Filling the water tank question (1 Viewer)

[gazza280]

Hi Guys

I usually fill the water tank from inside the van but although I haven't used it much I need a new water hose for filling the tank when on sites or aires, but its easier and cheaper to buy a garden hose. I know its not food grade but when I use water in the van to make drinks, cooking etc I use fresh bottled water, because I don't trust a water source that I don't know.
I use the water in the tank for washing, washing up etc. So buying a food grade hose is not a necessity.

I am off to Europe soon so I will need a hose to fill with water at an Aire, but what length do I need 5m, 10m? The one that I have now after it has untangled is 15m but whenever I have used the hose I have never needed any more than about 5 to 7 meters and the longer it is the more difficult it is to store.
Also is fresh bottled water as readily available in France, Spain. I would presume it is, but is it much more expensive than the uk, ie: 99p for 5 litre bottle?

What I want to know is what others do.

Thanks Gary

 

[Ed Excel]

I manage with 7m (stop sniggering at the back). We use a 25ltr container for drinking water and buy bottled water as well.

Not sure a hose is much use on French aires, the ones I've used have a domestic type tap (Hence container for water).

Most things are cheaper than the UK in Spain. France I find prices similar to UK.

Enjoy your trip
Ed

 

[iandsm]

Hose

Most water in France is perfectly safe to drink, buy a food quality flat hose and cut a piece off it about four meters long. You will usually find this is long enough to reach taps on aires whist it is short enough to easily store away (Not on the roll of curse) Should you need a longer reach just use a push on connector and you will have the whole length to use. Make sure you take various connectors to fir the taps. Some are the ones that give water when pushed but stop after a few minutes. Thick velcro straps will keep these these pushed in when wrapped around them

Refill a 5 litre plastic water bottle from the same tap and this can be used in the kettle or, as in our case, as an emergency reserve. We have used out main tank water for everything without a problem for years, but if you don't but food grade hose you might get a plastic smell/taste to the water which is not nice.

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[Viennese]

I bought this (25ft) from Groupon:

Auto-Expanding Ultra Lightweight Hose: 25ft from £9.98, Free Delivery (Up to 50% Off)
With its innovative tangle-free, kink-free design, this ultra lightweight hose grows up to three times its original length when it’s turned on. The auto-expanding and self-propelling design also automatically retracts after use for easy storage. Available in 25ft or 50ft lengths... There are several similar on Amazon, the Groupon one is no longer available.

Comes in a box the size of a box of tissues, but I haven't tried it yet! I don't worry about food quality because I never drink or cook with water from the tank. I have a 5 litre container for drinking etc.

Catherine

 

[Don Quixote]

[HI]I have never bought bottled water in my life and never will.[/HI]
We fill ours with a plastic watering can (10 ltrs ) and have used this method across europe. If there is a hose on site we use that, but check the end and sterilise it if needs be. We never travel with water in the tank, using a container of water (10 ltrs) stored in bathroom for use when we stop. Why carry 120 ltrs of water whilst driving as that's is about the weight of 2 extra people........

 

[Scattycat]

We've always used a garden type hose and never had any problems regarding taste.
We also take a variety of connectors i.e. hose-lock type and the push-on type plus a number of different screw-on adaptors and have not had a problem so far connecting up to water supplies in France, Spain, Protugal or Morocco.
I now carry 2x15 m coiled hosepipes so can reach most supplies and if I'm further away than they will stretch I carry a dedicated spare 10 litre petrol can which I find much easier to store than a watering-can that a lot of folks use.
Like you I mostly use the water in the tank for washing etc. and use bottled water for drinking

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[hilldweller]

We have two roll flat hoses bought at shows. Just like hook up cables you can't have too long. The roll flat ones are pretty flimsy but they get so little use it's not a problem. They are very good for storage.

Don't forget to buy a joint and a few adaptors.

 

[GJH]

I bought this (25ft) from Groupon:

Auto-Expanding Ultra Lightweight Hose: 25ft from £9.98, Free Delivery (Up to 50% Off)
With its innovative tangle-free, kink-free design, this ultra lightweight hose grows up to three times its original length when it’s turned on. The auto-expanding and self-propelling design also automatically retracts after use for easy storage. Available in 25ft or 50ft lengths... There are several similar on Amazon, the Groupon one is no longer available.

Comes in a box the size of a box of tissues, but I haven't tried it yet! I don't worry about food quality because I never drink or cook with water from the tank. I have a 5 litre container for drinking etc.

Catherine

I bought one of those on Fleetwood market last July and it hasn't killed us yet. We use a water filter jug.

We have a food quality cassette hose but it's a beggar to roll back onto the cassette even though I reduced its length.

 

[WillH]

As Don Quixote says above, use a watering can, never gets tangled and is usually faster than untangling a hose, using it, then draining and tangling it up again.

Rgds
Bill

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[Baldeagle7470]

Bottled water is cheap as chips in France if you don't buy Evian or similar,think without checking a 1.5 ltr bottle in Lidl is 17 cents,I just always pick up 6 pack.
Got into the habit of not drinking tap water some years ago when our commune sent us a letter to say the nitrates were too high due to climatic conditions and not to drink it,haven't done since unless boiled.As an aside,never lived anywhere before with such a high level of calcaire (lime scale), have to clean kettle etc.every week with white wine vinegar but that's only cheap here also.Good luck with your pipe,oo er Mrs.:shout:

 

[Don Quixote]

People have lived for hundreds of years without MAN MADE bottled water!!!!!!!!

PLEASE google bottled water and the HARM it does because of the chemicals within the MAN MADE plastic BOTTLE!!!!!!!!!!

Wait until someone comes up with the idea of bottled air you will be buying that as well.

 

[rikfos]

We have never bought bottled water in our lives and don't intend to start now
I am 70, so far have never been ill but there is still time,
Water is probably safer on the continent than here. Bottled water as far as I am concerned
is a big con, the mark up is outrageous.

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[landscaper]

Always used water for drinking from the tank until a food poisoning incident in 2011! Now just carry a large bottle of water which we will up from the site tap or from home. Found that in France, in particular, campers are not too fussy with which place they fill up with water and or dispose of chemical and grey waste. Couldnt be sure food poisoning was from our tank but have not risked it since!!! Easy to contaminate your tank from a source where someone has washed out their chemical tank yuck!

 

[Floydster]

I bought this (25ft) from Groupon:

Auto-Expanding Ultra Lightweight Hose: 25ft from £9.98, Free Delivery (Up to 50% Off)
With its innovative tangle-free, kink-free design, this ultra lightweight hose [HI]grows up to three times its original length when it’s turned on[/HI]. The auto-expanding and self-propelling design also automatically retracts after use for easy storage.

Jax wants to know where to get one of these!!

 

[crizatuk]

Re

I have been living in my van for the last three years and just use a regular garden hose to fill the tank up, occasionally I throw a few tabs in to sterilise the tank, Esp in Morocco but here in Spain just use there water straight from the tap. :thumb:

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[Mastercamper]

E Bay item N0 380695052313.

We have used one of these all over the UK for the last 15 months. Never failed. Under a tenner. Considering getting another to extend this one. Takes up no space and as long as you drain it, it rolls up perfectly.

 

[Armytwowheels]

We have two roll flat hoses bought at shows. Just like hook up cables you can't have too long. The roll flat ones are pretty flimsy but they get so little use it's not a problem. They are very good for storage.

Don't forget to buy a joint and a few adaptors.

Snap, we have the same, two roll flat hoses, cheap and cheerful, with a selection of connectors. We fitted an inline filter to our cold hab tap before our first trip to France, after seeing some of the numpties trying to rinse toilet cassette out at the fresh water taps! I was really glad we did.

One thing we did learn the hard way, some of the aires have water dispensers that gush the water out as soon as you have paid, no button to press when you ready. Colin had wet feet twice because of this it was funny to see him hopping about tying to get the hose on or the container underneath the tap.

The only time we bought bottled water was when we were on an aire that had a faulty machine. Drove to a supermarket and bought the cheapest water we could find to put in the tank! think it was about 50 or 60 cents for 5 litres.

 

[daisy mae]

Garden hose plastics can give off chemical reaction eventually, that is why food grade is recommended, I have the food grade to fill up at home and a watering can to use on site, never drank water out of the tanks unless it has been boiled, fill water containers from the site tap for drinking and the dogs water, found this has worked well over decades.

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[aba]

if you are bothered about drinking water from the tank the best option is a nature pure filter.
or I suppose a cheap alternative would be a Britta filter jug although no where near as effective as the nature pure.

 

[orridge]

dont forget spare hose adapters for when you Errm accidentally leave them attached to the tap in Brugge and wonder where there are at the next place to fill-up.

 

[mitzimad]

dont forget spare hose adapters for when you Errm accidentally leave them attached to the tap in Brugge and wonder where there are at the next place to fill-up.

that goes with never put the cassette cap on the side of the disposal point

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[The Wino]

We originally bought a roll up flat hose but found it akward if parked next to the tap never realised until then you have to unroll all of it even if you only need a metreoh:

Now also have a 3m length of ordinary hose plus a couple of pound shop hose adapter sets to cover all (hopefully) tap fittings and last year only used the roll out hose once it's so easy with a short one!!!!

Both our hoses are non food grade always run the water through for a few seconds before filling I reckon the contact time is so short it's unlikely to contaminate the water and if you dont run clean water through first the stale water from the last refill will probably be off.

Couldn't be bothered with a watering can as we usually shower every day and I know who will have to fetch the water!!.

Our first motorhome trip to France last year it's great even found a free flot bleau at the motorway services David

 

[wasp]

Get yersen a watterin can, I got one it`s ideal for toppin up.:thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb:

 

[Minxy]

We have always drank the water from our on-board tank and have done for the last 16 or so years without any problem at all. We use good quality garden hose to fill up with, simply because they are less likely to kink when filling the tank up! We bought a 30m one and cut it in half and left one 15m section at home for future use when needed, the other we cut into 5m and 10m lengths, which we can connect together if needed, but usually find the shorter one is more than sufficient. If these aren't sufficient then we use a water carrier (see below) instead. One thing that is worth doing though is to get hold of longer hose connectors - these fasten further onto the hose ends and are less likely to come off whilst you've got the water running though them so hopefully avoiding a soaking ... I speak form experience!

People say to get the food-grade hose however in my view they are only necessary for 'permanent' use (ie in a camper's plumbing etc) and are totally unnecessary for just filling up a water tank - the water travelling through isn't in the pipe long enough for the plasticisers etc to have any effect on the water whatsoever.

We only have a 66L tank in our camper so carry a 15L collapsible water container and 2 x 5L rigid ones which are only about 2" wide so are very easy to slot in narrow spaces for storage or just prop up in the wash room with some fresh water in them - we do this if we are going to be having a shower or washing hair etc so we can easily top the tank back up afterwards.

There's a good offer at Homebase at the moment for a Qualcast anti-kink kit comprising a 30m hose and 3 connectors for only £19.93, over £10 off! :thumb:

http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=110&storeId=10151&partNumber=045697

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[Minxy]

Me again!

These are some of the bits and pieces in our water kit!

• Water containers: you can see the 15L collapsible one (get one with 2 handles on if you can - much easier to pour!) and one of the 5L rigid ones
• a fuel filling funnel adapted to use with the water containers to make filling easier
• various types of hose attachments and tap connectors
• a strap for securing a 'push' tap on (easier than having to hold it there for 5 mins!)
• a long clear piece of hose with rubber end to push onto a tap so we can stand the water container on the floor to fill it, or enable us to access a tap which we cannot get the container under at all
• a small piece of green hose which we push into the camper's water inlet point alongside the filling hose to jam it in place so we can fill it single handedly if necessary (no need for one of us to hold it in and the other to turn it on! :Blush
• a spanner to remove the outlets nuts on water hydrants if we get really, really desperate for water!

I've now changed the funnel for a squarer one (takes up less space) and have adapted a 90 degree waste pipe connector (as used for domestic household waste piping) so that it jams in the water inlet so that with the funnel slotted in it one person can do the filling on their own (no need for anyone to hold the funnel).

In our experience we found that the lay flat and coil/expanding hoses don't have as much 'throughput' as a standard water hose which isn't important on a campsite but if you use aires a lot you might find that you don't get as much water as you have paid for/need if they work on a 'timed' allocation and/or can make the filling process a lot longer - this is part of the reason we ditched ours. We also found that the coiled/spring ones often developed a leak where the ends were attached and that they had a nasty habit of suddenly unattaching themselves and hurtling back at us, giving us an unexpected drenching as we tried to recapture the blooming thing!!! :shout:

NB: I was JOKING ABOUT THE SPANNER ... its just an old gas bottle spanner which we used to carry when we had a non-refillable bottle!

 

[Minxy]

Get yersen a watterin can, I got one it`s ideal for toppin up.:thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb:

I was going to say they take up too much room but had a 'Google' and found this!!!! :thumb:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/HU-Colapsible-Watering-Can-Green/dp/B009LJLRK8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1390431912&sr=8-2&keywords=collapsible+watering+can

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZJ5hgAX4tU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZJ5hgAX4tU[/ame]

 

[Allanm]

Our van came with a 5metre flat hose, one end has a Whale Watermaster socket that fits in the water inlet.
We also bought a 20metre flat cassette hose because the first site we went on ( in the UK) had a water tap 20 metres away from the nearest parking place!
We've been all over France and never had to use it again because all the aires have service points that you can drive up to.
The only bottled water we use is to fill the toilet header tank and topped up at aires.
Oh, and our watering can is in the greenhouse!

Allan

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[Parcverger]

Initially we connected a hose to the central drinking water taps at Parc Verger, but w.hen we had a water inspection (checking for legionnaires disease amongst others) we were told to take them off as they were a health hazard. We left the hose on the tap that is used for rinsing, and it is now up to our guests to connect a hose to the tap to fill tanks or bottles with drinking water.
When in our mh we used food quality hose, and never had a problem with taste or smell. Incidentally the water here is perfectly drinkable - we are supplied with quality figures every year which are available (as are the results of our water inspections) for anyone to see. Bottled water is available in every supermarket, but there is no need to buy it.
Bob
www.parcverger.com

 

[Steve101uk]

I use one of these

Broken Link Removed

I carry a range of connectors and never had a problem. We also buy bottled water which is really cheap in French supermarkets.

 

[Mousy]

We have an Truma plastic socket thing so are restricted to using either a sump pump thing which came with the van or our newly purchased but very expensive hose with regulator and Truma socket thingy on. So watering cans not an option for us.

However, in our dealers shop there was a food grade water hose on a reel which could be used without unreeling, for about £30.

Not intending to use bottled water, we are made of stern stuff here:thumb:

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