Vinegar in freshwater tank

After fitting a new shurflo pump I read the installation instructions which advised cleaning the freshwater tank with a 50/50 mix of malt vinegar and water.  Husband advises me that he has read 'somewhere' that this is wrong.  Does anyone have any knowledge if I should or should not use vinegar, if not how about a very diluted mixture of milton baby bottle sterilization?

I wouldn't use malt vinegar unless you want the water to taste like fish & chips!

I have used white vinegar (dilute acetic acid) (Note NOT white wine vinegar!) but this is to descale if you have a buildup of limescale from hard water, rather than to sterilise.

I have used tabs from zappy's blog in the past as described here:

http://www.doyourdream.co.uk/2014/11/cleaning-fresh-water-tank/

but he seems to have disappeared.

Milton is not compatible with certain metals, e.g. stainless steel, so should not be used throughout the system as it may damage pumps, heater elements, sinks etc although if you have direct supply and drain access to the fresh water tank you could use it just for that although some have reported a persistent taste afterwards.

We tend not to drink any water straight from the on board tank, although many on here have said they do and have survived to tell the tale (of course those who didn't wouldn't have been around afterwards to warn us!). We fill a Brita jug filter straight from the tap, just as we do at home, or else from a 10l container we carry, we find this can improve the taste and helps avoid our kettle and coffee machine from scaling up.

cheers
Roger

Like you we never drink any water direct from our fresh water tank.

I had fitted a proffesional water filter which is plumbed in our fresh water system 

So we have a extra tap next to the sink for fresh water for drinks etc

Not cheap though 

If any ones interested I'll find the details on return home next week.

Electric

When we got our Inca it was already fitted with a General Ecology Nature Pure water filter with an extra tap, a-la Joules. For the Wilton and now the Malvern we just have the filter in the cold water feed to the kitchen tap.

At the moment there is no UK distributor for General Ecology, a friend is hoping to source one during a forthcoming trip to Germany.

After having a spanner inside the freshwater tank to tighten up the new fitting I just wanted to give it a bit of a clean.  I may just use a cloth to do this via the inspection hatch.  Another post suggest vinegar 50/50 for descaling the toilet. This surely should be less problematic?

Thetford make a special safe plastic cleaner for the toilet. The only use for vinegar in the van is on fish and chips

use the Pozzani Filter  to feed a dedicated drinking tap we have moved this over several vans the filters are much cheaper than the Nature Pure ones which we used in the past we use their Claw tap which is a 1/4 turn tap

Alf

https://www.pozzani.co.uk/systems.html

My mistake the Shurflo pump instructions advised using diluted bleach in the freshwater tank 1ml for each litre of tank capacity and then flushing through the entire system. I'm confused as why some many people advise against this because of possible damage to metalwork etc when Shurflo recommend it themselves.

Extracts from CC Advice

Cleaning

Follow the instructions carefully, but remember that certain chemicals can react adversely with metal.  This is why if the water passes through a Truma/Carver water heater for example, you should only use the recommended cleaner – Truma suggests either Micropur Forte, Milton 2 or Puriclean.  Do not use domestic bleach, Campden tablets or sodium metasulphide.

Descaling

Truma advises that you should not use a de-scaler containing chlorine, as the water tank is made of VA stainless steel. Its recommendations for de-scaling are contained in the manual; however, for those who are not in possession of the latter, Truma recommends that five litres of water and five litres of white wine vinegar are put into the fresh water tank and that this mixture is then run into the Ultrastore. The water should then be heated up to the maximum temperature then allowed to cool down again. When this has taken place, rinse the heater out with plenty of fresh water again from the water tank in order to ensure it is given a thorough rinse through.

However

After taking advice from Kilrock, I have successfully used their Descalene product and would recommend it - see link below.

https://www.autosleeper-ownersforum.com/t19590-water-system-level-warwick-duo