Mayday Emergency Water Pouches

This pack is compact sealed water for go bags, a desk drawer and the closet shelf, and Ready America says it keeps for 5 years without rotation. The risk buyers report is leaks, so look every pouch over when the box arrives. For a car that sits through hard frost, pick Datrex: TruePrepper says those pouches won’t burst if they freeze.

Every family has a go bag that started out serious and slowly turned into a place to keep spare phone cables. Somewhere under the cables, on a good day, there is water.

Mayday emergency water pouches are made for that corner of the bag. Each sealed pouch holds 125 ml, a little over 4 fl oz, and Ready America, which makes Mayday, lists it at 4 by 6 inches and an inch thick. The button on this page opens the pack of 50, model 73021. The same pouch also comes as a case of 100 (73011) and as a single packet (73001), so check the count before you buy.

Six days or half a day, depending on who counts

The 50 pouches hold 6.25 liters, about 1.65 gallons. What that adds up to depends on whose rule you use.

Ready America recommends a minimum of 2 pouches per person per day. By that rule, this pack keeps a family of four going for about six days. Two pouches is 250 ml a day: a ration for getting through a stuck car or a lifeboat, not a comfortable day.

The CDC asks for 1 gallon per person per day, and a gallon is about 30 pouches. By the CDC’s count, the same pack covers a family of four for a little under half a day.

Both numbers are true. They answer different questions: the maker gives a minimum ration, the CDC a daily amount to store for drinking and washing. The pouches are a ration you can split: a few in each person’s bag, a few in the desk drawer at work, the rest on a closet shelf. The house’s three days belong in bottled water or containers you fill yourself, and our guide to emergency drinking water works out how much.

Five years, and after

Ready America gives the water a 5-year shelf life and says it needs no rotation schedule. Answering a buyer on Home Depot’s page for the case of 100, Ready America’s staff say the water goes through a six-step process to remove bacteria and is sealed in a multi-layer pouch with a foil inner layer and an oxygen barrier, with no BPA.

Past the date, the maker’s answer is short: Ready America does not recommend drinking the water after it expires. One r/preppers owner tried anyway. Their pouch was marked as expired in June 2020 and had spent years in a garage that reaches 120 to 140°F in summer. They found no odor, no discoloration and a little plastic taste. That is one pouch from one garage. Treat the date as the date.

The US Coast Guard certificate number in our sources, 160.026/70/0, comes only from a retailer’s listing for the case of 100; Ready America itself cites the international standard ISO 18813:2022.

Frost, the seam and the thaw

Ready America’s page for this pack puts storage at 32 to 149°F (0 to 65°C) and says the pouches can be frozen without any adverse effects. Its staff add a caution. Asked on Home Depot’s page whether the pouches can freeze in a car, Ready America answered yes, but said expanding ice could compromise the packaging, so check the pouches after they thaw.

TruePrepper’s pouch review points at the seam. It found the weld on these pouches thinner than on other models, which makes them less tough and less durable in freezing conditions. In the same paragraph, TruePrepper says its own pouches came through freezing without trouble.

Put together: freezing is allowed, the thaw is the moment to look the pouches over, and the seam is the part to watch.

Shop descriptions print other ranges for these pouches, 40 to 230°F and even -40 to 210°F, and TruePrepper’s review repeats the first. Those figures are not Ready America’s. Go by the maker’s 32 to 149°F.

For a car that sits outside through hard freezes, pick Datrex pouches. TruePrepper’s water storage roundup says they won’t burst if they freeze. For a go bag that lives in the hall closet, the frost question mostly goes away.

Leaks, taste and a straw

Buyers on Amazon’s page for this pack report leaks. One says several pouches were leaking brand new. Another checked a stored box after three months and found the pouches dripping. Amazon does not show which pack either buyer bought. On Home Depot’s page for the case of 100, one verified buyer reports the opposite: the shipment arrived intact, with no broken pouches.

Open the box the day it arrives and look every pouch over, then look again whenever you check the bags. Small and sealed is not the same as leak-proof.

Taste reports vary. In a 2014 video comparison with Datrex pouches, both tasters preferred Mayday and said both taste good. A buyer on Amazon’s page for this pack reports a plastic taste, and so did the r/preppers owner with the old pouch, who still called it drinkable.

Then the straw. Ready America says to tear the corner at the top seal and drink through a straw, and the straw is not included. In that 2014 video, the Mayday foil looked thicker than Datrex’s and was harder to tear open. One customer on Home Depot’s page would skip the straw and just cut the corner off. Either way, put a few straws in each bag next to the pouches. The bag already has six phone cables. It has room for straws.

Straight from the threads

Who should pick something else

If you are planning the house’s three days, these are the wrong tool. At about 30 pouches to the gallon, the house needs bottled water or water storage containers you fill yourself. For the day the stored water runs out, the emergency water filter page covers the next step.

Next to Datrex pouches: both are sealed 125 ml pouches with a 5-year shelf life. A Datrex case holds 64 pouches, about 2.1 gallons, against this pack’s 50. Frost favors Datrex, for the reason above; in the 2014 video, both tasters preferred Mayday. Pick by where the water will live.

The Prepared’s bug-out bag list says not to store go-bag water in flimsy pouches and prefers sturdy bottles. Put one sturdy bottle in each bag and let the pouches be the reserve.

Everyone else is who this pack is for: a go bag for each person in the family, a desk drawer at work, a closet shelf by the door.

The phone cables can stay. They just have company now.