Bicarb or Milton to clean aquaroll & system?

I too had heard that Milton wasn't good for the system but lots of people seem to use it! 

I had never heard of Bicarb as a cleaner but do tell us more? 

ValDa has a horrid picture of her exterior pipe cut to show the black gunge inside - so I am in the "don't drink it" camp.  I don't drink tap water at home either until it has been filtered. 

More on the Bicarb - I checked with our scientist neighbours (as in industrial chemist in the day job). Bicarb's great for removing any plastic smells, but they reckon it won't actually bump off bacteria and their mates. Meanwhile the bit of paper with our new Aquaroll, along with their Official Video are both quite insistent that bicarb is the only thing to use in there.
As to the rest of the system, the neighbourly advice is to get some wine bottle cleaner, as it shouldn't affect any metal work.
But all this from a complete caravan newbie and his non-caravanning neighbours, so no experienced authority here.

Meanwhile at home we really need to get a filter, as our hard water is the death of kettles and things.

Thanks for joining in so helpfully!

HH  &  Haribo,

For  the  first  ten  years  of  my  gainful  employment

the  company  was  officially  part  of  the  Civil  Service

therefore  I  am  confident  enough  to  say  that  :--

The  Correct  tea  is  HOT,  Strong  &  Sweet  and  of

whatever  variety  you  like  !!

Brian   A B M

EDIT  !! 

P.S.  If  the  wine  bottle  cleaner  reccommended  is  "Acetic  Acid"

expect  a  few  funny  looks  or  questions  --  I  was  informed  at

the  local  home  brewing  supplier  that  its  regularly  the  substance

of  choice  for  naughty  boys  etc  to  mix  with  certain  illegal  &

noxious   white  powdery  substances      !!

B

Although this subject can be divisive, I think the majority would be cautious about using Milton and allowing it to stand for several hours in a metal hot water tank, as Milton could adversely affect the heating element and reduce it's working life. It can pit and eat through the metal. Like Valda I also cut open an old blue connecting pipe and found the inner surface coated with black slime, caused by the sun on standing water. I therefor use some old plastic milk bottles for drinking water, one in the fridge to keep it cool.

I use diluted milton and let it stand in the aquaroll, then pump it through the caravans system, let it stand and next day flush the system out. That will be it until the following year.

I drink from the taps also, have done for over 20 years, been known to drink from streams and rivers, bathed in quarries and rivers, swallowed contaminated water in public swimming pools, reached retirement and still in good health. Don't like beer though.

As the Aquaroll literature/website clearly states - bicarbonate for cleaning out the water containers. But never put it through the system! We have in the past used Milton, Puriclean & suchlike but it does tend to taint the water. Now we just give the system and Aquaroll a good flush through if they've been standing for a few months. We also drink the water 😮, cook, make tea & coffee, shower, clean teeth etc etc and are still here to tell the tale. Others, of course, will disagree...

When wine making I always used Sodium metabisulphite as a disinfectant and fermentation stopper.

For our caravan system I will use Milton, our children survived it and the water doesn't stay in the caravan's system any longer than it did in them. 

I just put a new carbon filter on each year. 30 odd years and counting!! 

I've just done our Aquaroll with Puriclean. I don't run it through the pipes though. I always purge the pipes with "Floe" after each trip which gets rid of the residue water in the system. That said we don't tend to drink directly from the tap except for cooking and cleaning teeth. We keep a water bottle with a filter in the fridge for drinking which I fill direct from the site tap. 

Oh  Dear,  Oh  Dear,  Oh  Dear

The  Acetic  Acid  I  mentioned  yesterday  is  actually  CITRIC 

Acid.  For  some  strange  reason  I  checked  on  it  during  the

Spurs  cup  game  today,  why  I  don't  know  but  the  brain

kicked  in    --  must  have  been  dreaming,  I  suppose  !!

B