Hosepipe Types

[Simon]

The current hose pipe we have on board was a cheap one that gets tangled up constantly 

so I thought easy solution buy a new one on a reel, not so easy as I thought though.

intended use is filling fresh water tank and washing down the boat.

plasticiser migration sounds like bad stuff, but does anyone know if I stow the reel in a locker out of the sun will it still breakdown?

 

[ExSurveyor]

I have changed to the expanding ones,  really pleased with then,  just make sure you drain it as it contracts.  They take up a lot less space.

[JohnK]

It appears you can buy safer hoses for drinking water:
https://eartheasy.com/premium-drinking-water-safe-garden-hose
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004RNR9QY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_YCDLAbN8SJ1V9
http://clearflowwaterhose.com/gardening-news/garden-hose-actually-drinking-water-safe/

[Guest]

i hate cheap hosepipes that tangle and kink so no water flows

[Meantime]

Water and the sun are a bad combination for all kinds of nasty stuff to start breeding. You really shouldn't use your normal type of garden hose to fill your water tank. The hoses you see around The Broads which are Blue in colour are not simply that colour to distinguish them as fresh drinking water hoses, but are Blue because they stop ultra violet light from penetrating the hose and causing bacteria to breed on the inside of the hosepipe.

[ExSurveyor]

Useful information,  thanks.

Good idea to drain them and put in a locker then rather than leaving hoses hooked around the tap,  as seen in many a marina.

[Guest]

Wow, I didn't realise that most ordinary hosepipes leach lead and other nasties into the water.

[ranworthbreeze]

The public hosepipes on the Broads should always be run for a while to get any standing water out of the pipe.

The pipe end may have been dropped in the river, again another reason to run plenty of water through the pipe, we always remove the pipe from the tap to fill water bottles.

Regards

Alan

[ZimbiIV]

I agree with Alan I always run the water and wipe the outside of the nozzle.

I normally just fill up at our home base marina lasts about 4-5 days.

A few years ago knowing we were low on water I just nipped to the nearby hose pipe ( won't say where ) to fill the kettle.

Boiled said water in the kettle, made a cuppa, it looked funny so I looked in the kettle to find about a dozen boiled earwigs.

Re-filled kettle from the boat tank boiled it a few times and didn't say a word to Jill or the kettle would have been thrown away, she has a phobia of earwigs.

paul

[NorfolkNog]

The other point is to watch out for the green stuff that can appear in the water hoses when they have been frozen. We always run the hose particularly vigorously in winter. 

Our custom Swancraft hose is the flat expanding type. Basically designed for Reedham it's just a short length, we need something compact as we don't drive 

[Brundall1037]

Is it possible for you to let me know the ID of the clear hose please, I bought a couple of plastic adapters last year for Reedham but one was too big and the other too small and could not find anything in between.

[Malanka]

The issue is not what is supposed to be in the water and therefore in the hose. The issue is simply things that shouldn't be in the hose or the water if left there in sunlight may grow although this isn't what promotes bacterial growth that's the resultant heat (from light), nutrients and you guessed it water. In the UK we have some of the very best tap water in the world in terms of contamination, when we attach a hose to it all bets are off, especially if numpties drop it into the broad or drag it across the sodden earth near the hose.

Funnily enough the level of bacteria and other microbes in mineral water are some of the things that make it taste nicer than tap water (same applies to beer by the way). All mineral water in bottles either plastic or glass has many times the permissable limit for tap water of microorganisms in them. Add in the plasticisers (which chemically resemble oestrogen which is a mostly female hormone ) which leach out (be careful with that word it has legal meaning) even under normal storage and its yahoo what am I drinking today.

We have a simple philosophy with Malanka, we fill up only at places where it is very unlikely that the hose end has been dropped into the water which excludes Womak (too slow anyway) Salhouse, and most of all Ranworth. We do not start the filling until the water is consistently running cold indicating all static water in the hose has been flushed (most of it in any case) then we drink the water in the tanks and would you adam and eve it we have zero issues with tummy bugs. Admitedly our tanks (two stainless saddle tanks one either side of the wheelhouse connected by an equalising pipe) are newly fitted 6 years ago. But basic precautions work wonders. The only thing we use the water a Ranworth for is to wash the dog when he has dived onto a half eaten fish. My word that stank......  We do not use any sterilising tablets. One problem with that philosophy of sterilisers and apologies to those that do, is that by using them (the tablets) you create the very problem you're trying to eliminate.

Most water tanks and water /static systems in general are under what's called a climax autogenic succession population (apologies for the science talk) i.e like a forrest of oak tress there's only what can survive long term in there. As soon as you disrupt that status quo, the playing field gets flat and its open season on the things that grow fastest. This is called an allogenic succession and is externally driven.  These fast growers are the nasties we don't want, they cause tummy bugs and they smell bad. So once you have them you either wait a long time for them to naturally be competed out of existance by the slow but steadies which we tolerate easily, or you have to re-treat every season to get rid of them again. 

 

Think of it like this. Toilets not used for many months don't smell, or believe it or not ones used but not cleaned for many months also doesn't smell either. Its counter-intuitive but true. Add some lovely cleaner someone persuaded you to buy, usually bleach based and smelling of lemons, and hey presto add to loo and flush that expensive cleaner right down the loo. Smells like lemons for a while then the most god awful propironibacteria spp (love urine grow fast) start to arrive and the bog smells like a rampant armpit. So say the men at Diversey Lever, buy some more lemony stuff and get rid of that smell, so flush and repeat flush and repeat.  He he it's classic extended quotation and a logical fallacy. Tell you there is a problem, give you the answer to the problem they tell you you have, then charge you money for helping you out ... A winning strategy every time, Rentokil, Lever Bros,  you name them.

My concluding sentence written after 20,000 or so other words many years ago were:

 

What better way to make money than to sell you a product that creates the situation where you have to buy more and then flush it down the loo. Genius.....

 

Fascinating stuff I'm sure you will agree.

 

M

[NorfolkNog]

24 minutes ago, Brundall1037 said:

Is it possible for you to let me know the ID of the clear hose please

Ah, sorry can't say exactly. The goods folk at Swancraft put it together for us so I guess it's an engine hose of some kind. It's a perfect push fit for the Reedham taps though. Wonder if Peachments might stock it? 

[Brundall1037]

54 minutes ago, NorfolkNog said:

Ah, sorry can't say exactly. The goods folk at Swancraft put it together for us so I guess it's an engine hose of some kind. It's a perfect push fit for the Reedham taps though. Wonder if Peachments might stock it? 

Ok. Cheers

 

[Vaughan]

8 hours ago, NorfolkNog said:

The other point is to watch out for the green stuff that can appear in the water hoses when they have been frozen. We always run the hose particularly vigorously in winter. 

The green stuff is actually weed and algae that has grown in the pipe owing to it lying out in the sun in summer. When it freezes in winter, it breaks away from the pipe and that is what you see.

I am glad we are discussing this as the quality of drinking water on boats depends almost entirely on the quality of the installation that delivered it to your tank.

Hoses must always be of food quality (with a Kite Mark) not garden centre type and must never be left out in the sun or the bacteria e-coli will grow inside them. So if you think you must have had a dodgy vindaloo in the local pub, perhaps you didn't!

Hoses should always be stored coiled up on a hook to keep them away from the ground (and other peoples' dogs) and ideally should be inside a cabinet with doors, to keep the sun off. At the least, under a tree, in the shade.

 

[Guest]

The marina I am about to move to has plentiful standpipes but no hoses, you use your own. I can now see why.

[Vaughan]

If you have your own hose, then keep it stored in the gas bottle locker, out of the sun and don't leave it on the deck. This is against gas regs, but everybody does it!

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

If you have your own hose, then keep it stored in the gas bottle locker, out of the sun and don't leave it on the deck. This is against gas regs, but everybody does it!

I don't have the usual Safari gas locker on the aft deck, that's where the engine lives! but I will store it away from the light

[BrundallNavy]

I have one of those flat hoses that stows on a reel, it’s useless and I will be changing it for a self coiling one.

[Wyndham]

6 hours ago, Malanka said:

.....lots of long words...

M

Thanks, I think I get the jist of that, will have to re-read to be sure.

 

[Selsie]

Brought a food grade blue hose to fill the tanks recently, still run it for a good 2 -3 minutes before filling you relay need to clear any rubbish from the main.

Just drain the hose as you coil it up and store in the coolest place you have, (not necessarily in the fridge)

Cheers

 

[Wussername]

I can fully understand peoples concern with regard to the contamination of flexible pipes for the delivery of drinking water from the point of supply on the river bank to the inboard tank.

There is another source of contamination which may or may not affect you and that relates to the layout of the service points on your private or hire boat.

If your deck fitted water inlet point is situated on the opposite side to your toilet pump outlet you have nothing to worry about. However on some craft these two inlets and outlets are both situated on the deck, on the same side.

It is not unknown for the toilet pump outlet to be situated near the bows of the boat and for the water inlet situated near the stern. The latter may well be lower, albeit marginally than the other, to aid the flow of water in inclement weather from the boat.

Whilst servicing a boat it is not unusual for both tasks to be carried out together at the same time. I am sure that many people have experienced the time it can take to fill the water tank especially where low water pressure comes into play.

Whilst detaching the toilet pump out equipment from the boat it has been known for a minor spillage to occur which whilst seems hardly significant has been known to be flushed away from the deck fitting by using river water. This combination of river water and effluent flows past the deck fitting still being used to replenish the water tank. There is a very real possibility that contamination could take place in the event of the liquid entering into the system.

To the best of my knowledge this event or occurrence is only likely on older boats and possibly rarely experienced, but is in my opinion worthy of concern and awareness.

 

Andrew    

[stumpy]

Good point,well made Wussername. That's exactly what could happen on No Worries - Bounty 27. We've made it a chiselled in stone rule not to open the water fill until all blackwater operations are done and the deck has had a good sluice down. One thing that really grinds my gears is the dog walkers who stand proudly by while their pampered pooch cocks his leg on the nicely coiled hose!  Words have been had on occasion!

[Wussername]

2 hours ago, stumpy said:

Good point,well made Wussername. That's exactly what could happen on No Worries - Bounty 27. We've made it a chiselled in stone rule not to open the water fill until all blackwater operations are done and the deck has had a good sluice down. One thing that really grinds my gears is the dog walkers who stand proudly by while their pampered pooch cocks his leg on the nicely coiled hose!  Words have been had on occasion!

With regards to dogs it should be an unwritten rule that they should not be off lead anywhere on BA moorings or indeed wild moorings for a whole raft of reasons. If you are not aware of these reasons you should not have a pet dog.