water tank. Milton? (1 Viewer)

[spiceypip]

Hello everyone. Just got our first camper. A swift kontiki 1998. A bit long in the tooth but it looks okay to us. Now, about the fresh water tank. Someone suggested I put a Milton tablet in. Should I? Shouldn't I? Or do you just fill it up and off you go?

 

[tonka]

Somewhere on here it was mentioned NOT to use Milton as it can rot the seals in your boiler.. Maybe someone will be along in a while and can give more info..

In 13 years and 6 motorhomes I have never put anything in the tank, just a flush through with clean water..... Still here, not dead yet..:thumb:

 

[bailey]

Somewhere on here it was mentioned NOT to use Milton as it can rot the seals in your boiler.. Maybe someone will be along in a while and can give more info..

In 13 years and 6 motorhomes I have never put anything in the tank, just a flush through with clean water..... Still here, not dead yet..:thumb:

I'm with you complete flush no added chemicals. The amount of times on sites you see people going to the outside taps to fill there bottles. If they only new how it got there Drink from the tank and build your imune system up you softies

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[rangi]

We wipe the tank clean after each trip, drain everything off first, open all taps etc

 

[FULL TIMER]

definitely not Milton, if you must use a chemical puriclean is ok avoid any bleach product on any plastic including pipework ,toilet and sinks apparently not to good on stainless steel sinks either, personally we use a good strong white vinegar solution,it is effective and if you also fill the hot water boiler and let it heat up for a while then turn off and leave overnight it will also descale the boiler and element, as we are fulltimers we have a constant flow of fresh chlorinated water so don't tend to bother much these days.

 

[pappajohn]

I know there are many types of plastic, but Miltons primary use is to sterilise baby bottles...which are plastic...and teats....which are latex/synthetic rubber.

cant see much difference between those and a plastic water tank and rubber/latex sealing rings.

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[pappajohn]

Travel tip and cautions from Milton

Travel Tip: to make water safe for drinking, use half a teaspoon (2.5ml) of Milton Fluid to 5 litres of water and leave for 15 minutes.


Warnings: Avoid prolonged contact with metal. Avoid contact with eyes, in the event of contact, rinse eyes with warm water. Do not inhale. Do not use in combination with other products as toxic gases may be released (chlorine). Milton may discolour fabric on contact.

 

[pappajohn]

Sodium hypochlorite (active ingredient of Milton fluid) solutions do not attack acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), Butyl rubber, isoprene, hard rubber, natural rubber, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC), polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, Teflon and Viton.


which covers most plastics and rubber in a motorhome water system


Sodium hypochlorite solutions attack some plastics (such as nylon, Bisphenol A-fumarate and
isophthalic polyesters), elastomers (such as soft rubber, neoprene and nitrile Buna-N) and
coatings (such as coal tar epoxy, epoxy and vinyls).

dont think any of these are used.


Sodium hypochlorite solutions (20%) are corrosive to brass (aluminum, naval and silicon) bronze, carbon steel, cast iron, Hastelloy, Inconel, nickel, stainless steels (types 304/347, 316 and 400 series) and silicon copper.


Milton use a 2% w/w solution so really cant see a problem.

 

[Spenders]

This thread?

I think that Tonka was referring to this thread:
Broken Link Removed

posted by Teasy2007 on 8/9/13.

They had been specifically advised by boiler manufacturer Truma NOT to use Milton as it attacks the seals in boilers leading to failure!

Simon

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[Teasy2007]

Hello everyone. Just got our first camper. A swift kontiki 1998. A bit long in the tooth but it looks okay to us. Now, about the fresh water tank. Someone suggested I put a Milton tablet in. Should I? Shouldn't I? Or do you just fill it up and off you go?

Hi, NEVER put Milton or any similar product in your fresh water, we followed advice, used Milton and ruined our boiler. Truma said never to use Milton as it is corrosive.

We were advised to use Aquasol which is non corrosive.

Ginny

 

[estcres]

Hello everyone. Just got our first camper. A swift kontiki 1998. A bit long in the tooth but it looks okay to us. Now, about the fresh water tank. Someone suggested I put a Milton tablet in. Should I? Shouldn't I? Or do you just fill it up and off you go?

You might find this link useful either that or you will never use your tank again

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/guidance/oce15.pdf

 

[Linda and Steph]

I'll forget drinking water and stick to wine - it was good enough for Jesus after all.

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[FULL TIMER]

From memory around 2006 there were numerous complaints of a bad taste and odour in caravan water systems on various forums, I believe that it was put down to the use of certain products such as Milton which is a form of bleach causing chemicals to leach out of the water pipes used giving the bad taste and smell, (maybe the composition of the food grade piping had changed). Before Truma came up with their own products they used to recommend the use of white vinegar as it was known that Milton attacked the stainless steel tanks and seals. I'll stick with the vinegar even though we only use water that is going to be boiled from the tank. As for babies bottles etc in my day we used to boil them up not rely on a chemical quick fix

 

[pappajohn]

From memory around 2006 there were numerous complaints of a bad taste and odour in caravan water systems on various forums, I believe that it was put down to the use of certain products such as Milton which is a form of bleach causing chemicals to leach out of the water pipes used giving the bad taste and smell, (maybe the composition of the food grade piping had changed). Before Truma came up with their own products they used to recommend the use of white vinegar as it was known that Milton attacked the stainless steel tanks and seals. I'll stick with the vinegar even though we only use water that is going to be boiled from the tank. As for babies bottles etc in my day we used to boil them up not rely on a chemical quick fix

I'll stick with my inline General Ecology nature pure water filter. :thumb:

doesnt matter were my water is sourced, it comes out safer than tap water.

 

[pappajohn]

From memory around 2006 there were numerous complaints of a bad taste and odour in caravan water systems on various forums, I believe that it was put down to the use of certain products such as Milton which is a form of bleach causing chemicals to leach out of the water pipes used giving the bad taste and smell, (maybe the composition of the food grade piping had changed). Before Truma came up with their own products they used to recommend the use of white vinegar as it was known that Milton attacked the stainless steel tanks and seals. I'll stick with the vinegar even though we only use water that is going to be boiled from the tank. As for babies bottles etc in my day we used to boil them up not rely on a chemical quick fix

In England during the last 1940’s there was a widespread outbreak of gastroenteritis, which led to the death of 4,500 babies under the age of 1 year. The outbreak was traced back to poorly cleaned baby feeding equipment. Sterilising baby bottles at the time involved boiling water on the Aga.

Following a request from the Ministry of Health, on the BBC, to develop a better method of sterilising baby feeding equipment, which would be effective on killing germs, Milton pioneered a new approach to sterilising baby bottles.

It was then that the Milton Method was born and it has been credited for saving many babies lives over the years!

cant be that bad if it was requested by the ministry for health.

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[FULL TIMER]

surely that was more down to the people who were supposed to be doing the job, the fact that many people were living in overcrowded slums with little or no sanitation might also have contributed to these deaths

cant be that bad if it was requested by the ministry for health. ministry of health also introduced things like Thalidomide for general use even after it was known about the side effects in Germany a few years before.
The government also allowed various experiments such as releasing cancer causing chemicals such as cadmium into the air above parts of East Anglia including Norwich only a few days after I was Born Link Removed

Would I trust the various ministry's within government to look after the welfare of the population ,I don't think so

 

[ourcampersbeentrashed]

We wipe the tank clean after each trip, drain everything off first, open all taps etc

how do you wipe your tank clean, ours is so sealed we cant get to it?????

 

[schojac]

In England during the last 1940’s there was a widespread outbreak of gastroenteritis, which led to the death of 4,500 babies under the age of 1 year. The outbreak was traced back to poorly cleaned baby feeding equipment. Sterilising baby bottles at the time involved boiling water on the Aga.

Following a request from the Ministry of Health, on the BBC, to develop a better method of sterilising baby feeding equipment, which would be effective on killing germs, Milton pioneered a new approach to sterilising baby bottles.

It was then that the Milton Method was born and it has been credited for saving many babies lives over the years!

cant be that bad if it was requested by the ministry for health.

WOW! youe've been busy; many thanks Sir :thumb:

was going to tick the thank you tab but thought this better.

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[Reallyretired]

I would recommend you don't let Milton or equivalent get it your grey tank as it will make it stink worse than usual. Possibly due to killing off all the bacteria that break down the food residues but leaving the most resistant nasties, especially anaerobes. If Shirley uses Milton to get the tea stains out of mugs, we always dispose of it straight down a drain.

 

[Teasy2007]

Interesting question.

I have just been asked an interesting P.M. question and thought I would post it on the forum.

Thanks for the tip, i've stopped using Milton after seeing your post, I used it about 4 times this year only. I wonder if my truma boiler is doomed! Can you tell me how your problem came to light and what I should look out for, what is it that indicates corrosion in the boiler? Forgive me if it should be obvious, but I'm not very mechanically minded having had a career flying a desk.
Regards
Kenneth[/QUOTE]

The first indication was an electric overheating smell when we had the boiler on. This was followed by the pump being activated, usually noticed in the middle of the night when it should have been silent. The final clue was when we went into the boiler cupboard - something we very rarely did because we did not store anything else in there - and we noticed water on the floor and a limescale effect around the base of the boiler where it screws into the floor.

At first the dealer - Fullers, total waste of time - told us it was not the boiler but water coming in from the road! He said he had checked it thoroughly but there was no water leak. When we arrived home there was water. I put my hand under the boiler and when I took it out is was black and wet!

We took it back, four hour round trip, for both motorhome and car, demanded he send the boiler back to Truma and they repaired the boiler under warranty, brilliant service from Truma, would not touch Fullers again with a barge pole.

Ginny

 

[womblevra]

After many, many years if Narrowboating and a few years of Motorhoming-All drinking stored water from a tank with NO additives-Both hot and cold-------------------------------------I`m still here

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[atlantisbird]

We have not used any chemicals in our water or toilet system since we installed an inline water filter from the NATURAL PURE water purifying company bought from their stall at Peterborough in 2012 just a couple of weeks after we bought the van. We have been to Poland for a month and back this year and also used extensively within the UK with no problems at all with the tank water filtered just for drinking water and the shower direct from our boiler and tank. The filters we were told only needed a change every two years.
In the toilet we had the SOG system installed, again bought at the above show.
We are delighted with the results of both systems without any problems so far.

Harry

 

[superk]

We used a product called Certisil sold by German motorhome dealers - uses silver ions - they have products for tank maintenance as well as deep cleaning (Certinox) at the start and finish of a season - being German I think certified for use. We found the 3-bottle kit most useful - we were away six months taking on water from lots of different places.
http://www.reimo.com/en/D-accessories_store/DZ-water_sanitary/DZL-tankreinigung_wassertank/
The manufacturers website is here:
http://www.certisil.de/
use Google to translate -lots of good info about tank maintenance.

 

[Jaws]

Have never used anything at all..
Tank gets drained about once a year just to make sure all is well ( did it by accident this year !! oh: ) buts about it.. Mind you, we do use the van a lot.. Always said if it sits still for more than 6 weeks we could do without it completely.. But it is used at least one weekend in two ( apart from the three weeks leading up to Krimble and two weeks after.. Woman says there is just too much to do in the house to go galivanting ! )

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[Cavs]

personally we use a good strong white vinegar solution,

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but can anyone advise me on a suitable dilution of white vinegar for running through the water system, please? What a "good strong solution"? The van has Alde heating/hot water; Alde advised using vinegar but didn't mention a dilution rate.

Thanks in advance

 

[Theonlysue]

It specifically states in my boiler instructions not to use Milton.
If you must use something get the water purification tablets from camper shop. Just use once and refill with normal water. I full time and drink the water from my fresh water tank, without boiling lol

 

[scotjimland]

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but can anyone advise me on a suitable dilution of white vinegar for running through the water system, please? What a "good strong solution"? The van has Alde heating/hot water; Alde advised using vinegar but didn't mention a dilution rate.

Thanks in advance

Webasto recommend vinegar at a ratio of 1:2 with water.

Citric Acid is ideal for descaling.. or Truma Aqustar 1+2 ..

also advised by Truma
The water tank should be descaled from time to time.
Citric acid must be used for this purpose. This can be fed into the device via the water inlet. Leave it time to take effect and then rinse out the Combi thoroughly with fresh water.

Use 2 TBLs/liter. Boil it together.... Rinse with fresh water.
If you have aluminium parts use 1TBLs/litre.