Marina water for drinking?

[RobD527]

I usually get plenty of water in my tanks at marinas. Does anyone filter water from their tanks from marinas and drink it? The Caribbean and Florida

I don't drink water from a faucet so I don't trust to drink water from a marinas faucet unless I find a good way to filter it

[Mike OReilly]

Not your area, but I use a simple carbon and physical filter on my boat. Almost always fill from marinas, which is usually municipal water.

We drink this water … why wouldn’t you drink from a tap? Don’t you have clean water in Florida?

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Not your area, but I use a simple carbon and physical filter on my boat. Almost always fill from marinas, which is usually municipal water.

We drink this water … why wouldn’t you drink from a tap? Don’t you have clean water in Florida?

Last time I filled at a Florida faucet I had thumb sized growths coming out of my taps after three weeks..
Admittedly I had forgetten to do my customary bleach trick.

[dhenline]

what is the bleach trick?

[JPA Cate]

Bleach trick: I Tablespooon to 10 gallons household bleach. Then, a carbon filter to filter out the chlorine. It worked well for us for years, even where water sources were questionable (Mexico and the South Pacific, where sources vary in cleanliness & contamination) and is okay for drinking, bathing, and making coffee and tea.

People can also use the "boiling trick". It is fuel intensive, but you can boil for 1/2 hour all the water you will put into your body, and that, too, will kill viruses and bacteria.

However, the OP has a high standard for drinking water, so might do well to install a water maker so that he could trust his/her tank water.

Ann

[contrail]

Originally Posted by RobD527

I usually get plenty of water in my tanks at marinas. Does anyone filter water from their tanks from marinas and drink it? The Caribbean and Florida

I don't drink water from a faucet so I don't trust to drink water from a marinas faucet unless I find a good way to filter it

Yes. Lived for seventeen years in the Caribbean ( BVI based ), and am now in Florida. Never worried about BVI water, most of which is made by Reverse Osmosis, nor Florida water. I put both in my tank, live aboard, drink from my tank, and have yet to suffer any ill effects. I also have a watermaker, for when I feel I need it. Bottled Water was introduced by the soft drink companies, when they needed a new product to sell and a new market to sell it to. Look it up, if you don't believe it! They have done a terrific marketing job.

[Bobby Lex]

I use a portable filter that I screw a potable-water-only hose to to fill my tanks with marina water. It takes Culligan D10A filters that filter down to 5 microns. I use that water for cooking, making coffee or tea, washing dishes and showering with.

For drinking I have a General Ecology Seagull purifying filter under my galley sink that feeds a line going to a separate spigot.

The Culligan filters cost about $8.00 apiece and last about 250 gallons. The Seagull filters are very pricey at over $100.00 apiece. But they are rated at 1000 gallons. If I drank a gallon a day, one filter would last over 2 years. So that’s a lot cheaper than bottled water, without the plastic waste issues as well. And they meet EPA guidelines as true “water purifiers”, filtering down to .01 microns, which eliminates viruses, parasites like cryptosporidium, giardia, and other cooties.

I also chlorine shock my tanks once a year, to keep slimey stuff from growing in my water tanks.

Bob

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by RobD527

I usually get plenty of water in my tanks at marinas. Does anyone filter water from their tanks from marinas and drink it? The Caribbean and Florida

Not in the Caribbean or Florida just now... but yes, we drink filtered water from our tanks.

Our season start: treat the tanks and water lines with chlorine solution. Flush, rinse, etc.

Then we use a portable .5-micron carbon block and dedicated potable water hoses to fill our tanks... which is usually well water, not municipal.

We also sometimes use a 25/1-micron sediment filter if we actually hook up to shore water, sometimes municipal. (Last time was so heavily chlorinated we disconnected early.)

And finally we usually use a follow-on filter pitcher (Brita just now, Pur in the past) for actual drinking and coffee water.

When I get a round tuit, I intent to install a drinking water filter at our galley sink. Forespar system, maybe, or typical household carbon block...

-Chris

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Bleach trick: I Tablespooon to 10 gallons household bleach. Then, a carbon filter to filter out the chlorine. It worked well for us for years, even where water sources were questionable (Mexico and the South Pacific, where sources vary in cleanliness & contamination) and is okay for drinking, bathing, and making coffee and tea.

People can also use the "boiling trick". It is fuel intensive, but you can boil for 1/ hour all the water you will put into your body, and that, too, will kill viruses and bacteria.

However, the OP has a high standard for drinking water, so might do well to install a water maker so that he could trust his/her tank water.

Ann

this is exactly what I do. By land or by sea. Same process.

guarantees high-quality water. The charcoal filter even filters out some nasty chemicals if you get a good one.

This produces higher quality water than bottled water.

just be careful when you buy the bleach. They have a lot of different bleach out there now. You don’t want the thick one. The no splash. There are a lot of chemical additives to that that you don’t want in your water tank. And naturally you don’t want scented bleach either. Just good old fashioned plain bleach.

Another great benefit to this method is your tank is bleached. So it doesn’t really need cleaning out very often. And you can let it sit a while. Nothing growing in there because it’s full of bleach.

[psk125]

We fill with marina water and drink it from the tanks without filters, though we're not in FL or Caribbean. Reading reports of the micro plastics that can be in bottled water help in this decision.