Water planning

Work out your water before you pack.

How many one-gallon jugs your group needs, what they weigh, how much floor they take, and whether your vehicle can carry them.

Water load card

Jugs: 24
Water: 24.0 gal
Filled weight: 209 lb
Floor and height: 38 × 38 × 19 in
Each lift: 8.7 lb
Payload share: 20.9%

Label the containers. Jugs 1 to 14 are drinking and cooking. Jugs 15 to 21 are washing and dishes. Jugs 22 to 24 are sealed reserve.

Fill stops. Approved vendors in Reno and Sparks, 40 to 60 ¢ per gal. Self-serve depots, about 50 ¢, open 24 hours, bring jugs and a card. Gerlach GID, 60 to 65 ¢, about 20 minutes from the gate. Nothing but ice is sold in Black Rock City.

Gray water. You entered 0 gal of tank, so this is a tent plan. All 7.0 gal of wash water is caught in a basin under the sink and the shower, then carried out sealed. Size the pack-out at 7.0 gal, which is 2 five-gallon jerry cans with screw closures. Nothing may be poured on the playa.

Jugs: 24
Water required: 24.0 gal
Load, filled: 209 lb
Floor and height: 38 × 38 × 19 in
Envelope: 15.9 cu ft
Payload share: 20.9%

Inputs

Your group and trip.

Five numbers drive every plate on this page. The daily rate has a floor of 1.5 gal per person per day and the field will not go below it.

People

Days

Gallons per person, per day

Burning Man calls for 1.5 gallons of water per person per day, and that figure covers washing and cleaning as well as drinking. Raise it for build days, all-day sun, or cooked meals.

Gray water tank capacity

Enter 0 for a tent. Nothing may be poured on the playa, so wash water is caught and carried out.

Vehicle payload

Read the figure off the driver door jamb sticker. A current Toyota RAV4 or Honda CR-V sits near 1,000 lb.

Drawings

The load at true size.

Fig. 1

Water load, plan and section

Unit: 1 gal jug, 6.2 × 6.2 × 9.5 in
Grid: 5 × 5 at 7.6 in pitch
Total: 24 jugs, 209 lb filled

One layer, hand width apart. The jugs stand in a single layer at 7.6 in pitch, which is the 6.2 in jug plus 1.4 in so a hand fits at every joint. Keep 38 × 38 × 19 in of vehicle floor clear for it.

Floor you keep clear. Nothing else goes inside this rectangle, and no strap or wheel well may cut into it. Measure it in the vehicle before you buy the water.
Room to lift one out. The layer needs a jug height of headroom above it, or you unpack the whole row to reach the one you want at 2am.
Fill line, not the brim. A retail gallon carries about half an inch of air, so a full jug slops when you lift it. Carry it by the handle with a second hand under the base.

Fig. 2

Allocation by use

Unit: one cell, 1 gal
Grid: grouped in fives
Total: 24 gal carried

Less of it is drinking than you think. The official rate covers washing and cleaning too, so drinking and cooking is only 58.3% of what you carry. The 3.0 gal sealed reserve is struck through: it is counted in the total and it is not yours to drink on a hot afternoon.

Fig. 3

Mass against a person

Unit: 1 gal jug, 8.7 lb filled
Grid: ground line, 3.9 units per in
Total: 209 lb in 24 lifts

Height is the easy part. Loaded, the layer stands 19 in, just under the knee of a 5 ft 8 in reference figure. The same block is 209 lb and it moves in 24 separate 8.7 lb lifts, twice, if you unload it again at home.

Fig. 4

Load against vehicle payload

Unit: pounds
Grid: graduated to the door sticker rating
Total: 209 lb, 20.9%

Check the door jamb, not the boot. The pack is 209 lb against a 1,000 lb rating, and it shares that rating with people, bikes, shade hardware and food. That leaves 791 lb for everything else.

Allocation

Where the water actually goes.

Allocation	Gallons	Share	What it covers
Drinking and cooking	14.0	58.3%	Roughly 3 to 5 liters per person on a 100 °F day, plus what a cooked meal takes.
Washing and dishes	7.0	29.2%	Dishes run about 2 gal a day for a small camp. A standing rinse runs 1 to 1.5 gal per person.
Sealed reserve	3.0	12.5%	One full day for the group, in its own containers, stored apart from daily supply. Opened for a gate or weather delay, not for a thirsty afternoon.
Spare capacity	0.0	Rounding	Jugs are whole, so the count rounds up. The remainder is capacity you carry anyway.

2 people × 7 days × 1.5 gal = 21.0 gal, plus a 3.0 gal sealed reserve = 24.0 gal in 24 jugs.

Gray water

Wash water leaves with you.

Wash water does not disappear. It becomes gray water, and it leaves with you. Dumping it is a Nevada misdemeanor and a citation from the land agency.

Gray water generated: 7.0 gal over the trip
Per day: 1.0 gal
Outcome: 7.0 gal to catch and carry out

Caution
You entered 0 gal of tank, so this is a tent plan. All 7.0 gal of wash water is caught in a basin under the sink and the shower, then carried out sealed. Size the pack-out at 7.0 gal, which is 2 five-gallon jerry cans with screw closures. Nothing may be poured on the playa.

Filling up

Where to fill and what it costs.

Filling 24 gal at published rates costs $10 to $16. That band is the water only. Buying the jugs as filled retail gallons instead runs $32 to $48, and a self-serve depot sells water and not vessels, so you cannot turn up empty-handed.

Stop	Rate	Watch for
Retail jugs, Reno grocery	$1.30 to $2 per filled gal	This is the jug and the water together. Buy the containers here even if you plan to refill them cheaper further out.
Approved vendors, Reno and Sparks	40 to 60 ¢ per gal	Shelves are stripped of bottled water in the last 48 hours before gate.
Self-serve depots, 24 hour	about 50 ¢ per gal	Bring your own jugs and a card. Fill time is slower than a hose.
Gerlach GID station	60 to 65 ¢ per gal	About 20 minutes from the gate. Burn-season hours close some hose fills before an evening arrival.

Nothing but ice is sold in Black Rock City. There is no water vendor and no top-up for individual campers, so the number you leave Reno with is the number you have.

Ice

Ice is the one thing sold on playa.

Item	Detail
Sales window	Roughly 10am to 5pm during event week, and 12pm to 5pm on the pre-event and closing days.
Locations	Center Camp Plaza, 3:00 & G, and 9:00 & G take cards. The large-order outpost at 6:15 & K is cash only.
Price	Last independently confirmed figures are 2024: $7 for a 10 lb block and $12 for 16 lb of crushed. 2026 pricing is unpublished.
Block or crushed	Block outlasts crushed roughly two to one in a closed cooler. Crushed chills faster and drains sooner.
Arrival after 5pm	The first purchase is the next day, so the cooler crosses the gate already cold.
Frozen bottles	10 to 12 frozen 1 L bottles work as cooler mass first and become cold drinking water after. They are counted in the jug total only if you carry them instead of a jug.

Ice is sold, not delivered. A wagon or a trailer is part of the plan.

Electrolytes

Water on its own is not enough.

Buy 28 servings for this group, which is about 2 per person per day plus enough to hand out. Salty food counts toward the same job.

Caution
Drinking plain water while sweating hard dilutes serum sodium, and early hyponatremia looks exactly like dehydration, so the intuitive response makes it worse. Confusion, altered behavior, slurred speech, fainting, or loss of consciousness is an emergency. Go to a medical station.

This is a purchase quantity, not a dose. NIOSH advises against salt tablets and notes that water with regular meals is generally adequate.

Jobs

Put a name against every water job.

The arithmetic above is the easy half. Someone has to count jugs each morning and run the ice. Print the card and write a name in each blank.

Job	When	Owner
Jug count and seal check	Every morning
Sealed reserve, opened only on a delay	On call
Ice run with a wagon	Fixed afternoon slot
Gray water catch and haul	After every wash-up

Derivation

Every number on this page, in order.

Base water, people × days × rate	21.0 gal
Drinking and cooking at 1 gal per person per day	14.0 gal
Washing and dishes, the remainder	7.0 gal
Sealed reserve, one day for the group	3.0 gal
Total required	24.0 gal
Jugs, rounded up to whole containers	24
Water at 8.34 lb per gal	200 lb
Empty jugs at 0.35 lb each	8.4 lb
Load, filled and capped	209 lb
Grid pitch, jug plus 1.4 in clearance	7.6 in
Floor and envelope	38 × 38 × 19 in
Floor footprint	10.0 sq ft
Reserved envelope	15.9 cu ft
Share of rated payload	20.9%

Assumptions

What this model assumes.

Jug: A representative 1-gallon retail jug, modeled at 6.2 × 6.2 × 9.5 in and 0.35 lb empty. Use new, food-safe jugs with tight closures.
Weight: Water is 8.34 lb per gallon. Filled and capped, one jug is 8.7 lb.
Packing: One layer, 1.4 in of clearance at every joint, and an envelope height of twice the jug so you can lift a unit out. Stack a second layer only when the manufacturer says the jug takes it.
Rounding: Jug count rounds up to whole containers, and every jug is filled.
Payload: The rating is yours to enter. The default is close to a current compact SUV, and it is the whole vehicle allowance, shared with passengers and everything else you load.
Rates and windows: Published vendor and event figures at the time of writing. Check the current official Survival Guide before departure. Use this as a planning baseline, not a personal limit.

The plates above are drawn for 2 people over 7 days at 1.5 gal per person per day. Enable JavaScript to redraw them for your own group, or multiply people by days by the rate, then add one more day for the whole group as a sealed reserve.