Drinking water

[slaume]

On short trips or day sails drinking bottled water is an easy option. On longer trips you kind of have to get used to drinking your tank water. Raven carries 60 gallons and when single handling and being very careful of water consumption that lasts a long time. I drink the ice jugs first but have no problem drinking the tank water.

Even if you don't want to drink your tank water, you can always fill reusable bottles from home, Steve.

 

[rgranger]

They sell these at Lowes for less than $30

I have one installed for my refrigerator's ice maker and I purchased another that I plan to install on my boat. I'd think that you can bleach your water lines, then flush and add a filtering system that will sequester any pathogens and any remaining chlorine or chlorine from municipal water that you pick up from a Marina's hose. Probably better than what is in your tap.

 

[slaume]

I used a short whole house type filter on Raven. It is a canister type filter with a built in shut off. I am not sure what the filter element and flow rate are on the ice maker filter. This may or may not be a problem but ice makers don't call for very much volume. The other good thing about the canister filter is that you can actually see the filter element. It has a built in shut off so you don't have to deal with drain back while changing filters. You can also take it out to flush the system without any other bypass plumbing. I carry an extra , charcoal, filter in a sealed bag.

I would want to be sure the filter allowed more than a trickle of water to pass before I went to the trouble of plumbing it into the boat, Steve.

 

[Charlie Jones s/v Tehani]

I don't drink the water from my tanks either. It is for washing.

Bring bottled water.

I have filtered the water to use for cooking and boiling things and it doesn't taste bad.

If I couldn't trust my tanks for drinking from, I'd fix them so I could.

Can't imagine trying to keep a supply of bottled water during a 3 or 4 month stay in the Bahamas.

 

[Ron20324]

If I couldn't trust my tanks for drinking from, I'd fix them so I could...

Ditto. Every other weekend I do an overnighter with the sailing club. Back in the slip during the week, I use the water freely to actually try to use up the whole tank- maybe even just pump it overboard. The day of the next cruise I fill the tank with fresh water. It has worked well for 8 years.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Ditto. Every other weekend I do an overnighter with the sailing club. Back in the slip during the week, I use the water freely to actually try to use up the whole tank- maybe even just pump it overboard. The day of the next cruise I fill the tank with fresh water. It has worked well for 8 years.

While we don't throw any away, we do pretty much the same thing and do go out for an achor out each week.

Use it is a good idea.

I recently replaced all of our plumbing hoses, they were 26 years old. This also reflects Peggie's advice that the issue is the lines, not necessarily the tanks alone.

The link I provided earlier also mentioned the quality of the water that is available.

I also often recommend that skippers use their hot water faucets even if there is no hot water to keep the water moving thru the heater, and to not use the heater on electric for more than the time it takes to heat the water. No need to waste electricity, and 6 to 11 gallons stays hot for quite a while.

We also have a Scanvik water wand for when we're out for longer periods to save water.

 

[Gunni]

I have a 15 gal water bladder on my hunter. 25 how can I make sure the water is potable?

Use Sodium Hypochlorite - common unscented household bleach (5%). First you shock the tank and water system with a strong chlorine solution to fully oxidize organics, then you flush it and keep a 2-5% chlorine level in the system to prevent growth. Here is how for 15 gal system:

• Shock concentration 50mg/l (ppm)- 1/3 cup of 5% bleach mixed with the fill water, run it until the tap stinks of chlorine, shut off and leave it there for 6 hours.
• Flush the system, refill.
• Maintenance concentration 2 - 5 mg/l (ppm) - This is the tricky part because if your tank water is from a municipal source, it already has some halogen (chlorine, bromine something) in it. Mine does not, it is well water. But assume it has no chlorination - for a 15 gal. system to get to 3 mg/l (ppm) of you only need 3 ml of bleach. That is a little more than 1/2 of teaspoon.

In my experience, most boaters WAY over chlorinate their systems. This damages plastic components, pump diaphragms, plumbing fixtures and valves. They complain about the taste, and so they refuse to use chlorine, when it is a reliable and inexpensive method to treat potable water systems. A little bleach goes a long way, and it degrades in less than a year, so a small bottle is all you need. I treat my 150gal water system for a year on less than a quart of household bleach. There are many water purification chlorination calculators out there on the innertubes.

 

[Kite Runner]

Up here in the North West where water is plentiful and pure...bottled water only for drinking onboard! Be Safe!