Water Hose (the best length for Sites)

[Guest Keith M]

We purchased our first van some six months ago. To be honest (and perhaps rather stupidly) we gave no thought to purchasing a water quality hose and have merrily filled up the tank using our ancient garden hose. We are now considering the purchase of a 15 metre cassette hose (food quality). This will be the ideal length for at home but what about sites? From our limited experience 15 metres is too long and cumbersome for the average service point on a site so what would you advise? We have seen some pipes in one and two metre lengths with universal connectors but surely these are meant for filling containers and may be too short for a site. As always any advice would be greatly appreciated. Regards - Keith & Rachael.

[Guest Geoff]

Good question keith. After some fiascos and wet shoes I decided to incur some expenditure and put together a collection of those push on connections and those things that securely join two pieces of hose together. I now carry two lengths of food quality hose. One about 3/4 metres long which I find suits most situations and one about six metres long which is sometimes needed. In difficult situations I can easily connect them together and if that doesn't reach I go somewhere else. This seems to cover most options Regards Geoff

[Guest Bill]

Much depends on the size of your water tank. My ancient rig is a mere 60 litres. At that size it's 6 trips with a 10-litre watering can. Less hassle than coiling and uncoiling the hose.

[Guest David Powell]

I find about 15 feet does the job OK and 15 feet of flat hose rolls up to about one foot by one inch,without the reel, so stows away very neatly. It is very rare if you can't get that close to a tap somewhere, even at M/C shows. Watch this posting for some more knowledgable answers.

[Guest Brian Ramsden]

I have one cassette with a 20M flat hose and another with two 10M lengths. In my experience, if you are visiting the continent, 15ft would not be sufficient at many sites, if you don't want your choice of pitch to be limited by the location of the water taps - and if you are proposing to stay on site longer than your tank will last. I personally don't bother with "food quality" hose, as I would not drink the water from my tank. I carry a 5L container for drinking/cooking water. In 15 years I have never had a problem from this arrangemnt. 40M of hose covers about 95% of eventualities. For the other 5% I have a fold flat 20L container. You also need a good selection of tap adapters to fit your hose. Fortunately Hozelok and the other main brand seem to be interchangeable.

[Guest Docted]

Keith I carry a small container filling hose with the push on tap connector and a 20 metre cassette type hose and I find this ideal. I rarely use the cassette hose as iI find I can usually get close enough with the small container hose . Good luck Docted

[Guest Neal]

Keith I carry a 20 metre cassette hose and it usually covers every eventuality. Unlike Brian, I am never on one pitch longer than the contents of a full water tank, which can last over 7 days. The thing with cassette hoses is that you just unroll the length you need and water flows through it whether rolled or unrolled. All I have done is re-rolled it onto the cassette leaving enough hose free at the tap end to attach to a tap when the cassette is on the ground. Also, I have found that I only need two types of tap connector, whether here or abroad, and they are both incorperated in the connector supplied with the cassette. Surely, this must satisfy all needs? Regards Neal

[Guest Sylvia A Burman-Hunt]

Have only just spotted your query. I carry a 3 metre length withn push on "tap" end. Invariably this is about 8 inches too short! at which time I stuff a funnel down the water hole and aim! Seems to work OK, and haven't got the inside of the locker too soggy yet. have fun.

[Guest Derek Uzzell]

The snag with Neal's cassette-hose is that it's bulky - no problem in an RV, but space-grabbing in a small vehicle. I've got a 10m wind-on-a-reel Black & Decker flat hose that you can almost put in your pocket, but they no longer seem to be available. Also one of those 2m-long push-on-the-spout caravanny things that soaks you when it flies off the tap. Like Brian, I'm not too fussy about food-quality hoses as we keep our drinking water in a separate container. When you think about it, whatever material its made of, a hose sits in your motorhome's locker for days/weeks/months at a time between usings, with its wet interior an ideal breeding ground for microbes.

[Guest David Powell]

Dereks observation regarding hoses stowed in a locker and breading microbes, emphasises the advisability to fit a "naturepure" filter. Even if one does not drink water from the main tank, think of washing, showering, cleaning teeth, washing dishes [then eating and driking from them]in water that may well be loaded with lots of little "NASTIES"

[Guest PeteC]

I agree unless you clean out your hose (food quality or not) microbes will breed in it The water supply people recon on three days before it is becoming un fit for drinking We use a garden hose (kept just for filling the tank) and at home a need 20 meters length ot reach the filler cap from out outside water tap On several occasions we have had to use the full length. We have an assortment of adapters to fit the varrying connections We now empty the waste waster via a bucket kept just for that pupose (actually it is a tile adhesive bucket We put in some clean drinking water in the 'Black Forest' and also filled up a small plastic container, didnt know where our next site would be, or when; 3 days later I filled our filter jug with it and out cae some Black Fungi stuff. Emptied the fresh water tank & flushed through Then refilled, but had no cleaning powder with us so just had to trust to luck that we wuld be oK

[Guest Geoff]

Kieth There is no doubt that the right length of hose of any type is about 18 inches longer than the one that you've got.What a good idea to get a funnel and shoot Regards Geoff

[Guest Dave]

Couple of points ; Be careful on the continent it is sadly too frequent that somebody, generally a caravanner who cannot be bothered to walk with the cassete, will wash it out in the Camping Car service area using the oh so convenient hose that allows him to get into all the corners. So NEVER drink water from a motorcaravan. Never travel on a full tank it will eat into your payload, may effect the handling and will reduce MPG.

[Guest Bill]

I agree, with feeling, with those who say don't drink from the tank in a motorhome. Many years ago, in South Africa, I rented a VW Westfalia. Tap water in SA is totally safe, so I had no hesitation in drinking the water from its tank. This was at the time when South Africans were not welcome elsewhere in Africa, so I assumed the van had not been outside the country. Later I discovered that the previous renter had been a German, who had taken it to Mocambique, where the water is anything but safe. Net result: I had three different strains of tropical amoebic dysentry at the same time, which gave me the trots for TWO YEARS. That caused me to lose 2 stone, and wiped out all the beneficial bacteria in my gut, which then had to be replaced. (A doctor friend remarked "My boy, your farts will never smell the same again"!) That was 35 years ago, and I still have a spastic colon (much the same thing as IBS.

[mover]

Why bother with a hose at all ?? I just use a ten litre plastic watering can and a short length of plastic flexible waste tube and fill my van water tank with that,I cant be bothered to move my van close to a water tap every time I need water ,and I find that three goes with my water can a day 30 litres is more than enough water for us as Im only topping up because the tank is never emptied, a little drop of Milton added to the tank occassionally keeps the water and system sweet, Ive been doing it this way for about 20 years with no problems ever ,The exercise is good for you too. *-) *-)

[Brian Kirby]

[QUOTE]mover - 2006-11-21 5:23 PM Why bother with a hose at all ?? I just use a ten litre plastic watering can and a short length of plastic flexible waste tube and fill my van water tank with that,I cant be bothered to move my van close to a water tap every time I need water ,and I find that three goes with my water can a day 30 litres is more than enough water for us as Im only topping up because the tank is never emptied, a little drop of Milton added to the tank occassionally keeps the water and system sweet, Ive been doing it this way for about 20 years with no problems ever ,The exercise is good for you too. *-) *-)[/QUOTE]

However, don't use Milton, or any other chlorine based product if you have a Truma Combi type water heater - or any other make with a stainless steel water container.  Chlorine eats stainless steel - warm chlorine does so even faster  - could prove very expensive!

[Brian Kirby]

[QUOTE]Dave - 2005-03-02 10:50 PM Couple of points ; Be careful on the continent it is sadly too frequent that somebody, generally a caravanner who cannot be bothered to walk with the cassete, will wash it out in the Camping Car service area using the oh so convenient hose that allows him to get into all the corners. So NEVER drink water from a motorcaravan. Never travel on a full tank it will eat into your payload, may effect the handling and will reduce MPG.[/QUOTE]

True, how true!  They'll also use any other available drinking water point for the same purpose.  Part of the problem seems to be the large number of hired motorhomes, where no one seems to tell the hirers the do's and don'ts.

Wherever I can, I detatch any d/w hose from the tap, and then connect our own (and re attach the original afterwards!).  The hoses on these bays are almost inevitably also left trailing in the dirt by the previous user/s.

A useful accessory is one of those spray bottles of disenfectant sold for cleaning up kitchen work surfaces.  If the hygiene around the filler looks dodgy, give it all a good spraying over, leave it a couple of minutes and then open the valve fully and run off some water before connecting.  However, we do not drink the water direct from the 'van tank.  We do use it for hot drinks etc, boiled, but otherwise drink bottled.  I use Certisil Argento in the tank, which seems to prevent any kind of bacterial slime developing and doesn't taint the water.  It is chlorine free, so safe with Truma Combis (as recommended by Truma).

[mover]

I've seen some diabolicle things done at the drinking water taps on the Continent over the years and its not only caravanners that do it,so you are all right be carefull how you use your drinking water ,its so cheap to buy 5litre bottles of water in Europes supermarkets ,so thats what we do for water thats purely for direct drinking in a glass or squash etc,we have two 5 litre plastic bottles we fill from available taps for making coffee tea etc and for cooking [ gathered with due care from available taps ] and as this is always boiled in the tea making process its always safe .Our on board water tank water is only used for washing up and personal hygene etc .and as I said earlier we have always added a slug of Milton to our tanks,I KNOW ,I KNOW chlorine etc,etc but Ive done it for years and touch wood I've had no problems.. *-) *-)

[flicka]

*-)[/QUOTE]

However, don't use Milton, or any other chlorine based product if you have a Truma Combi type water heater - or any other make with a stainless steel water container.  Chlorine eats stainless steel - warm chlorine does so even faster  - could prove very expensive!

[/QUOTE] Thanks for that top tip, Brian I have bought the Milton to sterilise the water tank in our new van. (as recommended in the Manufactuirer's Handbook !!!) Thankfully I had not put any in yet, I had not realised the Truma Water heater has stainless steel internals. Do you know how much residue Milton leaves after flushing, i.e. is it safe to disconnect the tank, flush it through with Milton, then flush with fresh water before reconnecting or just flush the whole system with fresh water. Are there any "safe" alternatives (sterilising tablets?) My previous vans (years ago) did not have hot water running off the fresh water tank. I had a home built heat exchanger using the engine coolant, with a seperate tank. Flicka

[Brian Kirby]

[QUOTE]flicka - 2006-11-23 11:14 PM  Thanks for that top tip, Brian I have bought the Milton to sterilise the water tank in our new van. (as recommended in the Manufactuirer's Handbook !!!) Thankfully I had not put any in yet, I had not realised the Truma Water heater has stainless steel internals. Do you know how much residue Milton leaves after flushing, i.e. is it safe to disconnect the tank, flush it through with Milton, then flush with fresh water before reconnecting or just flush the whole system with fresh water. Are there any "safe" alternatives (sterilising tablets?) My previous vans (years ago) did not have hot water running off the fresh water tank. I had a home built heat exchanger using the engine coolant, with a seperate tank. Flicka[/QUOTE]

See if you can get a Truma owners' handbook for your heater.  I think you may be able to download from the Truma UK website.  Under maintenance (I think) it is very clear about not using chlourne based products. (I'd forget the bit about descaling it with vinegar, though, youd fill the 'van with the stuff before you could do what they suggest!)

Truma promote products from Certisil.  These are available in UK from Miriad Products - again, a web search will turn them up.  They do mail order over the 'phone and seem quite reliable.  Ask for the leaflets first, there is a range of three products, each designed to sterilise the tank, remove odours from the tank, or sterilise and preserve drinking water.  The leaflet explains which does what.  There is also a quite useful triple pack which includes all three products.  They aren't that cheap, and the bottles (plastic) do look small, but you use very little at a time so the overall cost is not at all bad.  Certainly much cheaper than a new Truma!!

[Guest bill h]

Geoff has the best answer use several short lengths and take connectors. I use garden hose. When not used for a spell I loop it over the cloths line to dry out then coil it ready again. bill h

[Guest Frank Wilkinson]

This is why I use forums like this when I enter into anything new. I'm only picking up my new MH next weekend and would have bought a flat hose of a good length just in case I can't get close to a tap. But of course with all the other new things cluttering my head it never occured to me that, on the occasions when I am next to a tap, I will have to unreel the entire 25 feet!

I shall now have a shortish flat hose and a long one and use connectors!

[Globetrotter]

My van has a Truma combi, and I use Milton. Easy enough really-make sure the Truma is full of plain water. As long as the drain valve isnt activated, it will remain full of plain water as you sterilise/drain/flush out the rest of the system. OK-I know this means you arent sterilising the hot water system, but I don't drink hot water, so never found it a problem ! (lol)

[StAubyns]

I do have a short length of blue hose that I have never used. A watering can with removeable spout is our prefered method of moving water from a tap to the van. Geoff

[Brian Kirby]

[QUOTE]Globetrotter - 2006-11-24 10:27 AM My van has a Truma combi, and I use Milton. Easy enough really-make sure the Truma is full of plain water. As long as the drain valve isnt activated, it will remain full of plain water as you sterilise/drain/flush out the rest of the system. OK-I know this means you arent sterilising the hot water system, but I don't drink hot water, so never found it a problem ! (lol)[/QUOTE]

Unlikely I guess, and I'm no Public Health Engineer, but should you pick up a contaminant that can survive and multiply in the HW circuits, it could multiply and containate your fresh water tank even after Milton purification.  Better safe than sorry?