Black plastic fill Hose for Water Tanks on Van

hi mike, on our new van we got a couple of months ago we also had a plastic taste, i got a bucket of water, mixed in 1/2 packet of carb soda and poured a bucket full of the brew in each tank. i then filled all the way full with water and let it sit for a week. problem solved, no more bad taste. there probably is better ways but this worked for me. not much to choose from where i live. cheers mm

Greetings. Yes , same problem. Went to Whitworth Marine (every capital city) and purchased their white hose for potable water. No problem now. Hope this helps.
WD

A very common issue, drinking water contaminated by a plastic taste. Very surprised that you purchased it from a caravan place...........it cant have been clear to them the use you were going to put it to.....ok for grey water not for potable (drinking water)

You need a hose designed for drinkng water..........you should be able to get it from a caravan place by explaing what you intend to use it for..also can get from Bunnings....(i think it is a Pope product)................is a nice blue colour........with a white nylon insert as a lining.......and clearly labelled for that purpose

What hose did you use to fill the tanks??

Michael C (WA)
The reason that town water makes the normal hose taste of plastic is that the Chlorine in the water burns the the improper hose.
The hose to use is not the hose called [ food grade hose] It has to be the hose marked Potable water transfer hose. This hose comes in a variety of colours I have a all white flat hose , a white with blue striping, blue with white cris crossing white strips, grey hose with info writing on the out side and a yellow with a white spiral ribbing.
So the hose acceptable to potable water must have the words like potable drinkg water hose
hope i have helped
Terry

Hi Michael,

The black hose that you were supplied with was probably polyethylene and this is likely to be the same material that your van tanks are made from. Polyethylene, as with most plastics, has some volatile components which leach-out with time or faster with some help in the manner that "murryman" advised above. It is likely that your van tanks had the same problem when new. The water piping in and to many homes is also polyethylene and this starts with a taste but soon loses it with use.

You say that the original van hoses were also black so it may be worth trying some treatment as per murryman's advice and waiting for a while before ripping the hoses out. Certainly food-grade hoses are less likely to "taste" but may not be worth the cost and trouble if you can clean-up your poly hoses.

Be aware that common garden hose is PVC not polyethylene and as such contains plasticisers that contaminate the water and continue to leach-out from the PVC for the life of the hose so they are very unsuitable for carrying potable water. Having said that, if you need to fill the tanks using a PVC garden hose it is reasonable to do so if the hose is purged first of the water that has been residing in it. But of course better to use food-grade hose if available.

If all else fails, change from tea to strong Maxwell House coffee..... you won't notice the water taste! LOL