How big is your water tank?

[Hawkmoth]

It could well be worth looking into fitting a bag tank. When Lyra needed her integral tank re-coating I decided to "get away with it" and sourced a flexible tank from a company called Duratank. They advertise in the boating mags. It's been in there 4 years now without problems.

[comfortably numb]

We've only ever hired and in recent years shared a boat and have always been paranoid about the risk of running out of water, to such an extent that we used to top of with water twice a week! Now we've become boat owners and soon to be live aboards this thread has been useful reading.

 

Our boat was advertised as having a 250 gal water tank which judging by the info here should last the two of us at least a fortnight, although there is a washing machine so use of that would be a factor as I'd imagine they would use a lot. The boat's advert said 250gal approx so I may well take up Doug's idea of how to measure it just to make sure.

[Giggetty]

you just get used to whatever you have. I dont do litres as I am British and live in England so I do gallons, they are much easier to understand thats why I buy pints of beer in the pub as eight make one gallon anyway my present boat is a guesstimate of 250/300 gallons and we just use more water at the moment because we are getting nearly as lazy as house dwellers as we are plugged in at the marina. Tank size is ownly realy a problem for continuous moorers anyone else passes a water point more times than enough.

 

Tim

900 litres-12m narrowboat. I buy petrol by metric measure too. (I am English).

[Keeping Up]

Ours is a 150 gallon tank (about 650 litres), stainless steel below the floor of the well deck which means the whole of the bow area is available for storage. As our gas bottles are near the stern too, the storage area is really large.

 

It lasts the 2 of us about 2 weeks - but then we don't have a big washing machine (it's one of the hand-turned camping ones) and we tend to shower less often; anyone who doesn't like that is advised to stay up-wind from us.

[dor]

Our boat sounds similar to the OP's. (EDITED to add: I've answered the wrong thread! I read the one posted by Wiccan, but answered in this one. Most is still relevant though). The SS tank is not as high as it could be, but had to be that height to get it in over the BT tube. Consequently there is now a space above it unused but could almost double the tank capacity.

I reckon the tank is about 300 litres. Two of us showering daily plus all the other bits and pieces (no washing machine though) get about 8 or 9 days out of it. We have a sit bath, so navy showers work well and use much less water than a conventional shower in a cubicle. It was water usage that led to the decision to fit a sit bath - also good for washing clothes etc.

 

I have looked at ways to increase the capacity. One would be to partially dismantle the front of the boat, taking out the corner cupboard and bulkhead panelling on one side and sliding a second tank on top. The other option I have considered is to fit a bag tank on top. Whilst it would be nice to have more capacity we've been using the boat for over five years and it just hasn't been enough of a problem to make me get round to it.

 

We also keep a 25L container in the engine 'ole under the semi-trad deck for emergencies (not used it yet).

 

The advantage of a small tank is it doesn't take long to top it up!

Edited January 15, 2013 by dor

[blackrose]

1275 litres in the integral tank on my widebeam. I can go for a month between fills if I have to (liveaboard). I try to use waterpoints very early in the morning so as not to irk other users. It takes a long time to fill it up.

Edited January 15, 2013 by blackrose

[BarnOwl]

It could well be worth looking into fitting a bag tank. When Lyra needed her integral tank re-coating I decided to "get away with it" and sourced a flexible tank from a company called Duratank. They advertise in the boating mags. It's been in there 4 years now without problems.

 

Now that sounds interesting! There's definitely room in front of the two existing tanks to get something like this in... ideally, I if i did want to think about the increasing the capacity, it would be perfect to do this without having to dismantle and start again, by making it integrated. The two existing plastic tanks are fine, so assuming I can hook up to that it could solve it... thank you!

[Cloudinspector]

We have a 1000 litre tank. It's essentially a huge bag in the bow. Our gas lockers are on the cruiser stern. We live aboard but don't have a washing machine. Depending on how many showers we have it lasts a few days.

[mrsmelly]

900 litres-12m narrowboat. I buy petrol by metric measure too. (I am English).

 

Its a funny world int it. I am not too ready to give up my heritage thats why I still drive a right hand drive car in miles per hour with our british road signs also being in miles for distance and mph for speed. My butcher also sells meat by the ounce and pound and as I said every pub in the uk sells pints of beer not silly litres. I buy my eggs by the dozen or half dozen..............etc etc

 

Tim

[bizzard]

And I always thought that a Litre was a small French cigarette lighter.

[Naughty Cal]

Our water tank is quite small at 16 gallon or 72 litres.

 

We don't liveaboard but do use the boat every weekend and holiday. If we are frugal with our water we can stretch it to a few days but we tend to fill up every couple of days if the chance arises.

 

On the plus side this means that our water is always fresh.

[Giggetty]

Its a funny world int it. I am not too ready to give up my heritage thats why I still drive a right hand drive car in miles per hour with our british road signs also being in miles for distance and mph for speed. My butcher also sells meat by the ounce and pound and as I said every pub in the uk sells pints of beer not silly litres. I buy my eggs by the dozen or half dozen..............etc etc

 

Tim

But my pub sells wine in 175 and 250ml measures! And yeast for homebrewing now comes in grammes.

 

How bad tempered of me, anyway. I should have added that 900l takes 1 h to fill and lasts us (one bloke and one girlie) about one week before topping up. We have a shower in use everyday but don't drink water if we can help it.

[TraceyD]

I realise I am being really thick here but...if you only have enough water for 2 weeks (maximum it would seem) and you park yourself on 3 week mooring what are you doing the other week? I sm interested as we asre looking to buy within the next few months, live on a marina for a while (work commitmemts) and then total liveaboards - I love my showers, have a husband and a big hairy, muddy, smelly dog!!!

[Smelly]

500 litres lasts me about a month.

[bowten]

500 litres lasts me about a month.

Crikey!Is that why they call yer Smelly?

[oarfish]

Our tank lasts over a month usually. We have an automatic washing machine and flushing pump out, so I'm assuming its massive. It takes hours to fill from the usually leaky CaRT taps.

[Travis]

5500 litres...is that about a thousand gallons? Lasts over a month living as you would in a house.

[Biggles]

By comparison to my post. On out MH we can carry 160L in our tanks and we can get 4 days out of that, but both of us on the MH do Navy showers and will go a day without if we have to.

[Smelly]

By comparison to my post. On out MH we can carry 160L in our tanks and we can get 4 days out of that, but both of us on the MH do Navy showers and will go a day without if we have to.

 

Within my lifetime was Sunday baths; none of this shower a day nonsense.

 

Do we really, really, need to wash off the pheremones and oils that nature gave us to communicate and preserve our skin hydration?

 

Oh, I was christened Smelly because of my somewhat legendary digestion! It runs in your genes...

[mickspangle]

We had a 540 litre tank and had an extra 350 fitted (decided to replace the bow locker that was full of flower pots and junk with an extra water tank - much more useful!)

 

This keeps us going for about 2 weeks with the 4 of us (including 2 small children) and a washing machine.

[DaveC]

I realise I am being really thick here but...if you only have enough water for 2 weeks (maximum it would seem) and you park yourself on 3 week mooring what are you doing the other week? I sm interested as we asre looking to buy within the next few months, live on a marina for a while (work commitmemts) and then total liveaboards - I love my showers, have a husband and a big hairy, muddy, smelly dog!!!

 

 

 

No three week moorings (unless private paid for ones) 14 day maximum.

 

 

 

 

Dave

 

 

EDIT I should have said on Canal and River Trust waters

Edited January 22, 2013 by DaveC

[mrsmelly]

Within my lifetime was Sunday baths; none of this shower a day nonsense.

 

Do we really, really, need to wash off the pheremones and oils that nature gave us to communicate and preserve our skin hydration?

 

Oh, I was christened Smelly because of my somewhat legendary digestion! It runs in your genes...

 

The missus and I shower every day at least once, always have done. My shower a day without ever missing is down to as any x Royal Navy guy will tell you being conditioned into doing it from day one in basic training and being called a " crab " if you ever missed and probably being dragged to the showers by others. This comes about from the living quarters being so confined on warships in the past. In the space of a 70 foot narrowboat there would be around 50 bunks.

 

Tim

[BarnOwl]

We had a 540 litre tank and had an extra 350 fitted (decided to replace the bow locker that was full of flower pots and junk with an extra water tank - much more useful!)

 

This keeps us going for about 2 weeks with the 4 of us (including 2 small children) and a washing machine.

 

Thats a neat idea! I'm looking at something at the moment which has got a pretty big bow locker,(but a smaller water tank) which would do the job a treat!

[blackrose]

5500 litres...is that about a thousand gallons?

 

Blimey! I wouldn't want to be behind you at the waterpoint!

 

I think there's a practical limit to the size of a watertank on a widebeam or barge. Of course it's nice to have massive capacity, but if you're using public waterpoints then a tank of this size will probably have to be filled at night if any consideration is to be shown to other users, unless only a small percentage of the tank has been used and it's just being topped up.

 

Most people with big tanks will top up when they get the chance, but if they never actually use the full capacity of the tank then the advantage of such a big tank is never gained.

Edited January 27, 2013 by blackrose

[steve hayes]

Blimey! I wouldn't want to be behind you at the waterpoint!

 

 

You're not wrong, it can take nearly an hour to fill our 200 gallon tank when low (not empty) at Tardebigge.

 

Steve