I am about to sterilise the water pipes on my Elddis with puriclean. I have read that once used the filter will be no good. As I plan to change the filter too, can I sterilise the system with the old filter (aquasource clear) in situ and replace it once cleaned?
Sorry if it's a daft question but this is only the start of our second year!
We have an Elddis too and one of the first things that I did, like many other vanners was to discard the filter and couple the pipework straight through (it was an in-line filter) as I believe these filter harbor bacteria.
Of course others may think otherwise.
Not a daft question, any question you don't know the answer too is valid.
It doesn't really matter if you leave the old filter in or remove it (if you can) to sterilise your system. But don't put the new one in BEFORE sterilising.
Probably more relevant whether you bother with a filter at all. Two aspects to water system filter, one is to filter unwanted particles from supply, the other is to remove any taint from the water. Removing taint is done with activated charcoal, and that is what suffers in the cleaning process and no longer functions. It doesn't really matter, as few supplies have that much of a taint that it's a problem, equally not many supplies have much in the way of particulates either, do you filter your tap water at home! Biggest risk is if you are not particular about cleanliness with your water barrel and don't fit the hose/pump gaiter properly to stop bugs getting in.
My service engineer said to me just remove it and don't bother replacing it on two counts (but mine is a Truma cartridge type and can simply be left out of the housing, not sure your Whale one is so simple to eliminate, may need to substitute a spacer of some kind), firstly it isn't really necessary, and secondly he'd seen filters under a microscope as part of his training and the bacterial growth was alarming, you wouldn't knowingly want that in your water supply! I've never bothered with a filter after the first one was remove during the service.
If you do decide to discard the thing and like ours it is just fitted under the side bed, any fittings you may need are 12mm john guest push fit and 12mm plastic pipe
We used to have a caravan with a fitted filter, but soon removed it and just blanked off where it screwed in. There was no point in using an expensive filter for our purposes, just washing up and showering. If we wanted filtered water to drink, we just took a filter jug.
Do any caravan manufacturers still install a filter system?
We also removed the filter on our Elddis. However, it was difficult to get at being suspended below the kitchen tap, had to remove the two drawers underneath to access & it was still awkward. Certainly not a process I'd want to repeat annually after running Puriclean through the system.
We looked into filters a number of years ago. They may have improved by now but at that time, you had to keep the filter insides moist at all times for it to work properly, if it was allowed to dry out then you needed to replace it. This would be fine if the caravan is in permanent use but we might have a period of a few weeks between trips away where the filter would dry out, especially in warmer weather, so we didn’t bother. The filters may have improved significantly by now but we just take a filter jug with us and use that for drinking water. Water for the shower and washing dishes etc doesn’t need to be filtered.
We sterilise the whole water system, including the aquaroll, a couple of times a year using Puriclean and that has been fine for us so far. One tip for using Puriclean though is it dissolve the appropriate amount of Puriclean in a large jug of slightly warm water before adding it to the aquaroll. We have always found that if you put the Puriclean straight into an aquaroll full of cold water, it doesn’t all dissolve completely and you can end up with little particles of it in your pump which can cause havoc. Using the jug to dissolve the Puriclean first means you can stir it easily until you are sure it is all dissolved and the slightly warm (not hot) water also helps with the dissolving process.
After reading quite a few reports and knowledgable advice on here and other forums I decided that the filter cartridge we kept replacing twice a year was both an expensive and unnecissary habit that we could well do without. I fitted an in-line screen filter instead which would remove any unwanted debris from the water system. We only ever use CMC sites so the water is as good as at home. I steralise the whole system with Aquaclean at least twice a year.
Dave.
------------- Never argue with an idiot, they will drag you down to their level and beat you on experience.
Mark Twain.
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Topic: Puriclean and water filter
via mobile 13/2/2022 at 10:11am
