Drinking water from your tank

MagicalArmchair

MagicalArmchair

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I changed all my knarly 1970s water pipes, tap etc. over winter and scrubbed out the fresh water tank (that was already very clean to my surprise). We have a Whale Aqua Source Clear Water Filter fitted just below the tap:

http://www.piratescave.co.uk/whale-aqua-source-clear-water-filter-12mm.ir

My most awesome crew and first mate (the wife) insists on bottled water, which is just a huge waste (apart from as a backup of course). We always run the hose for a while before filling the tank to make sure we get none of the nice green sludge that grows in the pipes in this nice hot weather we are having. Considering we have some of the best drinking water in the world, is there any reason she should be shy of drinking water from the tanks on board? Does anyone add anything else to their water tanks, purification tablets, err, or something?
 
I entirely replaced the water system on my Hurley, and added a charcoal filter. And I still only drank bottled.

I would use the tank stuff if I boiled it - but it really doesn't take long for the inside of even a new tank to turn into an aquarium and do you really trust the cleanliness of the hose, deck or filler?
 
Water from the tanks, beer from the fridge. We don't use any chemical purification but do have a Seagull filter at the kitchen tap. Tastes good.
 
Hi Ryan

We use the water direct from our 2 SS tanks all the time. Like you we have a water filter on the hand pump for drinking water. We empty the tanks at the begining of each season and check inside for any nasties, but have not had any for the last 8 years. After filling the tanks we use 'Pura Tabs', leave for several hours then empty and refill. We spend a few months in France each season and use the water over there in the same way, but do use our own hose.
 
Tank and pipes cleaned with Puriclean, Whale filter under galley tap, regular use of Aquatabs and I trust the water from the tank for all purposes. But my wife insists on having a bottle of supermarket water in the fridge for the odd occasion when she wants a drink of water and for when brushing her teeth. I hope she doesn't read this but I have been known to refill it from the galley tap when she is not about.
 
I replaced all the hoses with new food-grade ones when we bought the boat three years ago. I also gave the tank a very strong dose of Puriclean left for 24 hours, but didn't take the lid off for a physical scrub. Each spring since, I give the tank another treatment of Puriclean according to the instructions, then flush it through until no chlorine taste remains.

The water always tastes fine, no different to what comes out of my kitchen tap at home, and I and everyone else on board drink it freely in tea, with squash, or just as-is from a glass, with no ill-effects. The annual treatment is purely precautionary; I taste the water first and it's always been fine, but I give it the dosing anyway.

I wonder whether all the people who are scared of boat tanks also avoid water from domestic taps other than the kitchen one. With "standard" plumbing those are also fed from a tank through pipes, and you can bet that that tank isn't sterilised annually!

Pete
 
I ran a couple of bottles of Domestos through the tank when I bought the boat eight years ago. Then flushed about two tankfulls of water through it, then filed the tank. I drink from it, after boiling. Nobody ever had a stomach upset from it. I would always boil water before drinking, even if it were a brand new boat. There's a lot of paranoia about drinking water, probably because of the high standard of our domestic tap water. But go almost anywhere else in the world, where standards are far lower, and the citizens aren't all keeling over from poisoned tap water.
 
I think you will find that modern plumbing practice is to supply all cold water taps from the rising main. Usually the bath tap is excluded. Our house was built in 1902 but has modern plumbing.
The other point on this is that algae doesn't grow in the absence of sunlight.
I've often drunk water from boat tanks with no ill effects so far.
prv said:
I replaced all the hoses with new food-grade ones when we bought the boat three years ago. I also gave the tank a very strong dose of Puriclean left for 24 hours, but didn't take the lid off for a physical scrub. Each spring since, I give the tank another treatment of Puriclean according to the instructions, then flush it through until no chlorine taste remains.

The water always tastes fine, no different to what comes out of my kitchen tap at home, and I and everyone else on board drink it freely in tea, with squash, or just as-is from a glass, with no ill-effects. The annual treatment is purely precautionary; I taste the water first and it's always been fine, but I give it the dosing anyway.

I wonder whether all the people who are scared of boat tanks also avoid water from domestic taps other than the kitchen one. With "standard" plumbing those are also fed from a tank through pipes, and you can bet that that tank isn't sterilised annually!

Pete
Click to expand...
 
Always drink from the tanks unboiled. It gets two doses a year with water sterilisation tablets and a flush through. The tanks are completely dark and crucially we use a lot of water.
 
yachtailsa said:
I entirely replaced the water system on my Hurley, and added a charcoal filter. And I still only drank bottled.

I would use the tank stuff if I boiled it - but it really doesn't take long for the inside of even a new tank to turn into an aquarium and do you really trust the cleanliness of the hose, deck or filler?
Click to expand...

You see, this is what I thought. In ten years I have never opened my tank, so I thought it would be rife with green slime and gunge, but nothing, clean as a whistle. Every winter, I tend to leave Milton in it, but nothing more caustic than that. I'll fill it up and get some Puriclean to put through it, flush through, and then use aquatabs after every fill up?

I've sailed for all my life drinking water from various knarly tanks, I'm sure we never used to fret quite this much... but then I wasn't skipper then - which appears to be mostly about fretting with a bit of sailing thrown in :D

In reality, we will likely continue to use bottled water, ho hum.

edit:
Colvic Watson said:
Always drink from the tanks unboiled. It gets two doses a year with water sterilisation tablets and a flush through. The tanks are completely dark and crucially we use a lot of water.
Click to expand...

We flush the tank through plenty too and use looooads of water. Praps I'll set the example and drink from the tanks and leave the 1st mate to the bottles...
 
I've never heard of anyone contracting an illness from a boat tank, though I suppose it must happen sometimes. I imagine that there is more of a risk from Legionnaires' disease contracted from marina hoses, which is why we are encouraged to run them for a minute before putting into the tank.
 
We use Puriclean before relaunch but draw our drinking off through a General Ecology filter (smaller version of the Seagull IV mentioned above). Makes the best ever tasting tea... There was a PBO test fairly recently (2?years) and the team consensus was that the water through the GE filter also improved the "control" - Poole mains water
 
Yep. Have always drunk direct from tank. Only precaution is to fill the tanks after washing the boat if poss to ensure the hoses and dock piping are well flushed through
 
Always drink straight from the tank. Generally put a couple of aqua tabs in each fill. Never had a problem including two young kids drinking it over the last 14 years.
 
AquaTabs every other fill (and always in the first of the season) and allow the hose to run for a couple of minutes before filling the tanks. Never had any trouble with upset stomachs etc. Aquatabs give a slight taste which is predominantly only really a top up of the chlorine already in the domestic water supply (I appreciate it dissipates somewhat as does the chlorine in tap water) but doesn't render it unusable in any way. Usually about 6 tablest at a time for a nearly full tank so not really scientific dosing either.
 
I have a traditional charcoal filter from Jabsco, their Aqua Water filter then I also have a second tap and use the General Ecology Water filter in case folks are worried about the other. I frequently run thetanls dry and change the water to ensure it remains fresh. .
 
We used to drink water straight from the tank but gave it up when we got to the Balearics. Not because of gyppy tums but due to taste, which was so not nice. After rinsing through with good Corsican water, we returned to drinking tank water but gave up again in Greece where the quality (taste wise) was so variable that it wasn't worth it. We now use bottled water for drinking, tank water for most other things but sometimes we wind up using bottled water for cooking as well as drinking. Depends on where we last filled up, some places are fine, others pants.
 
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