the end without any water in it, and it could have gone another three or four inches higher, if the sides of the tub were higher.This is something to keep in mind if you choose to buy one yourself. While an excellent product in every regard, it is limited by the size of your tub. You really can’t put more water in it than your tub can hold. When you get to the rim of the tub, you’re as full as you can go.
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Filling was extremely easy. There are two threaded caps on the device, one in the middle and one towards the end. A plastic bag funnel, which comes with it, fits over the tub spigot and attaches onto the nearer threaded fitting. Then you simply open the faucet. I held the funnel in place with a couple of rubber bands, keeping me from having to hold it there with my hand.Once filled, the funnel is removed and the opening capped. The other opening is then used for withdrawing the water. This is done with a simple siphon pump that works fairly well, although slowly. The manufacturer recommends not leaving this pump attached, but rather, removing it and capping the opening when not in use.The siphon pump is fairly cheap and the cap on it wasn’t very high quality – but it worked, and that’s what matters. I keep a couple of pumps of this type around anyway, for use with other things, so if there was a problem with this one I would just replace it with another.
My biggest problem with the WaterBOB was actually emptying it. But then, I don’t think the manufacturer was thinking that people would fill it up then empty it again a few hours later. The idea is to empty it slowly, by using the water in it.
However, this did lead me to think about reusing the device. I would say that like many types of emergency equipment, this device is intended for a one-time use. Even working at it I found it hard to remove all the water and air, so that I could dry it off and fold it back up. On the other hand, folding wasn’t really all that bad. I have mine folded up and stored, for the next time I need it.
But there’s something else I did besides just empty it and fold it up; I washed it out with a weak solution of chlorine bleach. That way, I don’t have to worry about algae, mildew or anything else growing inside it. A solution with 2% bleach is enough to keep it clean.Overall I was impressed with this product, and I would recommend it to anyone, especially to people living in apartments. The ability to store as much as 100 gallons of water in a few minutes, in a way that will protect the water from contamination, is a real plus in an emergency situation. For the price, this product can help anyone be more prepared to face a disaster.
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Rich, since there are two “ports” on the water bob have you tried blowing it up like a balloon using a hair drier then opening up the second “port” just enough to keep the bob inflated while still allowing the hair drier to push in air until the system is dry?
This was my first thought, too. The concern is then only a matter of not melting it – but most blow dryers do have a ‘cool’ setting now, which should work.
Where do you buy them? and how much are they?
You can purchase them from the official website (https://waterbob.com/) or Amazon
Where to buy /how much?
Amazon has them for about $35.00.
Where can i buy a WaterBOB? I think the idea is terrific.
whats the cost and where can a person buy this water bob.This year i thought i was prepared to ride out the stormof Florence i had several cases of drinking water bottles and fourteenone gallon bottles of purified water Electricity went out for twelve continuous days My home generator lid was blown off and about 2:AM the winds and rain ruined the computer on it and alas no power five days later everything seemed ok then i was able to find two local men to help on removing debris clothing sheetrock and furniture as well as mud from garage when they finished demolition i paid them and thanked them within 2 hours i found my remaining water bottles ( seven gallon bottles and all but 12 drinkink size were Stolen as well as my prescription of pain releivers.. Happily the local fire station had just received hel and had water bottles and i had to go ask for help and God bless them they gave me three gallons on that day after that i had to ask again and they graciously gave me three more to get me through… Note i did Turn this over to the authorities and maybe they will be able to proscecut the scoundrels i am 73 and remember back in the fifties my mom would clean the bath tub and fill it as full as it would hold it came in very after Hazel i was nine then but i remembered it well after my preparedness wasnt enough. thank you and i like the idea of the water bob especially for back up
Thanks Richard M. for the article on WaterBOB. Ordering one from Amazon com. Same price as web site.
What an excellent invention…….i always mentally fussed over drinking bathtub water……and having water open to ‘all that passes in the bathroom’. Kudos to inventor.
For emergency’s don’t get this product at all. So you keep this inside the bathtub or other similar container like say a large farm tub?? . sooooo. for farm tub maybe…. bath tub…. NO. … just clean your bathtub…. quickly silicon seal a bag over your drain and your if you want your overflow drain and just fill up the tub? You could even silicon some plastic bags over the top to keep it clean during the storm… some planks of wood over top would be wise rather this bag or home brewed as just described
I would point out that until it has cured completely, silicon seal has some rather nasty chemicals in it. Unless it is labeled as food grade silicone seal it might be advisable not to use it around water that you hope to be drinking.
Most applications of silicone seal are not for use around food prep or supple. This also includes water. You use it to seal the bathtub to keep it from leaking behind the tub into the wall, but you ordinarily don’t drink your bath water.
The water bob is less than $50. It is a simple to use, practical device that is easy to store. I’m certainly not shilling for the water bob company, but to me it seems like a no-brainer. I’ve wasted more than $50 on dumb products that were supposed to be “survival”.
Where did you read this is manufactured from silicone? The edges were heat sealed. Some types of silicone are made for humans and to be around people.
Even fish tank aquarium silicon needs to dry before sealing. I have other water storage, but I agree with LCC. for the price, its cheap, easy and convenient. I may consider buying it just to add to my preps.
Coach recommended just filling a tub and sealing the overflow and main drains with plastic sealed with silicone. That’s where the silicone came from. And, yes, if you have food grade silicone, it can be used in food prep areas or water storage areas. Unless it is labeled as food grade, I would hesitate to use it in areas where food prep was taking place or especially in area where water was going to be stored. If you read the label on most silicone sealants they say to use it in a well-ventilated area. There is a reason for that warning label although it is frequently ignored until the user keels over from fumes and the hazmat team is called out.
Your tub’s probably in the bathroom, if your home is laid out like most people’s. Every time someone uses the toilet a good crop of tiny droplets gets blasted into the air. Even if the water’s off in an emergency, the contents of those droplets are still hanging around on the walls and ceiling. I quite like the idea of having my emergency water in a sealed bag.
Good clean water is a must.
You can also buy them on beprepared.com. About $25.00. I have 2 . They are a real peace of mind for those of us with well water that depend on electricity.
I’ve owned a water bob for more than 5 years now. I also got one and gave it to my daughter for her use. I don’t know if the water bob is sturdy enough and I don’t want to waste $40 finding out, but it has always seemed to me that it could be filed on the bathroom floor if it is too big for the bathtub. It could also go in the shower enclosure if you have what is called a 3/4 bath which is a complete bathroom but with only a shower instead of a shower and tub.
Those are unresolved questions and will probably remain so unless someone wants to spend the money and do empirical testing to determine the answers.
I would second the recommendation to acquire a water bob for all the readers. In an EOTW situation you can’t have too much water. Nobody after an emergency ever said, “Gee, I’m sure sorry I had those extra 50 gallons of water on hand.”
The lack of sufficient hight of the apartment size tub side can easily be overcome by collecting some of the thousands of corrugated plastic political yard signs that will be popping up everywhere next month. By standing up a few signs against the outside edge inside the tub with the corrugation running up and down before you start filling. As the water rises it will hold them in place. Now add to the outside wall by slipping in more of the plastic sheets with the corrugation running front to back, then another layer of up and down. Overlap the ends and push down as far as you can into the bottom of the tube If you have made sure to overlap the ends, this should be enough to hold up 4″ – 6″ of water above the top of the tub. It may take a dozen of the plastic sheets to get 3 layers thick end to end in the tub. Just wait until AFTER voting is over to grab the signs.
Aw man, don’t bring up politics on this site…
I love your suggestion, Dave, although I would think campaign signs would be better put to use lining straddle trenches.
I built a frame from 2×12’s for my WaterBOB so I can still use the tub during an emergency. The boards have all hardware attached and are in 4 sections in the back of the closet. When needed, it gets placed in the corner of the room, ratchet strapped, lined with a tarp and the WaterBOB placed inside and filled in place with a hose. Luckily, the place where it sits when in use has a slab of concrete under it, so no worries of it causing problems with the floor.
I would NOT recommend simply laying it on the floor and filling it without it having some sort of support for the sides.
Thanks for sharing this, Claud! I’ve been wondering if they were true to the hype, or just another sucker trap. I do believe we will be getting one for each bathtub – and maybe one or two in troughs, in the barn, so our livestock won’t be without, either.
Thanks for all the great ideas! I have a Water BOB but no bathtub. I do have an enclosed large shower. I’ll just place a board in front of the door area.
In a prior home I had a large garden tub that I filled with water, during the storm & for several days after, I used the water to flush toilets.
These are great, and Berkey water filters sells them also. Will be getting a couple.
The comments about farm tubs etc. got me to thinking. I have wading pools that I bought on sale at WallyWorld that I use on those rare occasions when water dribbles down from the sky. A waterbob would work nicely in one or two or three of those. And thinking further, if we have another fire emergency such as last December, those pools could be handy to use.
While I already had a waterbob, this discussion has opened my eyes to other possibilities for use of those pools other than what I originally thought.
I will say again that is website is one of the most useful websites, if not the single most useful website, I visit. The exchange of ideas on the various topics posted opens up one’s mind to a whole panoply of new ideas and stimulates thought in areas not previously conceived of. Even if the main article is not particularly useful, so many times the discussion that follows the article is far more useful than the article itself.
When I was a kid in South La. with all the hurricanes, dad would just clean the tub, then fill it. Urban survivalist say you can drink the water from the toilet tank. Dad’s way was a lot better. Save the 35 dollars and use it to buy something else (eats)
Emergency Essentials.com has them on sale this week for under $25.I have had one for several years.
SO, it seems like some of you are still going to use your toilet – even if the water is turned off! BAD IDEA!!! I found a site that showed the frame of a 5 gallon bucket “toilet” made from PVC tubing. I modified mine to make it a bit stronger and higher – and set the bucket up next to the seat (plastic, purchased on-line) to help with the smell. Portable enough to be used in shed, garage, and keep the smell down even more. Use disposable bags in bucket, try to keep solids only in bucket, and urine in another which would be more easily disposable. Bags, if disposable/disintegrating type can be tied off and buried in the back yard. I’ll see if I can find my files and send to Claude with a suggestion to post them for all of you.
Not a problem for me to use toilet because I live in the country and have a septic system.
I’ve had this for a few years now. I live alone and have two baths, so I leave it filled. No problem with filling it. I bought a 12-volt water pump so I have no problem emptying it. Very good investment.
This is quite a timely reminder for me to quit procrastinating my water storage solutions. Since we have a very nice well, I’ve kind of put off any water storage issues. I got as far as acquiring a manual pump to replace the electric one if power is out for long enough to outlast my generator. But the Waterbob idea is a great one for when I was apartment living and it’s got me thinking. It’s not as if a well is foolproof, after all. Ground water can and does sometimes get contaminated, even as deep down as ours is. Also, the water tables can go down. While that is far more likely in some western states that have suffered periodic and long term droughts, and have had a huge influx of people using the groundwater over the last 50 or so years, one never knows when some “brilliant” new government scheme will result in significant changes to local topography. And major projects like new dams, new power plants, new road projects, etc may contaminate or even raise and drop water tables, at least on a local level. So it behooves me to think about alternate water solutions, as anyone on a well or with streams/springs on their property should. I may be better off than a city dweller in that regard, but it is by no means guaranteed I would always continue to have access to the clean fresh water I have now. In my area it makes sense to be consistently recapturing rain water on a regular basis, despite having ponds for any livestock or crop irrigation (neither of which I yet have anyway). It’s not like I have plumbing that connects all my possible water sources to all my possible water use needs. This article, as LC Chuck mentioned, has inspired me to come up with more ideas, and that’s really the strength of this website. I am now considering the portability of the water Bob, if combined with a wheel-barrow or wagon type, and whether it could be used to solve some of my garden watering issues in the hotter months. Even if not, the inspiration is also motivation, so that’s my next weekend project!
I live in a double wide mobile home and the tub is made of plastic basically and I worry that it might not hold 700+ pounds of water. Any thoughts, anybody.
If the tub can be filled and hold you, it can hold the bag filled with water. Chances are the tub isn’t going to be a permanent water storage container and you’ll be using the water so the weight will drop over time.
Albert, I spent several years as a youngster in a single wide, and I had family in a double wide 15 years ago and used their tub(I’m near retirement age now), so I know the type of tub you mean. Consider this, if you will. Think about how much a typical person weighs, 100-250 lbs, and the water it takes to fill the tub, 70, 80 gallons(a little less than a regular household tub ?) at approximately 8 pounds per gallon(I’m rounding up a smidgen) topping out around 900.
If your tub won’t hold that, then the builders of your double wide trailer ought to be shot, hanged, tarred and feathered, spanked, and then, finally, had their knuckles smacked by a mean cranky nun with a wooden ruler. 🙂
I suspect the trailer was built by someone who at least obeyed the basic rules and requirements for constructing it.
But, I’m just some schmuck posting on line, I might be full of something other than water, or I could be a seller of Waterbobs trying to elicit more sales, so take what you read from me as suspect, unverified info.
(I’m not, BTW, I’m just feeling a little snarky, and hoping you might get a grin out of part of my comments)
We have a plastic water trough that holds 110 gallons. It can be lined with the BOB. I don’t know if it’s food grade rated or not. I don’t want to make any assumptions. But the BOB is food grade. You can place it where you want as long as your placement can handle the weight of the water. It’s about 900 lbs. for 110 gallons at 8.3 lbs. per gallon. We also have other containers. Aquatainers, 30-gallon food grade drums etc. It’s all up to you folks how it’s done as long as you can have water available for your emergency. God bless your efforts.
a waterbob is a TEMPORARY, Emergency Storage item. Do not depend on these for long term water storage.