water hose

by mickenbacker 330 Sun Feb 02, 2014 5:48 pm

does the hose used for filling your water tank have to be food grade hose? scratch head

i have seen a cassette type hose on ebay it says "ideal for caravans,motorhomes and boats", or words to that effect,but does not say its food graded. shrugg

as always any help and advice is much appreciated.

by mikethebike Sun Feb 02, 2014 6:03 pm

Hi all the water we use at home for the van comes out the garden hosepipe.
However we boil water for tea/coffee.Drink beer /wine.
never had a problem.

Mike

l

by Peter Brown Mon Feb 03, 2014 6:31 am

I found the info below on another forum and it explains well what my understanding is. The author worked for a well known major hose manufacturer in the UK.

Peter

Garden hose is manufactured from PVC (polyvinylchloride). The source of this material is not restricted or controlled and it can consist of recycled PVC from other things such as soles of shoes or whatever. When it is manufactred other things are added to bulk the mass up such as chalk, talc, clay or other such (cheaper) items to save using 100% PVC.
There are also chemicals that exist nattrually such as sterites and defoliants.

there are 2 main problem areas

1. When first used the exess fillers can leach out and be flushed out of the end of the hose. No problem when the water is going onto a garden. More of a problem when the water ends up in your water system in the tank as the chlorine part of the PVC can be tasted right down to a concentration of about 100 parts per million.

2. The other main problem exists when the hose is stored and water is left in the coils. The fillers and chemicals can leach out into the water by osmosis. This can then be washed out of the hose again as above.

So the decision is down to the individual as to whether they are prepared to accept this.

As previously stated flushing water through the hose for the first few seconds will get rid of the vast majority of these impurities but standing there whilst water goes down the drain in a drought or where the water is free to you but paid for by say a CL owner who is on a meter may be frowned upon.

There are 2 standards of non garden hose Food Grade and Drinking Water Quality (the latter being the most free of contaminents).

I hope this info enables everyone to make an informed desision.

Oh and me. I use a layflat garden hose.....which we dont make any more

by algy Mon Feb 03, 2014 10:48 am

We fill up with the garden hose, and when on some sites I have filled up with their hose which again is normally an ordinary garden hose. It doesn't matter to us because we only use it for showering and washing pots, for drinking we carry a 5 ltr water bottle, I wonder what the inside of the water tank would look like if you put a camera inside, with that in mind It wouldn't matter what hose you filled it with...cheers..Algy

by inspiredron Mon Feb 03, 2014 8:58 pm

algy wrote: I wonder what the inside of the water tank would look like if you put a camera inside, with that in mind It wouldn't matter what hose you filled it with...cheers..Algy

If it's a white (as opposed to black) plastic tank dare I say "Algae" - hugegrins

by daisy mae Mon Feb 03, 2014 11:15 pm

I have the blue food grade hose, I fill up at home then use a watering can to top up on site, as many do.

by matchlessman Tue Feb 04, 2014 12:34 pm

daisy mae wrote:I have the blue food grade hose, I fill up at home then use a watering can to top up on site, as many do.

Ahh, but is the watering can 'Food Grade'??

I haver a lay flat hose in he van for on site use and always let the first couple of pints flush through the pipe then it's good to go.

At home I use the hose I wash cars and bike with. Used regularly so unlikely to be any contaminants left to leach out. Again, I also allow the first few pints to flush through before inserting into the tank.

I also drain the tank down when I'm not using the van as I'm sure leaving water sat there is not good either.

Never had a problem with drinking the water, although obviously I would rather have it in its amended form (wine or beer) when possible.

by daisy mae Tue Feb 04, 2014 1:13 pm

I don`t drink the water unless it is boiled as in coffee, carry fresh water container just for drinking, yes I did wonder myself about the watering can, I did buy a new one and sterilized it first, I also carry the blue hose if I can get to the tap I can always use that. I also washed out both water tanks when I first bought the van last October, will do so again before I fill up for the first trip.

by Peter Brown Tue Feb 04, 2014 1:16 pm

matchlessman wrote:Never had a problem with drinking the water, although obviously I would rather have it in its amended form (wine or beer) when possible.

Same for me although we do have a 'nature pure' filter in the cold feed to the kitchen tap. We didn't have the filter in the Duetto and never had a problem with that either but at that time (working) we didn't wander so far or for so long.

Peter

by inspiredron Tue Feb 04, 2014 5:43 pm

We caravanned from 1972 to 2000 and have motorhomed since.
With the caravan we filled up a 10 liter container for drinking with a larger pumped outside for other things. In our motorhomes we generally use small bottles for drinking early on in a trip while the remnants of sterilising tablets rinsing are going through but revert to tank for everything after a couple of days. We use dto have a green garden type hose for filling but now use the food grade Whale filler hose.
Never had any ill effects.

by Dutto Tue Feb 04, 2014 9:39 pm

Hi there,

We use a length of ordinary garden hose to fill up "Petal" and haven't had any problems in the last two and a half years taking her to many places in the UK and around Europe.

For drinking water we generally use Lidl's "Eau de Source" but for everything else (coffee, cooking, washing salad vegetables etc) we just use it straight out of the tank.

We can't be bothered with all this worry about "bad" water as the chances of getting any problems are pretty remote, however, we do chuck a couple of Milton Tablets into the water tank every four or five re-fills.

If anyone has a problem with drinking water then I can thoroughly recommend using one of these.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

We used them on our boats where access to bottled water could have been a problem and we drank the water straight from the tap. They are easy to fit and do an excellent job of work.

Hope this helps. allthumbz

Best regards,
drinksallround

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