Fresh water tank vs drinking water ?

[CampDaven]

We are F/T and spoiled.
Two whole house filters, 5m and 1m, good water tester, plus a 16K grain softener provides superb water, great shower suds, no crud, and no kidding.
I could always use the onboard tank fed from the above, but I don't. FHU!

[kwittintime]

Holding tank water is used for everything but comsumption
Got in this habit from my Houseboat days

[Loggenrock]

If you knew where/how they filled the bottles of water you pay extra for, you'd drink from your onboard tank!!! I will sanitize the onboard system at the start of the season after de-winterizing, and do run all water that goes into it thru a sediment filter, but will readily drink what I carry in it. 3 rigs, over 2 decades of doing this, no problems.

[CampDaven]

Originally Posted by kwittintime

Holding tank water is used for everything but comsumption
Got in this habit from my Houseboat days

Yep!
If I am not required to drink from the cistern, and have better and fresher water from the pedestal, why would I opt for the lesser product?

[harryn]

Thank you for all of the very useful replies.

Some background, when my youngest daughter was 12, my wife took her and her brothers to a state park in N CA, near the OR border. Some things came up at work, so I could not go.

It turns out that they had been sanitizing their water system, and had just given it the OK before they arrived, but we didn't know that.

Our daughter spent the next 5 months ill on and off, but could not go to school. We visited a number of specialists, some believed she had an H pilori infection, but a stomach biopsy didn't show any issues and no specific cause could be determined.

The specialist we were using ended up getting very ill (from something else) so we ended up at UCSF (San Francisco) and two stomach specialist did a team approach on her.

Long story short, they told us that it is very difficult to detect H Pylori, so usually the test is worthless. Regardless, the treatment one to two rounds of just antibiotic pills so the risk of trying the treatment is low. It worked and she finally ended being able to go to school.

We went back and talked to the people running the state park, and they confirmed that there had been additional cases of stomach problems by visitors to the park during that time period.

We were happy to have a healthy daughter again, so we just moved on with our lives.

[harryn]

Part of the reason I am asking, is that I am working on a layout to vacuum distill gray water into water suitable for bathing. For people not familiar with it, it is commonly used by Navy ships and cruise ships to produce fresh drinking water from sea water. If you have been on a cruise, you have been using it to bathe and drink.

On a ship, they have a specialist that runs this water system and adds chlorine, etc so everything is done correctly for drinking water and other water use. I am thinking about using this strictly for bathing water so that I don't have to worry about being "perfect" with the chlorine control and in case the system has a hiccup.

In any event, it will be at least Christmas before I have it ready, but if anyone is interested, I could post some photos then.

Take care, Harry

[Old-Biscuit]

Having been a Machinist Mate in NAVY and having spent 25 plus yrs in power plants where we made water for boilers ie: Evaporators, Demineralizers, ROs etc. I would not bother with turning grey waste water into bathing water.

CG water is treated, tested and safe---just like the water coming to your house.
And as good/clean as bottled water---maybe better depending on source of bottling (like those water machines in front of stores-----yuk)

RV Fresh water tank IS a big ole plastic water bottle..fill it up with 'city water' and use it.

Grey water into usable bathing water......lots of filtering (food/greases/oils/sloughed skin/urine) then vacuum system, evaporator system (water feed pump/heat source)...brine handling/removal, storage for chlorine treatment

Do you have background/training/water treatment experience....

Going to use bottled water for cooking, dish washing?
Going to have separate systems for reclaimed grey water or going to use HOT/COLD Plumbing systems

All of this for an RV?

30 yrs experience in water treatment and I just don't see the benefit.
RVng is about having FUN....going camping....enjoying the outdoors.
Not about being a 'water king'
Why make RVng complicated

Fill up and use the on-board water bottle....fresh water tank

[1bigmess]

What happens if you have a chlorine release? Is it reportable? I guess it depends on the actual amount of chlorine released.

[Reed Cundiff]

We winter in Yucatan and fill the 81 gallon tank with "purified" water which we purchase in 20 liter garrafóns. This costs abolir $20 US. The water at Xpu Ha is somewhat salty. No worry about this in US or Canada. Currently on PEI. However, there were signs at a lot of watering points in Labrador and Newfoundland that had "Boil water in effect"
Reed and Elaine

[mikensallyt]

Originally Posted by MtCamper

....... We arrived in Death Valley short of bottled last year. The C-store there charged more for water than for gas and gas was $6.00/gallon.

WHAT?????

Guess I wont go to Death Valley then. $6.00 dollars a gallon for gas. No way. /Mikey

[harryn]

Originally Posted by Old-Biscuit

Having been a Machinist Mate in NAVY and having spent 25 plus yrs in power plants where we made water for boilers ie: Evaporators, Demineralizers, ROs etc. I would not bother with turning grey waste water into bathing water.

CG water is treated, tested and safe---just like the water coming to your house.
And as good/clean as bottled water---maybe better depending on source of bottling (like those water machines in front of stores-----yuk)

RV Fresh water tank IS a big ole plastic water bottle..fill it up with 'city water' and use it.

Grey water into usable bathing water......lots of filtering (food/greases/oils/sloughed skin/urine) then vacuum system, evaporator system (water feed pump/heat source)...brine handling/removal, storage for chlorine treatment

Do you have background/training/water treatment experience....

Going to use bottled water for cooking, dish washing?
Going to have separate systems for reclaimed grey water or going to use HOT/COLD Plumbing systems

All of this for an RV?

30 yrs experience in water treatment and I just don't see the benefit.
RVng is about having FUN....going camping....enjoying the outdoors.
Not about being a 'water king'
Why make RVng complicated

Fill up and use the on-board water bottle....fresh water tank

Hi, my BS is in chemical engineering and I do have substantial experience with purifying and treating water.

For people who have good access to fresh water, such as an RV campground, this will not make any sense to think about. For people who camp more "off grid" and in desert conditions, this might be interesting.

[harryn]

Originally Posted by 1bigmess

What happens if you have a chlorine release? Is it reportable? I guess it depends on the actual amount of chlorine released.

I would not recommend that people use chlorine gas in an RV, that would be silly. Here is CA, the use of Cl2 gas has been banned at most pools for many years, and bulk delivered bleach is common.

There are much safer alternatives to prevent bacteria in water, from simple methods like a few drops of high quality bleach, pool tablets, ozone and UV. Each approach has advantages and disadvantages.

I am aiming at this for my own use for bathing, possibly dish washing. Definitely not for drinking, but of course it would be better than dying of thirst.

It is not that difficult to produce clean water, nor to treat it to ensure that bacteria are all dead. What is more difficult is to be precise enough with the treatment of these small quantities of water that you don't "over dose" it and give someone a case of the runs if they drink it in normal amounts.

When camping far from a water supply, sometimes it makes sense to use paper plates rather than washing them.

[Old-Biscuit]

Originally Posted by harryn

Hi, my BS is in chemical engineering and I do have substantial experience with purifying and treating water.

For people who have good access to fresh water, such as an RV campground, this will not make any sense to think about. For people who camp more "off grid" and in desert conditions, this might be interesting.

So you are going to have 2 separate water systems both hot/cold or is this 'treated' water going to flow thru current system so that the RV plumbing system is only using 'treated' water?


I don't care how much boondocking is done......you have to dump black tank legally and that is when you refill the big old plastic water bottle..fresh water tank.
Tank not big enough....install larger or carry extra via bladder/water jugs..

Running/maintaining/operating a proper water treatment plant is not to be taken lightly. Constant monitoring & testing is required......lots of hands on w/o sophisticated equipment to monitor with.

It is a bit more involved then just boiling water and adding some chlorine.

Much easier and safer to just bring necessary amount of water in first place.

Have at it........it's your idea/project.

[Atom Ant]

We have the best city water in the world and haul it in our tank. If the campground water is terrible, I switch to tank water.

If nothing else, I use the tank water to wash the coach, as it rinses spot free.