Greg
Active Member
Wow, does the dip stick get in the way of pulling the impeller, or is it just a funny camera angle thing going on?
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Is there any way to prevent this hidden message stuff? I am spending all my time searching for encrypted bombs in white ink, bar codes, morse code and pictures. The ones in the pictures are especially hard to detect and decode.
Have you considered a filtration system for the potable water aboard?
My wife drank nothing but bottled water, but since installing a Nature Pure system, which also serves the icemaker, she's a convert. Tasteless, odorless, colorless. Not cheap but worth it IMO.
http://www.generalecology.com/category/marine-rv
For a hundred gallon tank of fresh water you need less than an ounce of 5% sodium hypochlorite (Clorox) to sanitize. That being said, I doubt I'd use that ice for anything other than storing a big bowl of pasta salad that I'm going to feed to people I don't really know.
You arn't kidding about not being cheap.. I was thinking more along the lines of a $50-$75 inline filter. Thats crazy expensive! Wouldn't a replaceable cartridge style work as well? My fresh water pump is right near the icemaker and there is room there. It seems like it would be pretty easy to mount one there. Having never used one, I wouldn't know the difference in quality or taste from the two styles.
Yeah, I know. Crazy expensive, but you don't know my wife, LOL. Less expensive units are mostly carbon filters, which will definitely get the job done. The Nature Pure filters are EPA certified microbiological, filters viruses out...it was the only way to get my wife to agree to me not having to carry twenty gallons of bottled water aboard every weekend we went away...
It seems in your case the price is reasonable, if not downright CHEAP!:smt043:smt038:smt043Yeah, I know. Crazy expensive, but you don't know my wife, LOL. Less expensive units are mostly carbon filters, which will definitely get the job done. The Nature Pure filters are EPA certified microbiological, filters viruses out...it was the only way to get my wife to agree to me not having to carry twenty gallons of bottled water aboard every weekend we went away...
Giardia - 1-3 microns....can't see it.....sure can hurt you. Which was exactly my point.It seems in your case the price is reasonable, if not downright CHEAP!:smt043:smt038:smt043
The human eye can see particles down to 30-50 microns. Common paracites like cryptosporidium & giardia (beaver fever) are 1-3 microns and most bacteria are in the 0.2 - 0.7 micron range. Viruses are smaller, in the 0.05 range, but the chlorine will typicially deactivate them rapidly. So, with water pathogens, its what you cant see that can hurt you
I don't know if I agree with this. I contracted Giardia while in Asia, and it put a BIG TIME hurting on me!!
Working in the water filtration industry, this is one of the few boating questions that I can intelligently (some what) weigh in on. First, the pump system you are asking about would work well to pump water from a 5 gallon bottle to an ice maker. I used to own one and when in the bottled water business, sold many of them with good feedback. Now, as far as the application of marine use? Not such a good idea if there is water left in the system as bio film will quickly populate throughout the unit and it will quickly get pretty funky. Plus you will have to lug bottles of water to and from the boat and the worry about keeping the bottle itself sanitary.
Whether its a bottled water company or water treatment companys reccomendation to a consumer, a multi barrier approach is the best plan with water filtration. I'd suggest sanitizition using chlorine, then filtration using 0.5 micron efficiency or better. Ultraviolet light sanitizers are a consideration, but in marine applications chlorine has two advantages. First is contact time and the second is the fact that UV systems have max levels of many non harmful contaminants commonly found in water such as calcium, iron and general turbidity. The best location for a UV system is as the final downstream treatment. The other issue with UV is that the bulbs last one year and are designed to turn on and stay on which is impractical in boating. Most UV systems are in my opinion improperly installed and if you have water containing over 5 grains per gallon or iron over 0.3 ppm, a UV systems ability to do its thing is greatly diminished.
So, chlorine levels of 10 PPM - 20 PPM would be my advice. Chlorine does degrade with higher heat levels and I'd suggest non scented name brand bleach as some private label bleaches have been known to contain trace levels of heavy metals like mercury....good stuff. Then just for the water which will be consumed, put a 0.5 micron carbon block filter to remove the chlorine and filter out other suspended particles. For your wash down water, I'd just leave the chlorine in there. At that levels, bleaching concerns are minimal.
No sales pitch here as 3M has reassigned me out of my former marine duties, but Cuno, a 3M company has some perfect filters for marine applications. Do a Google search or check them out at rvmarinewater.com Some offer 0.2 micron efficiencies and bacterial capture claims. Some use a pleated membrane around the carbon block and offer very good flow rates. I truly think that these are the best systems offered for marine water filtration.
The human eye can see particles down to 30-50 microns. Common paracites like cryptosporidium & giardia (beaver fever) are 1-3 microns and most bacteria are in the 0.2 - 0.7 micron range. Viruses are smaller, in the 0.05 range, but the chlorine will typicially deactivate them rapidly. So, with water pathogens, its what you cant see that can hurt you.
BTW, quick comment on the bottled water industry...America's former media and consumer darling...now public enemy #1...USEPA regulates municipal water and FDA regulates bottled water as it is considered a food. Granted, bottlers do develop their own HAACP plans. But when I ran a bottling plant, we had city and state health inspections, the occasional OSHA inspection plus annual unnanounced inspections from NSF International. We used to bottle spring water, distilled water and filtered drinking water. What used to amaze me is that the city was allowed to send the public water with minute levels of lead, trihalomethane and other known carcinogens, but I could not put that water into a 5 gallon bottle unless I removed them. So sure, plastic bottles are an environmental problem. But the claims of bottled water companies groundwater withdrawls depleting aquifers is baseless as that industry uses about 2 tenths of 1% of all groundwater withdrawls.
Throw some chlorine in your tank and then find a good carbon block (not granular carbon) filter and have some peace of mind. Change the filters once per season or sooner and kick back and relax. Speaking of which, I'm turning off the laptop and going boating in beautiful Charleston to burn out some older fuel.
So how much bleach does one put in a 40 gal tank to sanitize the water system? Is bleach the best chemical to use?