# Water purifiers/filters



## GypsyRose (May 9, 2005)

Whereas we have a filter fitted in our house, for some odd reason I have always been worried about fitting one in our motorhome... (I never use the water in the tank for drinking, only for washing etc). I wonder if is the thought that it is "stagnant" water regardless of filter or whatever..? I drink loads of water and I worry about this lol! Carrying various water containers for drinking purposes is a pain and I really would like to be confident enough to drink out of the main tank.. can anyone help and advise.. what do you all do..?
Many thanks, Ana xx :roll:


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## badger (May 9, 2005)

Hi Anna

I can't help or advise as I'm not qualified, all I can do is tell you that we don't have a water filter or purifier in our van (or at home).

We drink lots of tea & coffee but not so much plain water. Rightly or wrongly
We use the water from the tank for everything. It helps that the tank was brand new and never been filled, and we do put in the sterelising tablets. 
We also frequently empty and refil the tank, especially if its been standing a week or two. 
To be honest we don't notice any "taste", it all seems fine.

Badger


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## johnsandywhite (May 9, 2005)

Hi Gypsy Rose. We are now in our 5th year of full timing and have always used the onboard tanks for washing & cleaning. The reason for this, is it can last us up to 4 weeks without re-filling. They do say water can go stale (never been a problem to us). We use 4 to 8 litre bottles to fetch & store drinking water. We usually carry them in our back packs on our bikes when going to fill up. It's one of our ways of excercising on the road. We have never worried about filtering water from all over Europe. We are still here to tell the tale. I do think that people worry too much about water quality. It you were on a desert island and were thirsty? You would probably drink just about anything if you wished to stay alive


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

After a life time of tenting, caravanning and now MH ing we have never had a tummy upset we could pin on water and have always drunk tap water and the water from the tank or aquaroll. However, we have stopped making hot drinks with the water from our van bacause of the awful TCP taste. It tastes fine cold. We have tried everything from new hoses to sterilising tablets and it does not matter where we refull it. We empty it between trips and flush it out.

We now keep a large bottle ( supermarket 5 litres) in the van that we refill at the same time and from the same source as the tank and we use this for tea and coffee. It is a nuisance though.

I don't think a filter would help here. There is some kind of reaction going on somewhere.

G


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## Road_Runner_644 (May 9, 2005)

Hi all

And yes, Grizzly



> However, we have stopped making hot drinks with the water from our van bacause of the awful TCP taste. It tastes fine cold.


We get that in our van, i'd love to know whats causing it, its really annoying.

Dave


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## 88724 (May 9, 2005)

Hi

TCP Its from the plastic, occassionally manufacturers are using non food grade hoses etc.


I have gone for the full monty in purification, at demo's the sales man will filter canal/river water and drink. £140 ish but the water as all naff tastes removed and any other nasties. this is in spite of having a large (one off) food grade stainless steel tank. at places like the NEC they have a tank of blue ink and tons and tons of chlorine in after the filter crystal clear and lovely taste.

The TCP is the worst because even in Tea and coffe its there andtastes awful.


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## badger (May 9, 2005)

We have a plastic tank, but as yet we havn't experienced the TCP taste (you watch, we will get it next time out)

Heres a question for you experts, if I start getting the "taste" and decide to invest in a filter of some sort, would I need a seperate tank? I read , I think on verywildcampers own web site, that 2 taps were used one from the tank unfiltered and one through a filter.
Our tap (a mixer) pulls water from one tank and I presume through the water heater.....I think.....I'm confusing myself now, but could I just fit a filter to existing equipment (would that affect the flow) or do I need a seperate system for filtered water.


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

I think you either have it from day 1 Badget or not at all !

I don't like filtered water -there are too many salts in it afterwards which I don't think are good for your kidneys and I prefer the taste of tap water anyway. I'm fairly convinced I'd never change the filter often enough -too mean or lazy.

G


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## peejay (May 10, 2005)

Badger,

There are two ways of fitting a filter (assuming you're all on about the naturepure one)

http://www.generalecologyeurope.com/naturepure.html

1.You can fit it directly inline to the cold water pipe then there is no need for an extra tap, but ALL water from this tap will be filtered, so you'd have to change the filter more often

2. You can take a branch off the cold pipe to a separate tap. This is the best option if you have a suitable place for the tap. Then only the required drinking water is filtered and the filter will last longer.

There's no need for a seperate tank.

I haven't got one though, been washing, showering, drinking hot and cold direct from my tank for years and still live to tell the tale. Once explored the option, but they're very expensive.

pj


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## badger (May 9, 2005)

Thanks for that pj

I would like to think I can do the same, ie just use the same water for everything, as its so easy and so much less messing about. As yet we have experienced no bad taste or anything. (except in my dress sense)


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## GypsyRose (May 9, 2005)

Thanks everyone - we just toyed wioth the idea of buying a filter or whatever at the Newbury show but I really am not sure if I'd trust it enough. We go away most weekends so I suppose the water should be ok really but...!!


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## 88724 (May 9, 2005)

Hi Rose 

Look through the specs whats not to trust? thesethings get used with terrible water supplies no probs at all.

I have never liked the idea of lugging a seperate drinking water supply, it seems to be an added hassle that i could do without. If you are going to use a tank system I really cant see the point of having to fetch it seperately to drink. And with this kind of system you know the water is safe.

Grizzley I am not sure what you are talking about a filtration system doesnt add salts, can you clarify what you mean?


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

George, sorry...a senior moment. I was thinking of water softeners. 
I can't believe I did that.

G.


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## 88993 (May 11, 2005)

We do a lot of wild camping and finding "safe" drinking water has been our biggest problem. To get over this I fitted an extra 40ltr tank with its own tap (no filter) which we use purely for drinking water. We only re-fill this when we are certain the water supply is OK or fill with bottled water, but more importantly, we can fill the other tank up at any dodgy tap with no fear of poisoning the family!


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## 88724 (May 9, 2005)

Hi Grizzly

No Problem's

George


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## 88741 (May 9, 2005)

I am with the 'drink the water and be damned brigade', never had any problems with drinking water when tenting, caravanning ot MH'ing. Do fill up my water bottle and bladder  Platypus, that is, not mine  when I am walking just because it is easy to wander over to the tap, making sure on the way that my boots are comfortable, than using the water in the tank, do the same with Jess's water too. washing her bowl out into the grey disposal place then filling it up with fresh from the tap


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## 88728 (May 9, 2005)

We use a Nature Pure as we drink over 2 litres of water each every day and really don't have the time to be walking to fill all that up! We have had manky water from our tanks before and don't want the hassle of having to worry about it. The filter grabs an amazing number of nasties (just got one here for a customer to have fitted and have been re-reading some of the blurb) including e-coli, chlorine, cysts, bacteria, viruses, specific pesticides, herbicides...

We have some friends who filled up with bad water and they had a competition for the toilet for several days  Ben has given himself food poisoning several times and it is not an experience I want to see repeated too often :lol:


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## 88724 (May 9, 2005)

Hi 

I am totally with Ben and Lizzie on this, Its not only a great safety device and makes life easier, it also makes the water taste good too.

Saying I have drunk the water for years no problem, what does that mean exactly? Most people have never been electrocuted so lets forget RCD's ? Some people do have far better defences against water borne diseases its true, but with drinking water drawn from far and wide I would rather be safe than sorry.

Many people think UK water is totally safe and in general thats true, but the chlorine added only protects the water for a short time, allsorts of nasties can develop in tank water. 

This is from the DWI

Water from storage can be safe to drink, providing the cistern:

is not too large, so that standing water is limited (25 litres (5 gallons) per home is the guideline); 
is flushed to waste should the water not have been used recently, depending on circumstances such as warmth and number of days unused; 

has a lid which excludes light and is tightly fitting and securely fastened, so that birds, vermin, and dirt cannot get in; 
has vents, including overflow, that are screened so that insects and particles cannot get in; 
is insulated and in a cool place so that, ideally, the temperature does not exceed 20° C; 
is cleaned, and disinfected annually as recommended. Cleaning is very important in order to remove even inorganic debris which could provide a habitat for bacteria, including legionella; and 
is periodically sampled to ensure that too many bacteria are not present (depending on circumstances, between two and four times a year is normally advised). 
However, water quality in storage can deteriorate


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## fjmike (May 10, 2005)

For those that drink water from their tanks please remember that not everyone is that good on hygene. Last year whilst on an Aire I saw somebody rinse his toilet cassette using the drinking water tap.I had heard of people doing this but this was the first time that I had seen somebody doing it. So what I do is before using ANY tap(even campsites) I always give it a good squirt with Dettox, run a little water through before connecting up my hose pipe


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## barrosa (May 9, 2005)

Hi have thought about a water filter, but like most have been motorhoming for a long time now and we are both still here. :roll: .When we are in the Malverns we fill the tank from one of the spring wells  and it tastes just great  .although we are not to sure about when we go to france later in the year :lol:


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## 88870 (May 10, 2005)

We have a nature pure water filter fitted with a separate tap- its fab. We drink it, use it to wash fruit, veg etc. I did notice that if you make up some Ribena with the water filter its a lot better looking (clearer) than when you do it with the non filtered tap!

We only use the main taps (kitchen sink/bathroom/shower) for washing with really. That said though, we haven't always had the filter and are still alive and kicking with no tummy upsets in the past :lol:


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## MOTORHOMER (May 9, 2005)

Grizzly said:


> I think you either have it from day 1 Badget or not at all !
> 
> I don't like filtered water -there are too many salts in it afterwards which I don't think are good for your kidneys and I prefer the taste of tap water anyway. I'm fairly convinced I'd never change the filter often enough -too mean or lazy.
> 
> G


We have a water filter at home & have done for years the reason being the fresh drinking water we used to receive tasted like s*** smells. Sorry folks it really was that bad. We have never used water from the van tanks for drinking. Always had a seperate container for tea coffee etc. We do have a filter however in the new van . The water tasted ok but because the piping seems to run along side the hote water supply when the hot water is on the drinking water is hot, Still trying to get something sorted with the converter. So its back to the containers. When we were in Lincolnshire on a site in Barton On Humber after taking delivery of new van we had to fill with their water. It had thatt awful taste you talk of above TCP now you mention it. The owner of the site was using green garden hose to supply the stand pipe. I said at the time that was the cause. We had to buy bottled water.

Motorhomer


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## MOTORHOMER (May 9, 2005)

fjmike said:


> For those that drink water from their tanks please remember that not everyone is that good on hygene. Last year whilst on an Aire I saw somebody rinse his toilet cassette using the drinking water tap.I had heard of people doing this but this was the first time that I had seen somebody doing it. So what I do is before using ANY tap(even campsites) I always give it a good squirt with Dettox, run a little water through before connecting up my hose pipe


hello Mike

George saw this happen at the NEC temporary campsite this year chap empty his loo the actually walked over to the tank marked DRINKING WATER & washed his loo out. Always went to the fresh water tank well away from the loo after that.

Motorhomer


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## 91289 (May 1, 2005)

can I bump this back to the top and ask if anyone has actually fitted a Nature Pure system and how big a job it was and how much space does it need or has anyone fitted an in-line filter and if so which one? At the mo I carry an extra 5 litre container, because of 'tank taste' but would like not too and I see a number of people have filters but don't say if they did it themselves or even who they got to do it.

Tim


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## MOTORHOMER (May 9, 2005)

Road_Runner_644 said:


> Hi all
> 
> And yes, Grizzly
> 
> ...


When we were going to Timberland to change vans we did not have much of anything on board. The night before on a site near the Humber Bridge we filled our kettle from the water tap on site for a cup of tea & it had this TCP taste. Couldnt drink the tea at all. Then we noticed that the water from the tap was being supplied throug what looked like green garden hose. So is it this that causes the problem. never tasted water quite like that. It was awful.

We never used to use the water in the tank for drinks of anykind but as we do have a filter in the new van we do now use it for tea & coffee cooking etc. Anty water in the kettle not used we put into the one litre jug in the fridge fused or cold drinks so put it in there.

Motorhomer


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## DABurleigh (May 9, 2005)

Tim,

I have one - not yet fitted! Nothing tricky at all, just a question of getting it to the top of my list of things to do when I happen to be around to be able to do it.

Basically you need a hole-cutter for where the tap goes through the kitchen top, measure 3 times drill once, it screws in by hand, fix the supplied bracket in the kitchen cupboard underneath to hold the filter, insert the T-piece with the correct fitting (all supplied) into the cold supply, connect T-piece to filter and filter to tap with supplied hose and job done if your pump is pressure switched. If a microswitched pump you need a momentary push-to-make switch with wiring in parallel with the switched kitchen taps as well.

If you want any measurements to check positioning before you buy just ask.

Dave


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## 91289 (May 1, 2005)

Thanks Dave

I've got the sizes off the Ben and Lizzies vangear website, so I'll check this weekend if I've space to fit it (just bought a new smaller van, so haven't had a chance to look at how the pipes are routed etc..).

From your description it sounds relatively straightforward, though I'm always nervous of making holes in expensive things! I also need to check on the pump type, I'm not yet familiar with all the bits fitted to the van.

thanks

Tim


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## fdhadi (May 9, 2005)

We have a Nature Pure system fitted  and drink the water using this when all over Europe 8O .
Not had any problems up to now  .

Regards
Frank


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## stewartwebr (May 27, 2005)

Hello,

We have been using the Nature Pure system for years all over Europe. Like a previous poster we drink about 3 litres of water a day direct from the onboard tank via the Nature Pure, without any problem.

It was also interesting when we had our two collies. If the tank was filled at certain locations the dogs would not drink the water. If we took the water from the system via the Nature Pure the dogs loved it. Unfortunately the dogs are no longer with us.

Stewart


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## 92086 (May 1, 2005)

We have naturepure filter in our van. Brilliant. Don't know how anyone can say they are expensive compared with the price of bottled water, not to mention the inconveniance of bottles Yuk!

We also have the same companys filter in our home. We don't fancy being poisoned by flouride or any other additives our water company does or does'nt add to the supply.


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