diesel in water tank (1 Viewer)

[mac3]

Whilst out giving the van a run, for its own good, stopped for fuel, and my friend put 40 pounds worth of diesel into the water tank. Unfortunately, i was also running the heating before I realised the mistake (trumatic c).I think I had less than a 1/4 of a tank of water, also unfortunately. Had the sense to not use taps or flush at least. A bit depressed really.:Sad:

 

[PaulyP]

That's going to take some flushing out, look on the bright side at least you tank wont freeze.

Get the drain plug out of the water tank, not sure what additive to use to clean it, sure somebody will come up with an answer.

 

[TheBig1]

i doubt anything will totally clean the tank so its fit to drink from again.

CAK tanks will sell you a new tank and fittings or claim it on the insurance

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[pappajohn]

my suggestion.

drain all the water/diesel into containers (you'll need to dispose of it properly)

get some none foaming detergent, dish washer powder should do.

put the powder and a few gallons of boiling/very hot water in the tank and go for a drive.

the detergent should 'disolve' the diesel.
drain again and repeat.

DONT run the pump with gritty detergent in the water.

drain and part fill with water a few times and see what happens.

cant think of any other solutions.

 

[Gunner29]

diesel

I put £80 of PETROL into my DIESEl tank!! £130 to pump it out so total cost = £210
Not sure how much anew tank will cost you but IF you can clean it out OK Good luck but I'd be wary of drinking from it

 

[Organplayer]

organplayer

To be certain of no future "health"problems and no denting to your confidence, if it were me, change the tank. Could say thats what you pay insurance for when things unfortunately go wrong. Be certain,be sure.

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[aba]

if you manage to get the diesel out into containers let it settle for a few days and syphon it off the top of the water then at least you are only binning a pint or 2 of diesel instead of £40 worth.

as for the water tank replace it and also replace the pick up pipe to the pump unless you are unfortunate enough to have a submerged pump in the tank, if thats the case bin that too.

 

[Minxy]

I just found this on the internet as it appears to be a problem with boat owners, it might help:

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f115/contaminated-water-tanks-24909.html

I don't know why you are being told to claim on insurance as it wasn't you who caused the problem! Your friend may have been trying to help but ultimately it is he who should be stumping up the bill if the tank needs replacing (which I think it probably will!). We bought an old Commer Autosleeper camper van which had had petrol put in the water tank, we never could use it for water so used to carry water containers around with us instead.

 

[hilldweller]

A bit depressed really.:Sad:

A small consolation, you're not the first, you won't be the last.

We never drink from our tank, always use bottled or take from home, so if you get it clean enough for washing that might do.

Bio washes diesel out of clothes, why not a tank.

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[Peter JohnsCross MH]

Never tried it as we always change anything that has come into contact with diesel but you could try a few bottles of cheap coke

Peter

 

[Minxy]

Never tried it as we always change anything that has come into contact with diesel but you could try a few bottles of cheap coke

Peter

Peter ... surely that would melt the tank away completely

Horrifying to think ... people actually DRINK this stuff!

 

[scotjimland]

I would suggest using a Citrus based diesel cleaner .. such as


fill the tank then go for a drive.

Drain, fill with water and bi carbonate of soda let that work for a while, then flush with fresh water .. several times..

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[philk]

Diesel

Go to halfrords and buy a new plastic 1 gallon put diesel in it then put in tank. Now experiment on this container.

Phil

 

[Theonlysue]

diesel in water system

I had a garage do that to me. Got johns cross to sort it out and it costs £ 3500 .
Claimed on the garages public liability insurance. This was a large 24 hour garage that dealt with all size vehicles. Guess i got the school leaver who didn't ask which one was the fuel

Found out the following weekend when i went camping. Had diesel flavored coffee.
Doesn't harm you but not the best tasting coffee in the world

Everything had to be changed as it had tainted the whole system

S:Cool:

 

[ukbill]

safe side change the tank if you smoke you dont want to shower in diesel could be quite painful

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[Chris]

That is a real sod.:Sad:

Hope you get it sorted soon.

 

[gozomike]

Hi

Sorry to hear of the problem.

It reminds me I must take the key for the water filler off the vehicle key ring and leave it in the kitchen area, it might stop me doing it.

Mike

 

[Wildbill]

first thing to do is drane the tank take the tank out wash with solotion of fairy washing up luqud use cold water for the first two or three times then see if it stll has a smell if so repet first step then wash with very hot water and good old blech and fairy very strong solution rins cleen refit tank it worked for me on my first van if that dose not work get a new tank:thumb:

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[nucs200]

hymer water tank for sale

if you go on the Pre- Loved site there is a hymer water tank c/w pump for £65.00 dont know what model its from but you might get lucky

 

[MikeD]

I agree

i doubt anything will totally clean the tank so its fit to drink from again.

CAK tanks will sell you a new tank and fittings or claim it on the insurance

Have a look at: Link Removed

diesel is not nice stuff I suggest bite the bullet and replace the tank and claim on your insurance.

 

[Gromett]

Go to halfrords and buy a new plastic 1 gallon put diesel in it then put in tank. Now experiment on this container.

Phil

Excellent suggestion :thumb:

However I would swap the tank. I would never trust it and would always smell the diesel imagined or real....

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[darklord]

Funny old stuff diesel, its an oil rather than a spirit, so tends to cling a bit. Ive done quite a few "fuel contams" i.e petrol in diesel or the other way around, but diesel in water...never.
The first thing I would suggest, is get it out, you can take which ever path you want, but the longer the diesel has to stink everything out, the less chance you have of success.

Once its out, I,d flush a few times with a weak bleach solution, then fill the tank with a STRONG solution of Milton and leave it there for a couple of days.
After this, I,d drain it out, then, sick a hosepipe in it and just let it run...for ages.......!
Then i,d stick my nose in it, and someone elses, and see if i could smell diesel, if i could, get shot of the tank, if I could,nt, i,d open ALL entries into the tank...the outside filler, the drain valve and the interior hatch, and leave them open until a couple of weeks till i went away again, then i,d retest, giving myself time to locate and fit a new tank.
I,m not saying this is the right way to do it, just what i would do.

 

[chesterfield hooligan]

Hi I would find a someone who steam cleans lorrys do try filling with fairy liquid and I mean a whole bottle to a tankfull of water drive around for say 20 miles give it time to work then drain take to the steamcleaner and give it a good blast for say 1/2 hour and flush again with fairy liquid and see how you go

 

[Wildbill]

Hi I would find a someone who steam cleans lorrys do try filling with fairy liquid and I mean a whole bottle to a tankfull of water drive around for say 20 miles give it time to work then drain take to the steamcleaner and give it a good blast for say 1/2 hour and flush again with fairy liquid and see how you go

hi i have experimented with a one gallon can with fairy liquid put deisel in it left it over night and flused out two or three times and no smell of deisel
but only use fairy as it is the only thing i think work brakes up the oil

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[Jaws]

Something no one has mentioned is the 'other side' of the issue.. £40 of diesel !!

Do not throw it away.

Put it in a drum and leave a few days to settle

You can then drain off the water leaving the diesel.

Use a kettle element or similar to heat the diesel up and it will seperate any further contamination
We have used this method when making up bio diesel as some of the chip shop oil ( somehow ) has had water in it..

If you do a search on bio diesel there is plenty of fully detailed info on doing the job :thumb:

 

[callumwa]

We clean our cargo tanks on the ship from products much worse than diesel. For us, we find that diesel is an easy product to clean. We only use Hot Water, then afterwards flush with DI water and or steam.

We also clean from much more "difficult" products such as Heavy Lube additives, Brightstock slack wax, and all sorts of real sticky dirty sh*t produced from the petrochemical chain, which makes diesel look like water.....

We can clean directly from Diesel, and all most "nasty" and toxic products, to then load super clean and sensitive pharmaceutical and food grade products, which require absolutely meticulously clean tanks. After cleaning, we then analyse the surface of the tanks to ensure it is less than 1 ppm for hydrocarbons, chlorides and NVM's (non volatile matter). Sometimes to even less than 1 ppm. In the old days we just used to lick the tank bulkhead to test the "cleanliness".

Therefore I see no reason why you cannot do similar to this, albeit on a small scale, with the tank in your van. You must remove the offending diesel asap. The only variable is our tanks are stainless steel or in some vessels coated mild steel. Your tank is of course plastic which will be a little bit harder to clean.

So, I would certainly try cleaning the tank. I would fill it about 50% to 70% full with hot water and add a little fairy liquid then immediately go for a dive for 10 or 15 minutes going round as many roundabouts, bends and over speed bumps as possible so it can slosh as much as possible.

I would try repeating this several times until there is no discernible odour.

At that point if you can then access a steam hose, you could then introduce steam into the tank, ensuring the tank drain is open. Do this for a prolonged time so as to allow the temperature to significantly rise in the tank and piping, The subsequent condensate which will arise is also a good way of cleaning any small traces and residues from the system. Then do a normal sterilising procedure.

I would think you have every chance of getting the tank serviceable again...

Good luck whatever route you take....

:thumb::thumb:

 

[Jaws]

We clean our cargo tanks on the ship from products much worse than diesel. For us, we find that diesel is an easy product to clean. We only use Hot Water, then afterwards flush with DI water and or steam.

We also clean from much more "difficult" products such as Heavy Lube additives, Brightstock slack wax, and all sorts of real sticky dirty sh*t produced from the petrochemical chain, which makes diesel look like water.....

We can clean directly from Diesel, and all most "nasty" and toxic products, to then load super clean and sensitive pharmaceutical and food grade products, which require absolutely meticulously clean tanks. After cleaning, we then analyse the surface of the tanks to ensure it is less than 1 ppm for hydrocarbons, chlorides and NVM's (non volatile matter). Sometimes to even less than 1 ppm. In the old days we just used to lick the tank bulkhead to test the "cleanliness".

Therefore I see no reason why you cannot do similar to this, albeit on a small scale, with the tank in your van. You must remove the offending diesel asap. The only variable is our tanks are stainless steel or in some vessels coated mild steel. Your tank is of course plastic which will be a little bit harder to clean.

So, I would certainly try cleaning the tank. I would fill it about 50% to 70% full with hot water and[HI] add a little fairy liquid then immediately go for a dive for 10 or 15 minutes [/HI]going round as many roundabouts, bends and over speed bumps as possible so it can slosh as much as possible.

I would try repeating this several times until there is no discernible odour.

At that point if you can then access a steam hose, you could then introduce steam into the tank, ensuring the tank drain is open. Do this for a prolonged time so as to allow the temperature to significantly rise in the tank and piping, The subsequent condensate which will arise is also a good way of cleaning any small traces and residues from the system. Then do a normal sterilising procedure.

I would think you have every chance of getting the tank serviceable again...

Good luck whatever route you take....

:thumb::thumb:

I actually re-read that 3 times !!! ( considering we are talking water tanks I just could not believe my eyes and wondered exactly HOW big you think the water tank in question is !!!

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[Phill D]

dont forget the filler pipe and cap and any overflow may be tainted:thumb:

 

[DRIFTERJOF]

Just tried going in with a mask and snorkle, and its defo a no go on a CI Carioca!!
Sorry..

 

[oldun]

Whilst out giving the van a run, for its own good, stopped for fuel, and my friend put 40 pounds worth of diesel into the water tank. Unfortunately, i was also running the heating before I realised the mistake (trumatic c).I think I had less than a 1/4 of a tank of water, also unfortunately. Had the sense to not use taps or flush at least. A bit depressed really.:Sad:

I find this type of mistake amazing. Does the OP normally run around with his fresh water tank unlocked? If so he is asking for trouble.

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