Drinking water..... (1 Viewer)

[Touchwood]

As advised by the previous owner of our MH, we don't use the fresh water tank for tea/coffee making, but carry a separate small water carrier. This is OK, but a little inconvenient, and we are having a problem finding a suitable "home" for it.

How advisable would you consider it to use the van fresh water instead? Obviously I'd need to ensure its sterility and cleanliness, but I don't see a major health risk - does anyone else do this? Or is using a separate water supply as we do currently strongly advised?

All advice gratefuilly received as usual. :thumb:

Mike

 

[Popeye]

There ain't a whole lot of bacteria that live through the boiling process, we only use bottled water when drinking a glass of water, everything else comes out of the tank.

...........Griff

 

[EJB]

We have used the water tank on MHs and Aquarolls on caravans for 50 years.
Never ever bought a 'bottle' of water, in fact they are a very new but profitable fad and except for an individuals personal taste a complete waste of money.
If we don't use the MH for a few weeks I flush it through for a few minutes before filling.

Each to his own

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[bigfoot]

Either install a Nature Pure inline filter or or use a filter jug,(another item to carry) as long as the water is boiled for drinks and cooking and you use bottled water for 'straight drinking' and brushing teeth,water from the tank is generally ok.

 

[Touchwood]

Thanks all - looks like I just got rid of another piece of unnecessary clutter!

Best sterilise it first though - metabisulphite I guess - can anyone recommend a concentration?

 

[Rayb182]

We used the tank water for drinking, every year we used a well watered down bleach and fill the tank 3/4 full and drive down some of our lanes sloshing the water about in the tank then go home empty it out and flush and draw the water through the taps a couple of times, then able to drink the water.

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[darklord]

If you can't drink the water in your tank, there's something wrong.
There is no harm in running a bit of Milton or whatever through it from time to time, especially if you lay it up for a long period, but other than that....i see no problem.
We are over sanitising our lives, no wonder kids have so many diseases and ailments, anyone ever go hop picking?..........filter that.

I heard something once about a water hole in Africa, you know, the ones they put twenty miles from anyones home, the narrator said, if WE drank the water, we would die, if a local drank it without boiling, HE would die...but a Massia warrior, could drink gallons and not even fart..........go on, drink some bacteria, and leave the yakult on the bleddy shelf

 

[jonandshell]

We always drink from our tank, cold or boiled, with no problems.
We just pop in some steritabs every fourth tankful or after standing the van up.

In our opinion, if you are worried about water quality, check out what the average African kid drinks.:Sad:

 

[bobandjanie]

Hi Mike, we always drank the water from our tank, drain the tank after every trip and all was OK. I worked for the water board for 12 years in the 70 / 80's and even then the French owned best part of the company I worked for. So we have never had a problem drinking water in France. :thumb:

The thing we don't like is when people wash their toilet out at a drinking water tap ! And we came back from Spain a couple of years ago and had about 1" of sandy grit in the bottom of the tank. oh:

So this year we got a Nature Pure, and now we would not be without one. :thumb: Bob.

This: http://www.laleisure.co.uk/nature-pure-water-purifier-with-tap-27-p.asp

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[Hayleylulu]

Trust me to get it wrong iv been filling the tank with beeroh:oh:

 

[John & Joan]

As advised by the previous owner of our MH, we don't use the fresh water tank for tea/coffee making, but carry a separate small water carrier. This is OK, but a little inconvenient, and we are having a problem finding a suitable "home" for it.

How advisable would you consider it to use the van fresh water instead? Obviously I'd need to ensure its sterility and cleanliness, but I don't see a major health risk - does anyone else do this? Or is using a separate water supply as we do currently strongly advised?

All advice gratefuilly received as usual. :thumb:

Mike

We bought our van in 2006 and have always drunk the water from the onboard 120 litre tank. We have been full timing since February 2010 so that is a lot of water through the tank in UK, Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany and Spain.

All you need to do is make sure the tank is clean and you fill from a known supply. In the past I have consumed water direct from a stream while in the highlands wildcamping in a caravan after looking at where it came from on a map.

All water from a tap is potable unless marked otherwise. If you wish to pay about £9 a gallon for drinking water then buy bottled water from a supermarket or shop. 2 euro for 100 litres suites me from a bourne. There are inline filters you can buy.

 

[Reallyretired]

We drink the water from our tank, have done for 20 years odd. The chemicals in drinking water will kill off any bugs, just don't leave it standing for weeks. Flush it out if the vans not been in use for a while and use a proprietary sterilising solution/tablets occasionally.

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[pappajohn]

Eee! i dont know......wimps with fragile stomachs.
I drink near on anything short of curdled milk and urine...though i've had some beers that resemble urine

 

[Welsh girl]

We use our van tank water for everything, in the last 3 and half years fulltiming,we haven't come down with anything yet, we did buy bottled in France only because of the taste of the water.
I think we all need a bit of bacteria anyway to keep our immune system going otherwise we couldn't fight any illness.
I used to eat mud pies when I was a kid and have always been healthy although that might be my genes?:thumb:

 

[Touchwood]

The many comments made re. water quality reminded me of a cautionary tale.

Many years ago we were on a cottage holiday in Scotland, when the water supply to the cottage failed. Well, I'm supposed to be an engineer, so rather than drive into Oban to phone the hoilday company I resolved to have a look.

The water supply was a blue plastic pipe, which we followed up the hillside, to find a tiny makeshift reservoir formed by putting a concrete wall across a stream. There was a copper tube cast into the concrete, and the blue plastic pipe was merely jammed onto the end of the copper tube - no filters or anything. The plastic pipe had been dislodged, presumably by the cow that was paddling around in the stream.

Never did us any harm!!

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[Rayb182]

The many comments made re. water quality reminded me of a cautionary tale.

Many years ago we were on a cottage holiday in Scotland, when the water supply to the cottage failed. Well, I'm supposed to be an engineer, so rather than drive into Oban to phone the hoilday company I resolved to have a look.

The water supply was a blue plastic pipe, which we followed up the hillside, to find a tiny makeshift reservoir formed by putting a concrete wall across a stream. There was a copper tube cast into the concrete, and the blue plastic pipe was merely jammed onto the end of the copper tube - no filters or anything. The plastic pipe had been dislodged, presumably by the cow that was paddling around in the stream.

Never did us any harm!!

And further upstream was a a dead sheep lying in the burn

 

[Ralph-n-Bev]

This happened to Ralph .
He chose to use the fresh water in a stream when we were tent camping. Brushing his teeth and swilling out telling the kids you "cant beat fresh Yorkshire water. "
Later on we walked up stream and there lying in it , with all its neck and entrails hanging out , was a dead rotting sheep.
How we laughed

 

[Rayb182]

My brother live lives in the highland, he often has to go up the burn clearing the debris out the burn and over the years his sink and bath have turned light brown with the peat content in the water, still tastes ok.:thumb:

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[geoff1947]

bottled water

Why would anyone want to buy bottled water?? I have 10 L clear plastic container that I found in Spain yrs ago and fill that up from any tap I find. We use this for tea and drinks-no problem. If I had to I'd drink from the fresh water tank. We aren't in Africa, I'm not a Massi warrior but have had to drink out off many streams in my military life no problems Bar for a taste of plastic etc its up to you:thumb: