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What is the shelf life on bottled water?

12K views 7 replies 6 participants last post by  IamZeke 
#1 ·
I did some searching, but couldn't find a good response to how long you can expect bottled water to last. I buy the Ice Mountain case of six 1 gallon bottles of water at Sam's Club and store the cases of water in a cook, dry basement. What is the shelf life?
  1. It has an expiration date on it, but does that really matter?
  2. Can bottled water actually go "bad"?
  3. What does going "bad" actually mean?
  4. What can happen if you drink this "bad" water?
  5. Can you use this water by doing something to it? i.e. boiling?

I was hoping you guys could shed some light on this for everyone's benefit....

Thanks in advance.
 
#2 ·
I think the bottles go bad before the water, and if you buy the cheap one gallon jugs of water they go bad fast.

If you are not in an environment that grows algae this would be near the last thing I worry about.

All products sold are required to have an expiration date, even if it's silly.
 
#3 ·
I organized a company dinner once and when the Evian water was served it had a kind of rotten egg smell. I complained to the waiter and he brought me another bottle and it was just as bad. Probably the bottles were left out in the heat too long and the chemicals in the bottle got into the water.

I made him give tap water to everyone who wanted it and would not pay for any of the Evian. So yes, it will go bad.
 
#4 ·
I only post here about this same subject once a week. Search is your friend. Use my sig for help.

If kept in a cool dark place then you can expect those PETE plastic bottles to be 100% for 12-15 months. Add heat or light and the number drops. No matter what those bottles will leach antimony and acetaldehyde before 2 years is up. More likely 18 months under good storage conditions. Maybe no more than 3 months in a car or garage in a hot summer.

Once it has the toxins in it you must run it through activated charcoal filters.

Or......you could just buy a proper water container.
 
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#5 ·
Earlier this evening, I was going through my stored water supply - some of which is in three-packs of gallon jugs - and noticed for the first time that they had expiration dates of 4/14. Although I have some Reliance containers (already filled) I had hoped to store the gallon jugs in my dark, cool, dry basement. Now I'm trying to come up with a plan that doesn't require shelling out a couple hundred dollars for long-term containers, considering that I got the three-packs for about $2 each.
 
#6 ·
#7 ·
Theoretically, bottled water does not go bad in any time.
Fda.gov

Certain substances can leach from the bottle plastic into water and change its taste but not really spoil it. This is why some producers determine an expiration date.
Nutrientsreview.com

If an old bottled water has unpleasant taste, you could possibly get rid of it by boiling it - this could eliminate volatile substances.
 
#8 ·
Ugh. :xeye:

You are new here and missed all of this. The FDA report is a lie. The FDA is corrupt.

PETE plastic leaches antimony and acetaldehyde no later than 2 years and potential as fast as 3 months under hot storage conditions. I've posted the links literally dozens of time here to reports done by the government medical agencies of the US, Japan, and Eurozone.

These are not volatile substances you can boil off. Antimony is a metal, btw.

In fact, boiling is about impossible to clean all toxins from water. You can kill biological threats just fine with boiling but for toxins you must use precision distillation with a precision distillation unit or a proper AC filtration unit.

I appreciate you trying to be helpful with your research but the FDA has led you astray because they are a "vested interest" who can be lobbied by the food packers. The government doctors of this and other nations cannot be bought off by Coca Cola or Pepsi.

No, I'm not going to bother throwing up the same massive wall of text I've posted numerous times here outlining the science. A bit of diligent searching using the help in my sig will take you to many of these debates. Just use "acetaldehyde" as your search keyword.
 
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