MeanQueen left a comment about water on my last post, so I thought I would pen a few words on the subject.
Our water carrying capacity in Bertie consists of:
- A 120 litre on-board tank. We use this water for washing ourselves, the dishes, the occasional bit of laundry and for cooking;
- Four 5-litre containers, used for drinking water (which we obtain from the same taps used to fill the tank - in Bertie there's no good reason for us not to drink straight from the tank, but we don't);
- 2.5 litres worth of vacuum flasks, mainly used when we have electricity, saving us time and gas for hot drinks later in the day. Very occasionally they also get used for spare drinking water (i.e. cold water) capacity.
- 3 small drinking water bottles (2 litres total) that live in the cab area (they're all 'single use' bottles, one of which has been in service since 2012 and the other two since February 2017 - I do clean them every now and then!).
We almost never completely fill Bertie's water tank, as we seldom think we will get through that much water before we find a tap to fill it again. Usually we top it up to between 50 & 75%. That will last us at least a week (our record to date was 12 days on 75%, but we didn't run out even then). You may deduce from this that we don't wash very often and don't use much water when we do! I've also become an expert at washing dishes in a very small quantity of water.
We generally get through 4-5 litres of drinking water per day, so need to find a tap every 4 to 6 days for this purpose.
In all of the places we've visited in western Europe to date (with the notable exception of the UK), finding water is pretty easy, with motorhome service points and/or public taps being plentiful, although one does need to be aware that in Northern France in winter, the water at many motorhome service points get turned off. Our downfall is thus not usually the lack of a water point, but the lack of planning (or of preparedness to pay for water when we know it can be got for free elsewhere). On the 24 nights of this trip to date, I think that we have had access to water (sometimes free, often for an extra fee) every single night. The fault this week was ours, in that: a) we hadn't topped up the tank for a week; b) we didn't top it up when we left Le Treport the first time, because we weren't empty and knew water was included in the price at our next stop (Eu); and c) our hose connector collection is a bit lacking, which stopped us from using the water point at Eu.
The UK is a different matter and hunting down taps (or sometimes suitable streams) for drinking water can take a bit of effort. As I won't fill Bertie's tank from a public source that is not specifically provided for such a purpose (i.e. I'm not prepared to run a hose from some public toilets or a graveyard to his tank), his tank only gets filled on campsites. There have thus been a few times in the UK when we have found ourselves buying the cheapest supermarket bottled water either to decant into our drinking containers or, on at least one occasion, to pour into Bertie's tank so we could have a shower. Using, for example, Asda's 17p/2 litre bottles, it's not an outrageously expensive way of throwing a few litres in the tank, even if it's not an environmentally friendly way of getting water.
Our water carrying capacity in Bertie consists of:
- A 120 litre on-board tank. We use this water for washing ourselves, the dishes, the occasional bit of laundry and for cooking;
- Four 5-litre containers, used for drinking water (which we obtain from the same taps used to fill the tank - in Bertie there's no good reason for us not to drink straight from the tank, but we don't);
- 2.5 litres worth of vacuum flasks, mainly used when we have electricity, saving us time and gas for hot drinks later in the day. Very occasionally they also get used for spare drinking water (i.e. cold water) capacity.
- 3 small drinking water bottles (2 litres total) that live in the cab area (they're all 'single use' bottles, one of which has been in service since 2012 and the other two since February 2017 - I do clean them every now and then!).
We almost never completely fill Bertie's water tank, as we seldom think we will get through that much water before we find a tap to fill it again. Usually we top it up to between 50 & 75%. That will last us at least a week (our record to date was 12 days on 75%, but we didn't run out even then). You may deduce from this that we don't wash very often and don't use much water when we do! I've also become an expert at washing dishes in a very small quantity of water.
We generally get through 4-5 litres of drinking water per day, so need to find a tap every 4 to 6 days for this purpose.
In all of the places we've visited in western Europe to date (with the notable exception of the UK), finding water is pretty easy, with motorhome service points and/or public taps being plentiful, although one does need to be aware that in Northern France in winter, the water at many motorhome service points get turned off. Our downfall is thus not usually the lack of a water point, but the lack of planning (or of preparedness to pay for water when we know it can be got for free elsewhere). On the 24 nights of this trip to date, I think that we have had access to water (sometimes free, often for an extra fee) every single night. The fault this week was ours, in that: a) we hadn't topped up the tank for a week; b) we didn't top it up when we left Le Treport the first time, because we weren't empty and knew water was included in the price at our next stop (Eu); and c) our hose connector collection is a bit lacking, which stopped us from using the water point at Eu.
The UK is a different matter and hunting down taps (or sometimes suitable streams) for drinking water can take a bit of effort. As I won't fill Bertie's tank from a public source that is not specifically provided for such a purpose (i.e. I'm not prepared to run a hose from some public toilets or a graveyard to his tank), his tank only gets filled on campsites. There have thus been a few times in the UK when we have found ourselves buying the cheapest supermarket bottled water either to decant into our drinking containers or, on at least one occasion, to pour into Bertie's tank so we could have a shower. Using, for example, Asda's 17p/2 litre bottles, it's not an outrageously expensive way of throwing a few litres in the tank, even if it's not an environmentally friendly way of getting water.
Thank you, that's interesting. I suppose if you fill the water tank up it adds weight to the vehicle, therefore the fuel consumption goes up. Sensible not to fill it. It is surprising how little water you can get away with. Even in my house I don't waste it.
ReplyDelete