Steel for water storage: an Indian tradition with a reason behind it
Steel water vessels are in almost every Indian home. The habit long predates the explanation, but the explanation holds up.
The steel matka, the ghada, the jug on the table — water in steel is so normal in India that nobody asks why. It is worth asking, because the reasons are good ones.
Nothing leaches
Water is a solvent, and stored water has a long time to work on whatever contains it.
Stainless steel's passive layer is inert to plain water. Nothing migrates into it, whatever the storage time. There is no taste transfer — stored water tastes like water, which is not true of every plastic container, particularly one that has been warm.
It stays cooler and it blocks light
Two related benefits:
Light. Steel is completely opaque. Light through a translucent container encourages algal growth in water stored any length of time. In an opaque vessel that does not happen.
Temperature. Steel conducts heat well, so a steel vessel in a cool room sheds heat to the room rather than insulating its contents. Water in steel in a cool place stays cooler than water in plastic in the same place.
It can be sterilised
You can pour boiling water into a steel vessel, or boil water in it directly, without any concern for the container. That is a straightforward route to a genuinely clean vessel and it is not available with most plastics.
No biofilm foothold
Water containers develop biofilm — a slippery layer on the inside wall. It establishes far more readily on scratched, porous surfaces than on smooth non-porous ones.
Steel is non-porous and scratches less, so there is less for a biofilm to grip. It also tolerates the scrubbing and hot-water treatment that removes one.
Practical points
- Empty and rinse daily rather than topping up. Topping up never removes what is at the bottom.
- Dry between fills where you can. A dry vessel gives nothing a start.
- Do not store salted or mineral-heavy solutions long-term — chlorides are the one thing steel dislikes over time. Plain water is entirely fine.
- Scrub occasionally with a nylon pad; if scale builds up in hard-water areas, a diluted vinegar soak removes it.
A note on copper
Copper vessels have their own long tradition and their own claims. We make copper-based cookware — the lagan and the biryani degda — for thermal reasons, not health ones, and we are not going to make claims about copper water that we cannot support.
What we will say is that for straightforward, safe, cleanable, taste-neutral water storage, stainless steel is extremely hard to improve on.
Specifying cookware for your kitchen?
Every product on this site publishes its full size chart — gauge, dimensions and weight for every size. If you would rather just describe the job, we will tell you what to order.
