Advanced Water System for Campervan (Off Grid Breakdown)

Welcome to our campervan water system breakdown video! It has taken a fairly long while for us to sort out our water system and how we were going to lay it out. There were a lot of advanced features we knew we wanted, but we had only used them or seen them, never built them. In this video I want to explain how and WHY we decided to incorporate these specs, but we know a LOT of you watching will likely know more than us about plumbing and filtration, and we want you to educate us! Please drop some knowledge, resources, experiences, or ideas below because your comment gets read by hundreds of other people and everyone here wants to learn more!

00:00 Advanced Water System Intro
01:00 1) Water Storage Reasoning (DIY Tank features)
04:15 2) Off-Grid Drinkable Water PLANS (so far)… help!
06:02 3) Water Input & Extraction (3 options!)
11:00 4) Hot Water Process (3 options for UNLIMITED HOT WATER!)

Save yourself hundreds of dollars & hours of research time!

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🐾 Who are we?
We’re Ladi (from Czechia) & Margaret (from USA) and we love eBikes, campervans, & cats. In 2020 our van life lifestyle flipped upside down, & we needed to stop traveling in our camper to lockdown in eastern Czech Republic due to the pandemic. With no travel plans and some new time on our hands, we decided to sell our old van, start an electric bike business, begin a youtube channel, build our ultimate dream campervan, renovate a junkyard into a tiny house homestead, plan a container & upper workshop space… well, some other smaller projects in-between 😅.

What we thought would only be 6 months of “stillness” has become 2 years of innovation, progress, and so much fun, and most of that is thanks to YOU. Although we’re excited to be back on the road and traveling the world again soon, we’re so thankful to lay a foundation here in Central Europe & bring you with us on this crazy journey. Thank you for supporting us and being part of this incredible community!

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Music By: MusicBed & Epidemic Sound
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#watersystem #campervan #offgrid

[ladiandmargaret]

Leave your every thought below! THANK YOU!!

[jeffsteinmetz]

Ladi probably already thought of it, but in the summer as you drive and for a while after you park you will have a big heater dispersing heat from under your kitchen. As a result it should be insulated and I recommend a bypass valve setup so you can have a refreshing cool shower on those scorching days we are getting more and more of.

[MrKylerichards]

I have engine heated hotwater in my van, im using the ATI Boat boiler as the hotwater tank/heat exchange. It works awesome, piping hot water after 20min of driving. Its well insulated and has a mains power element inside. These have been around for ages in the boating community, you could try just buying this off the shelf

[MarkusReinisch]

Sucking water doesn’t work. Problem is the pump only can suck around 1m height difference. This is the problem.
I‘ve a pump for the accu drill, sucking side short hose, other side can be so long as you wish.

[whitexicanat-large]

I recommend you watch Dan Grec's video showcasing his water setup that he used for 3 years through Africa. His YouTube channel is "the road chose me".

[polarbearadventure]

I think this water system is so over complicated like basically with everything you do to this van - but I get it, It what makes people watch you channel and it is a good learning way for you two.

1.When thinking of heating your water while the engine is running: the best and the least complicated thing is just to use a voltage sensitive relay and a 12v heating element. When the car is running the alternator kicks in and the voltage rises - then the relay turns on and it starts heating the water - it takes a little longer but we have done this setup and a 15l is heated to 65C in about 40minutes.
If you want to do it your way, try adding a disel water heater that warms your engine in the winter and automaticly warms your boiler.

2. Blowing hot air thrught that long pipe in the boiler. Its gonna have 2 side effects: Its gonna take ages to warm that water and its gonna take ages to warm the place up - try doing this when the water is cold and it is cold outside. You will be disappointed.

3. We were thinking about that sucking option you have mentioned for a long time. The problem with that is that you have to flush the whole system and change the water in your system everytime you suck water like that - the problem with alge, bacteria, dirt and debris is just not worth the hustle. 

4. It is better to have a second tap at your sink that is a seperet line with a seperet small pump that you "plug" in the 5L water bottle that you buy in the store - and when the water bottle is empty, you just "plug" a new water bottle. It is such a space saver when you dont need to instal all those filters and you just need a little space for a water bottle with its own pump.

5. I cringe everytime I see those hose clamps on the lines (in any vanbuld) - you are doing a professional build - try finding another way to connect those pipes. There is a lot of systems that are more reliable.

6. oh... and I m pretty sure the boilers are meant to be cylinder by design - when the pressure rises in the boiler it needs to push to all the walls with the same force.

I know it looks really cool the way you are doing things but on the long run when the thing start to break it is very crucial to have a simple system with easy access.

Keep up the good work, I always learn something when watching your videos.

[guycullum]

Great ideas but you are likely to have a major problem if you fill your fresh tank with river water. You are essentially turning your fresh tank into a black water tank. This is because any dirty water flowing through your water pipes will leave bacteria and protozoa that will end up back in the fresh water tank. This is a really bad idea. Those risks will end up on your plates and mugs, which you will eat and drink off, will end up being used for washing which will end up in your mouth and nose and ears allowing for infections.
Your clear water stream will have UV light from the sun helping keep issues down but in your dark water system they will be able to grow rapidly to dangerous levels.

[simon]

We use water from a stream in our house. It passes through a washable 80u filter that takes the 'larger' bits out to lengthen the life of the second filter which is a 10u. It then goes through a uv filter. All good.
Personally I would definitely get a uv filter - making sure not to get one with glass components for a van. If you fill up from even the cleanest looking stream I would guess the 20u filter would clog if thats your first filter and reduce the water flow. I see what you are trying to do with the 1u filter, but uv is better. I would filter and uv any water coming into the tank and use it for showering and washing dishes. Much safer to have bug free water in your eyes and on your dishes. I don't see any reason not to filter all water, the filter cartridges will last a long time - especially if you put a washable one as the first.
I don't understand why someone said you would need different uv light for different water sources, but then my house doesn't move continents.

[acme]

Here's the total system that I'm using since 2010 for the water recycling:

Sink and Shower have drain strainers with 1/8" (3 mm holes) . Then shower uses a marine shower bilge pump to run water across the two drawer strainers under the kitchen sink that just get dumped as needed. First drawer is stainless with 1/16" (2mm) holes, second is No-See-Um 20 mesh (841 micron), then to the 40 gallon grey water tank.

From grey water tank water pumped (through 50 mesh pre filter) at 1 gpm thru the following filters back to fresh water tanks.

Rusco "Spin-Down" 100 mesh (152 micron) strainer, 500 mesh (30 micron), 1000 mesh (15 micron), 2 gallons VITROclean crushed glass inside 3' length of 4" diameter stainless tubing (5-10 micron), 0.2 micron ceramic, Granulated activated carbon (3' x4"), powdered activated carbon (3'x4"), finally passes UV water purifier.

The washer/dryer comb has a Filtrol 160 lint filter before running through the rest of the filters. It has a sock filter that gets turned inside out and cleaned about every 4 loads.

It's probably overkill but full time use would have us changing the crushed glass, and carbon once a year for about $50.

I installed pressure guages between each stage to monitor changes and cleaning schedule.

We have 220 gallons of total capacity and we usually fill that before parking at a festival or race for a few days because our inflatable jacuzzi needs 135 gallons. Sometimes to get rid of it we run the water cooling misters under the awning that needs about 5gph.

[HDwoat]

Hi, given how thorough you have been with logging the items used during the build I think it would be really useful to track the performance, reliability and ‘break ability’ of said items. Great job by the way, keep up the good work.

[afroborilafemme]

I’ve been waiting for you guys to get to the water, you really think of everything.
You guys work so hard to make these videos and get them out. Love the editing Margaret! ❤️

[CreekRanger]

Heads Up your channel is being targeted by someone pretending to be you in the comments and asking posters to reach out on What’s App you may want to warn your viewers not to respond to these scammers

[TheHogJockey]

I had a thought that might be right up Ladi's alley. I've seen other builds that dump excess solar through the water tank. Basically, when you're batteries are topped off, the 1500w heater in your tank turns on to siphon off energy and utilize the excess solar being generated. Would love to see how this is accomplished and can't think of anyone better to work it out than you and Ladi.

[LilyWasHereMB]

My system is is not perfect and it's not for everyone.

I had my van built when I did not have health insurance ALL water going in the tank, pump, and plumbing, regardless of source, goes through 3 filters - not unlike yours. Periodically the tank and lines get a chlorine treatment.

Water at the sink (cooking, drinking, washing up, etc) goes through a 4th filter. Indoor and outdoor showers do not get additional filtration.

The 3-stage filter system is portable. Its stowed in the garage and weighs about 39 lbs with residual water in the canisters. Being portable, I can help other travelers, I can fill and leave it at home for trips of ~3 weeks or less and if I had a pump, I could filter surface water - though I would never do that without additional UV filtration before the tank.

My fresh tank fill inlet is in the garage to prevent anyone tampering with my water supply - same reason I don't have a ladder on my van (I carry a collapsible ladder in the garage if I think I'll need it).

Not as elaborate as your system but it works for us. And yes, I think a UV system would be a good idea especially if you put river water in your tank.

[keithbrookshire]

My job is a "water operator". Basically, I filter and sterilize ground water that is distributed throughout my community for consumption (city water). While I know a lot of people have a negative view of chlorinated water, a naive view in my opinion, you can safely and completely sterilize all your water with just a few drops of chlorine. This would kill everything that may be harmful in your water eliminating the need for a UV system and the associated cost and maintenance. Combine this with your filtration system and all your water is potable. If you are really adverse to chlorinated water you can leave the water you will be consuming exposed to sun and air and the chlorine will basically disappear but this would be difficult in a van life situation.
I do have a concern with pumping your water from the lowest part of the tank because that's where the sediment will settle. But on the other hand with all the sloshing around in a van the water may not be stationary long enough for everything to settle out.
You are completely on the right track by shocking your tanks when they need cleaning.
Feel free to reach out if I may be of any assistance on this matter.

[samjones]

I’m a superyacht engineer and currently designing my own bus conversion. The design is good, it’s similar to what we use at sea in its basic form and bypasses are common for many systems. I also have a design similar to this with the addition of a recirculating shower as I’ll have some extra room that I can play with compare to this van

[iMann_iFail]

Wouldn’t drawing water from a stream to store in your fresh water tank, affect any fresh (clean) water you store afterwards. I would assume you have to treat your tank after each time you draw from a stream.

[genkidama]

13:55 broke my neck. i will sue you... 🤣

[jorgenadam]

In boats, heating water from the engine is quite common, and you might find an of the shelf heater that is more efficient in a marine store. That said, I hope you do not, looking forward to the build 😉

[ScreamerTR]

Another great video. It makes our Sunday morning.
One comment and one question.

Comment: Unless your quick disconnect has a good cover on it, where you have it located almost guarantees that it is going to be caked with dirt and mud making it one, difficult to connect to and two - well - dirty.
Question: Is the heating loop from the engine to the water tank going to be a glycol system?

Keep up the good work.