Food Grade Water Pipe Suggestions

[Alan de Enfield]

14 minutes ago, Llamedos said:

After discovering the other day that we'd unknowingly been drinking diluted canal water for the last couple of years, I certainly won't be worrying too much about the type of filler hose I use. There are plenty of bigger risks in boating to worry about and many are hiding in plain sight.

 

Doesn't a high proportion of Southern England drink 'diluted thames water' (for the 5th time)?

 

People need to be 'less squeamish' about drinking water taken from sewage treatment plants, the head of the Environment Agency has said.

Water companies are planning "toilet-to-tap" systems, also known as water recycling, to turn sewage from lavatories into drinking water by treating it.

By 2030, toilet water could be deposited into rivers near treatment plants so it can be collected and processed as drinking water.

Writing in the Sunday Times, Sir James Bevan said the "unpopular" move would help protect the UK's water supply.

Sir James said drinking water reprocessed from sewage is "perfectly safe and healthy, but not something many people fancy".

In 2013, Thames Water announced plans to use recycled toilet waste in London's tap water, adding it hoped to implement a wastewater recycling scheme by 2025.

The advice comes as water supplies are placed under strain due to climate change.

[blackrose]

30 minutes ago, Llamedos said:

After discovering the other day that we'd unknowingly been drinking diluted canal water for the last couple of years, I certainly won't be worrying too much about the type of filler hose I use. There are plenty of bigger risks in boating to worry about and many are hiding in plain sight.

 

The thing about risk is that one risk doesn't usually eliminate another just because it is a bigger risk. Risks tend to be cumulative. High impact risks like slipping at locks (or drinking canal water) should obviously be a high priority in terms of avoidance or prevention, but that doesn't mean once can't discuss and try to prevent other risks too.

Edited July 25 by blackrose

[Llamedos]

51 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Doesn't a high proportion of Southern England drink 'diluted thames water' (for the 5th time)?

 

People need to be 'less squeamish' about drinking water taken from sewage treatment plants, the head of the Environment Agency has said.

Water companies are planning "toilet-to-tap" systems, also known as water recycling, to turn sewage from lavatories into drinking water by treating it.

By 2030, toilet water could be deposited into rivers near treatment plants so it can be collected and processed as drinking water.

Writing in the Sunday Times, Sir James Bevan said the "unpopular" move would help protect the UK's water supply.

Sir James said drinking water reprocessed from sewage is "perfectly safe and healthy, but not something many people fancy".

In 2013, Thames Water announced plans to use recycled toilet waste in London's tap water, adding it hoped to implement a wastewater recycling scheme by 2025.

The advice comes as water supplies are placed under strain due to climate change.

The stuff I was drinking was raw untreated canal water, but I do tend to agree with him. I heard yesterday that they're taking water from the Shropshire Union to keep the levels up in Hurleston Resevoir near Nantwich as there's not enough coming down the Llangollen now to keep it topped up. A lot of the water in the Shroppie comes from the Barnhurst Treatment Plant in Wolverhampton. I did wonder if they'd mentioned that to the people of Nantwich and Crewe who are now happily drinking it. 😃

40 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

The thing about risk is that one risk doesn't usually eliminate another just because it is a bigger risk. Risks tend to be cumulative. High impact risks like slipping at locks (or drinking canal water) should obviously be a high priority in terms of avoidance or prevention, but that doesn't mean once can't discuss and try to prevent other risks too.

Fair point. 🙂

Edited July 25 by Llamedos

[blackrose]

1 hour ago, Llamedos said:

The stuff I was drinking was raw untreated canal water

 

 

How did it get into your water tank? Corrosion below the waterline forming a hole into an integral tank?

[Llamedos]

9 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

How did it get into your water tank? Corrosion below the waterline forming a hole into an integral tank?

No it was the breather pipe from the water tank which passed upwards through the gas locker and out. It had rusted through right at the bottom just above where it entered the water tank. A hole about the size of a biro but at the back where I couldn't see it. When the tank was filled very full, water canal came in through the gas locker drain holes and then through the hole in the pipe. All of this was compounded by the fact that I had just changed one of my gas bottles and that added even more weight pushing the bow down further still. Oddly it's in one tiny part of the pipe the rest of it, and the gas locker floor is completely sound. We suddenly noticed that the water tank wasn't emptying. Initially I thought it the sender in the tank was at fault but when I got the cover off I found it full of water..

 

I've done a temporary repair but it's getting a proper welded repair soon (new pipe) and I'm having the gas locker descaled and two packed while I'm at it. The workshop say they've seen similar before, and on several occasions.

[Jen-in-Wellies]

3 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Doesn't a high proportion of Southern England drink 'diluted thames water' (for the 5th time)?

With the right marketing campaign, it could be sold as "Kidney filtered, for extra freshness".

[waterworks]

The contamination from the plasic in a hose pipe while filling a water tank must be similar to a homeopathic remedy,  diluted so much that it is non existent. Most of it leaching out while the hose is stored and flushed out before it is used.

[David Mack]

2 hours ago, waterworks said:

The contamination from the plasic in a hose pipe while filling a water tank must be similar to a homeopathic remedy,  diluted so much that it is non existent. Most of it leaching out while the hose is stored and flushed out before it is used.

That depends if people flush the hose out properly before putting the end in the filler pipe.

[blackrose]

3 hours ago, waterworks said:

The contamination from the plasic in a hose pipe while filling a water tank must be similar to a homeopathic remedy,  diluted so much that it is non existent. Most of it leaching out while the hose is stored and flushed out before it is used.

 

You might be right, I work in food packaging and we have to ensure that any food contact plastic meets strict migration standards (plastic to food) even though if it doesn't meet those standards the levels are barely detectable. However, most consumers would be outraged if the food & packaging industry didn't work to reduce migration to the strict levels permitted.

 

On the other hand, PVC hoses incorporate a significant proportion of plasticers to make them flexible and if hoses are left out in the weather for months & years the PVC degrades exacerbating the leaching of additives and previously recycled microplastics. Flushing should reduce that to an acceptable level, however for a few quid more I personally would prefer to use a food grade hose. But everyone is free to make their own informed (or uninformed) choice. Most of us use food grade plastic pipes in our boats because flushing them out would be impractical, but I've heard of people using ordinary garden hose to plumb their boats. 

[Peugeot 106]

I don’t live on my boat but the fresh drinking/cooking  water is kept separate from the main tank in bottles. I hasten to add we use tap water not bottled spring. The water from the tank is clean and fine for showering in, washing clothes, dishes etc but because of a slight taint I don’t like to make a cup of tea with it. I’m sure many others do the same

[GUMPY]

37 minutes ago, Peugeot 106 said:

I don’t live on my boat but the fresh drinking/cooking  water is kept separate from the main tank in bottles. I hasten to add we use tap water not bottled spring. The water from the tank is clean and fine for showering in, washing clothes, dishes etc but because of a slight taint I don’t like to make a cup of tea with it. I’m sure many others do the same

We started to do this just before we sold the boat as the tank developed a bad egg smell, which was cured by copious amounts of Milton, however tea never quite tasted the same after that. I used to fill the 5L drinking water containers from the same "garden"  hose whilst filling the tank 🫣

A quick idea using a big cable tie a piece of plastic pipe and a bit of cord to make 5L containers easy to carry once the handle has broken.

 

[MtB]

42 minutes ago, Peugeot 106 said:

I don’t live on my boat but the fresh drinking/cooking  water is kept separate from the main tank in bottles. I hasten to add we use tap water not bottled spring. The water from the tank is clean and fine for showering in, washing clothes, dishes etc but because of a slight taint I don’t like to make a cup of tea with it. I’m sure many others do the same

 

That's odd. I've never found the boat taints the water and I've had 7 at least. 

 

On my current boat the water is slightly tainted if I fill the tank from the mooring water supply, but not if I fill it out and about.

 

 

[Lady M]

Occasionally, perhaps, you might still find tainted water at a tap.  I was advised to always taste the water before filling up.

[Peugeot 106]

47 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

That's odd. I've never found the boat taints the water and I've had 7 at least. 

 

On my current boat the water is slightly tainted if I fill the tank from the mooring water supply, but not if I fill it out and about.

 

 

I have a rubber tank from the hovercraft skirt suppliers which I’m sure doesn’t help but I have seen others with drinking water in bottles

[LadyG]

On 26/07/2026 at 11:53, Peugeot 106 said:

I have a rubber tank from the hovercraft skirt suppliers which I’m sure doesn’t help but I have seen others with drinking water in bottles

I drink bottled water, Evian tastes best.

My tank has been thoroughly cleaned with bleach which is industrial strength Milton. You'd need an awful lot of Milton to sterilise a full tank.

If the water is tainted, buy a bottle of thin bleach and add a third to half a litre of  to a full tank, diluted in five litres of water, rock the boat a few times then flush through, there should be a strong bleach smell at first and this water will be great for cleaning the roof and any dirty areas.

I also flushed through my hot water system. No issues.

There should never be a taint in your water supply.

A slight smell of bleach in some mains supplies is acceptable.

Always flush for a minute before you put the hose end in to your tank. If the hose falls in the canal water, best to clean the outside with diluted bleach and flush for two minutes.

On 26/07/2026 at 11:04, MtB said:

 

That's odd. I've never found the boat taints the water and I've had 7 at least. 

 

On my current boat the water is slightly tainted if I fill the tank from the mooring water supply, but not if I fill it out and about.

 

 

Im not surprised that some taps supplies are not installed properly, there are very often issues in summer where the water is still warm even after filling the tank, so obviously not deep enough in the ground. Not much that anyone can do, other than boiling it 

I did try a filter jug for a while when I lived in an older property which might have had some lead piping in the system, one would hope that should remove bacteria and chemical contamination, but im not 100% sure that it will.

On 26/07/2026 at 11:49, Lady M said:

Occasionally, perhaps, you might still find tainted water at a tap.  I was advised to always taste the water before filling up.

Run it before sampling!

On 20/07/2026 at 07:13, Tony Brooks said:

 

Probably from the public water supply as well as the hose, or from the plastic plumbing pipes and tanks one tends to have a home these days.

I trust that the speedfit water pipes are made of better quality than garden hose, which is not recommended for potable water.

We oldies already have ingested some microplastics, but only in the last twenty to thirty years, our children need to be protected from a lifetime of contaminated water. 

Edited July 28 by LadyG