# European Water Tap connectors



## sololite (Sep 4, 2017)

After faffing around with a silly short piece of plastic for the last few years when travelling abroad and with a longish trip to Spain coming up am going to bite the bullet and upgrade to a piece of hose for our campervan.

Does anyone have any advice on what tap connector(s) I will need when visiting Spanish Aires please?

Is your standard UK Hoselock or similar fitting going to have the right thread and what size will I need please?

regards,

Chris & Sharon


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## ian81 (Sep 4, 2017)

Most connectors are hoselock tyoe. Most taps have a standard thread to fix a male hozelock on and then connect a hose.

Occasionally you will come across a larger and a smaller thread so we have adaptors for these.

Sugggest you also carry a male to male hoze lock connector.

Have yet to come up with a satisfactory solution for many push taps that have a squarish outlet.


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## vwalan (Sep 4, 2017)

ian81 said:


> Most connectors are hoselock tyoe. Most taps have a standard thread to fix a male hozelock on and then connect a hose.
> 
> Occasionally you will come across a larger and a smaller thread so we have adaptors for these.
> 
> ...



Hozelock 2274 Multi Tap Connector For Use With Household Kitchen Mixer Taps « Buyaparcel

have you tried this sort of thing . i carry two different styles they are handy sometimes . 
but very often an old fashioned rubber push on like old twintub washing machines used are great and a jubilee clip.


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## Makzine (Sep 4, 2017)

Our watering can fits all types of connector and is infinitely long enough to reach :wave:


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## vwalan (Sep 4, 2017)

Makzine said:


> Our watering can fits all types of connector and is infinitely long enough to reach :wave:



not so good if you only find a hand wash basin and thats the only taps . rubber pushon and a short hose ideal.


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## ian81 (Sep 4, 2017)

Have tried various push on connectors so tend to go with the watering can solution.

It can also be useful to carry a small adjustable spanner as some places remove the tap head. Also a tringular meter box type key. These are often useful in loos where there are only basin and its difficult to collect water.


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## Keithchesterfield (Sep 4, 2017)

The picture below shows which connectors we have, and how many, and they have served us well in France for the last five years.

You will need more of 'B' connector because I doubt if there's anyone who hasn't forgotten to unscrew one and left it behind.

We use Aires 99% of the time, and there is a wide variation of types of Borne, but we haven't needed any other connectors after using hundreds of Aires.

I have a five metre hose which is usually okay and a twenty five metre hose that I have used about half a dozen times in five years.

Occasionally during the Winter months water is turned off on Aires but a device like a Plumbers wrench is a handy tool to turn the water back on again - please turn it back off after using.


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## Papillon (Sep 4, 2017)

Something like this can be useful Kingfisher Large Mixer Tap Connector - 621LCP | eBay


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## vwalan (Sep 4, 2017)

http://www.screwfix.com/p/services-cabinet-key/16428
these can be handy ,for taps with no handles or sneaking into lockers to turn water back on/off


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## Tony Lee (Sep 4, 2017)

> Occasionally during the Winter months water is turned off on Aires but a  device like a Plumbers wrench is a handy tool to turn the water back on  again - please turn it back off after using.



Leaving the pipes full of water means certain freezing damage. Better to leave the system alone and get your water somewhere else


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## st3v3 (Sep 4, 2017)

Tony Lee said:


> Leaving the pipes full of water means certain freezing damage. Better to leave the system alone and get your water somewhere else



Or, as a last resort shut it off, but open the tap to allow the expanding water somewhere to go.


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## colinm (Sep 4, 2017)

For those taps we can get close to  we use a 5m hose with 'funnel' similar to the one in this link, it has fitted everything tap fitting i've seen, although I wouldn't recommend it for anyone with weak fingers, as can be awkward to adjust.
Quest Fill Up 1m | GO Outdoors

For taps which we can't get to I use a 20L collapsible water container.


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## Keithchesterfield (Sep 4, 2017)

_Leaving the pipes full of water means certain freezing damage. Better to leave the system alone and get your water somewhere else _

At the side of most Bornes there is a grate - and within an arms length down there will be a garden or handle type tap - which they use to switch off the water in Winter.

Remove grate, turn tap, fill up, turn tap back to off position, replace grate and Bob's your Uncle - everyone's happy!

:dog:  :dog:  :dog:  :dog:


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## phillybarbour (Sep 4, 2017)

Watering can is your best fall back for most odd installations, takes time but works.


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## yeoblade (Sep 4, 2017)

What is the larger, (old fashioned size) size screw on connector size? Came across them a couple of times recently.


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## colinm (Sep 4, 2017)

yeoblade said:


> What is the larger, (old fashioned size) size screw on connector size? Came across them a couple of times recently.



Trying to get my head round the post!
Most places (including france) use a 1/2BSP tap(roughly 21mm o.d.) with or without some type of hoseloc fitting, biggest i've seen is a 3/4BSP (roughly 26.4mm o.d.)
The 'funnel' I've linked to will fit either of these, and also the smaller 'ordinarary' tap, although might have to unscrew the hoseloc.


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## yeoblade (Sep 4, 2017)

colinmd said:


> Trying to get my head round the post!
> Most places (including france) use a 1/2BSP tap(roughly 21mm o.d.) with or without some type of hoseloc fitting, biggest i've seen is a 3/4BSP (roughly 26.4mm o.d.)
> The 'funnel' I've linked to will fit either of these, and also the smaller 'ordinarary' tap, although might have to unscrew the hoseloc.



Certainly not very common but larger than the 3/4 BSP ones.  Iford CL had them, but after looking around I found the smaller std. 3/4" one.  And one other place that I had to hold the hose against it while I filled up, not having the correct size thread. Looking around on the WWW I see there is a 1" BSP size too.


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## colinm (Sep 4, 2017)

We used to use much larger tap fittings in the flower nursery, but I've never seen any on a aire or campsite.


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## Canalsman (Sep 4, 2017)

colinmd said:


> We used to use much larger tap fittings in the flower nursery, but I've never seen any on a aire or campsite.



I have a few times ... had to acquire the appropriate Hozelock fitting.


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## Fazerloz (Sep 4, 2017)

Makzine said:


> Our watering can fits all types of connector and is infinitely long enough to reach :wave:





vwalan said:


> not so good if you only find a hand wash basin and thats the only taps . rubber pushon and a short hose ideal.



[video=youtube;yy_OzdV3UYI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy_OzdV3UYI[/video]

I have seen a few 1" fittings in France and Italy.


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## vwalan (Sep 4, 2017)

Fazerloz said:


> [video=youtube;yy_OzdV3UYI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy_OzdV3UYI[/video]
> 
> I have seen a few 1" fittings in France and Italy.



seen that opne before but its not a real hand wash basin . but i can let you off . 
i have seen large fittings in spain . had to get an adaptor in spain to fit. 
but now i only go to easy ones . in truth spain is easy morocco is getting hard . as they get water in houses the street taps have vanished . 
bit like uk house taps equal money.


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