water hose

[Swampfrog]

Hi all, Can anybody advise......

 

can we use a garden hose to fill our water tank or do we need to buy a "food quality" water hose?

[alan_fincher]

This will entirely depend on who you ask!

 

I'd say probably at least 90% of boaters use a normal garden hose - we certainly do, (on the boat that has a water tank!)

 

However some are going to argue that by doing so you risk plasticisers leeching from the hose, and doing you potential harm.

 

I'm sure we will (again) here a lot from both sides of the argument, before this thread has run its full course!

[carlt]

Plasticisers can indeed leach out but there is little risk of this happening while the hose has water running through it.

 

Far more likely is the leaching occurring when there is residual water left in the hose after use but I'd have thought the risk to health would be more likely due to this water stagnating so the sensible thing is to rinse it through before putting it into the tank, removing any leachates and bacteria at the same time.

[Swampfrog]

This will entirely depend on who you ask!

 

I'd say probably at least 90% of boaters use a normal garden hose - we certainly do, (on the boat that has a water tank!)

 

However some are going to argue that by doing so you risk plasticisers leeching from the hose, and doing you potential harm.

 

I'm sure we will (again) here a lot from both sides of the argument, before this thread has run its full course!

 

You don't know how much your reply made us laugh......cos I (hubby) is with the 90% of boaters and a garden hose is ok! Wifey says no.....

[dor]

I've always used garden hose. I currently have an anti-kink hose which is very good. What I do after filling the tank is put the reel on the roof of the boat and leave the end of the hose down, then let most of the water drain out. Then when refilling I run the hose for a bit to flush out any water left in the hose from the previous filling.

 

I'm not convinced it is a serious problem as the plasticisers are oil-soluble not water soluble, so relatively little will leach out. There are far more unpleasant things out there out to get you.

[Naughty Cal]

We do currently have a food grade hose but for the last few years used an ordinary garden hose. The only reason we switched was that the garden hose took up far too much room onboard whilst the new fold flat one takes up very little room when on its reel.

 

We still use the garden hose whilst on our mooring and leave it attached to the tap on our home mooring so that we dont need to unreel the new one all of the time.

[Chertsey]

There are so many phthalates in the water supply already (a lot from people washing vinyl floors) that provided you do as Carl says (and probably even if you didn't, although I wouldn't fancy the stagnant water), any notional extra from a hose would be insignificant.

[Guest]

Hi all, Can anybody advise......

 

can we use a garden hose to fill our water tank or do we need to buy a "food quality" water hose?

 

We struggled for our first few months as boaters with the 'proper' blue potable stuff. It was stiff, difficult to handle and a complete pain in the posterior. After asking the same question as you we bought one of these from Amazon -

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hozelock-Compact-Enclosed-Hose-Connectors/dp/B000RGPIAE/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1337073423&sr=8-4

 

Easy to stow and long enough to ensure that even if some neddy is moored on the water point you can still fill your tank. We always flush it through thoroughly before we fill to rid it of water that has stood in it whilst not in use.

 

We also (after a tip from 'Keeping Up' on here) assembled it back to front. By this I mean we connected the 'tap connector' to the very end of the hose (the bit that would normally have the spray nozzle on) and the short bit that you would normally connect to the tap has the nozzle on and a connector.

 

Thus - we walk out to the tap and connect what is now the tap end and walk back to the boat reel in hand only unfurling what we need. When I get to the boat I connect the short bit to the connector in the centre of the reel and drop the nozzle in the tank filler.

 

You can get the potable stuff on a reel that folds flat but it is expensive on a foot per foot basis.

 

I can't actually recall seeing anybody recently filling their boat tank with anything other than garden hose TBH.

[Domino_2]

We use an ordinary garden hose, but we do have a filter fitted to the kitchen tap that makes that water supply fit for drinking.

[Albion]

I rang Hozelock on this issue many years ago and the advice was that technically you should use food grade (he had to advise that to avoid criticism, nod nod wink wink) but went on to say that many people use garden hose with no ill effects. The advice was also to run plenty of water through the hose before you use a new hose for filling and to flush the hose before each subsequent use (seems sensible advice to me). We have used garden hose for over 20 years now for our boats with no ill effect.

Roger

[Robbo]

Hi all, Can anybody advise......

 

can we use a garden hose to fill our water tank or do we need to buy a "food quality" water hose?

 

 

Apart from the answers above here is some more suggestions...

 

If you use the same water point all the time, then having a hose that is that length, especially if short it is very handy and quicker to fill the tank.

 

You can get flat hoses to save space, but get one that have "spaces" so when rolled it doesn't cut of the water off so you can still use it rolled. - A few boaters have a small hose, and a long one of these for just incase.

[Proper Charlie]

We use a proper potable hose, but only because we've not had our own boat long and didn't any know better when we kitted her out. As others have mentioned, this hose is very stiff and therefore hard to coil and stow. One thing to bear in mind is the length you'll need - we're moored on a finger-type pontoon and the water tap is about 30m away so we've had to add a bit to our 25m hose.

[Guest]

We use a proper potable hose, but only because we've not had our own boat long and didn't any know better when we kitted her out. As others have mentioned, this hose is very stiff and therefore hard to coil and stow. One thing to bear in mind is the length you'll need - we're moored on a finger-type pontoon and the water tap is about 30m away so we've had to add a bit to our 25m hose.

 

When we had the proper stuff I had a short one and a longer one which we could join to make an even longer (and even less manageable) one - they are in a BW skip somewhere, I can't remember now exactly where in frustration with trying to untangle the damn thing I disposed of it...

 

Get rid and get a garden hose - it will transform your tank filling experience!!

[Grace and Favour]

We use garden hose, and flush it through before filling . . . .

 

We're still alive

 

(I lived 20 years in a property that lead piping too!)

[Naughty Cal]

 

 

You can get the potable stuff on a reel that folds flat but it is expensive on a foot per foot basis.

 

 

 

I seem to remember our fold flat potable hose was quite expensive at about £30 for a 25m hose (Torksey Caravans) but it has been worth the expense as it has freed up so much extra space. The only critisism we have of it is that you have to unwind the whole 25m of it to be able to use it.

[chazzy]

 

We also (after a tip from 'Keeping Up' on here) assembled it back to front. By this I mean we connected the 'tap connector' to the very end of the hose (the bit that would normally have the spray nozzle on) and the short bit that you would normally connect to the tap has the nozzle on and a connector.

 

Thus - we walk out to the tap and connect what is now the tap end and walk back to the boat reel in hand only unfurling what we need. When I get to the boat I connect the short bit to the connector in the centre of the reel and drop the nozzle in the tank filler.

 

 

 

That works well, I use my hose in the same way.

Because Im not live aboard, there is some time between each filling up with water, so I don't use water from the holding tank for drinking. I use 5 ltr bottled water for drinking, save the bottles and re fill to use for drinking.

[Naughty Cal]

That works well, I use my hose in the same way.

Because Im not live aboard, there is some time between each filling up with water, so I don't use water from the holding tank for drinking. I use 5 ltr bottled water for drinking, save the bottles and re fill to use for drinking.

 

I dont expect a lot of people do

[chazzy]

you know what I mean, not a god choice of wording though........

[Albion]

I seem to remember our fold flat potable hose was quite expensive at about £30 for a 25m hose (Torksey Caravans) but it has been worth the expense as it has freed up so much extra space. The only criticism we have of it is that you have to unwind the whole 25m of it to be able to use it.

 

...and then have to wipe the towpath grit off it or else it gets into the cassette mechanism!

...and then have to unwind it again and start all over because the squeezing rollers haven't been able to expel all the water and so the hose won't fit back into the cassette!

From personal experience by the way.

No, unless you are really short of storage space, as possibly Phylis is on her size and style of boat, then a garden hose is the way to go.

Roger

[Guest]

I seem to remember our fold flat potable hose was quite expensive at about £30 for a 25m hose (Torksey Caravans) but it has been worth the expense as it has freed up so much extra space. The only critisism we have of it is that you have to unwind the whole 25m of it to be able to use it.

 

I can definitely see the attraction of that on a smaller boat no doubt about that.

 

Although ours is bulkier to store (but less of an issue for us) the one big advantage id you don't have to un reel it all....

 

as to cost - that's interesting as I didn't pay what ours currently cost - it was around what you paid for yours which surprised me. When we priced a 25m roll flat blue one at Sawley marina I'm sure it was nearer the £40-£50 mark, proves it pays to shop around...

[chazzy]

hmmm god, GOOD, there are times when I should keep my comments to myself

[Guest]

hmmm god, GOOD, there are times when I should keep my comments to myself

 

??

 

 

Ah I see it now - I do it all the time and then have to go back and edit

Edited May 15, 2012 by MJG

[Naughty Cal]

...and then have to wipe the towpath grit off it or else it gets into the cassette mechanism!

...and then have to unwind it again and start all over because the squeezing rollers haven't been able to expel all the water and so the hose won't fit back into the cassette!

From personal experience by the way.

No, unless you are really short of storage space, as possibly Phylis is on her size and style of boat, then a garden hose is the way to go.

Roger

 

We have perhaps been quite lucky that we have only used it on wooden pontoons so far so it hasnt been a problem just yet. Will bear your comments in mind though thanks

[chazzy]

Martin, being new to this forum I didn't realise the edit bit, but I see where it is now

[Naughty Cal]

I can definitely see the attraction of that on a smaller boat no doubt about that.

 

Although ours is bulkier to store (but less of an issue for us) the one big advantage id you don't have to un reel it all....

 

as to cost - that's interesting as I didn't pay what ours currently cost - it was around what you paid for yours which surprised me. When we priced a 25m roll flat blue one at Sawley marina I'm sure it was nearer the £40-£50 mark, proves it pays to shop around...

 

We have found Torksey Caravans to be very fair with their pricing.

 

We recently bought a 35m shore power cable with end connections from them for £25. That way we can have a much shorter (4m) cable for our home mooring which doesnt get in the way when we are out cruising and have the longer cable stashed away in a not very accessible locker until we need it.