Drinking water on boats

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deleted User YDKXO
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Deleted User YDKXO

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With all the recent and well merited publicity about single use plastics, what do forumites do about drinking water on board if they dont want to drink water from their tanks? I must admit we buy drinking water in large plastic bottles (rather than multiple small ones) in order to save on waste but that still creates plastic waste about which I'm somewhat ashamed

Is it sufficient to drop a couple of water purification tablets into your tank on a regular basis to make the water potable? Are there modestly priced treatment systems available to make tank water potable?
 
We buy bottled water at the beginning of the season and then simply re-charge the bottles from the marina taps each time we are back aboard. Still some unnecessary plastic use I guess but we get multiple use - in fact the bottles we have been using this year were bought last year and they will probably go on for a year or two yet.

Have been thinking about fitting a filter system to the water supply on the boat so that we can drink from the tanks but not got round to it yet.
 
I just drink from the tank too. Whether it's our water-maker made water or the marina water (though obviously important to check with each marina that their water is drinkable!). As J says, only exception for me would be Cala D'or where the water is probably clean enough to drink but tastes revolting!
 
Isn’t the water from a water maker drinkable? Admittedly one of the options I didn’t tick for current boat but will for the next. We buy far too much water (and hence bottles) currently.
 
Mike, I’m amazed there is much water drunk on your boat:D.

We drink bottled water on Rafiki. You can purify the tank water, but it leaves a bit of a taste. Kettle and coffee maker are filled from the marina tap.
 
Many years ago when I had a small sailing boat I fitted a small flexible water tank in one of the lockers and fed the pipes to the sink via a pump and an inline active charcoal filter that was changed every year. I filled up using the marina tap and treated the tank to purification tablets. The charcoal filter removed any “purification taste” and left perfectly clean tasting drinking water. I could take the portable tank home in the winter for a very good clean and rinse out. Maybe old simple ideas could work?
I was led to believe by some in the “green community” that re-using the plastic bottles could be harmful to your health if not properly treated. Not sure how true that statement is!!
 
We use plastic here in Italy supermarket water is 0. 84 € for 6 or alternatively the marina deliver to the boat for 3€ if you can’t be arsed lugging .
But our car is 40 M away anyhow .

As far the environmental issue more than happy to buy glass ( even on a boat ) if manufacturers did it in glass and it was available easily like the plastic above .
There’s a plastic and indeed fully functional recycle bin anyhow .
Yes we could do a bit more ( love to move to glass ) but in the general larger scheme of boating and environmental issues particularly plastics with a fibreglass boat and guzzling diesels I don’t loose sleep .
Phenols
Your tank and pipes are plastic basically- probably old and degenerating .Ok not quite allegedly as putting a 1/2 filled plastic water battle on the back seat of your car parked for 2 weeks in the sun at an airport car park , but be under no illusions switching from plastic to boat tank is the end of phenols ( or what ever nasties ) in your ingested water .

Feels like a false manufactured argument, plastic bottle to boat tank .Choose your poison :)

post my foto

Well they are all the shade :)
 
We have a 22 year old ally tank.. double filter but I won't drink from it.. I added an 80l plastic tank.. double filter and small 4ls pump and a small drinking water faucet tap (common in Aussie kitchens for underbench filters) teas coffees and bottles are all taken from here. As it's such a small system it's easy to clean and we also have it plumbed with the small 8mm hard pipe to save any nasties from PVC piping... Took about 30 minutes to fit and about 2 months to find a tank that fit the space we had ��

Steve
 
Mike,

In the big world of an individual’s environmental footprint I think that bottled water versus diesel consumption is a not an problem. If you want to drink bottled water do so, but but stuff close to source- so no Fijian water. Buy bottles that can be recycled and do so. Drink your tank water. We mix probably 50/50 bottled and tank water and have yet to fall over.

My 4500 military flying hours will have had more of an impact environmentally than anything I ever do on the water, but it is all about doing what you can I feel.
 
since we own BA, we are used to use bottled water,
in summer we keep approx 10 x (6x2l) plastic bottles onboard, and refill that quantity every week, or guest change
we search a local supermarkt for bringing the big stuff (water, beverages, ...) to the boat

we also keep small bottles of water in each (5) cabin fridges, and some extra for spare, approx (6 x 12x0.33l) in total
this is for individual use during the night, or during day time between meals.

we are not over concerned with spoiling water, we have enough for 2 nearly 3 day's and nights on anker.
the toilets are flushed with sea water, (except one)
for no specific reason, my wife is a bit reluctant of using the desalinater,
we use that max 2 or 3 times per season

I think with our frequency of refilling the tank, and the liters we drain through the system, our fresh water system is totally clean for drinking,
after reading this thread, I'm considering to change our modus operandi..
 
We buy 5 litre supermarket bottles of water and refill them from the mains (UK). The bottles survive a year.

Re-use is better than recycling.
 
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