Bailey water problems

[Jeff_374293711]

In 2004 we took possession of a new Bailey Ranger 470/4.

From day 1 we had trouble with a nasty taste and smell in the fresh water system.

Being new to caravanning at that time we assumed that it was something that we were doing wrong, or admitting to do at all.

We went back to our suppliers, who were very helpful but baffled as to a cure for the problem. As a trial they fitted an inline filter in the system (as the Ranger does not have any filtration fitted) but this did little to help the situation.

We had already taken advice from more experienced caravaners and purified the system with 'Purachem and/or Milton, following the instructions to the letter and flushing the system afterwards.

It was usually fine for that evening but when opening the tap the next morning the smell and taste had returned.

In January this year we were fortunate enough to take possession of a new Bailey Pageant series 6 and found that we have the same problem again.

To prove that we were not getting paranoid about things we invited other people to smell and taste the water. The look on their faces gave us the answer.

My sister and her husband, who have been caravanning for 25 years are baffled by all this and swapped their Aquaroll with ours to at leaste to prove the Aquaroll was not at fault. They used our Aquaroll and had no problem.

After a few hours with my sisters Aqua roll connected the water was again tainted, so we came to the conclusion that the fault does not lie with the Aqua roll.

I contacted Bailey's to see if they could shed any light on the problem, or indeed suggest something else to try, but there answer was to replace the whole water system, including the hot water tank. This seemed to me,and the supplier to be a bit drastic for a brand new caravan.

Can you see anything that we are doing wrong, or suggest anything else we could try?

We are now having to use bottled water, which is proving not only expensive, but inconvenient and spoiling the enjoyment of our new van.

 

[Royston]

Hi Jeff

Puzzled why you have switched from the Chit-Chat column

all the comments are there

Royston

 

[Jeff_374293711]

Hi Royston,

Sorry for the confusion but it was my first time on the forum,I'll try harder next time.Thanks for your help.

Jeff

 

[Carl_374297116]

Hi Jeff

We had the same problem in our 2004 Abby Freestyle but not in our previous 2001 Bailey ranger? I think it's the plastic pipes that are the problem but I have to admit we gave up in the end and we now keep a bottle of drinking water in the van.

We will be picking up a new Bailey vendee in two weeks so I will let you know if that has the same problem.

Carl

 

[catherine2]

Hi Jeff

We've got a Bailey Ranger series 5, 2006, and we've had the same problem from the start. We fill a separate container for drinking water and boiling the kettle etc but use the taps for other purposes.

I understand the pipes are the reason for the smell/taste as we met someone else who had them all replaced and still gets the taste.

I think you'll just have to put up with it as we do.

 

[LadyMo]

Hi Jeff,

We just fill our kettle and a spare plastic milk bottle at the mains water tap and just use the aquaroll for washing up etc.

 

[Kevin_374306560]

Hi our brand new Bailey senator has the same problem Bailey have said they did not know of a problem until now, sounds like they are not being 100% on this problem. I have just had my cold water system replaced but not the hot as the dealers were advised by Bailey that this is all that is wrong.

I now wait and see.

 

[DavidW1]

Jeff,

I don't think you are going to get a satisfactory outcome to your problem if you expect van tap water to "taste" like your water at home. With all plastic pipes and ceramic ball taps there is always going to be a certain tainted flavour - particilarly in a new van. We have had two new Baileys in recent years but from old habits only use the water system for ablutions and washing up - my wife has an aversion to milton type products and can detect the smell from about a mile! so we have almost never used the van water for drinking even when the van was new..

I think you will find most old timers think in the same terms. Before the days of in line filters it was purifiers or chance it with the local tap and a seperate container, although we never thought anything about it really, and have lived to tell the tale - we still do the same or take bottled water if we remember.

 

[BobT_5041460]

We have had 3 different Bailey caravans and have never had a problem with the water.

We live in Scotland where there is nothing added to the water perhaps there is something added to the water in England which is causing the problem.

 

[RogerL]

In the 21st century, in the UK, a caravan that you can't drink the water out of is "unfit for purpose" in Sale of Goods Act terms. Reject it and demand your money back.

Why do so many caravanners spend a lot of hard-earned money on a caravan with unacceptable faults, without rejecting it and taking legal action to get their money back?

The fact that so many UK caravanners accept carp quality is the reason caravans are built to that low standard.

 

[sparkes]

Jeff

I do not think that you can reject it as bailey have offered a solution. Let them replace the water system and if the problem is still there then you have an acceptable argument.

Just to also say, we have a bailey and don't have the same problem.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Jeff and all

You do not describe the taste, and whilst I know that can be difficult, there is one taste that is frequently described as TCP (a commercial antiseptic was suitable for rinsing your mouth).

I will assume that this is the taste you are referring to. The vast majority of caravan manufactures choose to use highly flexible reinforced plastic water pipes. These are flexible to allow them to install them around quite tight bends. Now I am not a chemical engineer but I understand that to retain their flexibility they are manufactured with an agent that should be chemically locked into the finished pipe. Sadly this seems to be difficult to achieve consistently, and the taste you get is this agent leeching out of the pipe-work and into the water.

Technically the pipes that suffer this problem are substandard, and the only solution is to replace them, however with the long history of this problem in caravans, there is no certainty that the new pipes of the same design will not suffer with the same problem.

Interestingly, some roll-along water carriers also suffered with this problem, but the manufactures seemed to have resolved it.

Some caravan manufacturers used to state that the water supplied through the caravan pipe-work was not for consumption.

The mains water supplies in the UK are now being replaced with plastic pipes, and the problem does not exist here, but the pipes are less flexible than the caravan systems, but with careful designed pipe runs it should be possible to use mains grade materials.

I am really dismayed to see money wasted by caravan manufacturers on designing bespoke me-too products for caravans, when commercially and technically proven designs already exist in the domestic market.

 

[colin-yorkshire]

hi all

we have allways taken a contianer from home or used bottle water for drinking so would not know wether the van water was tainted or not it does not smell of anything though so I assume it's ok.

we have had black bits in the system and was told it was the fliter leaking charcoal exept the 2001 bailey ranger does not have a filter fitted.

after flushing out the system with milton it cured the black bits but the water was then tainted (with milton )even after about 12 aquarolls full of fresh water through it.

like I said we allways drink bottled water and have done so from the first trip out in our first van (1970) the first time out we went up to the highlands and were suspicious of the brown water which came out of the taps so used bottled water and have done so ever since.

colin

 

[catherine2]

Due to suffering similar problems with our Bailey Ranger 2006, we are due to have our cold water pipes replaced on Monday by our dealer. However, he says he cannot guarentee the result as Bailey are still running tests to ascertain the problem and meanwhile, existing stocks of pipe are being used. It looks as tho Bailey will be using different piping in due course but no one seems to know why the current problem is intermittent. My dealer has replaced piping on 2 vans - one was fine after and the other was not.

We shall have ours replaced as we've nothing to lose and if it doesn't work then the dealer will do the job again when Bailey have got their act together.

Hope this is helpful and good luck everyone else who is suffering.

 

[Royston]

Hi catherine,

Are we all blaming the caravan supplier for tainted water when the culprit could be the water containers that we use, I use two green water barrels , like many others I have never ever had any problems with water likewise i have always had Bailey vans.

Royston

 

[catherine2]

Hi Royston

No, its not the water container - the problem occurs whatever container is used. Bailey accepts there is a problem with some of their piping which is why they are running tests on some new stuff at the moment.

It is only newer caravans that are affected but the strange thing is not all of them are. Bailey know this which is why the problem is not so easy to resolve as it would be if it were just one faulty batch.

It's not the end of the world for us as we would not use the water from the container for drinking anyway, especially since I just noticed today there is some mould inside the clear plastic pipe that we use for filling the aquaroll! - never dried out properly by me.

 

[Royston]

Hi Catherine,

My present Bailey van is less than 1 year old, so strange the problem that you have. Its as if Baileys have more than one supplier for the parts that make up the internal water system.

Our new van does not have a water filter thank goodness, it would have been obsolete for the problems that you are experiencing, Lets hope that your problems are soon sorted out,

be gratfull if an when your system is okay that you post the conclusions to the cause.

Royston

 

[Danny_5134221]

As we speak my 1 year old Ranger along with its TCP water system is at our dealership having all the water pipes replaced under warranty. Van should be ready for collection sometime next week.

 

[ANN_374233635]

Hi Danny. Our Bailey Senator Indiana (new July 06) has the same TCP taste. Water from any site/source is OK at site tap or from aquaroll, but is unusable for drinking/food prep. You can even smell the "taint" left on your hands after just rinsing in the water from any onboard tap. Let us know how you get on with dealer/Bailey, as our rig goes in for "investigation" on Friday. Ann & John.

 

[catherine2]

Just got our van back from the dealers. The lads there have sampled the water after changing the pipes and reckon its better than before but still has a funny taste - not too good to drink. They've asked me to contact them when we come back from holiday if theres still a problem after we've run some water through the system a few times and if so they'll put us on the list with all the other customers who are not happy.

Apparently, Bailey and other manufacturers are considering moving over to the type of piping used by brewers but this is more expensive, which is partly why they have been a bit reluctant in the past.

 

[Danny_5134221]

Ann, I will keep you posted, I spoke to Bailey a couple of weeks ago and they told me they are well aware of this problem and some vans have been returned to the factory for the whole water system to be replaced, pipes, pump, water heater etc.

Hopefully its not that bad !

 

[Danny_5134221]

Ann, Collected the van this morning and all pipes have been replaced, initial test was ok with just a hint of newness, we are using the van in a couple of weeks so will give it a full test then.

 

[nkosibob]

I read somewhere that depending on the area you visit, if the drinking water is excessively chlorinated, then, when the chlorine combines with the phenol leeched into the plastic you have triclorophenol (tcp)----the pipes soon become contaminated and the only way to solve the problem is to re-pipe the van with food grade hose. Can't remember where I saw this but it may shed some light on the problem, or even further investigation.

 

[Joyce_5063910]

I have read the posts within this thread with interest now it has come to the top again.

Although I cannot solve the problem of the Bailey water pipes I can advise that if a product like Milton is not liked because of the taste it sometimes leaves then you can use the Descaler/cleaner from Kemdirect as this has no smell and no taste and also is a descaler to remove limescale as well as an excellent cleaner.

The other products will clean but not descale and do sometimes leave a taste in the water.

You should feel happy consuming the water even though you may not drink it directly you still wash in it clean teeth and wash mugs etc which you drink out of.

Of cause if the problem is one where the water pipes are not correct then cleaning and descaling with any product will not solve your problems.

We have a German caravan and do not appear to have these problems with the water.

I think that those with UK caravans and especially Baileys should keep reporting the problems and pushing the dealers and manufactures to rectify the problems.

You have paid good money for a product and you should be able to use all its facilities to the fullest with confidence.

 

[will2]

Hello Jeff

We had the same with our 2004 Avondale Dart.We too tried everything. We had given up hope,Untill I realised that the taste(TCP) had only started when we started using food grade hose for the water supply.I swapped it and tried using ordinary hose pipe.It worked no more nasty smell or taste.

So if you are using FOOD grade hose try changing and use a ordinary hose pipe.

Hope this helps..

Will