Potable water treatment & handling

The under counter filter for drinking water is a Puriteam UCD 12C.

Our dockside softener is a Yacht-Mate Dockmate 1000. The amount of salt that remains after softening is pretty insignificant in terms of health and imperceptible in taste.

The other filters are standard 10” housings.
 
JVM--The biggest advantage to a filter installed at your "dock hose" ( either connected to boat or using to refill your onboard tank) is that it is a particulate type filter which will stop the sediment that is waterbourne, that has been picked up from the couple miles of pipe journey in between the treatment plant and your dock hose. Pipes that may have been there for decades have all kinds of who knows what corrosion going on in them, and then carried downstream to your doorstep, and that's not even considering all the places in between that don't have backflow preventers on there wter pipes.
 
Sublimetime said:
JVM--The biggest advantage to a filter installed at your "dock hose" ( either connected to boat or using to refill your onboard tank) is that it is a particulate type filter which will stop the sediment that is waterbourne, that has been picked up from the couple miles of pipe journey in between the treatment plant and your dock hose. Pipes that may have been there for decades have all kinds of who knows what corrosion going on in them, and then carried downstream to your doorstep, and that's not even considering all the places in between that don't have backflow preventers on there wter pipes.
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Ahhhh...that makes sense!
I drink tap water all the time. Maybe my body processes the sediment and it leaves in waste.
But I can see how it would settle and build in a fresh water tank.
Hopefully that isn’t happening in my body too....
 
settles out and accumulates in tank as well as being caught in pump diaghrams . ckeck valve flaps and the faucet strainers. Just not good for any part of your systems.
 
Sublimetime said:
settles out and accumulates in tank as well as being caught in pump diaghrams . ckeck valve flaps and the faucet strainers. Just not good for any part of your systems.
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I remove the aerators and clean out the little filter strainer at the pump when I flush the tank.
I flush the tank at the beginning of the season and anytime I notice that a week or so has gone by and I haven’t added fresh water to it.
That usually happens once or twice a season.
My routine for flushing is to empty tank and heater, dump a couple of cups of bleach in my empty 100 gallon tank, fill tank, turn on pump and bring water to all faucets then let the bleach treated water sit overnight.
Next day I drain everything again, fill, drain, then fill with a couple of ounces of bleach.
Never have a problem with stinky water.
While I brush my teeth with it, I don’t drink it or make ice with it.
Not looking to ever drink it, but I wouldn’t mind being able to fill ice cube trays with it.
I almost never use the dockside water hookup so I’m not looking to filter that.
 
I ordered the TDS meter digital water tester. It’s cheap enough. For the heck of it I want to see just how good the water is out of the tank.
 
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carterchapman said:
JVM - we follow that same protocol - and we make ice and drink it - no problems...
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Other than the Camco filter you use inline when you fill your tank, do you use any other kind of filter?
If so, what kind and where/how is it mounted?
 
Hi JVM,

In addition to filling with the Camco, we have a charcoal filter mounted before the pump. I change it every 6 months. I'll get a pic of it for you next weekend. This weekend was a rain out in the South East so we stayed home :(!!!
 
We don't drink the water from our tank but otherwise we just top it off as needed for washing and showering. Gallon jugs of water are much more economical than pints.
 
Amazon delivered the TDS digital water meter today. I brought it down to the boat for a test.
The water coming out of my drinking water safe hose at the dock had a reading of 42 PPM.
The water coming out of the galley faucet from the fresh water tank had a reading of 77 PPM. The only thing I do to that water is add a couple of ounces of bleach when I fill the tank.
Wondering if those few ounces of bleach account for some of that difference.
Again though, I flush the tank at the beginning of the season and once or twice during the season as I described in Post #25 above.
 
JimT said:
We don't drink the water from our tank but otherwise we just top it off as needed for washing and showering. Gallon jugs of water are much more economical than pints.
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Yes, we bring along the gallon jugs for making coffee and refilling ice cube trays. We don’t need to keep them cold for those purposes.
But I just use the regular individual water bottles for drinking. Easier than pouring in to cups and for nice in the fridge.
 
Just a couple questions,

1. Why not use an inline UV set up to kill any growth that might be in the tank? They are relatively small some are the size of an ice maker filter.

2. For ice and drinking water why not install a small reverse osmosis system? You can get them to fit in a foot print of about 18 x 18 inch and the cost under 300 bucks. You could also just pull in lake water for a never ending supply and refill your on board water tank.

This gets more complicated and expensive for Salt water but still do able.
 
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I continue to be taken aback at the extraordinary measures folks take to avoid drinking tank water. Water jugs of drinking water, special filters, 16oz of bleach poured into the tank weekly and the list and approaches and excuses go on and on. Simple common sense makes tank water perfectly safe and the best way to go IF you have a good source of fresh water and cycle it weekly into a tank that was commissioned properly at the beginning of your boating season. This eliminates the need for jugs of water being stashed in precious space and buying all of those expensive single purpose plastic containers that are littering the globe. Not only is tank water safe, it is the ecologically friendly way to go.
 
sbw1 said:
View attachment 70978 I continue to be taken aback at the extraordinary measures folks take to avoid drinking tank water. Water jugs of drinking water, special filters, 16oz of bleach poured into the tank weekly and the list and approaches and excuses go on and on. Simple common sense makes tank water perfectly safe and the best way to go IF you have a good source of fresh water and cycle it weekly into a tank that was commissioned properly at the beginning of your boating season. This eliminates the need for jugs of water being stashed in precious space and buying all of those expensive single purpose plastic containers that are littering the globe. Not only is tank water safe, it is the ecologically friendly way to go.
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I bought my 2002 boat in 2016. I would have to have a lot of faith in the previous owner to believe that he was diligent about keeping the water tank and lines clean.
Now that I’ve had it for a few years, been on top of it and my newest little toy (TDS digital water meter) is giving me some encouraging numbers I may add a filter somewhere, continue to monitor and start using it for coffee and ice cubes.
Still prefer to drink the Spring Water out of the bottle though.
 
I usually give my water system the bleach treatment in the spring but sometimes I've skipped it. I do use this Starbrite product every fill. Last Oct when I hauled out I left the water tank full. I had envisioned many trips to the boat over the winter and wanted water for the head and cleaning purpose on the boat. This spring May 17th launch water had no odors at all, seemed the same as when put up last Oct. I don't drink the water, don't know what it might taste like.
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Woody, thanks for the Starbrite info. I went to their site and found this “970 Aqua Water Treatment & Freshener“. Have you tried this stuff? Looks interesting.
 
waynezworld said:
View attachment 71047 Woody, thanks for the Starbrite info. I went to their site and found this “970 Aqua Water Treatment & Freshener“. Have you tried this stuff? Looks interesting.
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I been using in my boat and rv, works ok and water doesn't smell
 
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JVM225 said:
I bought my 2002 boat in 2016. I would have to have a lot of faith in the previous owner to believe that he was diligent about keeping the water tank and lines clean.
Now that I’ve had it for a few years, been on top of it and my newest little toy (TDS digital water meter) is giving me some encouraging numbers I may add a filter somewhere, continue to monitor and start using it for coffee and ice cubes.
Still prefer to drink the Spring Water out of the bottle though.
Click to expand...
You are reinforcing my point. Prior owners may or may not have been diligent about the management of the drinking water system. Once you own the boat, you are in charge. Set it up properly; use fresh water from a reliable source; cycle it weekly and you are good. No need to "monitor", "filter", so that you can maybe, perhaps, possibly use it sort of for coffee. Just do it right and drink your coffee. (;-)
 
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