Drinking Water from watertanks

[deltasig]

After reading All suggestions and I might add I've learned a thing or two, I need to comment since the location of the OP was probably overlooked!

Greek islands and coastal towns are known for the poor quality of water during the sailing (summer) months. They don't do it on purpose! The population grows more than 10x during this period. The reserves run low and brackish water is pumped.
Fill your tanks using your own CLEAN hose and a blue canister filter, put just enough water to last for max five days,

Use two Brita canisters to filter just the drinking water for a day at a time, if not enough, drink wine.

Have fun and I hope we will meet somewhere in the Greek paradise 😊

[ridingdog]

Please stop using one-use plastic bottles. Unless you are filling your tanks from a stream, down stream from a beaver dam, your chlorinated water that use is fine. Add more chlorine if you are a paranoid germophobe and filter it for flavor. Get a Seagull filter or equivalent for questionable water sources abroad. But stop with the plastics. Funny that we should be more concerned about germs sense we have a highly evolved immune system but don’t fear chemicals and plastic.

[David Mathis]

We live in northern New York so our 43' boat is hauled every fall and launched in April. All winter it has RV antifreeze in the tank and hoses. In the spring, the tank gets about 10 gallons of water which is quickly pumped out, repeat, then a half tank of water with a half cup of Clorox. It tastes nasty with the Clorox and the residual antifreeze but its pumped out after about an hour of tank time then the tank is filled with municipal water and the charcoal filter is inserted. We drink it all summer with no bad taste and no comments from the guests. After the initial purging of the antifreeze and the one time Clorox disinfectant, the charcoal filter is all we use.
If you're bringing cases of bottled water on board, what happens to all of the empty plastic bottles? Do you really think they all get recycled? The market for waste plastic is so bad that a large percentage of the plastic you think is being recycled ends up in a landfill. Does the charcoal filter sound better now?

[ejjawhite]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

I've been drinking boat tank water since practically since I was born, and not dead yet.


Last 10 years with a Seagull IV filter.


Humping bottled water to a boat is just nuts in my view. Wouldn't ever do it, personally.

j

I also use a Seagull IV and his piece of equipment will make swamp water drinkable. Not only drinkable, but tasteless, as water should be....

[ejjawhite]

I also have become a big believer of the Seagull IV purification system. It removes any odd flavors and microbes.... I’ve been drinking it for over 10 years and go off on my wife if I see her bringing plastic bottles onto the boat.
Also just found that our hot water was smelling real bad because there was never an anode installed. You have to remove the drain fixture and install the anode in that fitting. I bought the anode real cheap on Amazon... about 1/2 price of the manufacturer of the water heater...

[MJH]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

The issue of a filter, filtering out biologicals, and bacteria or other nasties growing on that is real.
That’s why some good filters have colloidal silver in them, the colloidal silver kills bacteria and other nasties.
However so does chlorine, municipal water is chlorinated to 1 PPM, which is only a tiny bit, so those that are tossing a cup full of bleach into their tanks are likely using way more water than necessary.
I’ve got a chart somewhere, let me see if I can find it.
Found it, 2 teaspoons per 100 gl for 1PPM
Attachment 199470

a64pilot,

Once chlorinated, how long is that water good for...the entire season?

~ ~ _/) ~ ~ MJH

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

So, what’s your ratio for shocking? I’m not here to defend or insult. I’m just sharing information.

Based on recommendations I've found on the Internet which are mostly based on "drops per gallon" I created this table (attached) for regular treatment of suspect water.

I don't have one for "shocking" have never done that.

[jalmberg]

I think it's safe to say that the bottled water complex has brainwashed most of the US population into thinking that if you drink water out of the tap, or <gasp> out of a tank, you will die. This is crazy thinking, but it shows you what billions of dollars of marketing can do to a population.

We are careful about where we take on water, and filter the water going in. We don't add chlorine, because in the US the water has already been chlorinated.

We also use a standard household double filter under the sink for water coming out of the tank, mainly for taste. Perfectly drinkable and obviously safe.

If we were in a third-world country, we would be more careful, of course.

[daveball]

Water bottles!!!! Are you crazy??? 16 years drinking out of the boats water tanks, no filters just a few ounces of bleach each time the tanks filled. Can't understand folks ashore drinking bottled water either.

[surf_km55]

Originally Posted by sailorchic34

Here I am 15 years drinking unfiltered water from the water tank. Myself having helped design several biopharmaceutical plants, I realize that the filter media used in water filters happen to be a perfect growth media for bacteria.

That's the main reason I don't put a filter on my water tank. Well other than the fact that we have a millions of years of evolution, where we did nothing but drink water out of streams or well's.

Your comment contradicts itself, in a way. On the one hand, you don't use filters due to bacterial growth. On the other hand, drinking water from a stream/well rife with microorganisms is OK?


I had a microscope when I was a kid. I remember seeing the amoebas, paramecium, and euglena. I'm pretty sure you don't want to ingest any of those dudes, either; with all due respect to bacteria, which also happen to be food for protozoans.

At any rate, I don't know if carbon filters are able to filter those protozoan bugs out, so maybe a resident filter expert can chime in. If the filters also breed protozoans, then maybe chemical treatment is the best route. Dehydration certainly isn't an option

[GordMay]

Chlorine has been the industry standard for tank and water system sanitizing, and, along with boiling, is the EPA's recommended method of disinfecting water.

But, as several of you mention, there are other chemicals that can be used, such as Chlorine Dioxide (ClO2, under the brand names Purogene & Micropur tablets & Aquamira liquid), but it is many times more expensive.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by MJH

Once chlorinated, how long is that water good for...the entire season?

impossible to say (but if nothing gets into the tank the answer is pretty much yes), but easy to verify

if there is still a free chlorine level in the tank it is still safe to drink from biological

for years I've been writing here in threads that if you are going to be all worried to stop guessing and go buy a cheap chlorine water test kit!

[wingssail]

We have 140gal of water in 4 tanks. We've filled from shore sources and have used it freely in the boat for everything, including drinking, for 33years. We use 5-10gal/day (depending on being in a marina or out cruising) so the turnover is high.

We have not been in the US for 20+ years and many worldwide water sources are suspect. Often the marina mangers or dock personnel will say "not potable" even though locals say they've been drinking it for years. In that case we treat it with small amounts of chlorine bleach according to the table above. Some other tablets for treatment are not easily found but bleach always is. Greater concentrations of bleach taste bad and really ruin the coffee. We've been drinking treated dock water all over the world, to the horror of many cruisers.

We filter on the dock for sediment (10micron) and .5 micron carbon at the cold water tap for drinking. We carry a supply of filters.

When we are out of a marina we run our (small) water maker into reusable drinking water bottles to extend our capacity and for taste.

When in rainy places we collect water on our 160sq ft water catching awning.

Both the water maker and the rain water always taste better than dock water.

Lately we have been buying small quantities of water in bottles for drinking because the local water tastes really awful although we still use it for washing, cooking, and coffee. Rain water is too rare to keep the awning clean, and we don't run the water maker in the marina.

BTW, our two big stainless tanks, 15 years old, both failed in exactly the same place (a weld) within 2 months of each other. They've been patched but I guess they'll be coming out soon for permanent repairs.

[MJH]

Originally Posted by tobo

As we get our new Hanse 508 by the end of this year we are thinking of the use of the water tanks for drinking purposes as we are really tired of hauling aboard these masses of PET bottles every week. Reading an article in the German Yacht recently I was impressed by the UV-system "Double Blue" of Instant Trust Marine (InstantTrust Marine - Always clean drinking water on board) . Does anybody have experiences in this field?

My boat has the original 2 x 100 gallon stainless steel tanks; the boat celebrated its 40th birthday this year. I sanitized, flushed, hand scrubbed the inside of the tanks, and flushed again shortly after purchase 12 years ago.

I drain the tanks each winter only because I dread the thought of replacing them should we get the once every 100 year freeze here in the Northwest and they rupture...it is a small price to pay; most boaters don't drain their tanks here.

In the spring I fill them with city water and add one ounce of bleach per tank for good measure. Any refilling is done at responsible city locations, not back country stops.

Lastly, I insert a new PUR filter in the galley faucet when the cruise begins which is good for 100 gallons and has a side switch for filter use, otherwise it is not filtered. I rarely use the switch but my wife does when she is not drinking bottled water; it makes the Admiral happy. Although the filter is good for a specified 100 gallons I never change it during the season.

In positioning the boat for my 2016 roundtrip to Hawaii the crew did not like the color of the fresh water and flushed the tanks at one of our city stops. Enroute during the last positioning leg to the coast a hose connection came off and the 200 gallons was pumped overboard by the electric pump...surprise! At our Pacific jumping-off stop (Neah Bay, WA), the hose was repaired, tanks filled again, and a new policy of turning off the fresh water electric pump circuit breaker after EACH use was instituted. The fresh water supply for the entire offshore portion of the voyage was without incident. Only 100 gallons was used in our crossing to Hilo, Hawaii for the four man crew, albeit no fresh water showers were authorized.

I now routinely check the water for clarity each season and have a standing order of turning off the fresh water circuit beaker after each use.

~ ~ _/) ~ ~ MJH

[Happ]

One filter I haven't seen mentioned is a filter attached to the drinking water hose. This filters out a lot of particles and bacteria in the water system before it goes into your tank. When you are filling at a marina who knows what the water travels through before ii comes to your fill hose.