how long can I leave fresh water in the tank for? What do you do?

PaulC70

PaulC70

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Before I start, I know some drink straight from the tank, others have filters and carry fresh water for drinking in a seperate jerry can, Im not after that kind of information, Im really looking to find out about how long you leave fresh water between trips and how you get the best out of it.

So, heading off tomorrow for 5 nights / 4 days (still not sure where to be honest) and Im a bit paranoid about the water in the tank which has been in there just over 6 weeks and had aquasol added to it.
Now we never drink from the tank water to be fair and always carried a 20 litre can of tap water from the house and used this for glass of water / kettle.

So, just been out and run all the taps to flush, all looks good, no smells or bits, opened up the tank top and also looks fine, clear and no biofilm.
Im thinking this time im going to top up (use the aquasol) and use the water for kettle too this time and just carry some small bottles of water in the fridge for the odd time we have a drink of pure water.

But interested to know what others do SPECIFICALLY with how long they would leave their water between trips and how you keep it usable?
 
I’d change fresh water if not using the Motorhome for about a week - 10days.
The drained water is kept for the garden.
The little water heater store we tend to leave.

We’re water drinkers (boiled).

Edit: missed the slept typo…
 
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Whats left in ours after trip stays until topped up before next trip... could be 2weeks.... could be 2months....
Only drain for winter and that is only for frost protection.
 
we change our water about once a month then once a year we put in puriclean I’ve done this for over 20 years and previous for about 10 in our Hymer 694 and we’re still living !we drink the water through a seagull water filter in line to the cold tap so no messing with bottle water hope this helps .
 
I normally just don't fill up towards the end of a trip, this saves some weight driving home but also means there's not much left to drain. I keep enough to do the cleaning on the drive then I always open up the taps, the frost valve and the tank drains, just as a habbit as I have blown a tap seal in the past forgetting to open one tap over winter.
Most modern vans only factor 20L into payload calculations anyway, so watch your weights.
 
Chlorine dissipates after about 4/5 days so it's not really safe to drink for much longer after that.
Always drain ours down within a few days of getting home.

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One week max for me.
No science, just what feels right for me.
We do drink from tank but it gets a small squirt of liquid Purisol when we fill up and a big dose of powdered type in a watering can at start of season, drive and leave a day or so and dump and refill.
 
Lenny HB said:
Chlorine dissipates after about 4/5 days so it's not really safe to drink for much longer after that.
Always drain ours down within a few days of getting home.
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But not if your water board uses chloramine instead of chlorine. (south west water uses chloramines)
 
Don't worry, nobody has died in their motorhome from drinking old water from the tank. We don't use it for drinking because fresh tastes better, especially if from a stream without chlorine.
 
I've been motorhoming for 50 years in a variety of vans and have never drained a fresh water tank in any of them.

When not on my land, which has beautiful fresh water drawn from my (deep) borehole, I use a Berkey water filter for drinking water.

Brilliant bit of kit.



JJ :cool:
 
JJ said:
I've been motorhoming for 50 years in a variety of vans and have never drained a fresh water tank in any of them.

When not on my land, which has beautiful fresh water drawn from my (deep) borehole, I use a Berkey water filter for drinking water.

Brilliant bit of kit.



JJ :cool:
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I also have the Berkey water filter, awesome.
 
Drain down and refill before each trip. I leave the drain open for a few minutes whilst filling and turn all taps on briefly. We rarely arrive home with very much in the tank. I use tank water for everything including drinking.

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If not using it for a couple of months I will drain it down. Not sure why. We don't use it to drink anyway. Showers, washing up washing teeth, boiled for tea/coffee, cooking.

It's no hassle to empty and takes 10 mins to fill so why not?
 
We drink from the tank and I generally drain down if not likely to use the van for more than 4 weeks or so. If it's almost empty when I get home I might drain the last bit out but am not scrupulous about this. But I ve always been of the school that a bit of dirt is good for you. I do wash through with vinegar yearly.
 
I once was given working advice on water treatment from a train maintenance engineer, he told me they kept the water tanks on the train carriages stored full.

When the pipes and tank are full a minimum of air can get in - the cause of bacteria growth ..they never needed water treatment that way.

I always say experience is very expensive ... take it when freely given !!!

On return to home, I leave the water in the pipes and also any remaining in the tank.

Just before a trip out, I empty the tank and refill with fresh.

We drink from our water tank, although it goes through a seperate tap .. filtered .

The only place I have seen black slime is in the top of the seperate toilet flush tank at the maximum water level exposed to the air.

Being in the dark encourages growth of bacteria water nasties, uv/sunlight they don't like
Algae likes /needs sunlight .. so maybe I'll experiment with leaving the toilet flush tank door open while not in use.
 
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JJ said:
I've been motorhoming for 50 years in a variety of vans and have never drained a fresh water tank in any of them.

When not on my land, which has beautiful fresh water drawn from my (deep) borehole, I use a Berkey water filter for drinking water.

Brilliant bit of kit.



JJ :cool:
Click to expand...

nickq said:
Berkey water filter
Click to expand...
Not heard of these before I have to admit
 
There's a bit of me likes the idea of a filter on the kitchen tap, but it's the cost and price for how little it'll really get used that does put me off.

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ctc said:
Don't worry, nobody has died in their motorhome from drinking old water from the tank. We don't use it for drinking because fresh tastes better, especially if from a stream without chlorine.
Click to expand...
is that with or without the dead sheep upstream
1686219745929.png
:sick::whistle2:
 
We drink from our tank, and don't drain down/refresh it, never been ill. There again, over the years, I've probably accidentally swallowed so much polluted water from Rivers that I've built up a strong resistance.


One other point, I only fill at points marked Potable.

Cheers
Red.
 
We take a bottle of water from home for medication that’s kept in the fridge at the start of a trip and then swap to bought bottled water.
Due to the size of our fresh water tank it only lasts us two or three days so it’s topped up regularly.
Once we are home it’s drained and the tap left open. In case there’s any residue left in the tank I run water in until it runs out of the drain for a while when we re filling.
The only time we had water problems needing the tank to be cleaning and the system flushing was on a big site in the uk. The water from the tap smelt musty and stale. It was early season so the taps hadn’t been used over the winter or flushed out.
We are now wary about what comes out to taps. Management has a better sense of taste than me so she is our water tester. 😝
 

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