Sterilise fresh water pipes

[kingoftheroad]

Not wishing to argue, but the water from our taps smelled after only being in the pipes over night, I wash and dry the fresh water tank after every trip, I now put 100 mil of elsil in with every full tank of fresh water no smells now, the smell is NOT coming up the drain holes from the waste tank but was from the taps, so elsil does work well

Hi
Yes ours is definetely from the taps as well, not grey water tank, even smell it when flushing the toilet, back home soon and I'm going to blast gallons through the system, the mixture will be like something out of a Boris Karloff film

 

[gpat]

Sorry I’m not sure with the hot water system, how do you sterilise the hot water pipes etc, without it going through the boiler

Hot water pipes don't need sterilisation as the hot water will keep them clean.

 

[Adriaadventure]

Puriclean been mentioned a couple of times now, will look it up when back home, order some and make this part of my maintenance on the van, (dont want this problem again while away, its horrible), made note of soda crystals as well for grey water tank, thanks for info guys/gals

Be careful not to make the puricleans too strong, in the past when I have done that the hot water ran bright red for a few seconds when flushed out so it had dissolved some of the colour from the inside of the red hot water pipes.

 

[kingoftheroad]

Be careful not to make the puricleans too strong, in the past when I have done that the hot water ran bright red for a few seconds when flushed out so it had dissolved some of the colour from the inside of the red hot water pipes.

Will remember that thanks, there have been lots of opinions of what's best to use, I suppose the Puriclean is a product designed for this job, hot and cold, will look more closely when home

 

[M-J]

Will remember that thanks, there have been lots of opinions of what's best to use, I suppose the Puriclean is a product designed for this job, hot and cold, will look more closely when home

I pay less than £2.50 for a small tub of puriclean which is the perfect amount for my 100l tank.

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[kingoftheroad]

I pay less than £2.50 for a small tub of puriclean which is the perfect amount for my 100l tank.

I'd be happy paying treble that, to solve this problem

 

[M-J]

I'd be happy paying treble that, to solve this problem

My post from a previous thread regarding puriclean

Add it to your fresh water (full), pull through taps and shower, go for a drive to agitate and leave for a few hours.

Then run your taps to fill waste water tank, drive to agitate again and then leave another few hours.

Empty all tanks, refill with fresh and rinse through.

Empty tanks again. Done.


You don’t have to agitate but I thought it would help so could just be done when parked with hose/bucket

 

[bigalw35]

Hot water pipes don't need sterilisation as the hot water will keep them clean.

Presumably only if you have the hot water on and use it

 

[PP Bear]

Hot water pipes don't need sterilisation as the hot water will keep them clean.

Think we’ll agree to disagree on that one.

 

[two]

Hot water pipes don't need sterilisation as the hot water will keep them clean.

I'm not sure what temperature is required to kill germs, but doubt that that in the HW system would be anywhere near.
For sterilisation, I think it may need to be near boiling.

If 'bad' water is added to the tank, some will get into the boiler unless hot is never drawn. Warming it up may make it worse but, either way, any contamination will be in both cold and hot water pipes.

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[gpat]

Presumably only if you have the hot water on and use it

Think we’ll agree to disagree on that one.

I'm not sure what temperature is required to kill germs, but doubt that that in the HW system would be anywhere near.
For sterilisation, I think it may need to be near boiling.

If 'bad' water is added to the tank, some will get into the boiler unless hot is never drawn. Warming it up may make it worse but, either way, any contamination will be in both cold and hot water pipes.

True, true and true.

60C kills all known harmful bacteria and viruses. Remember though we don't normally drink from the hot water so disinfection is not as important.

 

[two]

The OP has 'smelly water'. They will need to treat the whole of their system.

 

[bigalw35]

The OP has 'smelly water'. They will need to treat the whole of their system.

I had the same problem, got rid of it with Elsil

 

[TheBig1]

There are several stainless steel safe sterilisers on the market as used by brewers sterilising their systems. But when pipes start smelling of sulphur, the only guaranteed solution is to renew the pipes. This was a regular problem with older vans because of the type of pipe used

 

[Liverpoollass]

I thought this may be of interest, it is rare we use puriclean and yes we do use our tank water for hot drinks..so far so good

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[Southdowners]

No 50mls is plenty. Should give around 5mg/l of chlorine which is plenty for killing nasty biofilms

My calc

Milton is 1g/100mls chlorine so that's 0.5g 100litres
That is 500 mg in 100 litres
5mg/l

Your tap water has about 0.3mg/l

gpat

Thanks for your interesting information.

You mentioned Tesco thin bleach in your earlier post... what concentration of this bleach should be used please?

 

[Coolcats]

Forget the cheap cola etc just use a proper sanitizer works in both fresh water and grey tank it’s about 4 capsules for 100 litres https://www.marinesuperstore.com/fr...urification/aquasol-water-purification-liquid

 

[gpat]

gpat

Thanks for your interesting information.

You mentioned Tesco thin bleach in your earlier post... what concentration of this bleach should be used please?

Good morning.

Milton and tesco thin bleach are the same strength. 1% chlorine v/v so the instructions are the same.

 

[bigalw35]

There are several stainless steel safe sterilisers on the market as used by brewers sterilising their systems. But when pipes start smelling of sulphur, the only guaranteed solution is to renew the pipes. This was a regular problem with older vans because of the type of pipe used

I would say without a doubt you are correct, but in my MB B680 that would be easier said than done, I did look at the idea but gave up owing the complications involved, I'm a retired electrician so I know about connecting, pull one out and pull one in, but its the hidden/non accessible "T" piece connections along the way that would be the problem