Water tanks, cleaning and Milton tabs

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mikehibb

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It is time I cleaned/flushed my tanks and am looking for advice.
I want to firstly flush them with chlorine or similar, have been told to use a sodium hyperchlorite solution.
However I am not sure about concentrations to use, how long to leave, over night ??

My dear old mother will be popping over to see us in a couple of weeks and is bringing me some Milton stero tabs.
I hear that they can be used as either a sterilising solution in higher concentration, or as a disinfectant in lowe concentrations that you just add to the tanks after you have cleaned and flushed, any advice on this too would be appreciated, also is thier a funny after taste or not.
We generally only day cruise so tanked water is just for ocassional cooking and washing etc, we tend to stick to bottle water for drinking.

As always any help appreciated.
Mike
 
Probably a good idea to use some water treatment as water tends to sit around in tanks for a long time. You'll find a popular brand in any chandlery, though mum's milton tablets will be fine. All these things make water taste a bit chlorinated, but it is easy to instal a filter on the line to the drinking water tap. I think that the entire unit costs about £65 and an annual replacement of the cartridge is about half that.
 
Just use Mums tablets....you can get the same from Tesco as well.

Just use more with the first fill I use 4 for 40 gallons and then 2 every refill.

The tablets gas off the chlorine and I di=on t notice the taste.
 
Rather than tabs which don't always disolve too easily just chuck in a full bottle of Milton, or Tesco/Asda/Sainsbury's own brand baby bottle steriliser liquid, fill the tank, run a little through each tap, top off the tank, leave overnight, pump out via hot tap only - to get the sterile liquid into the calorifier. Refill tank, make a cuppa from bottled water and wait a bit to allow sterilisation of calorifier, then again empty tank through hot taps and a little through cold taps to clear lines. Refill tank and put the kettle on.

Easy innit?
 
I use Milton solution.
You'll find dose rates etc for both the solution and the tablets HERE

I treat the water I'm topping the tank up with now and then as well. 5ml of liquid to 10litres of water is the rate for that.
 
Unfortunately we cannot get Miltons or similar here, so tend to use plain bleach.

Whichever you use - you do not have to completely fill tank, as the vapours given off are sterilising in effect as well.

The tank should be emptied by using every tap / pipe possible - so that you not only sterilise the tank but all the pipes / taps etc. possible.

Once emptied - then two full flushes with plain water to get tank and system to near untainted condition to use.

If you can get Puratabs or similar later - you can dose tank at intervals to keep all sweet.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Unfortunately we cannot get Miltons or similar here, so tend to use plain bleach

[/ QUOTE ] The hypochlorite concentration is several times higher so you will need a lot less especially for treating drinking water. I cannot remember the concentration in Milton and the bottle is on the boat so cannot check at the moment. I dont think it says on the website

Found it on the msds. 1%. Our domestic bleach is 5% IIRC but they vary
 
Domestos works very well and costs very little money to clean out the tanks and pipe work. Flush the tank until your tea and coffee is ok to drink ! A bottle of soda water is best for the brandy though.
 
Essential to use cheapo unperfumed bleach or you retain a 'taste' in the water.

Supermarket 'own brand' is the stuff to look for. Eg. Tesco 'Thin Bleach' <5%.

To sterilise to 100L water to 50ppm add 100ml bleach (let it get to the entire plumbing and sit there for 24hrs, then dump it and replace)

To dose 100L to the same concentration as European standard tap water add 0.5ml bleach with every fill.

Note. Getting the dosing concentration right is more an art form than a science. It all depends on the degree of bacterial contamination.

When you've got it right you'll just detect the taste of chlorine as in our tap water. Get it wrong and it'll taste like a swimming pool.
 
Which is the reason Domestos is so good, it clings to surfaces,in the tank and pipes. The fumes work their magic too. It keeps on working long after milton and the like thus keeping the water systems smelling clean and fresh. Potable water can be used from a disposable bottle until the tea or coffee is good from the main tankage. This is how the BIG ships do it !
 
[ QUOTE ]
Bleach clings to surfaces and the tang remains even after several flushes as does the smell. Avoid if possible and use Milton or similar!

[/ QUOTE ]

Plain bleach is fine ... and as I posted - only form of sterile agent I can get. I can't even find baby bottle sterlising fluid of any kind !
So I reverted to my Beer making days.
 
[ QUOTE ]
So I reverted to my Beer making days

[/ QUOTE ] You mean you now just drink beer and are so pissed that you dont give a toss about the water tanks /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Teredo has it exactly right.

Notes:

1 'Milton' is just branded and diluted Sodium Hypochlorite solution - ie, old 'bleach'

2. Use 'old bleach', which has no detergent or scent added. On the European continent, this is usually identified as suitable for use with drinking water.

3. To remove the chlorine smell post event, flush with dilute acid. Vinegar works a treat.

4. Other approaches are suitable - iodides and silver salts both give excellent protection. Several proprietary products use these. But they are expensive, and usually more suitable for smaller tanks and amounts of water.

5. Beware the 'My chalk circle keeps elephants away' conclusions. Example: 'I've used product x for 22 years and never had a problem'. Perhaps he's always taken on water which has been correctly purified . . . and has hardly detectable quanitities of chlorine in it . . . typical in most of Europe. In other words, there were no bugs to keep at bay.
 
[ QUOTE ]
1 'Milton' is just branded and diluted Sodium Hypochlorite solution - ie, old 'bleach'

[/ QUOTE ] It does contain sodium hypochlorite hypochlorie solution and at a lower concentration than domestic bleach but reference to data on Milton will show that it is not just "diluted bleach"
I suspect Milton's lawyers could have a field day with you (or YBW .com) for such a statement!

The objection to using ordinary bleach or hypochorite solutions of unknown specifictions for drinking water treatment is that they can contain sodium chlorate (as in weedkiller ) as an impurity.
 
Yes you are correct...Plain bleach should be fine however most shop bleaches no are pollutted with thickeners and stick on glue to give the toilets protection through many flushes so you have to find good old unthickend non fragranced bleach which in Tesco can be a problem at times so much easier to go to the baby shelf and get Milton or Tesco's own brand bottle fluid.

I use the tablets and find 2 per every filling on a Centaur 30 galls at a guess keeps the tank and TUBES clear without tainting the finest malt.


I do give a boost treatment at launching.
 
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