Thoughts on pumping lake water

[Moon Lake Refuge]

Camper is at the cabin and the only water we have is pumped from the lake.  This has supplied the cabin for 30+ years but I was hesitant to pump it through the RV in fear of permanently contaminating the lines.  Found a two part inline filter from watts called flowpure.  It filters down to 5 microns(less potentially if I were to buy a different filter for the canister) and claims 10-11,000 gallons of water, more than I will likely use in the summer.  Filter says it removes even giardia and cysts.  Likely still wont drink the water but makes me feel a lot better about the little ones taking baths.  Anyone think if I did decide to fill the tanks with fresh water from the city to drink that I would have any issues after running this setup?  Would obviously bleach and disinfect the lines and tank after running lake water.

[Ufatz]

Should be no problem at all, PROVIDED you do the bleach/water to disinfect the lines at the end of the season. I doubt it would harm your lines at all but disinfecting them at end of season assures no troubles in the future. My guess would be your camper unit is using a quality water line like PEX and that helps too.

But DO use the filter and the better filter is a good idea too.

[Moon Lake Refuge]

Yep camper is brand new with all pex.  I plan on using it like a house in the summer with semi perm hookups.  I'm going to run a cheap filter early on in the line to take out the larger contaminants then the two part filter that looks to have good reviews and good quality. Because of my heavier use I plan to bleach out all of my lines and holding tanks 2-3 times a year.  I usually have a couple weekends a year I go up without the family where I focus on chores or 'fun' projects.  I'm even looking into an injector system as I'll be going from a copper outside line(from the hose) to pvc pipe underground.  Thinking I can put a clean out plug in the PVC where I can add bleach at to clean all of my lines both in the camper and under ground.  I'm going to have cleaner and more efficient plumbing in the camper than the folks in the cabin by the time im done! 

[Cooperman]

MLR

The key to a good sanitation of the lines is a long circulation. It's better to use less bleach and circulate for a longer period of time. Then a long flush. You can purchase a sodium hypochlorite (5% bleach) ppm test kit to determine how long you need to flush if you have concerns about bleach left in the system. Also, the best conditions for organisms to grow is in stagnant water, sanitized or not. I would suggest sanitizing at the end of the year, and again before use.

[Moon Lake Refuge]

23 minutes ago, Cooperman said:

MLR

The key to a good sanitation of the lines is a long circulation. It's better to use less bleach and circulate for a longer period of time. Then a long flush. You can purchase a sodium hypochlorite (5% bleach) ppm test kit to determine how long you need to flush if you have concerns about bleach left in the system. Also, the best conditions for organisms to grow is in stagnant water, sanitized or not. I would suggest sanitizing at the end of the year, and again before use.

Flushing wont be a problem as we're not metered Can run as much as needed.  Also, I plan to empty my tanks and line each weekend as I'll have easy plugs and shut off valves to do a quick drain on all my lines.  I plan to do three good sanitation clean outs a year.  Begining, mid summer and end of year.  Thanks for the input!

[YourBobbersUnder]

I can't help you with your question, but would like to know the name of the filter you are using and where you got it. We have a lake cabin where this might be a good fit.

[LindellProStaf]

When disinfecting public water supply lines it is 100ppm of chlorine that is the most common disinfectant.  Just dump a small bottle of bleach in your lines and let it sit for a day or two.  Then drain and or flush with clean water.  I dumped a gallon of bleach in my  well earlier this summer and it took over a week to get the bleach flushed out of the system.  I am safely disinfected now though.  

[gunner55]

According to his 1 post it's called flowpure made by watts. I believe most of your farm supply stores like FF or L & M would have something similar. We run lake water up north as well but it's only used outdoors & in the fish cleaning shack. We do run a filter system on our well before the water gets to the water heater & softner. Not sure what micron the filters are we use but L & M has them & they get changed at least 2-3 times a year

Edited April 2, 2016 by gunner55

[delcecchi]

I still wouldn't drink the lake water, no matter the filter.  I don't know if you were thinking that, but there still could be viral or bacterial contamination the filter wouldn't remove. 

But for showers and stuff, probably even dish washing, it would be good. 

Lakes in the wilderness are one thing, developed lakes another.  

[delcecchi]

BTW I just looked and you can get a UV system to kill the bacteria for a price from a few hundred to treat enough for one faucet to a bigger system that would do all the water for  more like a thousand (some are more like 600) depending on the flow you need. 

There seems to be a variation in pricing for similar flows, so getting professional opinion might be in order.  But it is affordable. 

Chlorinator might be another option. 

[Moon Lake Refuge]

On April 2, 2016 at 8:59 AM, delcecchi said:

I still wouldn't drink the lake water, no matter the filter.  I don't know if you were thinking that, but there still could be viral or bacterial contamination the filter wouldn't remove. 

But for showers and stuff, probably even dish washing, it would be good. 

Lakes in the wilderness are one thing, developed lakes another.  

Probably won't drink, but definitely looks like you could.  Filters down to giardia with is the smallest issue in our lake.  Mostly doing it so the little ones don't get sick if they get it in there mouths during baths.  Dishes won't be a problem.  Even straight from the lake you can do dishes no problem once it's run through the water heater.  That's how we've done dishes for 25 years up there with no problem in the cabin.

This is also a very small and low traffic lake.

[Walleyehooker]

Even hooked up to fresh water I only use the RV water for washing dishes and showers and maybe even cooking when boiling it. For coffee and drinking etc. I use bottled water or bring jugs of water from home. I wouldn't worry to much about lake water for dishes and showers. But if I were pumping out of a lake I would want the line out deeper and away from shore and some kind of filter on it.

[Moon Lake Refuge]

On 4/4/2016 at 10:02 AM, Walleyehooker said:

Even hooked up to fresh water I only use the RV water for washing dishes and showers and maybe even cooking when boiling it. For coffee and drinking etc. I use bottled water or bring jugs of water from home. I wouldn't worry to much about lake water for dishes and showers. But if I were pumping out of a lake I would want the line out deeper and away from shore and some kind of filter on it.

We run ours out about 20-30 feet.  DNR says when our water was tested it was some of the cleanest and clearest in the state.  Nobody has ever really gotten sick up there that I know of.  Typically for drinking we have a couple jugs and we run to town and fill them from the well, but more often then not we aren't drinking much water at the cabin.  It's usually more of the can or bottle variety!

[Powerstroke]

I'm not sure about the claims made by the maker of the filter, but I just double checked the main companies that make water filtration products for the backcountry traveller, (MSR, Platypus, Sawyer, Katadyn) and all recommend a 0.1 mircron filter at the large end for filtration to a 0.02 micron filter on the small end for purification. Some sort of chemical treatment or UV light is still required if you're concerned about viruses. 

 

I would never think twice about using the water you have available from the lake, but I would just make sure you have adequate filtration. All of the comments above about the lake water concerns, while they are valid in their concern are very misleading when saying using the water should be avoided. There are really great filters out there that will do that will do the job if you want them to, you just need to buy the correct filter. 

The same filters I listed above are used to drink water from some of the worst places on earth. WHat you've discovered is there are filters for SAFETY and there are filters for comfort. You can get a purification filter to make the water safe to drink for any use and then add a diffierent filter to help with taste/odor concerns.