Do you drink the water from your tank?

[freespiritdavid]

Tank water for washing up, bottled water for drinking. Tank is always given a cap of Milton at the start of each year to zap any bugs. Saying that the galley slave always says, 'What doesn't kill. ....... fattens'.

 

[Uricanejack]

Plastic bottles are the devil and damaging our oceans significantly. It should be, as mariners, our duty to drink from our tanks. Most societies in the world would laugh at us turning our noses up at such a a thing. Get it down you I say.

I take bottled water with me on most trips.

I don't feel guilty. Of course I don't throw the empties overboard. No sea animals suffer. My wife recycles them. The recycling plant possibly ships them to a landfill in the Philippines for all I know.

I don't fill my tanks locally water quality is not great. I fill them when near lower mainland with nice mountain fresh water. which I use for tea, coffee, washing up and cooking.

From time to time I add a cup full of bleach when I fill my tanks. and let it sit for 24 before pumping out and refilling. a bit of a pain as I only have a foot pump.

 

[michael_w]

Tank water. It's important to keep the light out of the tanks and associated pipework so the wrigglers and algae can't thrive. We do buy carbonated water too, cos it's fizzy!

 

[nigelmercier]

We do but only after it's boiled in tea or in coffee. Otherwise it's bottled water...

Ditto. Ever since I saw men working on the water pipes in a Greek marina.

 

[Cardo]

Yup we do but then again last time we filled them from a tap was early February so every drop is now from the watermaker. Used to rinse the tanks once per season with Milton when in the UK and still have a charcoal filter on the galley hand pump which improved the flavour of our former marina's water somewhat.

That's very nearly our setup, only that we've not been surviving on watermaker water quite so long, and our filtered galley pump is foot powered!

Tank water. It's important to keep the light out of the tanks and associated pipework so the wrigglers and algae can't thrive. We do buy carbonated water too, cos it's fizzy!

Thought of getting a SodaStream? Fantastic gizmos! We don't bother buying cans of pop, anymore.

 

[MM5AHO]

Always drink tank stored water.
By only drinking very bacteria free (bottled) water (even though laced with chemicals from plastic etc) I think we reduce immunity, increase sensitivity to things and end up in a cycle that can only end in having to have the purest cleanest with no ability to cope with anything but.

We never throw our empty tank overboard.

 

[tyce]

The water from the tank does not worry me however a surveyor once said that the styrene leaching from the fibreglass tanks found in most types of boats will, but it will take 20 years for the carcinogenics to take effect.
Nice.

 

[Sandy]

Do you drink the water from your tank?

Yes. Otherwise I'd not see any use in having one installed.

 

[Dave-Shafa]

After some months on the west coast I was filling up my large clear
plastic water container when I noticed green on the bottom.
Thought it was outside -- but it was INSIDE.
Still OK.

 

[pmagowan]

We don't have a tank but use a 10l bottle instead, which we fill from the hose at the marina. We drink water from the tank in our house and it probably has a few dead bats in it.

 

[mjcoon]

You obviously have not seen the-IIRC- Volvic bottled water advertisment then.

"Filtered through natural volcanic rock and stored in natural underground caverns and aquifers for millions of years........................................."

EU rules mean they have to put a sell by date on it!

I expect pumping out of underground caverns counts the same as opening a sterilised TetraPak!

Mike.

 

[FWB]

Yes.
Stainless tank with Seagull IV filter. Lots of crud in filter bowl when changed.

 

[Easticks28]

Maybe I'd be less confident if i was filling up with French tap water ...

Drunk GALLONS of the French stuff over the years without a single problem, but the Armagnac and the wine may contribute to that.....

 

[clyst]

Tank water is for washing / showering, washing up, cooking ie boiling and occasionally filling the kettle for boiling.

Bottled water for drinking... although don't need the fancy natural mineral water - cheapo spring water from supermarket eg Tesco value water 2litres for 17p

I don't get that . Why not just fill empty bottles from the tap ??

 

[bert49uk]

Have always drunk from my tank on all the boats I have owned, my fulmar is almost 30 years old and a glass of water still tastes fine

 

[vyv_cox]

We have always drunk tank water, 30 years now. In the Mediterranean some water supplies on islands can be quite brackish, which a Seagull IV cannot improve, but there is almost always a tap somewhere about where locals fill their own drinking water bottles. We carry a couple of 10 litre bottles for such supplies when needed.

 

[JumbleDuck]

I don't get that . Why not just fill empty bottles from the tap ??

 

[LadyInBed]

I've always drunk my tank water. This boat has two stainless 50 gal tanks which I leave full over winter and use when I'm on the boat. I have a filter on the galley cold.
On my previous boat I had two 5 gal plastic tanks tith a filter. I used to drain them over winter by connecting the tank outlet to the engine, this flushed the engine as well as emptying the tank (done after lift out).

 

[Uricanejack]

I don't get that . Why not just fill empty bottles from the tap ??

I Quite often do just exactly what you suggest.

My main reason for using bottled water has nothing to do with health and safety and a lot to do with taste. I live on an Island much of which is limestone and I have a drilled well. My water is tested and perfectly safe to drink but it smells bad and doesn't taste great. So I by bottled. I spend less on bottled water per year than I used to on water rates.
I keep my boat at a dock where the municipal supply while safe has similar issues.
It is ok in tea but when I drink a glass of water I like the only flavours to be ones I added.

When I visit my friends and relatives in Vancouver I fill up one my water bottles. Vancouver Water is very good probably just as nice as the water in the Highlands in Scotland. when I lived in both of those locations I would never have considered bying bottled water.

Sometimes if I plan ahead I fill water bottles in Vancouver. Freeze them and put in my cooler on the boat instead of ice. When it melts I have nice fresh cold water to drink.

From time to time I fill up water bottles from streams. I do this a lot when hiking or canoeing. occasionaly when sailing. I used to boil it all before I would drink it. now I have a nice little hand pump with a filter which can eliminate beaver feaver and other microbes .

 

[Eyore]

I don't get that . Why not just fill empty bottles from the tap ??

Precisely.I use tank water for everything except tea and coffee which is made from marina tap water filled into plastic bottles and which are regularly refilled. You woulden't know it wasn't a brand new unopened shop bought bottle.
Incidentally the tank has a Whale filter inline and its actually ok, but I am just very fussy about what water I use for making tea.