Onboard Water Tanks, do you drink from them?

workerdrone

Part time fulltimer
Yep, if it's a new/used rig I'll do a good 24-48 hour bleach treatment with the tank full and agitating on the road and running through all faucets until I can smell the bleach coming out.

Will do this a couple times a year afterwards.

Otherwise, will cook and brush teeth direct from the faucet and if I have any concerns about drinking straight cold water from those tanks I keep a steripen handy to UV shock it glass by glass.

Never had any problems with this method.
 

Joe917

Explorer
we have capacity for 750 liters of water in 2 Stainless tanks. We filter all water after the tank with a 5micron then 0.5 micron carbon block. Constant daily use, no issues, drink straight from the tap. In Mexico or here in Columbia we pre fiilter (5 micron) and treat with bleach if the water is suspect.
 

FakeJeep10

New member
Public service announcement:

Please, please don't use bleach to sanitize drinking vessels or drinking water in 2018. There are healthier alternatives from in-line RO, backpacking filters or UV sterilizers for the taps, and food safe commercial sanitizers like Starsan, Iodophor, etc. for the tank & lines.

Go to any homebrew forum to learn how to setup a CIP "clean in place" system to flush & sanitize a tank. Leave the bleach for the clothes.

Sincerely,
Your Body

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 

Joe917

Explorer
Public service announcement:

Please, please don't use bleach to sanitize drinking vessels or drinking water in 2018. There are healthier alternatives from in-line RO, backpacking filters or UV sterilizers for the taps, and food safe commercial sanitizers like Starsan, Iodophor, etc. for the tank & lines.

Go to any homebrew forum to learn how to setup a CIP "clean in place" system to flush & sanitize a tank. Leave the bleach for the clothes.

Sincerely,
Your Body

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
Nothing wrong with chlorine bleach used correctly. How do you think your municipality makes your water safe? A charcoal filter after the tank will remove the chlorine.
 

rkj__

Adventurer
I don’t drink from my trailer tank. I don’t completely drain it after every trip. I rarely sanitize it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

dwh

Tail-End Charlie
The neutralizer for either bleach or iodine is ascorbic acid.





NOW-00790-5.jpg
 

plh

Explorer
I use Starsan in my brewing process (its tasteless essentially - phosphoric acid and dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid) but it is considerably way more expensive then bleach. I bleach my trailer tank. Over the counter StarSan cost to treat 1 gallon of water is ~$0.32 and Bleach cost for same gallon treatment is ~$0.005
 
Last edited:

john61ct

Adventurer
Treatment is only needed if you detect issues.

Really, that Peggy lady I linked above is an IRL authority, recognized worldwide in the marine forums,

where people travel around the world for years off a 20-gal tank, never buying any other water except what they make or collect from rain.
 

Nd4SpdSe

Adventurer, eh?
my 16 gallon is a sprayer tank, so technically not potable, but I prefer it that way, and use separate Sceptre cans for potable water. Easier to clean too and keep healthy since they're not mounted to the trailer, obviously.
 

grizzlyj

Tea pot tester
I would think either having the means to make all you carry potable, or have it potable in the first place, are good plans if you end up needing it.
Micropur Forte maintains water quality for six months. It comes in tablet form putting in one per litre, a liquid at higher concentration, or powder so about a pint capacity tub does 50,000 litres.
An MSR Guardian uses part of the clean water produced to backflush the filter medium every (hand) pump so you get much longer between filter cleaning.
 

Alloy

Well-known member
I've removed a few FW tanks. The insides do not look very nice epecially if there is no drain out of the bottom.

The water going into our tank if filtered to 1 micron and then sanitize with Purogene. The PPM of Purogene in the water is determined with test strips.

https://www.bio-cide.com/applications/airline/

We use a Berkey filter for drinking water.

The tanks are sloped 1/4" per foot toward a 1" drain and there is a tank was rinsing nozzle similar to what is used to wash the inside of a beer keg.
 

Grassland

Well-known member
I have drank several gallons of municipal treated tap water that I stored in "water bricks" that were stored between 2 and 3 years. Some I had treated with aquamira water treatment, some with aquatabs, and some was just city water. So far no ill effects. I am possibly more miserable and cynical, but can't confirm the water is the source of this.
If it was not for the hassle of winterizing my crappy pop up camper, we would be using the on board water tank.
 

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