How often do you clean your freshwater tank?
Hello. Proud but inexperienced first-time owner of a brand-new Burstner Nexxo Time 690G seeks advice!
I've read various threads on various sites about whether or not it is necessary to clean out the freshwater tank a) at all b) annually c) more frequently. I've also read about using/not using Milton-type products; using no products but flushing the entire
system repeatedly; and so on.
What do you do? Drink bottled water, and only use the tank water for washing, washing up and the toilet flush? Use a Brita or similar filter jug to purify the tank water for drinking? Use the tank water for everything? And how often do you clean it out,
and with what? Or do you just drain the entire system when not using your motorhome, and not worry about cleaning? Any sensible advice gratefully received!
Comments
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Well I'm sure that others will do it differently from me, but I clean it out with Milton at the end of each year and after going abroad or to East Anglia where I find the lime build up quite noticeable.
We never use the water for drinking except if boiled. The water pump gets a terrible build up of algea inside the tubes so change that regularly.
Always use bottled for drinking.
We have been using the same routine for over 25 years so can't see us changing.
Hope you get as much enjoyment out of our hobby as we do.
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Well I'm sure that others will do it differently from me, but I clean it out with Milton at the end of each year and after going abroad or to East Anglia where I find the lime build up quite noticeable.
We never use the water for drinking except if boiled. The water pump gets a terrible build up of algea inside the tubes so change that regularly.
Always use bottled for drinking.
We have been using the same routine for over 25 years so can't see us changing.
Hope you get as much enjoyment out of our hobby as we do.
Write your comments here...Ditto
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ours gets a clean out with (Tesco's) Milton at the beginning of the year. We drink our caravan's water though, which like ADP's comes via its onboard tank, never had a problem. Bottled water in the UK is one of the best bits of marketing ever .... no requirement
for it at all in Blighty0 -
Sorry keithnallen, I think I may be about to contradict the information already gleaned. I have no idea why you should not use Milton. I have in the past - usually in tablet form. It can leave a taste but that disappears after a few rinses through. And you
must not get neat Milton on stainless steel such as your sink or in your hot water tank.For the last couple of years we've used Puriclean in either tablet or powder simply because it is easier for us to get from Go Camping and it doesn't damage stainless steel.
We clean the tank out around Easter time. Fill it full of water, put in the powder and then drain it thorugh after its been stood awhile. Make sure you run some of the water through the taps in kitchen and bathroom and also flush some through the toilet.
Your manual may tell you how to clean your tank.We've been drinking water direct from the fresh water tank for 20 years without any problems. However, we have always been in robust health, we never leave the water in the tank more than 4 days [less if very hot], and we keep any eye on the tank. We definitely
empty the water almost immediately we arrive home from a trip.We fill the tank using either a 25l food grade container or food grade hose - both cleaned every year.
Follow good food hygiene and adapt what you do to suit your particular circumstances. I don't think there is a right generic apporach, its what suits you. Use bottled water if you want.
We also clean our waste tank every year at the same time. For ease, we use a proprietary tank cleaner such as Fenwicks or Thetfords. There will be other makes. And ditto for the toilet cassette.
Clean as often as you want!
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My service engineer advised not to allow Miton into the hot water heating tank as it can adversly affect the heating element. If your M/H will allow you to flush the fresh water tank without involving the heating tank then fine. With your van being brand
new I would certainly consider a very good flush through for the first time. If your M/H has been laid up for a long time over winter then perhaps another flush through would be a good idea.0 -
Not a Motorhomer but a caravan owner and a caravan with a internal tank. In 5 years of ownership we never cleaned the tank out not once occasionally I would fully drain it but that was to get rid of sediment. We boil the water if we want a cup of tea or coffee. If I want a glass of water or a child a glass of squash the water comes straight out of the tap. In 15 years I or as far as I know anyone else has had a problem. Thats what I do others do differently and that up to them.
Now miltons. Miltons is nothing more than a solution of Sodium hypochlorite known to you and I as bleach. Be warned Bleach whether it is called domestos or Miltons will attack stainless steel unless the stainless steel is very special and very expensive. Bleach used appropriately is an excellent sanitising agent, but it should be treated with care if you are using it anywhere near particularly stainless steel and as it becomes more reactive the hotter it is. A boiler is especially vulnerable.
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Like WhereNext, we're caravanners, but clean our system regularly with Puriclens or other recommended sterilising solutions, but still found foul algae in the blue pipes and the water pump, so we never drink water from the caravan water system (Aquaroll).
I have posted several times on here, including my picture of the algae, outlining our experiences, removing the faulty pump, and my OH discovering the horrible mess the inside of the pipes - which completely put us off drinking the water.
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ValDa, don't blame you if you had algae in the pipes. With motorhomes, you draw the fresh water from the tank through the system until it pours out of the open drain taps and kitchen/bathroom taps. Then you close all the taps, top up the water system if
you want, and the water system is full of your cleaning solution. The downside is that motorhomers use a lot more water to cleanse the system. Might go back to Milton though if Puriclean leaves the algae alone - unless its a summer heat thing [we don't visit
hot European countries].0 -
For those who religiously clean out their tank, I will leave you with this thought.
How often do you clean out your household loft water tank?
peedee
Write your comments here...Peedee I suspect that a lot of people will not have a tank in the loft ( and I don't mean an armoured variety) they will have a Combi Boiler........but I know what you are saying.
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My water regime is to completely empty the water system for any period when it will not be used more than a couple of weeks . That involves using compressed air to blow out the last few drops of water, easily done with any air pump but ensure that you
don't get the pressure higher than about 15 psi. Once or twice a year treat the system with any caravan/motor home water sterelising chemical and avoid Milton like the plague, as has been said it will damage any metal, stainless steel in particular, but ANY
metal. If you are worried you can get water purification tablets, Aqua Tabs, to add to drinking water to ensure its quality but personally I find that UK water quality is such that you really do not need it. I avoid bottled water since Which tests on bottled
water came up with the fact that a number of bottled waters were not up to normal UK drinking water standards. Not surprising really when you think about bottled water being produced then standing lord knows where and in what conditions until it goes on the
shelf and you buy it. Making sure you empty pipes as well as tanks will ensure that there is no growth of algae as the residual chemicals in drinking water will keep tanks and pipes clean and healthy whilst they are in constant use and draining properly will
ensure they stay clean.0 -
If you are really paranoid about it you could always try using what a lot of home brewers including me use. Which is laundry bleach like vanish, however don't buy vanish because it is perfumed but the cheaper versions available for lidl or Wilko's is not
perfumed and much cheaper and it does shift dirt and is not afaik harmful to stainless steel.0 -
We are cautiousl about water in pipes and tanks so we drink Alcohol..............only to put our minds too rest.
Write your comments here...Much like the Romans then !! Only wine !! ??
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Its not just the water for drinking that you have to be concerned about- its any water from a stored system. Most microbial growth is fairly harmless, but pathogenic microbes can develop, especialy if substantial biofilms develop in containers and pipework.
When you run a tap or shower, near-invisible aerosols of water are generated, If contaminated, and breathed in (or across the eye membranes) they can cause irritation, minor illness or more serious gastric issues. It would be prudent, even if you don't drink
the water, to disinfect the system at least once a year, probably better twice a year, plus keeping systems drained when not in use, and flushing through with fresh water each time you fill up. Remember to remove any carbon filters before disinfection, otherwise
the disinfectant will be reduced post filter (which is where you want it) plus will generally render the filter ineffective later. For marine systems, we recomend disinfection of water systems- and the more infequently a system is used, the greater the need
for disinfection, as stagnant water (especially if detritus, such as scale is present) is a greater risk for pathogenic microbial development.0 -
If you are really paranoid about it you could always try using what a lot of home brewers including me use. Which is laundry bleach like vanish, however don't buy vanish because it is perfumed but the cheaper versions available for lidl or Wilko's is not
perfumed and much cheaper and it does shift dirt and is not afaik harmful to stainless steel.Oxygen based laundry bleaches (like Vanish) are not good enough to be recommended as disinfectants. Even with TAED, which allows oxygen to be produced at low temperatures, they don't achiveve the level of microbial reduction required for them to have a suitable
effect in water systems. They also contain enzymes and detergents which, while not harmful in themselves, should not be used in potable water systems. There are oxygen based disinfection systems (as well as chlorine, silver, sulfur oxides and ammonium systems)
available, but anything used on a caravan/motorhome water system must be designed for potable (drinking) water, as other systems may leave residues (or damage materials used in the system)0 -
Sounds like you know your stuff, Marksailor!!!
We gave up using an aquaroll after discovering the mess in the pump and pipes which are in my photo earlier in this thread, and now keep only a small container of fresh water in the van. We prefer to fill our kettle and cook vegetables with water directly
from the site tap and we prefer to use site facilities for showering, washing up, etc.0 -
We use bottled water for the first couple of days of a trip, but after that dont really bother too much, thinking that any nasties will have been flushed through by then. Been doing it that way for over 30 years and the system hasnt let us down yet. Our
aquaroll must be over 20 years old. We had a smaller version first and purchased the 40 litre one as soon as they came out, so its pretty old now - like us!TF
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If you are really paranoid about it you could always try using what a lot of home brewers including me use. Which is laundry bleach like vanish, however don't buy vanish because it is perfumed but the cheaper versions available for lidl or Wilko's is not
perfumed and much cheaper and it does shift dirt and is not afaik harmful to stainless steel.Oxygen based laundry bleaches (like Vanish) are not good enough to be recommended as disinfectants. Even with TAED, which allows oxygen to be produced at low temperatures, they don't achiveve the level of microbial reduction required for them to have a suitable
effect in water systems. They also contain enzymes and detergents which, while not harmful in themselves, should not be used in potable water systems. There are oxygen based disinfection systems (as well as chlorine, silver, sulfur oxides and ammonium systems)
available, but anything used on a caravan/motorhome water system must be designed for potable (drinking) water, as other systems may leave residues (or damage materials used in the system)I realise that I didnt make myself clear. I didn't mean to imply that oxygen based cleaners are disinfectants they are not. When they are used in home brewing they are part of a two step process (Actually it's three steps). Cleaning ie the laundry cleaner,
rinsing to get rid of it finally disinfection or sanitisation. For effectiveness you should ideally sanitise something that is already clean.Do I do the above in my system as I have said before no. I rely on regular use to keep the system clean enough. In the main a few bacteria in the water from the environment won't do any harm. The danger is almost always from a fecal source.
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You couldn't make this up. As soon as i posted the above. I opened up the mail. Which included a copy of my companies internal magazine. Cover picture? A electron micrograph of Esherichia coli cells. You really don't want those in your water.
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ValDa, don't blame you if you had algae in the pipes. With motorhomes, you draw the fresh water from the tank through the system until it pours out of the open drain taps and kitchen/bathroom taps. Then you close all the taps, top up the water system if
you want, and the water system is full of your cleaning solution. The downside is that motorhomers use a lot more water to cleanse the system. Might go back to Milton though if Puriclean leaves the algae alone - unless its a summer heat thing [we don't visit
hot European countries].you can't get algae in the pipes because there is no direct sunlight on to the pipes, as for the hot water tank, when you switch it on it gets hot enough to kill any bacteria ive been using a aqau roll for year's and never had any algae in it, also if you
drain down your caravan after it has been used every time you should never have a problem, and besides you should never drink the water straight from the tap i have been a plumber for along time and have never come across algae in any type of pipe ive cut
open plastic or copper and ive never seen any algae in hot water tank's , and before you say it ive been in void houses where the water has been off for months and guess what no algae in the pipes.Write your comments here...
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And just to add to the above all caravans are fitted with food grade water pipes these days, i see people using clear water container's which will allow algae to grow if left long enough also in old caravan's some do have clear pipes where if light does
come into contact there might be some algae growth because they are not of food grade qaulity as for aqua roll container's do not allow any light in for algae to grow, and if you are that worried about your aqau roll you could always put a bleach tablet
in and swill it out after, and even then there will be tiny droplet's of water left over so your back to where you left off just swill your aqua rolls out when you come to use them because there is a certain amount of chlorine in the water anyway to kill any
bacteria to start with0 -
You can get algae in the aquaroll - some algae can grow in the dark (or rather in the very small amount of light which penetrates the aquaroll from the open top under the pump rubber. If they grow in the aquaroll they are then transferred into the pipework where they settle on the walls of the pipes along with a variety of other bacterial debris.
We always cleaned our aquaroll each time before we used it, leaving it full for as long as possible, before flushing it through the caravan pipes and then rinsing through with clean water.
We discovered our problem when the external pump packed up, and OH took it apart to see what was the problem. He was horrified to find it absolutely full of this smelly greeny-black sludge, so he then removed the blue pipes which transfer the water to the aquaroll, and was even more horrified to find that the entire length of them was surfaced by this greeny-black gunge. I suggest that anyone who has a failed water pump takes it apart to have a look at the state of the inside!
Whilst I don't want to say that everyone should do the same, I'd much rather be safe than sorry, especially as I suffered from symptoms which are thought to have been related to the toxic effects of some of these algae on the central nervous system. Some algae are known to kill small animals, and even dogs swimming in water where there are 'algal blooms'.
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I never clean the tank, the pipes or the aquaroll.
i use bottled water when away. Tap water only for washing and teeth cleaning.
i work in a very old building with very old plumbing where there's a lot of "slow flow" spots and dead ends. We have the water tested at work weekly and it's always positive for some really not very good bugs. Pseudonymous, etc. It worries me that my
caravan would be the same due to extended periods where the water isn't flowing. At home I'm happier that the pipes are in more constant use.0
