I live near a huge highway construction project, and about once a month they break the water main, meaning we get a boil water notice for ~48h.
I have a Culligan water filter that runs to a spout on my sink, and one that’s on our ice maker, but we use the level 1 canisters to remove the taste from the water. These canisters are good for about 6 months of regular use (ice maker is about a year).
During the boil water notice, the level 1 filters aren’t sufficient to filter out bacteria and such, so I’d need a level 3 filter for that. But, those are expensive and only good for about 2 months, so I don’t want to exclusively use them.
I’d like to have one in storage that I can throw on when we have a main break, but I’m not sure the best way to store it. It’s not super easy to drain the water out of the canisters.
Edit: While I appreciate the thought, I’m not interested in alternatives to my setup. I like my countertop water dispenser, and I’m looking for a way to keep my current QoL during an outage with the least amount of trouble.
The problem with filling containers of water ahead of time is that they’re likely not potable by the time you need it. I don’t want to deal with iodine tabs and such.
I do have a backpacking water filter, but those cartridges are significantly more expensive than a level 3 for my sink.
Edit: the main point is to save hassle. I could just go buy a 5gal water jug that’s meant to go in a dispenser and swap it out, but I want to be able to keep using my current setup.
Hollow fiber backpacking filters don’t need cartridges and they last a very long time (100,000 gallons for Sawyer filters, supposedly). What happens is they clog up and filtering slows down. You then backflush them by squirting water through them in the reverse direction. If the water isn’t that dirty to start with, you should be ok.
https://www.sawyer.com/product/one-gallon-gravity-water-filtration-system
Filter by itself (threads onto soda bottles): https://www.sawyer.com/product/mini-water-filtration-system-red