Epoxy Integral Potable Water Tanks - Regulations? Health Issues?

You simply cant control the quality of water that you secure in ports. Many ports advise against drinking the water. Normally the issue is not the water they recieve from the water system but the condition of the pipework in the port.

Since you have no choice..you need water... you will always be taking on suspect supplies for cleaning, toilet flushing, cooking....

Every two years I remove the tank tops and clean and inpect the inside of the tanks. Its a science project inside. Sludge, algae, stink and stank. The downstream components of the fw system are not possible to clean. Hot water tanks are truely foul.

If possible construct your tanks with huge man hole size , removable tank tops. Use cheap hot water boilers and discard when foul.

 

We just don't have that problem in the states. All ports have good potable water here. I've been using it for 20 years now in my boats.

 

Milan should be safe, north italy in general is. The proof is you are still alive...

Worst that can happen is that you have jet propulsion for a couple of days...

About water intake, just follow the basic rules. Seeing people taking water sometimes makes my head shake.

-clean the water intake and surrounding area. Bird **** and things should be removed.
-clean the water hose on the outside
-flush the water hose, untill you receive cold water. Not the stuff that has been sitting in doubtful pipework in the hot sun for at least a week.
-construct tank vents such that no insects can enter the tank.

 

Yes, I didn't get sick at all from that tap water, despite all the dire predictions from the guys I was working with. It was just outside Milan, if that makes any difference. In a suburb.

You can get very VERY sick at restaurants in Israel, however. I was laid out for 4 days unable to function or leave my hotel room. Nearly had to fly back to the States from that one instead of to my next appointment in Barcelona. We had went to dinner the night before at the strangest restaurant in Tel Aviv:

You all sit at a table with a small toggle in the center. If you flip to toggle to the green color, large carts of meat stop at your table. There are no vegetables. You request pieces from the meat for your plate. If you flip your toggle to red, no carts stop by with meat. You spend hours there either getting more meat or stopping the meat for a moment. I got VERY sick from that place.

So, I took the Italians' advice to heart.

Just for humor, I saw a video the other day that reminded me of that meat restaurant in Tel Aviv. I guarantee you will laugh:

http://www.youtube.com/user/EpicMealTime#p/u/0/7Xc5wIpUenQ

http://www.youtube.com/user/EpicMealTime#p/u/2/wZDv9pgHp8Q

 

Sick indeed. One year I spent 4 days in the hospital with IV tubes stuck in my arms . Doc said most likley bad water..either drinking or swimming.

 

Watched the videos. Crazy stuff. These guys know how to cook. Sort off...

Golden rules for food:
-be sure cold food is processed in a hygienic way. If you are not sure, do not eat it. Same goes for barbeques, where huge bunches of meat are sitting in the evening sun for way too long, after which the half-drunk host barbeques it half-way on the already too cold barbeque.
Or when too much (badly) cooked meat went cold too slowly.

Everything that has been heated sufficiently, should be good to go, except some rare exceptions, like closed clamps, clamps with small crabs in them, etc. Or just plain poisonous food. (blowfish)

About the amount of calories in the youtube videos: You do not need to eat all. Taste everything, but keep consumption in control.

I guess in Israel they took you to a restaurant to shock you. Just as Americans take people to a Sushi bar to eat raw fish. (but tend to forget that in Holland people eat raw herring, which is great...)

 

Anything but local wine in your glass and they think you a bit weird..
Anyway around here (70deg N) you can drink well from the ditch if you happen to be thirsty (and it's not frozen)

 

I'm with you guys. I put perfectly clean water in my RV tank too, but keeping the entire system clean for years and years, that is just a crap shoot. I take 5 gallon plastic potable water cans with me, I would if I were boating as well.
They are easy to sanitize.

 

I eat and drink whatever the natives do. After more than 35 years on the road, I'm still alive; in spite of all the mystery meat.

 

This thread drifted, but I need to ask Pauloman...

Do you have a food grade type epoxy I can use for my integral potable water tanks?

If not, do you know where I can find one?


Lastly, can I just use regular epoxy with a nice, safe 2:1 ratio, then fill the tank with 50% vinegar to eat up any excess hardener in there?

Any BPA (the resin) should be able to be filtered out with a charcoal filter.

Gunboats have integral fiberglass potable water tanks. Anyone know what they use?

 

There are certain types of epoxy, of which the ingredients are on the white list for food contact. You can also check with companies making wine tanks, as wine is also considered food

I would continue searching for a food safe epoxy, as they exist. No doubt the gunboats use some type, with certificate.

In any case, make sure your epoxy does not contain bisphenol F, so any epoxy that is crystallisation free (bis A / bis F mixture), is disqualified. Read the MSDS to find out what is in there.
also steer away from nonylphenol in the curing agent.

I hope Paoloman can add to this, and be of more help.

 

food grade epoxy is not the same as nsf 61 potable water approvals.

most folks use novolac epoxies for fuel containment.

 

Agreed,

I have aluminum tanks. I pre-filter water coming in, but leave a little chlorine coming in. We also filter going out and use it for everything except tea, cooking soup or drinking. If you wonder why- that a look at the bottom of your tanks in a couple of years.

I also have a dirty water tank that collects rain water for washing deck. I add a little more bleach to that one. Amazingly that one seems to stay cleanest.

I carry bottled water in 5 gal containers, that I have dispenser for. The water in bottles is usually US tap water, that stays out of the sun. This is very important otherwise bacteria will grow in sunlight

I have noticed that a person will consume, 5 gallons a day for shower, 2 gallons for washing dishes, and about 1 gallon a day for drinking.

So this will give you idea of usage. My 5 gallon shower is me being cheap with the water, your guests may be ten times that.

 

In a nut shell, the question of if epoxy is safe is unknown, what is known is that BP-A released from Epoxy into water at room temp, and its not good for you. Specifically how bad it is for you is another question. Its the reason all those Nalgene bottles got recalled. They release so much BP-A. Another issue is canned food, cans are lined with food grade epoxy and studies show that people who eat lots of caned food have vastly elevated levels of BP-A over people who don't. My bet is the same holds true for people who drink water thats been in contact with epoxy as well.

Issue is, lots of plastics have PB-A in them and none of it is particularly stable.

I have a friend of mine who is an environmental endocrinologist up at the university and he's working on a shelf life for water specifically because of the amount of leachates plastic and epoxy contributes to the water.

 

I am going ahead and building an epoxy/Fiberglass tank on my boat. I am following all the directions of West System, allowing ideal mixing and curing time and temperatures . I am also coating the tank with this FDA appoved epoxy coating:

http://www.sscoatings.net/brewcoat-info.htm

The BPA risk is obviously present, but I hope to minimize it with a well built tank. Water is rarely good anywhere in the world, the tap water comes from big tanks which use the same type of epoxy coatings we use on boat tanks. Most of canned food and bottled drink have BPAs, and they sit on shelves for very long time.

I wonder if there is a study about health of long term liveaboards.