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The army drink water with milton in it - its harmless, you cant taste it - you think you can but its the smell that convinces you. Baby bottles and teats are covered in milton so thats how safe it is.

You will have a slight plasticky taste but you can help this with an inline filter. We tend to drink bottled water anyway as we prefer the taste. As for not drinking it - rubbish - as long as you flush you tanks/roll out - the human body constantly deals with germs - your taps at home have plenty inside the spout! Putting water into a 5L container is no different to an aqua roll!

Purple! Dont mess around with brita filters, you can buy an inline filter for caravans - which lasts a year, easy to fit just chop the pipe and put it in the middle. You can even get them with removable cartridges. Cost me £13..

We have some safe water tablets - they shouldnt taste of anything nor harm you.

I've had this problem with both my new Swift vans and tried everything to get rid of it. It comes and goes and its difficult to pinpoint. In  my new van I've removed the water filter but this makes no difference. I am not 100% certain but my guess is that the taste is coming from water left in the pipes from the hot water tank. I sometimes think that there is a small amount of hot water being mixed with cold when the tap is switched on. Also I've found that if I leave the tap running for a while before taking water(without switching off and on again) its ok.

Hi nickj

Your post caught my attention as we also have a new Bailey 500/5, and guess what, an odd taste in the water. I've noticed when freshly drawn and run for a minute or two the water is OK, but as the day goes on it gets worse untill its alsmost undrinkable.

I have a pot of Puriclean to run through this week end, but I suspect its comming from the plumbing. I also came across this posting in practical caravan forum, which tends to confirm my suspicions. I will have a better idea after the weekend.

http://www.practicalcaravan.com/newforums/fm_messages.asp?FO=1&FM=330901

If sterilising dosn't work I will contact Bailey, and keep you informed.

regards Mark

PS No reason you shouldn't drink the Van water. My wife has sailed off-shore for weeks at a time with only the tank water in the boat. No problem...mind you that might expalian..woops, sorry thinking aloud. 

My approach to sterilising water system using Puraclean or baby bottle steriliser seems to work OK.

• Sterilise & wash out Aquaroll.
• Remove filter & leave out of housing.
• Clamp off hot water system inlet pipe (very hard to flush out a Carver heater).
• Put sterilising solution in clean bucket, drop in pump & fill coldwater system.
• Wait an hour, pump on through solution then stop & wash off pump & bucket under running mains tap.
• Wash through with buckets of clean water until caravan tapwater no longer smells. Unclamp hot water system and wash through some more.
• Pack up and go on holiday.
• Onsite wash through again, replace filter & that should be it, odour-free sterile water without too many little black bits.