My friend put diesel in his water tank

I would suggest you take said "Friend" of the Xmas list!!
you could try the following
Empty tank
Wash with hot water and detergent using a steam cleaner if possible or just fill tank with hot water and detergent and leave for a short while then flush tank out again with fresh water then
then use yachticon Clean a Tank crystals
followed by Pura Tank
and finally finish of with Aqua Clean

It should do the trick??
 
Don't take any chances - replace the tank if you can and all associated hoses. Unlikely that expensive if it is replaceable without too much surgery.

Wish your friend good luck- its probably the most expensive fill he's ever had....

ItS
 
A bit over drastic I think. I like the milton or fairy solution. (If it really was only a gallon or so. The diesel aint going to kill your friend, so after cleaning, just keep some other water for actually drinking for a while.
 
Look I must own up, it was actually me that put diesel in the water tank, thankfully nobody twigged. What I've done is firstly overfill the water tank to get most of the diesel out. Then I filled up the tank and put a whole bottle of bilge cleaner in (says on the bottle it emulsifies oil and removes the smell, though strangely doesn't mention the taste) I let it mix up for the first half of the trip across lime bay, then drained it during the second half. Did the same again on the trip from Weymouth to Lymington today. I'm now rinsing the tank, will fill and empty 3 times with fresh water. I'm actually quite hopeful it will work, as I can now only smell nasty chemicals and not diesel.

Incidentally when I told the guy in the chandlery that I wanted to put a bottle of bilge cleaner in to a water tank with a gallon of diesel in it, his comment was "well I wouldn't drink it". Smart guy.
 
The biggest mistake people make after putting fuel into their water tank is turning on faucets to drain the tank...which runs the fuel through the plumbing. If that happens, replacing the plumbing is the only way to get the taste smell out. But if you were smart enough not to run any water through the plumbing, just cleaning out the tank should be enough.

Put a STRONG solution of detergent and water into the tank...Take the boat out and run a bit to agitate the solution..then flush out the tank without turning on the pump...disconnect from the pump and let it drain into the bilge if necessary...a good thorough rinse and you kill two birds with one stone--a clean bilge too.

I doubt if Miltons or any other chlorine product will help much...you're not dealing with "critters," but with petroleum. If you still can taste or smell any fuel after you've THOROUGHLY flushed all the soapy water out, put a solution of 1 quart (liter) of white vinegar/5 gal water in the tank and let that sit in the tank for a few days. You can drain that through the plumbing.

If it's any consolation, next time you look into a mirror you can tell your "friend" that he's FAR from the first person to put something--or pump out--the wrong tank. I did it myself...put about 35 gal of water into my starboard fuel tank (which is a LOT easier to recover, btw, than fuel in the water tank). The d'd fills were right next to each other, I hadn't owned the boat very long, and I didn't pay enough attention to which fill I'd opened. The good news is, very few people ever do it a second time.
 
Like I said before. I'd keep a spare bottle of water on board to make tea, or drink. Though never tried the taste of bilge cleaner, I would have thought it far more harmfull than diesel. Anyway, whatever, with a tank full of fresh water here, we are now only talking of parts per million, so I'd gradually use the water for maybe cleaning teeth ferinstance. If it's crap, leave it till after a few more tank fulls. I'd let some one else, unaware of the problem test it. For an unbiased view!!
 
[ QUOTE ]
Though never tried the taste of bilge cleaner, I would have thought it far more harmfull than diesel.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nah...bilge cleaner is just concentrated detergent, and detergent is actually pretty safe. If it weren't, we wouldn't be washing dishes in it. Besides, you wouldn't leave it in the tank...you'd flush it all out. Even if there's still trace, it won't hurt any more than the dishes you've dried and put away that weren't completely suds-less because you were too lazy to rinse 'em again.

Don't say you never have...we've ALL done it! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I'm pretty pleased with the results so far, there is only the very faintest smell of diesel, we have had six of us snifffing glasses of water and two of the six believe there is no diesel smell left at all. Everyone is happy to brush their teeth in it, but we'll drink bottled water.

Thanks for the tips headmistress, will leave diliuted white vinegar in for the next week, and hopefully then we should be OK.
 
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