Mould in food safe water hose

[Andy from Sandy]

After several years of use, I have mould in my 15mt blue food safe water hose. I tried to clean it out by soaking it in correctly diluted Milton solution but I still get little black floating bits out of it when filling up a clean plastic container. Rather than spending £27 for a new length of hose I’d prefer to clean the mould out permanently. Have you any suggestions on how to do this, please?

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

You could run string through with a float/ small ball, and then pull a wad cleaner through it to draw out the mold from the side walls.

 

[Two of usI]

I would try strong bleach then thoroughly wash

 

[Phill D]

milton is no where near strong enough to remove black from the inside of a 15m hose.

not what you want to read but probably less hassle and cheaper to buy a new hose and run a cleaner through it every winter.

 

[Wabs]

For all the faff, just buy a new hose

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[Phill D]

alternatively by a cheap hose and a water filter in your system.

i have a so called food grade hose but still have a filter in the cold water system. As you know a food grade hose does not ensure clean or safe water.

 

[pampam]

Id just by the cheapest hose

 

[DBK]

Food grade hose just means it doesn't leach chemicals into the water. A typical water filter will do nothing to eliminate these chemicals. Cheap hoses can give the water a nasty taste. Not all of them but one we bought in France from a farm supplier was vile - we threw it away.

If you want to be safe chuck your contaminated hose. Even if you can kill the mould with bleach the internal surface will be so degraded it will quickly return.

 

[Wabs]

As I ve said, just bin it, £27 is not a lot of money to keep your mind at rest,,then you can have another worry free year,, win, win

 

[Southdowners]

Pour bleach down it.

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[TinaLes]

Andy from Sandy just out of interest, what action if an do you take to try ensure the pipe is empty before storing away.?
I have a shortish Blue water safe hose, and I force the water out by blowing down it after each use, mainly so it doesn't leach water while rolled up in the garage. I then place in a bucket to make double sure.
If you fill it with Cider Vinegar or even bleach, leave overnight, then connect to a mains tap to give a good blast of water to clear it, that may do the trick.
Storing any hose or even empty water container like 4/5 litre water carriers, you will notice a green algae form at the bottom, so unless they are dried out, tops left off etc, there will always be a problem.
If we drank the water from the fresh water tank in the van I would also buy & install an in line water filter, but we buy bottled water as we love our fresh coffee made with it.
Good luck.
LES

 

[Minxy]

Just buy a normal garden hose as the water doesn't stay in it long enough to cause any issues, we've used them for years and drink from the tank and haven't keeled over yet.

 

[Niall B]

I spotted a couple of black spots in our freshwater pipe at the weekend. I’ve tried breaking a couple of Milton tablets in two, jamming them in the pipe, then running hot water through the pipe into a sink where I soaked the pipe for half an hour and then rinsed it thoroughly. Seems clear now but it’s taking forever to dry out. Beginning to understand those people who use a watering can.

 

[Nirvanauk]

As said, bin it and buy a new one.

 

[highwayman]

We had a similar problem, I removed the fittings at either end and cut up a washing-up sponge into a suitable size and pushed it into the pipe and relaced one fitting, put it on the tap and turned it on thus using the sponge as what they call in the oil industry a pig.
The water pressure forced the sponge through and when we saw the state of it we threw the hoses away a got new ones. !!!

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[jessthedog]

Its quite funny reading all the replies, some of course make sense, but has anyone seen an old water mains that has failed or being replaced.
The pipes are rank! And if we could see inside them all, we would be boiling all our drinking water

 

[Andy from Sandy]

Andy from Sandy just out of interest, what action if an do you take to try ensure the pipe is empty before storing away.?
I have a shortish Blue water safe hose, and I force the water out by blowing down it after each use, mainly so it doesn't leach water while rolled up in the garage. I then place in a bucket to make double sure.
If you fill it with Cider Vinegar or even bleach, leave overnight, then connect to a mains tap to give a good blast of water to clear it, that may do the trick.
Storing any hose or even empty water container like 4/5 litre water carriers, you will notice a green algae form at the bottom, so unless they are dried out, tops left off etc, there will always be a problem.
If we drank the water from the fresh water tank in the van I would also buy & install an in line water filter, but we buy bottled water as we love our fresh coffee made with it.
Good luck.
LES

Thanks for your reply Les, I make the pipe as empty as possible simply by holding up the hose as high as possible while winding it up, so the water inside trickles out of the far end. This obviously not very effective.

We only drink cold water from the motorhome tank via LifeStraw bottles or boil water for tea/coffee.

Thank you once again.

 

[Andy from Sandy]

We had a similar problem, I removed the fittings at either end and cut up a washing-up sponge into a suitable size and pushed it into the pipe and relaced one fitting, put it on the tap and turned it on thus using the sponge as what they call in the oil industry a pig.
The water pressure forced the sponge through and when we saw the state of it we threw the hoses away a got new ones. !!!

That's disgusting, I think I will follow everybody's wise advice and buy a replacement food-safe hose. I am researching a clear braided one at Amazon product ASIN B09JT154G1

 

[glenn2926]

You don’t really need a food safe hose. The pipe work that your water has travelled upto sixty miles from the reservoir to the tap certainly isn’t food grade, so having the last couple of metres food grade isn’t going make any difference.