Water Purification...drink or not to drink

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Got a nine year old van. We use the water for showers, washing up and boiled water for brews.

Boiling is going to kill any nasties, unpleasantness in the tank. Should we be purifying the water and does anybody actually use their water supply has drinking water?

Dave
 
Yes of course we use the water for drinking.

As long as you take basic cleaning methods now and again, it is perfectly safe to drink.

Empty the fresh water tank when you get back from a trip. Leave the drain open and remove the top cover (if fitted). If the tank is not open to air then you may get conditions for bugs to thrive.

Every so often, fill it about one quarter full and add some Milton sterilising fluid. Go for a drive to splash it about and then run it through the hot and cold pipes to clean them as well. Drain off and refill with some clean water and flush out the pipes and then drain the system (hot and cold).

Be careful not to make up too strong a Milton solution as it can damage the stainless steel of your hot water boiler. If you are worried about that, get the sterilising formula used by home brewers to clean their equipment.
 
Whilst I agree with the above , the job I do uses a lot of water, from this we have learnt alot.
Milton etc will steralise what evers in there, you will be left with Pyrogens, dead bugs and stuff, these are fine to drink etc.
Milton will not remove Bio films, these are a layer of slime like the tide mark in swimming pools.
Whilst all this is fine to drink I only drink bottled water from the camper and only wash up with the on board stuff.
 
i disagree with you. having worked in the water industry. i say when you get home fill your tanks to the brim. the water from your water company will have a slight clorine in it or ither water additive ..just leave it there .when you get ready to go away drain and refill .i dont always drain mine, if water is kept in black containers out of sunlight it keeps for years. thats why the army had black plastic jerry cans just for water.
cheers alan
 
vwalan said:
i disagree with you. having worked in the water industry. i say when you get home fill your tanks to the brim. the water from your water company will have a slight clorine in it or ither water additive ..just leave it there .when you get ready to go away drain and refill .i dont always drain mine, if water is kept in black containers out of sunlight it keeps for years. thats why the army had black plastic jerry cans just for water.
cheers alan
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Never really paid to much attention to it but what Alan says makes sense to me. If you think about how long bottled water must be sat in the plastic bottles, it's not going to be 'fresh' is it?

Personally we have no trouble drinking the water in the motorhome when we are away. The kids drink it in squash etc and not had a problem.
 
I am surprised that vwalan is not aware that the Chlorine in the fresh water is only effective for a matter of days and then degrades.

I agree with filling the tank with Chlorinated water but it needs to be drained after a couple of days.

It is not very hard to clean out a tank and very easy to keep on top of it.

You must remember that you are worse off trying to protect yourself from common bugs. You will not succeed all of the time anyway. Your body has an excellent system of building up protection for itself. It is called the immune system. There have been theories that over protective parents have not allowed their kids immune systems to develop properly because of this.

Personally, while working abroad in pretty ropey countries (Middle East and West Africa for example) I had my share of Delhi Belly. The longer I was there, the more protection my body built up until I must have had a full set of safeguards and I never had any bother wherever I went.
 
also remember that some bottled water is nomal tap water in bottles .some is borehole water some natural spring water .all as to meet the standardbut some will have a differen mix of minerals etc .depends on ther ground it passes through.
pay a visit to a local waterworks .you can get permision and have a guided tour. they will explain how they clean the water etc. makes a good afternoon for the family .ask your local water supplier you will be amazed .
cheers alan.
 
maingate said:
You must remember that you are worse off trying to protect yourself from common bugs. You will not succeed all of the time anyway. Your body has an excellent system of building up protection for itself. It is called the immune system. There have been theories that over protective parents have not allowed their kids immune systems to develop properly because of this.
Click to expand...

This is suspected to be the cause of the huge rise in asthma sufferers.

Over protection is a bad thing in many respects in my view.
 
in the 60,s asthma sufferers as kids could go to some special schools where they could take down the walls and let them put up with wind cold etc . think it was one of those crazy 60,s ideas (may be not so crazy) a friend of mine went to one on salisbury plain ,near the cold flu place . you went there they gave you a cold /flu then monitored how you were .
 
We have a nature pure water purifier. End of water worries. :D
 
Hmmm

I think it all depends on where you are and how long you are staying in your van. I agree some bottled water could be standing around for ages but some areas water is not to good anyway. Yes its all safe to drink and meets the suits regulations but it does taste different area to area of course due to local conditions. This I have found to be not so much of a problem just a fact. The tank can make it more pronouced. If you want the same taste countrywide use bottled (bought regular) if not use whats in the tap!. Most of the water I drink is purified by yeast :D:cool:
 
Fitted a Pozzani tap & filter IX250 Kitchen Spring Water Filter they are still only £39.99 for the complete kit. When I called they told me exactly what I would need to connect into my system & sent me the correct fittings for it. From what I remember I ordered it around noon & it was there in the morning before 9 am.
The only downside is it meant for domestic pressure & does clog up in a shorter time but it is only the outside of the filter that gets clogged & it has instructions of how to scrape it off to make it last longer. Gets rid of any taste out of the water as well as most of the harmful bacteria that can make you ill.
 
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