clorinated drinking water

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graham42

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anyone know how long clorine stays active in drinking water.

im about to depart these shores.
my storage tank has 500 litres of water.
i have a 30 litre an hour desalinator which isnt connected yet. (cant run it in coastal waters of britian!)
can i use the old stored water to flush my desalinator when its up and running or will i need to pump out all the old water before making new?
 
You cannot put chlorinated water through a watermaker, even a tiny bit, it buggers the membranes! You need to drain and flush the tanks, only use watermaker water through a watermaker to flush it, or through a general ecology type filter, which takes the chlorine out.
 
its been suggested to me by an ex anglian water employee that the clorine disapates after 24hours standing in the tank. in light of your reply it would appear the ex employee is pulling my plonker.

can you help me run my system up?
 
Hi Graham, chlorine will evaporate from an open tank in 24 hours maybe. We normally allow a few days for it to happen. It isnt going to happen with your tanks as they have a lid. Why is it an issue? Your membrane should be pickled at the moment if it is out of use anyway so cant understand why you have a problem? You wont want to use the watermaker around the uk/France anyway as you should have easy access to water
 
tim,
i dont plan on using the watermaker until water supplies become difficult or expensive to get.
my concern was using tank water to flush membrane proir to use.
should i just connect everything and run system for 30 minutes to clean or what? (when im offshore)
the system has never been used. nothing is connected-water intake or electric. the previous owner said to put a tap/valve in the grey pipe to/from tank. i dont know what the tap is for. owner doest answer emails. (watermaker is a little gem with booster pump)
my tank is filled with the usual marina hard water.
 
You shouldnt do anything with it until you need to use it. The membrane will be pickled (storage mode). Whe you need to use it you run sea water through it only. After 20 minutes or so the system should be making good quality water. You should be running this water off to waste for the first 20 mins anyway and not in to your tanks. You can then collect the good water in a plastic jerry can and you can use this for flushing the membrane and pickling.
 
I used to work for Severn Trent Water as a quality inspector and your ex-Anglian Water person is correct, it will dissipate over the 24hr period but the tank will have to be well ventilated. Chlorine is naturally a gas so it evaporates away. The biggest problem getting water at a marina is not running the supply long enough to clear it of stagnant water and contamination on the end of the hose. Filling up Friday afternoon the line would probably not have been used much since the previous Sunday. Yuk! Contact the manufacturer regarding flushing with the tap water, though I would assume that the manufacturer wouldn't expect it's equipment to see too much chlorinated water in it's lifetime.
 
Bit concerned about "tap/valve in the grey pipe to/from tank". It is essential that the product flow line can not be stopped. (diverted yes)

Otherwise the product line can get up to high pressure. It will not, because the fittings will burst and fling pipes in your face.

One UK company use a diverter that is a full stop at the intermediate position. Can be nasty.

For first startup, of a membrane just run it on Seawater. When running on unsalinated water, beware that you can not put the pressure regulator very high as you will damage the membranes due to excessive product flow.

We always run the first 20 minutes of product into small plastic jerry cans. The first one is always saved as the emergency flush water (who knows when there will be an unscheduled long stop in a port). The second and third is for deck showers. The rest goes to the tank.

If you ever get stuck for flush water then adding Sodium metabisulfite to chlorinated water will get rid of the free chlorine. I've never done it on my water maker but I know if you add it to chlorinated water you should not breath the air!!!

http://www.dow.com/PublishedLiterature/d...age=BasicSearch

Running a jerry can of Sodium metabisulfite solution through the watermaker monthly keeps down the bug growth. When you have seen the inside of an old tube you start doing this. Mine is fitted with garden hose connectors on the inlet and outlet (Above water line only) to allow easy flushing and to allow storage by connecting the inlet to the outlet while it is full. A dried out membrane is dead. New ones are treated for storage. The pipes are brought up to the cockpit locker, by the lid, so that the drips go into the cockpit drains.

Initially, I had the 3 diverter valves just like my manual suggests, but the installation soon evolved to a simple system of pipe connectors. It was safer. Diverter valves come in 2 forms: intermediate stop and intermediate all 3 ports open. The former causes high pressure problems and the later will sink your boat as the inlet from the sea is connected to the flush input etc. It will siphon.
 
thanks for everyones input.

im one of lifes thickos.
if i see it working i can keep it working but if it goes wrong im lost. im begining to understand.
anyone passing debbage yachting, in ipswich. give me a shout.
 
I agree with all the advice you've had.

There is no reason why you shouldn't use your desalinator in Britain. As Spectra point out, even with oil on the water there isn't a problem if you take your input 1 metre or more underwater unless the sea is quite rough. If there is a lot of grit, algae or other matter, it might clog your pre-filter early but you won't know until you try it.

You might not fancy using it if there are lots of yachts discharging into the area but you will come to no harm as no pathogens of any sort can pass through the membrane. I am far more wary of municipal sewage outlets not because the pose a danger but the idea is too disgusting. We drink our desalinated water, we never buy bottled water anywhere. Our drinking water tap is filtered by a General Ecology.

Use your watermaker and enjoy having loads of water, they are happiest when used for several hours a day - when not laid up and pickled. We use over 120 litres a day, often much more and wash the decks with fresh as well as taking a couple of showers a day each when we feel like it and a fresh rinse after every swim.
 
intake at one metre plus!

bit difficult as my hull draft is 0.8m.

i agree with the principle, if you dont try it you`ll never know. once its up and running i`ll give it a try.

do use your system in almerimar marina?
 
In Almerimar? No, but I do wherever there is a beach that I would swim from. e.g. Torrevieja and I drink the water we make.
 
If there is a chance that detergent has been used to disperse oil then do not use it. i.e not near any other boat that has an auto bilge pump or outfall.

If you can see mullet that a good sign that your in the wrong place.
 
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