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Anyone tried Water Freedom?


DarrenG

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Hi,

 

Has anyone tried a Water Freedom system? Just saw an advert in Towpath Talk, as was intrigued, but the website is a bit light on key details i.e. like price!

 

(I do dislike it when you can't get a simple answer to something like price without having to risk a hard sell sales pitch)

 

Thanks

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I had never heard of this system but looking at some information on the web it seems that rather than being a product, it appears to be a book priced $39 which tells you how to set up your own system which will produce clean water so I presume you have to source your own equipment and set it up. It seems a little far fetched to me but I am willing to be proved wrong.  

 

Howard

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Perhaps I should have included the link, https://waterfreedom.co.uk/ seems to be a UK company selling a filtration system, I didn't want to just appear to be plugging a site/product.

 

Reading a bit more of their FAQ's it seems like it is not without running costs, e.g. you can opt for a £600 annual charge for servicing including all the filters, but still no "guarantee that the water is safe to drink".

 

Seems like a clever idea, but think I'll stick to CRT taps for now.

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Water filtration can work but it does need quite a few filters. 

 

I actually think that on a canal boat it would be better to concentrate on making a system which is able to collect rain water and push it through a much more simple filtration system. 

 

The problem with canal water is the volume of sediment. 

 

This can be dealt with by a sand filter or a sedimentation tank but it all takes up space. 

 

When it rains shed loads of water is shed from the cabin top of canal boats. 

 

 

I know a few people on the Thames who get all their water from the River but the main aim there is to get rid of crypto and the faeces bugs rather than acres and acres of suspended solids. 

 

It can work. 

 

 

Edited by magnetman
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1 hour ago, magnetman said:

I actually think that on a canal boat it would be better to concentrate on making a system which is able to collect rain water and push it through a much more simple filtration system. 

 

I think it would be better to concentrate on maintaining a system designed to take on treated fresh water,usually free, and store it safely before delivering it to the taps still in a drinkable condition. Almost all our boats have such a system, but a huge number of us won't drink from it. Odd that we'd fix our diesel storage in a heartbeat if it couldn't do the job, but so many seem reluctant to fix the potable water system.

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I've always used stored water direct from the tanks and had no problems. 

 

The issue at hand is that some people seem to think living on a boat is similar to living in a dwelling connected to mains services. 

 

The idea of having to limit ones water consumption and the havoc it plays with trying to avoid moving about is what causes all of this demand for filtration. 

 

The best solution is to use less water and move about more or get a mooring with a water supply but not everyone wants to do this. 

 

 

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13 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

I think it would be better to concentrate on maintaining a system designed to take on treated fresh water,usually free, and store it safely before delivering it to the taps still in a drinkable condition. Almost all our boats have such a system, but a huge number of us won't drink from it. Odd that we'd fix our diesel storage in a heartbeat if it couldn't do the job, but so many seem reluctant to fix the potable water system.

I rarely drink water straight, but no hesitation in thinking my tank is clean and drinkable. I just like Evian in summer.

If you have a tank and are unsure, make sure by forcing through mains at as high a pressure as you can, and open taps.

Add some bleach before you do this to kill any E Coli.

Taking water from a mains tap, allow it to run for a minute if it looks at all dodgy, then run your hose for a minute before you put it in the tank.

Edited by LadyG
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8 minutes ago, LadyG said:
21 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

I rarely drink water straight,

I have always found water to be an excellent drink, if taken in the right spirit.

 

N

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2 hours ago, DarrenG said:

Perhaps I should have included the link, https://waterfreedom.co.uk/ seems to be a UK company selling a filtration system, I didn't want to just appear to be plugging a site/product.

 

Reading a bit more of their FAQ's it seems like it is not without running costs, e.g. you can opt for a £600 annual charge for servicing including all the filters, but still no "guarantee that the water is safe to drink".

 

Seems like a clever idea, but think I'll stick to CRT taps for now.

I don't think you need include a link, it looks like a spam!

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27 minutes ago, LadyG said:

I don't think you need include a link, it looks like a spam!

As noted above I didn't initially for that reason, but as but the first respondent confused it with a book, it seemed appropriate after all.

 

Not that it really matters, nobody else tried to answer the question anyway 😃

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Before I moved onto my boat, I gave a lot of thought to one of these filtration systems. 

My main conclusions were 

 

1. It would require a fair bit of power to run the pump that drives the water through the filters, and the vendor on that site specifies a top quality and expensive Italian made pump).  And because the water needs to go through 5 or 6 successively finer filters, it would need to run for several hours per day. In the summer that might be ok if you have a LOT of solar, but for maybe 4-5 months of the year a lot of the electricity needed to run it would have to be generated by your engine alternator(s), so there would be a daily running cost in diesel.

 

2. If I did it, I would purchase the elements of the system myself, including an ultraviolet lamp module. In essence it is very simple, what you are paying for is the vendor's long experience and knowledge of which pumps and filters will work, and will be safe.

On Alan Denman's youtube channel there is a video from around 2020 showing their system, and giving you a look at some of the components.

Essentially its a series of filters starting at I think 50 microns, and going down to 0.1 microns in the final filter. I suspect the trick is in getting the sizes right, so that the water flows reasonably well and evenly, and there aren't bottlenecks where the water is struggling to get through a particular filter. 

 

3. There is also the option of reverse osmosis. Look up 'reverse osmosis system' on google and you'll see a ton of systems  

 

'Water freedom' sounds like a great idea at first glance, but I didnt opt for it myself, as I felt that there are enough CRT taps in most locations for even a slow-moving boater to manage ok. 

You do have the occasional water issue (queues in the summer, or having to go up 10 locks to get to the next water point, etc), but none of the issues posed such a challenge that I personally felt it justified spending around £600 on a DIY filter system (or about £1500 if he supplies and installs it). 

 

 

Edited by Tony1
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18 hours ago, BEngo said:

I have always found water to be an excellent drink, if taken in the right spirit.

 

N

I never drink water, its very dangerous stuff!!. People drown in water and have you seen what it does to the bottom of boats :o

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On 28/06/2022 at 11:30, mrsmelly said:

I never drink water, its very dangerous stuff!!. People drown in water and have you seen what it does to the bottom of boats :o

 

Being an ex-Navy man I'm surprised that you didn't say because of the things that fish do in it! 😂🤣

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If I had a home mooring without a water tap nearby, I'd consider this.  There are quite a few CRT online moorings with no facilities but a bit of grass/land next to the boat.  These moorings are often cheap because they are inconvenient with no facilities.  However, you could stay there for a long time without moving with a seperating toilet and a water freedom filter.  You'd just have to find somewhere to put your general rubbish.

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