Woman dies after being covered in chlorine at Wallaroo home

Farmhat · Senior Member

Chlorine in drinking water.

Possum3 · Guru

Use Milton solution to clean tank then rinse out tank - Chlorine is toxic and should only be used in treating mass water supplies - Use an activated carbon filter for drinking water

Dougwe · Chief one feather

I too only use 'Milton' to clean the tanks then rinse. All my actual drinking water is filtered and mainly through a 'BEST' filter.

I am currently hooked up to bore water for the aluminium TeePee so run that through a twin cartridge filter system then finally a 'BEST' filter as it goes into the van. That all is used for washing etc. Drinking water is Tank water filtered through a 'BEST' filter into a 10lt water container with tap I keep on the bench in the En-suite of the Aluminium TeePee.

Yeh! I know, I'm a sook biggrin

Yuglamron · Guru

Yup I'm with the rest I use Milton to clean the water tank then drain. I then fill the tank 200litre and then add the WaterPure Coloidal silver at the recommended dosage. I also us a .5 micron water filter. between the tank and the tap.

I find it cheaper to use the colloidal silver than the very expensive silver/activated charcoal filters.

I attach a link to the colloidal silver product.

No connection with the company but I have been using it for nearly ten years with no gastric problems from my water tank.

https://www.biomagic.com.au/waterpure/

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

Farmhat wrote:
Reckon I have read too much about it and confused myself. Can someone tell me please how much to use minimum in a 95 liter tank of drinking water.
What I have on hand is Milton Anti-bacterial solution. Active ingredient: 100% w/w available chlorine from 1.05% w/w Sodium Hypochlorite.
How long is this then active for?
Joe.

After a great deal of research, I choose to use liquid swimming pool chlorine at the rate recommended by the Puretech technician that I consulted on the subject in Adelaide some years ago.

Swimming pool chlorine is 12g/L available chlorine as sodium hypochlorite, so it is 10 times the concentration of Milton (and very much cheaper). It is also about double the concentration of common household bleach which will also do the job just as well if used in the correct concentration.

The recommended minimum rate for the 12% liquid swimming pool concentration is 5ml per 100L of water so at a concentration of 1% you would need a minimum of 50L/100l of water. If the water is at all suspect we would double that rate.

Some light reading, rather than the emotional responses. https://www.google.com.au/search?q=sodium+hypochlorite+in+water+break+down+products+and+time&ie=&oe=

"Sodium hypochlorite breaks down into 95-98% salt and water." And it breaks down quite quickly too. ie in a few days maximum, depending on the temperature of the water and the level of impurities in the water, so it is necessary to re-dose on a regular basis to maintain the safety.

We also use an 0.5um active carbon (and silver) filter for all of our drinking water. The active carbon will remove all chlorine that remains in the water. We take these precautions because we often fill our tanks from sources that may not be OK. Even town water that has remained in the pipes for a while will have no remaining chlorine.

Cheers,

Peter

Farmhat · Senior Member

Peter_n_Margaret wrote:
Farmhat wrote:
Reckon I have read too much about it and confused myself. Can someone tell me please how much to use minimum in a 95 liter tank of drinking water.
What I have on hand is Milton Anti-bacterial solution. Active ingredient: 100% w/w available chlorine from 1.05% w/w Sodium Hypochlorite.
How long is this then active for?
Joe.
After a great deal of research, I choose to use liquid swimming pool chlorine at the rate recommended by the Puretech technician that I consulted on the subject in Adelaide some years ago.
Swimming pool chlorine is 12g/L available chlorine as sodium hypochlorite, so it is 10 times the concentration of Milton (and very much cheaper). It is also about double the concentration of common household bleach which will also do the job just as well if used in the correct concentration.
The recommended minimum rate for the 12% liquid swimming pool concentration is 5ml per 100L of water so at a concentration of 1% you would need a minimum of 50L/100l of water. If the water is at all suspect we would double that rate.
Some light reading, rather than the emotional responses. https://www.google.com.au/search?q=sodium+hypochlorite+in+water+break+down+products+and+time&ie=&oe=
"Sodium hypochlorite breaks down into 95-98% salt and water." And it breaks down quite quickly too. ie in a few days maximum, depending on the temperature of the water and the level of impurities in the water, so it is necessary to re-dose on a regular basis to maintain the safety.
We also use an 0.5um active carbon (and silver) filter for all of our drinking water. The active carbon will remove all chlorine that remains in the water. We take these precautions because we often fill our tanks from sources that may not be OK. Even town water that has remained in the pipes for a while will have no remaining chlorine.
Cheers,
Peter

Thanks Peter. So if using Miltons at 50 ml per 100 litre tank, is it still ok to drink that if no other filtratrion was used? Would there be much of a chlorine taste to it. I ask to further my education :) Joe.

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

Frankly, I would not use Miltons at all, it is just too expensive and it also contains a pile of common salt that does nothing for youhttps://www.google.com.au/search , but I expect it would be fine, but can't really answer the question. The chlorine content of much town water wold not be much different though.
Put a 10" carbon/silver filter in after the pump and before the tap(s). They do a lot more than just take the chlorine out, especially for taste.
Cheers,
Peter

Farmhat · Senior Member

Thanks Peter and everybody for your replies.

Joe

miroku12g · Senior Member

Joe,
I wouldn't use Chlorine although Councils do use it in water supply, it would destroy all you rubber sealing rings for a start.
I used Bi-Carb to clean my tanks, then flushed through with clean water, I actually used Swimming Pool "Buffer" [Un refind Bi Carb] its so much cheaper but I did own a Swimming Pool shop anyway, so even cheaper.
Cheers
Dave

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

99.9% of all town water supplies are kept biologically safe with chlorine. I don't know of any evidence that it affects seals.
I have been adding it for 15 years and no problem so far. It is important to keep the concentrate safe though, it is not nice stuff.
Cheers,
Peter

Cupie · Guru

Original questions about cleaning tanks deleted .. Cupie

Edit ...

Rather than hijacking this thread, I decided to use the great 'Search' function (searched on 'Cleaning Water Tanks') & found a wealth of views to choose from including one that I posted myself several years ago. Says something about my memory, hey.

I picked off many of the relevant posts that included the info that I was after & copied them to a single doc in my Caravanning folder.

I have deleted my original questions.

-- Edited by Cupie on Tuesday 12th of March 2019 12:46:55 PM

Santa · Guru

Nasty stuff Chlorine, avoid it if you can.

This unfortunate incident occurred a couple of weeks ago.

Woman dies after being covered in chlorine at Wallaroo home

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/woman-dies-after-being-covered-in-chlorine-at-wallaroo-home/news-story/d7d2b98c0b7989cfd32aae0e8d5442cb

Bagmaker · Senior Member

rubbers aint rubber, sol.
Some rubber is affected by chlorine, some isnt

www.marcorubber.com/o-ring-chemical-compatibility-chart.htm

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

Avoid water too . People drown in it . We add chlorine at very strong strengths the start of every summer
As maintenance . Empty out after drive around the block or fuel fill. Add a little bicarb . Then just use tap water . When not in use which is hardly never now .its used weekly . Reverse flush the filters too . Keep water Atleast half full . Never had issues in ten years ! The drinking water has extra filter system .

Mike Harding · Guru

One year ago I did a lot of research on purifying water: Milton is an excellent product for this application - it has been cleaning baby's bottles for 100+ years.

The ration is 0.5mL of Milton to 1L of water so for your 95L (call it 100L) tank you should add 50mL of Milton - do not add less nor more than, say, 25% extra.

Note 1: The water to be purified should be clear of particulate so filter first if necessary.

Note 2: Sodium hypochlorite (Milton) will kill most (probably all) bacteria and viruses but it will not deactivate (kill) the protozoas however you would be unlucky to find these.

Note 3: Sodium hypochlorite is recommended by the WHO for the above purpose.

Hylife · Guru

Miltons Tablets are an excellent product and ARE very suitable for purifying water to kill the various indigenous "flora" found in 'untreated' water supplies that often lead to mild doses of gastroenteritis or worse.
AND for sterilising your tanks.

Miltons also kills bacteria such as listeria and salmonella and funguses such as Candida Albicans (ladies, the predominantly water-borne germ responsible for Thrush), and viruses such as Polio, Adeno, Carona and Rota.

If I need to fill up with water from a regional or outback town I always pop inside to the console operator at the local service station and ask if after paying for my fuel do they have a water tap I can use to fill my caravan water tanks.

If they say no, which is rare, I thank them politely and leave "without purchasing any fuel" and visit the next outlet down the road.
If they say yes,I then ask them what the town water supply is like, and is it put through a local treatment plant?
If I get a response such as, "dunno, most locals use a rainwater tank", then I know I need to treat the water.

I use 2 tablets per fill (2x95litre tanks). My 2 tanks are interconnected at their bottoms by pipework so I only have one fill receptacle.

I break up the tablets by hand as small as I can so they dissolve as I am filling.

The Chlorine evaporates from the water within an hour or two whilst driving and leaves no residual taste.