Forum Discussion

jornvango's avatar
jornvango
Explorer II
Dec 30, 2013

Drinking water?

As newbies traveling an RV into Mexico, we have a question no doubt everyone had at some point in time: what do you do for drinking water?

Do we buy a filter to make sure nothing but clean water gets into our RV fresh water tank, or do we buy some kind of filter to attach to the kitchen faucet (so we're not taking showers with filtered water), or do you simply boil the unfiltered water for a few minutes before drinking ... or do we buy big jugs of drinking water as needed on the trip?

If a filter is the answer, can you recommend a good one? We saw filters for sale at Walmart and they claim to filter bacteria but not sure if the Mexican water at RV parks needs more filtering ...

Thanks!
  • The cheap blue cylinder filters are good idea when filing your fresh water tank. Still not safe for drinking but they keep any sediment out.
  • We have a Reverse Osmosis system to produce Our own Bottled Water. I also use a series of Filters to fill the Fresh Water Holding Tank!
    Been doing this for the last 6 Years.
    We also buy a few Bottles for quick drinks from the local Stores from time to time!
  • Drinking water for us always came from purified water bought in 5 gallon jugs, called "garrafons". Buy a couple of 'bombas" (simple inexpensive plastic hand pumps} once you get to a Mexican hardware store. The jugs have necks made in a couple of sizes, so select a bomba to fit snugly over the garrafon you have. If you wish to add purified water directly to your main tank and are faced with pouring into a vertically situated filler, select a 2 litro (approx.) plastic Coke bottle, fit the neck to match the filler hole and then cut an oblong-ish circle in the side of the bottle. Unless yours is a complicated system, this apparatus will direct the water in nicely, and spillage can be kept to only a small amount, or nothing, with practice. As well, water truck workers will sometimes add their water to your tank for you.

    In many seasons of camping in Mexico we never had bad water from these containers. Filtering presupposes you will have a means of pressurizing the water to push it through to the tank, in other words, from the water supply at an RV Park, etc. Buying the water available in garrafons means you will have more latitude in where you camp, always with an eye on keeping foreign material from accumulating in your fresh water tank.
  • We use water that we buy at the supermarket for brushing teeth, coffe and cooking and local water for the potable water tank, when we have food in a restaurant I ask for agua mineral de Penafiel, and I request that it not be opened when it is brought to the table, if opened I send it back, beer is handled the same way un-opened.

    A filter may not work in some plases due to very low pressure on the lines, we have taken showers where there was only a small trickle, and to get water in the RV I had to do it with the 2 gallon jug that I carry and use the gravity inlet.

    navegator
  • Ok, based on older posts it looks like there's many answers to my question. :)
    Looks like most people buy the 5 gallon jugs. Perhaps that 'll be the best option for us too and use a Walmart filter to put 'pretty clean' water into our RV tank, to use for brushing teeth.

    Let me know if you know of any good filters that would allow us to use the RV water for drinking (and avoid lugging around the 5 gallon jugs).

    Thanks!