fresh water tank

[clippersue]

hi there could anyone out there tell me if its ok to use a sterilising fluid to flush out the onboard freshwater tank or is this unadvisabe? ps do the tanks have a filter in them and if so does it have to be replaced?

[Derek Uzzell]

Depends on the sterilising fluid...

 

I suggest you use Truma's latest "Aquastar" products as they are purpose-designed for the job.

 

http://www.truma.com/int/en/water-comfort/truma-aquastar.php

 

(GOOGLE on "Aquastar" for suppliers.)

 

An on-board fresh-water tank is unlikely to be fitted with a filter, but there might be a replaceable filter elswhere in the water system.

 

What motorhome do you own, please? (Make/model/year)

[clippersue]

Hello again...Thanks for the onfo , i've just bought a buccaneer clipper 2002 model and its our first motorhome so gathering info as the handbooks don't give much information ps the van is very similar to an elddis sunseeker, can't wait to try her out overnight , that will be a test for the heating!

 

cheers

[flicka]

I agree with derek regarding the Truma's Aquastar.

 

But don't try & save a few pence by using Milton or any other sterilising solution containing Chlorine.

They will attack the stainless steel elements in your water heater & replacement of those is not cheap.

[Guest 1footinthegrave]

clippersue - 2011-12-01 7:54 PM

 

Hello again...Thanks for the onfo , i've just bought a buccaneer clipper 2002 model and its our first motorhome so gathering info as the handbooks don't give much information ps the van is very similar to an elddis sunseeker, can't wait to try her out overnight , that will be a test for the heating!

 

cheers

 

My advice is never drink water from the onboard tank, some may say otherwise and say they have come to no harm ( or blamed the take away curry ) , but better safe than (upset stomach) sorry IMO.

[BGD]

Personal view only: we've never cleaned out or tried to sterilise our fresh water tank. Never seen the point of trying.

We just fill it up whenever it's getting low.

We use that water for showers, and washing up dishes.

 

We don't ever drink from the freshwater tank supply - we drink bottled (the 5 litre containers from supermarkets) water, and also use that for cooking and for tea/coffee.

[Derek Uzzell]

clippersue - 2011-12-01 7:54 PM

 

Hello again...Thanks for the onfo , i've just bought a buccaneer clipper 2002 model and its our first motorhome so gathering info as the handbooks don't give much information ps the van is very similar to an elddis sunseeker, can't wait to try her out overnight , that will be a test for the heating!

 

cheers

 

 

In 1995 the Herald motorhome company went bust and was acquired by the Explorer Group that already owned brands like Buccaneer, Compass, Elddis, etc.

 

Production of Herald-branded motorhomes (all based on Ford Transit Mk 5 chassis) continued until 2000 when Ford released the Transit Mk 6. Explorer Group initially stated that Herald-branded motorhomes would continue to be produced using the new Ford chassis but, when prototypes were displayed at the NEC, they carried the Compass brand-name. This caused dismay in the Herald Owners Club and Explorer Group agreed to contribute to the expenses that would be incurred changing the Club’s name to the Compass & Herald Motorhome Club. However, no sooner was that done, Explorer Group revised their plans and decided to market their Ford-based motorhome range under the “Buccaneer” banner. This decision did not go down well with members of the (now) Compass & Herald Motorhome Club and a seriously wide rift developed between the Club and Explorer Group.

 

The reason I’ve given this background is that, should you want to join a club for rallies, or advice about your Ford-based motorhome, you’ve got two logical choices nowadays – either the Compass & Herald Motorhome Club or the Buccaneer Owners Club. Contact details are on:

 

http://www.worldofmotorhomes.com/clubs-magazines/owners-clubs/compass-and-herald-motorhome-club

 

http://www.buccaneerownersclub.org.uk/index_files/Page532.htm

 

As this is your first motorhome, I suggest you obtain John Wickersham’s excellent book “The Motorcaravan Manual”

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=the+motorcaravan+manual&tag=googhydr-21&index=stripbooks&hvadid=5971493293&ref=pd_sl_2mr2oor42i_b

 

You’ll note that the current edition was first published in 2004 and that a revised version will be released in February 2012. It’s possible that the (cheaper) 2004 version will be more applicable to your vehicle than the revision.

 

For information about the Ford Transit part of your Clipper, Haynes publishes a Workshop Manual for 2000-2006 diesel-engined Mk 6 models

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Transit-Diesel-Service-Repair-Manual/dp/1844257754/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322816975&sr=1-1

 

and the Ford Transit forum is a mine of information (if you can manage to get the beggars to focus!!)

 

http://fordtransit.org/forum/

 

According to my records, MMM magazine published a brief report on a Buccaneer Clipper in the March 2002 issue, but I don’t know if you could still get a reprint. (There’s nothing relating to Buccaneers in this website’s Reviews section.) Not sure if it would be of much help to you anyway.

 

Similarly (in respect of probably not being of a great value to you) I still have the Caravan Club Magazine’s June 2002 report on the Ford-based Buccaneer Commodore that had a rear U-lounge layout rather than the Clipper’s front-lounge.

 

Comments were made about the lack of positive-locking catches on high-level lockers, control-panel readouts being unreliable and the ‘legs’ for the bed being flimsy. I vaguely recall (when I saw the NEC Compass prototypes) that the rear corner-steadies were badly positioned and (if Herald standard practice was carried over to the Buccaneers) you may find your Clipper has a pretty small waste-water tank. It’s also likely that its gas-locker will only (just) accommodate 6kg/7kg-size UK gas bottles, which can be an irritant if travelling outside this country.

[neillking]

Just in the interests of balance - we've been motorhoming for decades, never clean out the tank with anything but normally chlorinated tap water and use the tank for all water, drinking, cooking, washing and flushing. We do put our drinking and cooking water through a built-in filter, mostly for the improved taste, we do that at home too so are used to the filtered water taste and prefer it to UK tap water. The idea that most water is unfit to drink seems to be quite a British obsession to this day, foreign holiday operators will still tell you the first question many of us ask is "can we drink the water?"!  I recall arriving at a camp in the Okavango Delta and one of our number asking the same, the host said "ah you're from Britain then!". In that case the water was pumped out of the Okavango river robbing the hippos and crocodiles and allowed to pass through a sand filter before being delivered to we humans - it was just fine. The 'don't drink water from a tank' we're accustomed to surely comes from the fear that an unattended domestic tank in the loft could become contaminated, by rodents maybe, and that this would go unnoticed for some time. This isn't true in a motorhome though where tank visibility is normally good and situated where we could see but don't tolerate rodents. Each to his/her own but the 'fear' may be somewhat irrational.

[Dr Dave]

Brownhills Newark (i know) are selling two bottles of CITROXX organic based water system steriliser for £5 well they were last week

[ips]

Just in the interests of balance - we've been motorhoming for decades, never clean out the tank with anything but normally chlorinated tap water and use the tank for all water, drinking, cooking, washing and flushing.

 

Yep agreed us too, and were still here. Never cleaned the boat tank either and lasted 9years on her without any problems.

[rupert123]

neillking - 2011-12-02 10:04 AM

 

Just in the interests of balance - we've been motorhoming for decades, never clean out the tank with anything but normally chlorinated tap water and use the tank for all water, drinking, cooking, washing and flushing. We do put our drinking and cooking water through a built-in filter, mostly for the improved taste, we do that at home too so are used to the filtered water taste and prefer it to UK tap water. The idea that most water is unfit to drink seems to be quite a British obsession to this day, foreign holiday operators will still tell you the first question many of us ask is "can we drink the water?"!  I recall arriving at a camp in the Okavango Delta and one of our number asking the same, the host said "ah you're from Britain then!". In that case the water was pumped out of the Okavango river robbing the hippos and crocodiles and allowed to pass through a sand filter before being delivered to we humans - it was just fine. The 'don't drink water from a tank' we're accustomed to surely comes from the fear that an unattended domestic tank in the loft could become contaminated, by rodents maybe, and that this would go unnoticed for some time. This isn't true in a motorhome though where tank visibility is normally good and situated where we could see but don't tolerate rodents. Each to his/her own but the 'fear' may be somewhat irrational.

 

Cannot agree on this one at all Neill. We to never drink from our fresh water tank, nothing to do with the water that goes in it just what might all ready be lurking in their after van sitting around for months in the winter. Totally differant at home, like many we do not in fact have a fresh water tank at home now, did away with it years ago. We to drink from a seperate supply which in our case is a five ltr. container which is thrown away at the end of season and a new one obtained, this we fill from the campsite supply.

[peterjl]

ips - 2011-12-14 4:26 PM

 

Just in the interests of balance - we've been motorhoming for decades, never clean out the tank with anything but normally chlorinated tap water and use the tank for all water, drinking, cooking, washing and flushing.

 

Yep agreed us too, and were still here. Never cleaned the boat tank either and lasted 9years on her without any problems.

 

Hi

 

Us too! never cleaned water tank in any of our motorhomes and happy to drink the water. Tanks have been filled al over from Turkey to Morocco.

I will clean tank if it becomes obvious it is needed eg taste or colour or floaters.

 

Peter

[Guest pelmetman]

I think we've only cleaned our tank out a hand full of times in 20 years and yes we drink the water!!

 

We do use the van a lot though so the water is always being used and not left to stand for long. I do have a look inside the tank periodically and water always looks clean to me.

 

Sue

 

 

[lennyhb]

Likewise, always drink the water from the tank.

[Derek Uzzell]

Returning to clippersue's original inquiry about whether it was "OK to use a sterilising fluid to flush out the on-board freshwater tank or is this unadvisable?" surely the answers must be Yes and No respectively?

 

Me, if I bought a secondhand motorhome I'd sterilise its water system purely as a precautionary measure, using a Milton solution (because it's cheap and effective) as advised here:

 

http://www.milton-tm.com/caravanning_and_camping.html

 

As flicka mentioned earlier, Milton (and similar hypochlorite products) is corrosive to metals (even stainless steel) and Truma warns against using such sterilants - but that's in concentrated form. Employing Milton as a one-off treatment in the 0.6% concentration recommended on their website, flushing the system thoroughly after 15 minutes exposure, is hardly likely to cause any damage.

 

When I started motorcaravanning in 1998 there was often a stand at outdoor leisure shows selling bottles of Milton and people (including me) used to regularly add a splash of the stuff to their leisure-vehicle's fresh water reservoir. This practice gradually fell out of fashion, probably because it tainted the water taste-wise, but I've never heard of it damaging equipment. I once asked a Truma(UK) technician about the advisability of putting Milton in my Herald's fresh-water tank. After I had confirmed how little of it I was adding, he dismissed any idea that this would cause corrosion.

 

It seems to me that choosing not to use 'tank-water' for drinking is like being a theist, while choosing to use it for drinking is like being an atheist. If you are a theist and there's no God, then there'll just be no party-time or jail sentence after you've died. But if you are an atheist and there is a judgemental God, then you may get a nasty surprise after you've snuffed it! Health-wise, not drinking tank-water is inherently less risky than drinking it, and whether you've been happily drinking tank-water for years with no apparent ill effects doesn't change that.

 

Neilking mentions contaminated domestic water tanks. A couple of years ago, when I volunteered to replace the ball-valve of my neighbour's roof tank, I hadn't anticipated finding half a dozen decomposing mice floating in the tank. Considering that they had probably been in there for a while, they were in surprisingly good nick, which may prove the effectiveness of chlorination. My neighbour's roof tank supplies cold water to the upstairs bathrooms and hot water throughout the house. He's in his eighties and fit as a flea, so mouse-flavoured water clearly hasn't harmed him.

[neillking]

There you go each to his/her own then! The only issue here is not imposing our personal preferences - on newbies in particular. I'd always tell them we do drink our motorhome tank water and don't use sterilising fluids - but I also tell them others prefer not to drink this and do sterilise their tanks. I do believe our year round use helps us in this and would always dump the tank remnants when left for a week or so. Other than that I find our normal water chlorination levels are sufficient to keep the tank and pipes in good order. Mind you no chlorination in the water from the Okavango and that was fine too! Edit: Maybe that makes me an atheist?!

[Mike B.]

I never clean ours out either but to be fair never use it for drinking-only because going back many years we found the water had a 'plasticy' taste from the tank and used bottled to check the difference-have used bottled water ever since although do fill up the bottles with UK tap water when in Uk.

In Europe we buy it from Aldi-cost is pennies and consequently no tummy probs!

Mike

[Guest pelmetman]

neillking - 2011-12-02 10:04 AM

I recall arriving at a camp in the Okavango Delta and one of our number asking the same, the host said "ah you're from Britain then!". In that case the water was pumped out of the Okavango river robbing the hippos and crocodiles and allowed to pass through a sand filter before being delivered to we humans - it was just fine.

I'm not sure drinking that water did you any good Neil 8-)....................

 

 

 

 

As looking at your avatar it looks like its stunted your growth :D (lol) (lol)

[neillking]

The secret of eternal youth perhaps?!!

[Brian Kirby]

Sue says she is a novice, so should be given the information from which she can make up her own mind. Posting along the lines of "I've done/never done that and am still alive" doesn't reveal the other factors that are obvious to the poster, but may not be so obvious to the novice.

 

I will try to explain: apologies if it seems a little obvious, but where health is concerned I'd sooner overstate, than assume.

 

So, re drinking the water from a motorhome fresh water tank the answer is, as with many things to do with motorhomes, it all depends!

 

It depends, first and foremost, on the source of the water. Generally, throughout Europe, any water provided as drinking water will be perfectly safe to drink. However, it is not always the case that water from a tap will be of drinking quality. Generally yes, but if unsure and the tap is not labelled as drinking water, probably best to assume non-drinking. Un-treated supplies from boreholes do exist.

 

Second, it depends on whether the tank and water system, including the water heater and hot water system are already contaminated. A second-hand van may have stood on a dealer's forecourt for months, with little control over what has been placed in the F/W tank. It is unlikely, but not impossible, that a contaminant may have entered. The best advice is surely to flush it through first, then sterilise as Derek suggests, or buy some Elsan Fresh Water tank Clean from a motorhome or caravan dealers accessories shop. This product is chlorine free and made for the job.

 

Third, it will depend on whether you intend to keep your tank full, or empty it out, after each trip. If you intend to keep it full, it would be wise to use a product designed to preserve it in drinkable condition. The best value product at present, AFAIK, is Elsil, another Elsan product, that claims to be able to keep stored water drinkable for up to six months. Most European drinking water is chlorinated, so will be delivered clean, but chlorine is a gas so, once the water is in the tank, the chlorine will gas off, leaving the stored water unprotected. This is not instant, and the rate depends on temperature, but the chlorine concentration will begin dropping immediately the water is open to air, so although the process may take a day or two, after that it is unlikely sufficient will remain to be of benefit. Since your F/W tank has to be vented, it is, in practical terms, open to air.

 

Fourth, how important the above may be for your health will depend in part on the rate at which you use water. Those who use camp sites and the site facilities, may well find their fresh water tank only needs re-filling after two weeks or more. If this is/will be you, it would be wise to regard drinking the water unwise, unless first boiled and/or you add a preservative such as Elsil. Others do not use sites, or do not use the site facilities and, allowing for drinking, food preparation, cooking, showering and use of toilet, may find they need to re-fill their tanks every two or three days. If this is/may be you, you may reasonably rely on the chlorine present in each fill to keep everything sterile, and add nothing further, unless you intend using the water unboiled for drinking or washing fruit or salads.

[WhiteCheyenneMan]

Apart from drinking or not drinking, isn't there the issue of Legionnaires Disease? When we had the scare some years ago, I'm sure someone pointed out that Legionnaires Disease is usually present in drinking water, but only becomes a problem when left to stand for some time, because it then grows to a dangerous concentration, especially in such things as shower heads. But then I'm not a chemist!

[Chris B]

Hi

 

We have used many products over the years and have now brought to try Puriclean, it does state it is safe to use on all water systems and can be used to clean stainless steel.

 

Interesting to note Autocruise recommend in their users manual to use Milton 2. I did telephone Milton and was advised by their help line that they did not know there was a Milton 2 only Milton. They did assure me that it would not harm metals of any kind unless used frequently. By frequently they mean 2-3 times a day.

[JamesFrance]

I used Milton only once to sterilise the pipes in our Hymer back in the 80s (no tank in those days). It took a year to get rid of the after taste, so avoided it ever since, but maybe a weak solution is OK.

 

We normally use a container for drinking, but mainly because we dislike the taste of chlorine and we fill the container from a tap through a large filter which removes the taste. I also think that excess chlorine can be bad for the digestive system and cause upsets.

[Brian Kirby]

WhiteCheyenneMan - 2011-12-16 1:04 PM

 

Apart from drinking or not drinking, isn't there the issue of Legionnaires Disease? When we had the scare some years ago, I'm sure someone pointed out that Legionnaires Disease is usually present in drinking water, but only becomes a problem when left to stand for some time, because it then grows to a dangerous concentration, especially in such things as shower heads. But then I'm not a chemist!

I believe this is incorrect. Leigonella should not be present in drinking water straight from the mains. It may develop in any water that stands around, for example a domestic cold feed tank, if the contamination is in the air (likely). It will accumulate in shower heads because these are both warm and wet, which is the reason most domestic/commercial showers are now designed to drain off trapped water when not being used. This feature is not, AFAIK, present in motorhome showers, although by drawing water from a tank they would appear a greater risk than mains fed showers. The temperature required to kill legionella is too high to be safe in domestic hot water systems, so by extension for motorhome systems. I believe it is inhalation of the bacteria in a fine mist that presents the risk, not drinking it, so shower conditions are especially hazardous.

[everhopeful]

last year it became obvious that something was seriously wrong with our van. Every time we went away I developed flu-like symptoms after about 2 days. Not the Misses, and I never drank the water - only washing pots and personal use.

 

This went on for quite some time until the penny dropped. It had started after the van had been to the dealer for a replacement water filling pipe (from cap to tank). The dealer had used an old water pipe that was just lying on the workshop floor to test the old pipe. I knew this at the time and gave the pipe and tank several good flushes, assuming this was enough because we didn't drink from it..

 

So, a good soak in Milton and several flushes and I'm pleased to say the problem has completely disappeared.

 

Very little contaminated water had gone into the tank, but flushing, regular use and draining did NOT make the water safe to even wash with.

 

Considering how easy it is to badly contaminate a tank with such a stubborn bug, you'd need to pay me large amounts of money to get me to actually DRINK the stuff from any tank! 8-)