Wiggo
Well-Known Member
Well,
after several days and two water pumps, the problem is fixed, so if anyone else is daft enough to put diesel in their water tank (not that I did) here's what to do about it...
1. Don't run the taps! If you do, you end up contaminating the plumbing as well. If you (or someone else) did, never mind.
2. If your tank has an inspection hatch, remove it and siphon or pump off as much diesel as possible, as it will be floating on top of the tank.
3. Once you have as much diesel as possible out, add detergent, preferably non-foaming stuff like dishwasher tablets, and slosh everything around a lot.
4. Empty the tank as far as possible (I used a little submersible pump through the inspection hatch). If you have used the taps, run them now to get detergent in to the plumbing. Get the last of the water out of the tank using a chamois or whatever else comes to hand.
5. Refill the tank with hot (if possible) water, more detergent and 150ml of meths per 100 litres of tank capacity and slosh it all around again. The meths will help draw the diesel smell out of the plastic. Leave for 24 hours, then drain and rinse again.
6. Refill the tank with water and this tank cleaner and leave overnight. The instructions say 500ml per 100 litres of tankage. I bought 3 litres and used half of that in a 500 litre tank, which left me enough spare to retreat if necessary.
7. In theory, Robert is now your mother's brother. In our case, I'd probably gone a bit overboard with the meths, so there was a slight residual meths smell from the calorifier, but that is dissipating rapidly. OTOH, the tapwater is now eminently drinkable just with tonic and a slice...
after several days and two water pumps, the problem is fixed, so if anyone else is daft enough to put diesel in their water tank (not that I did) here's what to do about it...
1. Don't run the taps! If you do, you end up contaminating the plumbing as well. If you (or someone else) did, never mind.
2. If your tank has an inspection hatch, remove it and siphon or pump off as much diesel as possible, as it will be floating on top of the tank.
3. Once you have as much diesel as possible out, add detergent, preferably non-foaming stuff like dishwasher tablets, and slosh everything around a lot.
4. Empty the tank as far as possible (I used a little submersible pump through the inspection hatch). If you have used the taps, run them now to get detergent in to the plumbing. Get the last of the water out of the tank using a chamois or whatever else comes to hand.
5. Refill the tank with hot (if possible) water, more detergent and 150ml of meths per 100 litres of tank capacity and slosh it all around again. The meths will help draw the diesel smell out of the plastic. Leave for 24 hours, then drain and rinse again.
6. Refill the tank with water and this tank cleaner and leave overnight. The instructions say 500ml per 100 litres of tankage. I bought 3 litres and used half of that in a 500 litre tank, which left me enough spare to retreat if necessary.
7. In theory, Robert is now your mother's brother. In our case, I'd probably gone a bit overboard with the meths, so there was a slight residual meths smell from the calorifier, but that is dissipating rapidly. OTOH, the tapwater is now eminently drinkable just with tonic and a slice...
