tainted water

[alan]

Hi everyone, and a happy new year !
We've just returned from our Christmas trip to St.Ives in Cornwall, see picture. We survived the gales thrown at us on December 29th, but are having continuing problems with the water in our storage tanks having an unpleasant plastic taste. Iv'e tried flushing out the tanks and using steriliser tablets to no avail. Any ideas out there ?
All the best Alan.

[Pauline]

Happy New Year Alan, glad your trip was a success. (It certainly looks like you had fun )

We had a similar problem with one of our Duo's, like you we tried steriliser tablets and flushing out the tank but in the end the only way we cured it was to keep filling the tank, leaving it a couple of days then emptying it. If we went away we used water direct from the camp tap to avoid the tainted taste in tea or coffee. (We never drink cold water from the tank though, just to be safe).

Eventually the taste was washed away but it took ages. Hope someone will come along with a quicker cure for you.

[mike and heather]

Hi Alan

We have attempted to solve this problem over the years in caravans and our Romahome and have come to the conclusion that it is such an ongoing battle stopping the plastic aftertaste that we don't bother.
Instead we take a couple of 5 litre plastic water bottles and fill them from the tap. We use this water for all drinking, cooking and teeth cleaning. Problem solved - well avoided anyway.

Mike

[wendy]

We do the same as Mike and Heather as we don't fancy the water in the tank for drinking.

[viv]

We also never use water from the tank and just take a water bottle and fill it up at site.
Viv

[Derek]

When we first had the van the water from the tank was undrinkable despite repeated flushing and leaving the tank full. We are not talking plastic taste here, it was so bad the dog wouldn't drink it. When I finally used Milton the problem seemed to be cured but last year I needed to use Milton tabs twice in the season, once in April and again at the end of August.

We use 2pt plastic milk bottles, 2 in the sink and 2 in the fridge but we like to have the tank full as well.

We found that the Milton needs to be made up to the max strength allowed, it won't damage the plastic but it rots stainless steel, our Duo Hylo has a stainless steel mesh filter next to the pump. Take care with splashes as it is bleach (I think), according to the pump instructions you can use bleach instead.

Derek

[alan]

Thanks for the advise, I was concerned it was a problem particular to us, obviously not. I do quite a bit of "off site camping", mainly on Dartmoor, but some times further afield, such as the Isle Of Lewis and Orkney, and need my own supply. As you can see from this photo of Lewis, there are not a lot of amenities.

[Graham]

Hi Alan

Your van looks as if its a fairly new one, I am sure given time the tainted water taste will fade, as Pauline has already said we had the same problem in our Duo which we bought new but after a while it faded and wasn't a problem.

Regards
Graham

[Jack]

We tend to use our water container quite a lot, I usually empty the container completely, then wipe it out with one of those absorbent yellow cloths, a clean cloth is best,(?) then fill the container again. Another way would be to use a Home Brew Steriliser,add about 3 teaspoons to about a gallon,,,,4.5 litres,,, of water, let it slosh around as you drive around for about 15 mins, then rinse thoroughly with fresh cold water, letting it run through the pipes.We always make our teas and coffees with water from the tank,,,, failing that, go down to the pub,,,,,,
J&P, Cornwall