ReadyWater Prep

Jason Parker

Testing emergency water gear at ReadyWater Prep from a suburb outside Houston, TX

About

I live in a suburb west of Houston and work IT support remotely. The day job is troubleshooting infrastructure failures — building models from incomplete information, documenting what breaks and under what conditions, caring whether systems actually do what the specs say they do. Hurricane Beryl cut water to my neighborhood for four days in July 2024. My preparedness at that point: an overdue Brita cartridge, a case of water bottles from the last Costco run, and a plan that lasted until about noon on day two when we ran the math on how many bottles were left.

Testing started in October 2024. The first filter I bought smelled like a fishing tackle box, required a countertop to operate, and took eleven minutes to assemble correctly while following the instructions. That number would've been longer under stress. Returned it in week two. The replacement went into the garage for six weeks on collected rainwater — daily flow rate notes, temperature tracking across Houston fall into early winter, taste tests my kids treated as suspicious. Flow rate dropped 22% over six weeks on non-tap source water. Not in the product description. Both numbers go in the review.

From there: thirty-gallon stackable tanks, a 55-gallon drum (harder to move than I expected when full — that detail matters), purification tablets on three different source waters, the bathtub bag. My wife has pointed out, twice in 2025, that the garage shelf situation has "become a thing." This is accurate.

How I test

Everything gets at least thirty days of real-condition use — not kitchen-sink demo conditions, but the way you'd actually deploy in an emergency. Flow rate across source water and temperature conditions. Setup time from cold, without re-reading the instructions, because the constraint is that you haven't touched this thing in eight months when you actually need it. Weight when full. Lid seal after fifty-plus opens. Taste past week one. Anything that underdelivered on a specific box claim goes in the review, with the specific claim and the number I measured instead.

I'm not a water treatment professional, not a civil engineer, not a health authority. What I am: someone who applies the same systematic documentation I use at work to water equipment in a suburban garage. Where my results diverge from manufacturer specs, I give both numbers and the test conditions.

What I don't cover

Rainwater harvesting, well water, off-grid homesteading, anything that assumes rural property or a long-term infrastructure transition. This site is specifically about suburban household preparedness for short-term disruptions — hurricanes, flood events, boil-water advisories. Three to seven days. Not a lifestyle change.

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Disclosure

Some outbound links here are affiliate links — meaning I get paid a small commission when you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. I don't collect or store any data about which links you click. For more on how the editorial side handles affiliate relationships, see my Editorial Policy.