Sterilisation of Alde water system
I have just bought a new van which has the Alde 3020 heating system. I need to sterilise the water supply and note that it says to use a suitable product that does not contain sodium hyperchlorite. That seems to rule out Milton.
My plan anyway was to fill the hot water system with fresh water as that is self sterilising as far as i can see, and pull the fluid through the cold system but obviously am wary as don't want to damage anything. Does anyone know which product is suitable and wont damage anything if it entered the hot water supply?
Many thanks
Comments
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Need to sterilise why?
Actual I think it is practical impossibility to sterilise a caravan water system. Sanitise sure but probably give it 24hrs or so you will be back to the same number of bugs as you started with. The Alde 3020 doesn't really get hot enough to be self sterilising it does have a setting that you can program where by it gets the water really hot during the night if you wish, the default for this is to have this function disabled.
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The Alde 3020 doesn't really get hot enough to be self sterilising it does have a setting that you can program where by it gets the water really hot during the night if you wish, the default for this is to have this function disabled.
From Alde site:
How much hot water does the system produce?
The Alde Compact boilers uses a store of 8.4 litres of hot water at >50 °C. When mixed at the fixture to a usable 38 °C, this amounts to ≈12 litres of heated water every 30 mins. Cold water <10 °C will take longer to heat.
The Hot Water Boost function—the tap icon on the digital control panel—cuts out the central heating for 30 mins while another 8.4 litres of hot water is heated to >65 °C. This amounts to ≈15 litres of heated water, mixed. Assuming an average flow rate of 3 litres per minute, this gives ≈5 minutes of continuous heated water for showers.
This can also be used to kill Legionella bacteria if the system has been standing unused for a spell. (Legionella bacteria dies within 2 mins at 65 °C.)
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We've never sterilised ours since we had it new 2.5 years ago. I just flush it through with clean water which is easy if you're on a service pitch. Never had any illness yet.
I think some people get carried away with cleanliness. There was a thread last year about members never using the water out of the site tap and keeping bottled water in the van or making sure it was boiled!
Tap water has never been so "clean" as it is now. We've camped and caravanned for nearly 30 years and never worried about it.
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I don't want Pee on your chips but look here
http://www.partinfo.co.uk/files/006A%20400g%20Puriclean%20MSDS.pdf
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From experience elsewhere in potable water storage and distribution systems I suspect Alde's issue is chlorine attacking stainless steels. Particularly stainless affected by heat near welding and where folded etc causing crevises. It can be devastating.
If you really must sterilise your water system then don't leave any chlorine based steriliser there for long, make sure you thoroughly flush it all away promptly. If forced to do it I would not leave it there longer than two hours, and lean towards something shorter, as long retention is not needed to do the task.
I would really be asking why do it at all, though with experience in potable water systems we are not into drinking unboiled water from our caravan's systems.
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We always drank straight from the previous caravan's water tank with no problem. However, our 'new' caravan's water has a foul taste to it, even after being boiled in brews etc. Not experimented yet as to whether it's from the Aquaroll's water supply or the onboard tanks, maybe bin the inlet filter ......a sterilisation can't hurt
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