Water

Nesting Zombie

Nesting Zombie

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Hi gang,
Soooo
As some might know I use to make my own Drinking water via a 7 stage Reverse osmosis water plant or Century plus Gravity water filters on my much missed ‘Nest’. That allowed me to Harvest from Lakes, Streams, Waterfalls, Rain, Ice, Snow & Garage forecourts alike.
But I haven’t got that set up anymore on Boxy. (Although I AM considering buying another Century Plus Gravity Filter).
Anyway....I now use an AVERAGE of 6-10lt a day (No Washing machine on Boxy either l) depending on how often I can be bothered to wash.
But I have to say Even with my Tiny tank of 40 usable lts I’ve had absolutely NO problems in finding Water to fill my Livaboard Lifestyle. I STILL put this down to ‘Actually Moving & Interacting’ with Locals, Businesses, Obviously Free Or Accessible clean water sources while travelling. It’s all about Networking.

How much do you use & is Topping up ever a problem for you
(That’s if you lot can remember of course 🤣🤣👍)
 
While in our camper we use 6 to 8 litres a day, for the 2 of us. More when it is hot.( or when we wash clothes of course).
Our system is 22 number 2 litre reused square section spring water bottles, which have lasted years with only 2 losses. One leak and a gnawed top, by an animal, when we left a cache of food and water buried for a 3 day run /fastpack. We tend to fill up every 3 or 4 days
So although we have a sink and waste there is no running water system. I think that saves water. When we cook we save the vegetables water for the next day.
We collect from public taps and high springs and streams, sometimes if the stream is lower or suspicious we collect anyway, mark the bottles with a rubber band to use for boiling or washing up, and make the water we still had from before, last just for drinking.
In the last resort we sterilise this, rubber band water, with chlorine dioxide . Just as we do if wild (tent) camping. But we hardly ever need to. We have on 2 occasions in 8 years been forced to buy 8 litre supermarket water.
Nearly always we can identify likely streams springs or taps from maps and databases. We stay mostly mountainous and rural.
The only time we regularly had to buy water was a cycling holiday on Fuertaventura in the Canaries. Unlike most Canary islands there are few
Legally accessible streams and only one spring, known as the Mother water.
 
in all our many years of travelling , from Holland down to Morocco ,we drank what the locals drank ,whether from taps ,cisternas,springs ,or fontes etc . we drank brownish ,greenish and whitish . hard and soft . of the six of us , none of us ever had a serious problem caused by it. i think this is down to building up antibodies . or maybe just luck . if it was good enough for the frogs ,toads ,snakes , terrapins , salamanders , birds and rodents that used it ,then ok for us
 
I never drink water but prefer amber water from the blackened bush as it has a built in antiseptic, as for washing, well Xmas is over so thats out of the way for a long time, underwear, well just two changes of the whites where I can leave the yellow stained ones out in the sun until there bleached white again, socks are easy as folk leave me new nonstiff sets out on clotheslines for collection, some very helpful folk around dont you think. ;)
 
trevskoda said:
I never drink water but prefer amber water from the blackened bush as it has a built in antiseptic, as for washing, well Xmas is over so thats out of the way for a long time, underwear, well just two changes of the whites where I can leave the yellow stained ones out in the sun until there bleached white again, socks are easy as folk leave me new nonstiff sets out on clotheslines for collection, some very helpful folk around dont you think. ;)
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Soooo I will put you down for around a Lt a month then Trev
 
No doubt you will be surprised Perrier and Buxton deliver, my preferred options, but if pushed supermarket own brand (Waitrose, obvs) does suffice.

Seriously though, fresh tank anything I can get as not used for drinking. Fussy git when it comes to drinking water and generally use 'drinking water' or supermarket bottled for tea and coffee.
Do (did, and hopefully will again) a mix of wild and sites, sites for filling/emptying because of ease of use. Have also not used sites for longer periods and also been OK. Takes more planning and local knowledge.

Doubt I'll ever use a watering can to fill anything from the Ganges no matter how much you lot try to convince it's safe.
 
Tim120 said:
Doubt I'll ever use a watering can to fill anything from the Ganges no matter how much you lot try to convince it's safe.
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I only fill from a garage if I can find the Tap, sometimes that’s on the BACK of the water top up machine or near by. Not from the little pull out hose gun
 
Only time I ever ran out of water was on my first trip. Left home with a full tank, arrived Anglesey empty. Two days of panic, I’ve broken my van 😳, then reading the manual, and finding about frost valves. Because the van had been previously enjoyed, I had the foresight to take 10 litres of bottled water with me, so no shortage of Yorkshire’s finest.
I continued to take separate water supplies, until last year.
In Portugal, someone noticed me pouring bottled water into my 10 litre water (drinking water) tank, from a flimsy bottled water bottle (?). Asked why, I said the flimsy was difficult to control. No , why are you buying water, everyone else is drinking local tap water. To cut a long story short, I started using the tap, and I’m still here. Still using a separate tank though.

Have you thought about getting one of those ridiculously expensive Survival Gerrycans ? No? Neither have I 😬
 
Yeah as I say, I’ve never been short or run out of water either, but was just wondering about others
 
I would only ever buy bottled water in an absolute emergency.

At home we had a cartridge water filter installed under one of the kitchen sinks when it was fitted a few years back.
It's a 3-way tap: hot, cold and filtered water.
There are fancier filter systems available now, but it's perfectly good for our needs.

We fill lots of water bottles up before we leave for a trip away (sterilised 4 litre milk cartons).

I don't have a problem using ordinary (unfiltered) tap water away from home.
And if I was really that bothered I'd maybe get one of those filter jugs when off in the van, but tbh its not a big deal.

But then again, we're not full timing, which is a different kettle of fish altogether(y)
 
We have 2 internal water containers each holding 13 litres. Reckon we use about 6-8 litre max a day. Always been frugal with water (when we first bought the barn, there was no water supply) and have no internal shower which would add to our usage. On long trips we do carry an extra 20 litre container which we can fill if worried about getting low. Rarely get low but did once in Spain, just couldn't find taps where we were travelling. Bought a 5litre bottle and saw a tap shortly afterwards! Portugal has taps with municipal water in most villages so no problem there. And usually stand out as nicely tiled so visible.
If winter, I empty the warm water from hot water bottles to wash with in the mornings, and wash underwear in the water afterwards. We always empty the kettle into a flask if any is left, surprising how that adds up. In summer I often freeze a couple of litre bottles to keep temp in fridge down...and they are my backup.
Having said that, we are not on the road for more than a couple of months, and usually less. If going to travel for longer off grid, I think we would carry two twenty litre bottles filled up.
 
Nesting Zombie said:
Yeah as I say, I’ve never been short or run out of water either, but was just wondering about others
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I am getting an additional tank (60L if I remember correctly) for drinking water, presently the 40L doesn't see the 3 of us through the weekend, but I think it will for cooking and washing up. The issue is partly how we use the van as it's been a case of jumping in Friday after work and going and then activities on the Saturday/Sunday before going home. It's a bit 'go,go,go' (toddler entertainment) so leisurely detours to include a water fill up aren't on the agenda when time is precious. For weekends only a percentage of the new tank will be used but I am aiming for a camper that can do a week off grid.
 
My lasting memory of our ~month in France was constantly arsing about with water. At a tap I'd fill the tank, and a bunch of 5ltr bottles for drinking from. But to actually be any use, would be decanted into maybe a dozen 500ml bottles.

Then, next tap what was in the 5ltr's would go in the tank, and re-fill everything. I wanted to rotate the big bottles because it was pretty hot and didn't want to take chances storing it for too long. We need to be really careful about Tommy throwing up his meds - that would be something of a bore.... Hospital here we come lol.

As it was hot, we went through loads drinking and showering 3 people, so the above was pretty much daily lol.
 
To explain our frugality with water. Our off grid, months long trip camper is a doblo xl. So space is precious. 16 of Our 2 litre bottles can be slipped in the 100mm wasted space between the inner and outer steel skins of the new, after 2010, doblo shape. So with no water tank all interior space can be used for storing other things. Compared to most doblo conversions we have an underslung lpg tank and the leisure battery underslung too. Solar, Electronic boxes and fuse boxes do not take up prime space either. Our sink is minimal sized our propex takes up the minimum room .
On the other hand we can fit a 70 litre compressor fridge and a 3 ring hob. Fresh food and cooking we do. Your optimum camper depends on your lifestyle.
 
Not sure what our daily use is but have not run out to date. We use the two storage systems main tank 60+ Ltrs for washing and the like, and internal bottles 12Ltrs for drinking and cooking have never had a problem finding somewhere to top up either systems.
 
One of the reasons I changed from a pvc to my present Pilote c class was to ensure I have plenty of water.
As at home always start the day with a shower, I have to stay if for whatever reason I couldn’t have a daily shower I would give up motorhoming.
No roughing it for me, I more or less have the same facilities in the motorhome as at home.
Fortunately have a large inboard fresh water tank, 140 litres which I use for showers and washing up and also carry 30 litres in containers for drinking & cooking.
I have never ran out of water and usually just book into a campsite for a night or 2 between wilding to replenish water etc.
Haven't a clue how much water I use but usually have to fill up every 3/4 days.
 
Obanboy666 said:
One of the reasons I changed from a pvc to my present Pilote c class was to ensure I have plenty of water.
As at home always start the day with a shower, I have to stay if for whatever reason I couldn’t have a daily shower I would give up motorhoming.
No roughing it for me, I more or less have the same facilities in the motorhome as at home.
Fortunately have a large inboard fresh water tank, 140 litres which I use for showers and washing up and also carry 30 litres in containers for drinking & cooking.
I have never ran out of water and usually just book into a campsite for a night or 2 between wilding to replenish water etc.
Haven't a clue how much water I use but usually have to fill up every 3/4 days.
Click to expand...
Exactly how we operate the van also steve ,like them comforts also
 
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