Plumbing/routing Water Lines

[pappawheely]

I am having a hard time wrapping my head around this so I was hoping to get some guidance from the brain trust here. I am designing my water system. I will have a 31 gallon tank, on demand hot water, sink and cassette toilet. My consternation is with filling the system. I am thinking that filtering the water before the tank would be wise. Do I have a temp holding tank then a pump pushing through the filter into the holding tank; then have a "clean" pump to supply water to the heater, toilet, etc? I just can't get past the thought of my holding tank getting rank from dirty water. If the electrical fails for whatever reason I would like clean filtered water in the tank. Does anyone have experience with this? :snorkel:

 

[mib1392]

I routinely use an in-line filter for filling the tank. I don't like the taste of chlorinated water (spoiled European). Even after letting it sit for 3-4 weeks in , it didnt' get smelly. But I wouldn't totally count on it, i.e. I usually empty the tank when not using the camper for more than a week.
I often use the gravity-driven drain valve at the rear end of the camper. This water still tastes good, so I guess this would be sufficient for your emergency use. For the faucet (only cold for us, the standard pressure pump taking it out of the tank), I put in a filter cartridge under the sink (the screw-in type, around 50$, on Amazon). It's wonderful, but might be a little overkill with filtered water as a starting point.

So rather than wrapping your head, make sure your electric system is in good quality, i.e. your toys don't drain your battery that you'd prefer to use for drinking. And then put in one of those filters at a place where it's not a pain to exchange the cartridge.

Best,
Mike

 

[Kiomon]

What we do is filter water before it hits the tanks. We have a pump assisted fill. So we have a filter on the pump inlet, so all of the water is filtered before it hits the tanks. After it is in the tanks it exits through a UV filter and then it's free to go to the fixtures. Then for drinking we have a seagull filter spout to be triple safe. though theoretically the tanks should never get contaminated but in practice things can get in from vent lines, or other means, so it's best to still have some post tank filtration, ideally as close to the course of consumption was possible. By having the filter on the pump inlet, we are straining the pump more and working it harder, and that could lead to greater wear and a shorter life. It's been a year or so on this set up and there hasn't been a problem. But something to call out. You could always put the filter on the output side of the pump before the tank. But regardless you will need a pump of some sort to get the water through your filter of choice.

 

[pappawheely]

Thanks! I guess that means I need two pumps; one for filling and one post tank.

 

[LeishaShannon]

An alternative to multiple pumps is to use 3 way ball valves something like this:



This layout enables a few different "modes"

Pump water from the inlet to the outlet - perhaps moving water between containers
Filter water from inlet to outlet - picking up water from container, filtering it and pumping into the camper
Fill the tanks with filtered water from inlet
Use the tank water filtered or unfiltered
Cycle tank water through filter

(Our truck tanks are separate from the camper water system. The camper "inlet" is a standard click fitting that we either run a normal hose to if available , or use a small hose to patch it to the truck tank outlet shown above )

We used electric ball valves so the various operations can be selected from our iPhone app, but manual ball valves would work just as well.