Water questions

Water tank, if you are not using the motorhome regularly I would drain it down.

Toilet flush, if there is no a fill point just inside the toilet door then the flush water will be piped from your fresh water tank and yes if you want to be fussy then you will have to spray the bowl.

Toilet chemical, it is not necessary to add water, but if you want to a cap full should suffice.

peedee

If there is not a separate. locked filler above the toilet cassette door it will probably be flushed via the fresh? water tank

We don't bother to drain the water tank between trips, certainly in the months of the year when you are unlikely to get a severe frost. We don't drink the water either from the tank preferring to use bottled water and as we are never from a tap we fill the kettle when  required. Obviously a personal choice as I can't point you to any information that says you shouldn't drink the water direct from the tank.

David

No need at all to excuse yourself; we were all beginners once. 

I can't really answer your first question. I don't drink the water from my fresh water tank and I never have with any van I have owned, even on those I have purchased new. But I can remember previous threads where some people have said they do drink from their fresh water tank and find it perfectly OK. Whether or not this makes a difference to how often you drain it I could not say but, intuitively, my feeling would be you would be advised to drain it more often. Whether or not you drink the water from the fresh tank it is a good idea to give the whole system a good clean out with a cleansing product (just Google cleaning fresh water tank for examples) now and then. You'd need to make sure the system was thoroughly flushed through before you drank from it though. In my view it saves a lot of hassle if, like me, you keep a 5 litre plastic container, or similar, filled up at fresh water taps, for drinking water. I used to use the water from my tank for my kettle, for tea and coffee, but I do not even do that now, preferring to use the water from my container or direct from the taps on site, if, for example, on a serviced pitch. I do not buy bottled water. I view this as a waste of money, but probably because my sense of taste is  not sufficiently discerning to tell the difference. 

I drain my water system usually once a year only when heavy frosts might arise. As I use my van a lot in the winter, I sometimes have to do it more than once to dodge potential frosts whilst it is not being used. This last winter I could have got away with not doing it at all. I will clean the tanks, as described above, at least once a year; I’m never convinced about how much this achieves. 

In almost all modern motorhomes, the toilet flush draws the water from the fresh water tank. So, you can’t use the pink stuff. I do keep a bottle of the pink stuff in spray form, but I use other products as well to keep things fresh. 

I add only a small amount of water to my toilet tank after putting in the toilet chemical,  really just to help it swill around a bit and nothing more - not more than the chemical itself probably. The flushing will dilute the chemical. 

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That is an interesting option. I don't think I even knew a product like that was available. I don't think I would change my routine, personally, but it is good to know of the option. 

What I would like to ask though, and I am thinking about informing the OP who is new to this, are your circumstances or procedures such that you never have to worry about frost damage in the winter? I have been caught out in the past with a broken tap when I failed to drain down and left the taps closed over a period of particularly hard frosts. That's why I always drain down, leave all the taps open, etc., if my van is unused at times of severe frosts.

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OK thanks, that answers it. I have Alde heating too, but not the double floor arrangement. My tanks have heaters too. But, my van is in storage so I can't have the heat on, or use the tank heaters, whilst absent. I presumed you must have some way of ensuring no freezing up. To the OP, I think you will need to drain at times of heavy frosts.     

We sterilise the fresh tank & pipes every year before we start using the van again in Spring.  We dont use the van in winter.  After the last probable use of the year, or if frost threatened, we drain down tanks, boiler (both taps) and leave all water taps open.

Once we are using the van again in Spring, we drain the fresh tank, but not the boiler, if we are not using the van for about 4 weeks, or if frost threatened.

We do drink from fresh tank.

Loo - just flush a couple of times once chemical is in.  Some chemical containers talk about adding a litre of fresh water - think that is excessive.

As for whether your loo has a separate tank - you should find a fill point near it if you have.  But if you are not filling a separate tank up, and it is still flushing, chances are it is using your fresh water tank.

I also use a separate (10 ltr) container for drinking/tea/coffee.

To ensure clean pipework I add 4 Aqua Midi Tabs a couple of times a year, the 1st on a fresh fill after winter.

Although I drain down manually my system auto 'dumps' if temperature drops below 6*C & yes it works as I found to my cost this year after putting in the sterilizing tablets.....

This does drain my my boiler, why wouldn't you? It's a much more expensive item to replace than a pipe or a tap.....

I also use the pink stuff in diluted form to spray/wipe the bowl & probably add up to a litre of water to the 'blue stuff' (I'm sure the instructions say 3!!!)