Buyer's guide · Water
Three litres per person per day, for three days. Here's how to actually hold that much water in a British house — and what to use when the supply itself is the problem.
UK guidance · Last reviewed September 2026
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The straightforward way to hold a household's 72 hours. Stackable, taps cleanly, and stores in a cupboard or garage without dominating the space.
Every option below is one we'd genuinely put in a UK household kit — the difference is budget and how long you need it to last.
The straightforward way to hold a household's 72 hours. Stackable, taps cleanly, and stores in a cupboard or garage without dominating the space.
Collapses flat until you need it, which is why it actually gets kept. Ideal for refilling from a standpipe or a neighbour's supply during a mains outage.
Covers the scenario stored water doesn't: a boil-water notice or contaminated supply. One bottle per person turns any tap into drinking water.
A tougher, longer-lasting filter for households that want one bottle to outlive several emergencies — and for flood scenarios where supply may be out for days.
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Work out my kitStored water is instant and needs no thought when you're stressed. Filters are your insurance for contamination and for outages that outlast your stored litres. Get 36 litres in the house before you spend anything on filtration.
Don't put all your water in one container. Two 20-litre cubes in different places survive a leak, a flood or a blocked room; one 40-litre drum does not — and it's too heavy to move once full.
In a flood the mains may still run but be unsafe. That's a filtration problem, not a storage one, and it's the reason a filter bottle per person belongs in the grab bag by the door.
Twice a year, tied to something you already do — the clocks changing works well. Water that has sat for three years is the most common failure in an otherwise good kit.
Plan for 3 litres per person per day for drinking and basic hygiene — about 9 litres per person over a 72-hour window. A family of four therefore needs roughly 36 litres, plus a little extra for pets.
Tap water kept in clean, sealed, food-grade containers away from sunlight is fine for around six months. Rotate it twice a year — pour it on the garden and refill on the same weekend you change your clocks so you never have to remember a date.
They solve different problems. Stored water covers a short mains outage; a filter bottle covers contamination — a burst main, a boil-water notice or flood water in the supply — and keeps working long after your stored litres run out. Most households want both.
Food-grade containers designed for water: collapsible carriers, water cubes or purpose-made jerrycans. Do not reuse milk bottles (protein residue breeds bacteria) or containers that previously held chemicals. Sunlight encourages algae, so store them in a cupboard or garage.
For biological contamination, yes — a rolling boil for one minute is the most reliable household treatment. It does not remove chemical contamination, and it needs a heat source you may not have in a power cut, which is why a filter bottle is the practical backup.
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