Maybe open them first and spill some percentage out so the bottles don’t burst when the water expands.
this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2025
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I find most water bottles can freeze fine without removing any water. There is often a little bit of air already at the top and the plastic bottle is fairly flexible. Usually the base just gets balloned out a bit and difficult to stand up. I've frozen many water bottle for various reasons and can't recall any breaking from just freezing.
Yes true, but the bulbous shapes become awkward to organize though, but you’re right.
This is a partial tip. Water has a much higher thermal mass than air does. It takes much longer cool a bunch of water down than it takes to cool the equivalent volume of air to the same temperature, it also stays cold longer.
You don't generally want to pull stuff out of your freezer to make room for water but it's a great idea to fill up empty space with water. That will make your freezer more efficient even when there's no hurricane.
Having drinking water on hand is a good tip too but you don't need it in the freezer. There are lots of instructions on how to safely store much more water than can reasonably fit in your freezer.
I always take for granted being able to just drink the tap water as is. I can't imagine keeping plastic bottle water at home.
You won't have tap water, safe or otherwise, after a hurricane.
I have a stainless ibc that was formerly for transporting kombucha that I keep as emergency water storage which is not something people would normally have but if I didnt have that I'd probably find some other containers to serve the same purpose. Any hurricane here would also be a historical first.
great advice especially, when hurricane season is over in a few days
Where is the hand?
This seems like a good tip, but i dont understand why drink it, instead of freezing it again, before next power outage.
Due to flooding the supply of clean drinking water can be interrupted for a long time. You don’t want to try drinking tap water when all the sewers have been mixing with it.
Aside from broken pipes, it should be nearly impossible for drinking water to mix with sewer water. And even then there is often redundancy built in such as drinking pipes installed above sewer pipes to prevent mixing in the event of a break and maintaining pressure throughout the pipes to prevent water intrusion into the drinking water pipes.
In my country clean water is being supplied even during power outages.
It’s not the power outage that’s a problem.
The water isn’t necessarily clean as I explained.
Unless there is some kind of damage to the distribution or treatment system, clean water shouldn't be much of a problem.
Some issues that could cause water system failures during a flood include
Excessive sediments in the source water that the treatment facility cannot adequately remove. Even with this, coagulatants would probably fix these issues, but could reduce production.
Supply shortages of chlorine (very unlikely as most facilities keep a decent stockpile to buffer against shortages)
Damage to the distribution system, such as a broken pipe, where intrusions of ground water/sewer water could occur.
Damage to homes, businesses, or hydrants causing excessive flows and a lack of pressure in the system, some of which could be remedied shortly after flooding by isolating the worst of the leaks.
Damages to the water treatment plant itself, as they are often located fairly close to their source water, although this isn't always the case. Some are quite far from the shore, sometimes over a kilometer, and may have some elevation gain as well.
Definitely still a good idea to have a backup source of water but if your entire areas water is down for several days after a flood, it could indicate some design flaws or a lack of redundancy in the system.
I mean, we had water boil notices Ian and Milton, in an area with new plumbing and above the flood levels of those storms.
With power out everywhere, and iirc some ruptured pipes, my understanding is that they lost pressure in the system, so they couldn't guarantee the water was good.
And... I can't emphasize how widespread these events are. Like, entire forests are mowed down by wind for miles. Even with the flood of out-of-state contracters after a storm, it takes a bit for them to fix stuff.
Half the commenters here have clearly never lived a hurricane.
Any pipe rupture event will result in a boil water advisory unless that pipe is isolated and the system purged. It is always best to be cautious even if the water is testing fine. This is because that pressurized hole could get bigger at any moment and reduce pressure to the point intrusion could occur.
Probably for when you get thirsty before the power comes back on.
Most water plants have their own back up generators so power outages alone should not impact the water supply.
In a hurricane, does the supply get contaminated sometimes maybe? I dunno, we don't have em here
I've weathered four hurricanes in my life. I've needed my backup Water Supplies every single time.
Maybe don't freeze the water in plastic water bottles because it makes the plastic leach forever chemicals into your water, which then end up in your brain... don't leave the water bottles out in the sun either for the same reason
that's why I freeze all my water bottles in glass that's 100% full and with the lids screwed on tight.
Maybe stop drinking one of the most environmentally evil products on the planet?
And people are worried about straws.
Don't do this ever, unless you want to drink microplastics and the nasty chemicals used to make them.
Your best bet is to just keep the freezer as stocked as possible. A full freezer is an efficient freezer, which in turn makes the fridge more efficient (given that the they share a single compressor/condenser setup).
Or just use sink water and then toss the bottles afterwards.
Okay but I can't drink a frozen turkey, Francis.
Nobody gives a shit about micro plastic when you can't get potable water otherwise.
You can drink anything if you have the will.
The elites don't want you to know this, but you don't have to freeze water to preserve it. It doesn't have an expiration date because it's water; stick it in the fridge or simply store it on the counter at room temperature.
I didn't think you understand
Understand what? The idea behind freezing water bottles to help your fridge stay cold during a power outage, or the contents of your comment?