duetto, sterilising the water system

Hi Everyone,
I'm very much a newbie and this is our first winter with a 1998 Duetto. At the back end of last year I drained all the water out of the tanks and toilet.

The question is how do you go about sterilising the tanks before refilling and do I need to pay attention for airlocks anywhere.
What do you use for doing the sterilisation.

The dealers we bought her from said to use milton, other places say never use that, so I'm perplexed, what do you all use?

I've also been told the onboard water is not suitable for drinking, is this true?

Thanks for the help

David

Hi David

I believe Milton is not recommended as it can react with metal including stainless steel so may damage your water heater etc. Puriclean is supposed to be a safe alternative.

All I do is use a solution of citric acid, as our water in Berkshire is very hard so this is more to remove any limescale build up. We don't drink from the onboard system, we carry a separate container filled straight from the tap, for drinking & cooking we run it through a Britta filter jug, again mainly to minimise lime scale and also any taste issues.  
However many folk do drink from the onboard system and will attest to having done so without harm for many years, so it's down to personal preference really.

I use puriclean. Make up and fill tank as per manufacture recommendation. Leave a few hours, drive about to swish it all about, empty (not into anywhere that can harm aquatic creatures) refill, swooosh about to rinse, empty and you are good to go! 
We refill from empty upon reaching a site but don’t drink from taps until it’s second fill by which time as long as tanks are filled from a drinking water supply we will drink from it.

We do carry bottled water too.

We drink from the taps. We don't  sterilise after drain down but do add aquasol to the first fill. It's a liquid that makes water safe to drink. That's all we do.

Always empty the tank on return home; fill as necessary; happily drink cold from the tank; so far, so lucky (since 1988).

Cymro

We drain down completely before winter sets in, and do nothing other than flush the system through before our first use.
We never drink from the taps, it's more hygienic to fill a glass....
As Cymro, not contracted anything yet, and we've filled up from mountain streams in the past... However I was a bit concerned to find a dead sheep in the water higher upstream when we went for a walk...
Al.

Always use Elsan fresh water tank cleaner ( just used it yesterday)
1 ltr lasts for years. De-scales the hot water ( Truma) tank and cleans other stuff.

Boaby

In my previous caravans I used Puriclean before and after the long winter storage but found it left a residue that didn't fully dissolve and a taste of chlorine which took a while to get rid of.  For the motorhome we drain down as fully as possible at the end of every trip and fill with fresh at the start of the next trip.  As our motorhome trips are normally every month, including during the winter, I feel this keeps the tanks and pipes clean enough for drinking.  When lockdown prevented us from using the motorhome for 3 months I used citric acid to clean the system before use which doubled up for descaling and left no after taste.  Once this winter is over and there is no risk of freezing, I will give the system its second dose of citric acid in 3 years.   The Truma handbook warns against using chlorine based solutions as it can react with the stainless steel tank.

Agree with drinking water from the tank. I use citric acid to descale about every 3 years and Tesco's water sterilisation tablets for a pre-season purification. BUT - I ensure that none of that solution goes into the hot tank by .asking sure that the hot taps are off and only using cold side of mixers when pumping and flushing. Once I've flushed the sterilising fluid out 2 or 3 times I then let the hot tank fill - with citric acid if that is appropriate. Then more flushing to remove lemon taste.

We don't worry about the on board tank at all but we only drink from 2 ltr Lemonade bottles which we fill from home or on the site.

3 Of these bottles last a long time between the 2 of us. We do use the onboard water to clean our teeth

I used Puriclean last year after buying the MH. There was some green residue/slime coming out of the taps which took some flushing to remove so like others we don't drink from the taps but carry 2 litre bottles of water.

The problem I had was getting the Puriclean solution into the cold water tank. There is no opening I could find to tip it in. In the end, I made up a concentrated solution of the required amount of chemical and poured it into the infill hose with a funnel before then connect the hose to a tap, filling the tank and leaving overnight before emptying and flushing through with clean water. I will do the same again this year when the MH comes out of storage.

Hi Folks,
Sorry I've not replied earlier but someone decided the van needed new curtains so I've been helping sort that out.

Thanks for all the input, I'll get the system flushed through with puriclean when it's less likely to freeze (sometime in July probably) and chuck some water bottles in for drinking.