Do you drink the water?

Tank or not?

  • Yes I do

    Votes: 73 68.9%

  • Not on your life!

    Votes: 33 31.1%
  • Total voters
    106
new to motorhome this year, just done eight months across Europe, set off drinking from tank, but couod not get rid of the taste of the tank, even with repeated cleaning, so carried a ten litre jerry can to drink from, filled up wherever we could, Aires, churches, garages, fountains, etc. No problems, most Euro countries have potable water at least as good a standard as UK. Do not understand anyone that buys bottled water, bad for the environment and expensive. Water can taste different depending on the ground it travels through, also hard, soft etc. No tummy troubles over eight months. I think unless the onboard tanks are in constant use it is difficult to keep them taste neutral
 
Yes, I always clean it the tank and pipes out every spring. If the water tastes funny I switch to bottled, if I have concerns with the water I will put purifying tabs in, still alive so nothing bad has happened so far.
 
Pauljenny said:
We both have immune system weaknesses. She's diabetic, Me, M.E.

We have to be extra careful, so tank water is too risky.

I rely on the sanitising effect of ethanol.... . Good old fashioned alcohol.

Better shafe than shorry.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I'm a bit hard of hearing... did you say better shiraz than sherry?
 
I drink the local water that I've bottled but not the water I've put in the tank. This is only because I've not treated my tank and not sure the best way to do this. I'm not squeamish at all about local water!
 
depends on the flavour - sometimes it's 'orrible. i never worry about the quality and have drunk water you can't see through , but the taste is important
 
carol said:
I drink the local water that I've bottled but not the water I've put in the tank. This is only because I've not treated my tank and not sure the best way to do this. I'm not squeamish at all about local water!
Click to expand...

The simplest way to treat the tank is with tap water. Water is chlorinated and it will see off the nasties.

A few fills and empties with a little standing time should do the trick.

There have been threads in the past by members who work or have worked in the water industry who have made this observation.

Personally I would advise leaving the tank empty if the 'van isn't in use. If you use the 'van frequently then the constant emptying and refilling is the ideal regime.
 
I too due to medication have a suppressed immune system so no I never drink water from the MH tank I use bottled water filled from the taps at home yes probably over cautious but better to be safe than sorry.
 
Bottled water is best???

During the wife's chemotherapy and radiotherapy she was instructed NOT to drink bottled water due to her immune system being so low. Only drink tap water. If she used the water from the tank of the motorhome we would boil it first even tho it came from the same tap she was drinking from at home..

Not only that, did anyone watch the documentary on bottled water a while ago that showed the amount of micro plastic floating around that you can't see with the naked eye....

It's tank water for us all the way, now she's finished chemo etc we don't boil it anymore for her. But do refill every week from home....
 
Yes we do and never had any problems in the 11 years we`ve had the van from new :dance:

I use Puriclean Puriclean 400g Water Purification Treatment Caravan Water System Cleaner 5014532040569 | eBay twice a year and i`ve just done it now ready for the Euro jaunt

We don`t shower ( because it`s useless ) in the van so a tank of water lasts a long time and when needed we buy bottled water which goes in the tank.

Don`t like the idea of loose bottled water in the van and as sure as eggs are eggs you`ll run out at the most inopportune moment :mad2:

I keep a couple of multi packs ( 6 X 1.5L ) Cristaline bottled water Cristaline.jpg in the garage and put it in the tank regularly to keep it pretty full :hammer:

After seeing what them dirty barsteward Johnny Foreigners do which the potable taps we will never ever drink water from them :scared:
 
I asked this question to a fellow traveller in China many years ago and his answer is below.

Providing that your water tank complies with material requirements, ie it allows no sunlight through, and you clean it out once a year with your prefered choice then it will be perfectly safe to drink regardless of whether the water has been in the tank 10 hours or 10 weeks.

Taste is another matter.

The gentleman I asked.

ResearchGate

Dezi
 
middle of the road

When sailing I fitted a smaller tank purely for drinking water as the main tank was in the keel and fiberglass so could never be properly cleaned. Old habits die hard so on the van I drink from the cleaned twice a year tank if boiling for tea or coffee, bottled water for cold drinks. If there is any doubt when abroad fall back on the white and red wine for cold drinks.
 
Yes, we do, mostly after it has been boiled for tea, coffee etc.
We have also had an on board water filter connected to the fresh water tank system and have been using it for cold drinking for the past 4.5 years, using the same filter :scared: with no recognisable ill effects :p
Recently, I have renewed the whole drinking water filter system, and notice that the filters should be changed every 6 months... we will see. :)

I always completely empty the fresh water at home before a trip, refill with fresh, and when we get back home the water stays in the tank until we go away again (usually try to get away every 4-5 weeks if possible). With our previous motorhome, at the end of the year, we used to fill the fresh water tank with water, add some Milton liquid and leave for the day before emptying it out. Filling up the tank when we wanted to go away again. We found that the water tasted of Milton though, so never done it again.
 
I have voted no but will say why.

The mh is the first thing we have had with onboard water tanks so we are used to filling a separate container with water, if necessary getting bottled water.

When we took the mh away a few weeks ago the first place we stopped had a private water supply so had to be boiled anyway. Also we had not had any water in the tanks before this so had not had chance to clean them through.

While we were looking at how best to clean tanks and manage water we have come across threads where people are saying using sterilising solutions can damage the hot water side of things so this put me off Milton and the sterilising stuff Caz got from camping shop. I have since seen a video from Diamon Dave where he says don’t bother with sterilising but use lemon juice or vinegar so I currently have lemon sloshing around waiting to be emptied.

This is split between do you drink from tank water or not but another split should really be added, if you drink from tank water do you have water filtrating/purifying equipment you also use.

Singling our plastic bottles is a bit lip sided when there are many more sources of plastic causing more problems that the bottles, I do agree plastic packaging should be withdrawn as soon as possible, can’t see the younger ones taking to veg with mud on and stuff that has to be washed clean though, not if half those I work with are any judge, they throw things away when it reaches the sell by date for gawds sake :)

From what I see most folks can’t agree on what should be done or how so it’s very hard as a newcomer to work out what’s best
 
Nabsim said:
I have voted no but will say why.

The mh is the first thing we have had with onboard water tanks so we are used to filling a separate container with water, if necessary getting bottled water.

When we took the mh away a few weeks ago the first place we stopped had a private water supply so had to be boiled anyway. Also we had not had any water in the tanks before this so had not had chance to clean them through.

While we were looking at how best to clean tanks and manage water we have come across threads where people are saying using sterilising solutions can damage the hot water side of things so this put me off Milton and the sterilising stuff Caz got from camping shop. I have since seen a video from Diamon Dave where he says don’t bother with sterilising but use lemon juice or vinegar so I currently have lemon sloshing around waiting to be emptied.

This is split between do you drink from tank water or not but another split should really be added, if you drink from tank water do you have water filtrating/purifying equipment you also use.

Singling our plastic bottles is a bit lip sided when there are many more sources of plastic causing more problems that the bottles, I do agree plastic packaging should be withdrawn as soon as possible, can’t see the younger ones taking to veg with mud on and stuff that has to be washed clean though, not if half those I work with are any judge, they throw things away when it reaches the sell by date for gawds sake :)

From what I see most folks can’t agree on what should be done or how so it’s very hard as a newcomer to work out what’s best
Click to expand...


Yes, I Sterilise My On Board Tanks ‘Fairly’ regularly probably about every 3 or 4 months, & Yep, I Put a few glugs of Good Old Milton in & Draw it through normally While At a Site Pit Stop Fill n Dump.
All the water I THEN Collect (Rain, Stream, River, Lake, Snow, Even Tap water if suspect) is Filterd BEFORE it goes into the On Board 100lt Tanks. I Also have 1 X 35lt (ish) Aqua Roll if the Raw water That is to be collected is a walk away OR is used for just the Storage as is the smaller 3 x 10lt water containers also used for the collection of ‘Raw’ un Filterd water from whatever source is handy. Then this is Filterd at a rate of Just over 4.5 lt an hour straight into the On Board Tanks Normally in the Evening & Over Night While At a Park up. When the Tank is Full I can Then of course carry a further 60 odd Lt of Raw water in the Containers to Filter & Top up the main Tanks as it is used.
Once all FULL UP it’s really easy to keep on top of things as Historically The Average water usage aboard The Nest is around 15 lt a Day. So only a cpl of Containers & say 3 HRs of Filtering that I just let happen while I watch a movie or catch up on the WC forum
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Been drinking tank water in boat (stainless tank) and MH(plastic) for 40 years.

OH half drinks bottled cold, but tank in coffee.

On a work assignment in Kathmandu I was sitting at a bar talking to a UK water engineer, who explained that the water pipes in the city had been installed in Victorian times and were iron which had rusted, and that since there was no sewage system that it could leech into the fresh supply, so never touch the water!

I looked at his drink and asked quietly what about the ice in there? Response - 'Sh*t I never thought of that!':)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Back
Top