Novice Questions about Drinking Water & Electrics

[_Chris]

I've been busying myself with a few jobs on our "new" camper van in the hope that we might actually get to use it sometime.

 

I bought a small tub of Puriclean to sterilize the freshwater tank as per the instructions but I was wondering if it's wise to drink water straight from the tap or whether to carry a separate supply for drinking?

 

I've also taken the leisure battery out to charge it up. I'm not intending to run the engine whilst its out but does anyone know if it's OK to do so?

 

Thanks

[TeamRienza]

The water question is a frequent topic and splits people into 2 camps, both with very fixed beliefs.

I am in the drink straight from the tank side of the argument.

I can access my fresh water tank through a 6 inch screw lid on the top accessible through a hatch in the floor of the van. The tank is a translucent plastic so I can see the state of the tank clearly.

I simply fill and empty (including taps and pipes) after each trip, but as the van is used all year round the system stays good and fresh. I also work on the principle that water supplied throughout the EU is compliant with legislation to a large degree.

My previous Motorhome did not have an easily accessible tank so I used puriclean (powder), I also carried tablets for immediate use but never felt that I needed them. I would puriclean the tank and pipes at the start and end of each season and the only issue was that for a short while at the start of the season the water had a slight taste, although this soon disappeared.

All I can add is that I have never read of many people suffering ill health using tank water. There are many who buy bottled water for consumption and use the tank water for washing etc.

Do what you feel happy with is the only answer.

With regard to batteries, I shall defer to the experts on the forum.

 

Davy

[Den]

Hi Chris

 

With tap water I only use this for the shower and washing up.

I mainly holiday in France and a littler in spain.

I do occasionally fill my fresh water bottles from a tap, if it’s some distance from the toilet dump.

I’ve witnessed people putting the spout of the toilet tank to the fresh water tap. Yuk.

Water in 5 Ltr bottles is so cheap, no need to spoil your holiday and tea does taste better with fresh water.

 

With the leisure battery.

I never remove it, but I find the solar panel keeps it nicely charged and if it were to drop during the gloomy part of winter I’d plug into the mains and give the onboard charger something to do.

[BruceM]

We're also from the ‘drink from the tank brigade’. Mostly I drink tea so the water is boiled anyway although we do use it for washing salad, fruit,vegetables etc.

 

Water is emptied at the end of a trip so that the tank can dry out.

 

What’s key is only putting clean water into the tank in the first place hence the reason people are aghast when black water disposal points are situated next to the drinking water dispensing points – not all motorhomers are considerate to others.

 

Anecdotally we’re yet to encounter an issue with contaminated water – but then we’re a sample of one so not a great indicator.

 

The only caveat I’d add is that if you have a medical condition that makes you less robust than you might be then you may want to stick to drinking only sterilised water.

[Brian Kirby]

Drinking water pretty much throughout Europe, but certainly the EU, is chlorinated. The chlorine keeps the water in safe to drink condition while it is under pressure in pipes, but once the water is stored in a naturally ventilated tank, the chlorine, which is naturally a gas, escapes. After about 48 hours the water in your tank will have insufficient chlorine content to keep it in drinkable condition.

 

Those who use their on board facilities extensively will consume far more water than those, like us, who almost exclusively use campsites and their facilities. So, 100 L of water will last us several weeks, as it is mainly used for hand washing, toilet flushing, cooking, and kettle filling. That is to say, very little of it is ingested, and all that is, is first boiled. We simply buy bottled water, as we go, for drinking.

 

If you expect to rely extensively on your own facilities and to drink the water un-boiled, providing you start off with a sterilised tank, filled close to your departure date with fresh mains water, you should, generally, be OK, because you will need to keep refilling your tank with fresh, chlorinated, water. My only reservation here is if visiting camp sites in early/late season, when the site fresh water distribution system will possibly have had water sitting static for many weeks.

 

If you expect to rely extensively on campsite facilities, as we do, and so use relatively little water, you may wish to do as we do, and having sterilised your tank, add a water purifier to it to prevent any build-up of contamination. It has to be accepted that air, and therefore whatever is in the air, must enter the tank as water from it is consumed and, if unlucky, this may lead to contamination of the water, giving it an unpleasant taint, or causing a slimy coating to develop inside the tank.

 

I use Elsan products for sterilising and purifying the water. To sterilise, I use Elsan "Fresh Water Tank Cleaner", which is liquid and, IMO, more readily dispersed into the tank and pipes than the granular Puriclean. It is also non chlorine based, so safe in Truma water heaters. To purify I use Elsan Elsil, which is silver based, and is claimed safe to drink, although, as above, we only drink tank water after it has been boiled. I refill the tank when showing 50% full, and re-dose with Elsil at each refill. Both products should be available from motorhome, small boat, or caravan accessory shops. Failing that, both can be obtained over the web.

 

Been doing this for the past 15 or so years, on trips lasting 8 - 10 weeks, and we have never experienced any taint, smell or sliminess in the tank or water, nor any stomach upsets.

[colin]

Our choice is to only use tank water for washing and toilet.

For drinking we occasionally buy 5L (? ) water bottles from supermarkets and refill this every day or two. You may read this is not good practice due to dangerous levels of chemicals leeching into water, this has been proved to be wrong.

[Derek Uzzell]

_Chris - 2020-04-05 2:26 PM

 

...I've also taken the leisure battery out to charge it up. I'm not intending to run the engine whilst its out but does anyone know if it's OK to do so?

 

Thanks

 

I can’t see why running your Symbol’s motor with the leisure-battery removed should cause any difficulties.

 

If the leisure-battery were in place and connected up, the motorhome’s split-charge system would direct charge from the vehicle’s alternator to the leisure-battery as well as to the starter-battery. With no leisure-battery present, it will just be the starter-battery that the alternator will be charging.

 

You could ask about this on the free-to-join Auto-Sleepers Owners Forum

 

https://www.autosleeper-ownersforum.com

 

just in case there might be a potential problem (Also a good source of advice regarding older Auto-Sleepers models.)

 

 

 

[colin]

May be stating the obvious, but if battery is removed make sure the +ve terminal is insulated from earth and other -ve terminal before starting engine or plugging in EHU.

[breakaleg]

Many years ago, we stayed on a cl just outside of Perranporth, our van then was a Devon Sunrise on a VW.

You had to lift the water porter out of the van and take it to the tap after a fortnight I noticed that the pipe and water pump that you had to feed into the porter was very yellow and quite slimy.

When I asked the site owner (farmer) what it could be he said that the water was from a bore hole in the ground and was sand, we were about three/four miles from the beach.

My wife has refused to drink water from the tank ever since (this was about 1978)

we pay about 17 to 20 p for 2l water from the major supermarkets, funnily enough it costs about 45 p from Aldi.

Pete

[AliB]

_Chris - 2020-04-05 2:26 PM

 

 

I've also taken the leisure battery out to charge it up. I'm not intending to run the engine whilst its out but does anyone know if it's OK to do so?

 

Thanks

 

I know for certain that if the charger unit is a Nordelettronica make you will damage it if there is no leisure battery and you run the emgine or connect a hookup cable.

The dealer who supplied by motorhome did this when the vehicle was in the workshop for warranty work. He also then had to replace the charger unit under warranty. It took several weeks to get a replacement..

 

When the vehicle is in storage I remove the fuse to the leisure battery. It then holds its charge for weeks if not months.

[Derek Uzzell]

I believe the 12V electrical system of a 2000 Auto-Sleepers Symbol would have used “ZiG’ equipment and the on-board battery-charger may well have been a Zig X7 model.

 

It’s most unlikely that Chris’s Symbol will have a Nordelettronica charger unless the original unit has been replaced.

[EJB]

I swill the water tank with fresh water before each trip and empty after each trip.

We use the fresh water as we do at home.

60 plus years and counting...most European countries covered from the beginning!

[Will86]

Similar to above, never ever bought any cleaning agent. Used fresh air when at home by emptying all water and opening all taps. Many don't realise how good fresh air actually is.

[Derek Uzzell]

In late-2018, to address a vibration problem with my Rapido motorhome’s water system (mentioned in this forum thread)

 

https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Water-Tank-Leak-on-Rapido-640/50731/

 

I revamped its pipework so that the SHURflo pump collected water from a new flexible plastic hose that led from it through the tank’s upper surface.

 

When I bought a Hobby motorhome in 2005 I found, lying loose under its bed, a length of clear braided water hose. I still had that piece of hose and, although not long enough for my purpose, it had a manufacturer’s mark on it (I can’t recall the make without checking) and I decided to source some more as, if it had been good enough for a German-built Hobby it ought to be good enough for a French-built Rapido!

 

The Rapido’s fresh-water tank has two large-diameter inspection hatches in its top and, when I have 'winterized’ the motorhome in November each year, I’ve sponged out and dried the tank’s interior through those hatches. In November 2019, having drained down the tank and removed the hatches, I was startled to see that the outside of the braided hose inside the tank was covered in black mould rather than being clear like in the attached photo (a sample image and not of the hose I chose). The hose I used is sold for ‘food’ applications and the section of it that was outside the tank and connected to the pump was clear, as was the filter attached to the SHUflo pump. The interior surface of the tank itself was also perfectly clean.

 

So whatever the mould is (and it wiped off the hose easily) it plainly ‘liked’ the outer surface of the braided hose but apparently not the inside. I drain down the fresh-water tank after each trip and refill it with English water before going abroad and, while abroad, the tap gets topped up with water from French campsites or aires de services - so perhaps the mould issue is geographical.

 

(As Rapido uses opaque black semi-rigid plastic hose for the 640F’s water system, I’ve no way of knowing what the interior of that hose looks like.)

[colin]

We use the blue translucent tube, after a few months of use it gets black mould on inside.

[Fifo]

There are other reasons than biological purity why drinking tap water might not be good for everyone.

 

In many places, especially in Greece and Spain, tap water contains many more minerals than we are used to. This is fine for most of us for short periods but, if using for longer periods ( eg overwinter) or by people with kidney problems, then it is probably safer to buy, as most locals do, cheap bottled water in large containers. It usually less salty and so better.

 

We don't drink water from the van tank as the tank is refilled as often as we can when travelling so it is never truly fresh water. Most of the time for dirnking we fill our 2 litre polythene milk bottles ( easy to pour, free, replaceable frequently, convenient size and shape for storage) with water from the campsite or ( safe) aires taps. When overwintering in Spain we buy bottled water for the most part.

[K2 Rum]

Ref the water, it's not so much the tank that's a risk -if you drain it, but the pipework to the outlets. Biofilm , which is a matrix of dead organics and looks like a slime, grows along pipework and can continually re-contaminate water. Things like rashes from Pseudomonas etc are not uncommon, when using water like this for bathing. The suggestion to use a proprietary cleaner was a good one, but I'd agree and use bottled water for potable reasons.

 

If the tank is drained when you are not using the van I would fill or part fill the tank before I use it, then flush it through the taps before I fill it again to use. This is only as I've been in water treatment for 30 years, otherwise I would be a bit more laid back B-)