Water system

By karl0svandango on 4th September 2017

In this post, I’m going to briefly explain my water system and the installation in my van conversion.

While living full-time in the van I am going to need water for loads of different uses such as cooking, cleaning, drinking and a shower.

This is the diagram of my water system setup.

Water system diagram.

Installation

1. Water tank

The tank I have is a 70 litre Fiamma tank, £65 off eBay.

I built the kitchen unit around the water tank for it to fit nicely and not take up much room as im limited for space. You can see how I did this in my other post Fitting kitchen unit and worktop.

70 litre Fiamma water tank.

Before the tank can be fixed in place, the inlet and outlet needed to be installed on the tank.

Cut the 20mm hole for water outlet fitting.

Water outlet fittings.

The water outlet installed on the side of the tank.

The water inlet is at the top of the tank.

Water inlet fittings. BSP male nipple, Threaded nut and threaded cap.

Water inlet at top of tank.

Once the inlet and outlet were fitted, the tank was fixed in place inside the kitchen unit. The fixings were provided with the tank.

Fixing the water tank to kitchen unit.

2. Water pump and accumulator

Trail King 20psi water pump £49.50 eBay. Used to pump the water from my tank to kitchen sink and instant hot water.
Fiamma water accumulator £23.98 eBay. Used to keep a smooth constant flow of water and extend the life the water pump.

Water pipe connects from water tank outlet to the water pump.

water pipe connects from tank outlet to pump.

The pipe is fixed down with plastic clips.
The pump and accumulator are screwed to the kitchen unit.

From the accumulator, a water pipe connects to the kitchen sink/tap and to the instant hot water tank.

3. Sink/tap

kitchen sink and tap

Kitchen tap fixed on the unit.

The flexible pipe from kitchen tap coming through the worktop to the underneath.

Hot and cold water pipe needs to be connected to the flexible pipe from the tap. The cold water pipe comes from the accumulator and the hot water pipe will come from the instant hot water tank, I will explain more about hot water in my next post.

To connect the hot and cold pipe to the flexible tap pipe I purchased a ½ inch BSP To 8mm Female Barb Hose Tail Fitting.

Tap flexible pipe and 1/2 BSP before fitting together.

Hot and cold water connects to the taps flexible pipe with a 1/2 inch BSP.

4. Waste water

The waste water from kitchen sink will go through a pipe under the van with a tap on the end to let the water out. I have a waste water container on my roof that I will bring down to use when to collect the water and dispose of, but most of the time I will just let the water go straight on to the ground.

32mm waste pipe connected to sink waste trap

I cut a 32mm hole in the floor for the pipe to go through to the underneath of the van.

Hole in the floor for waste pipe to go through.

The waste pipe going through the floor.

The waste pipe comes through the floor and sealed.

I sealed around the hole with black waterproof silicone.

I used a pipe reducer so the pipe could fit the waste trap.

Pipe reducer 32mm to 28mm.

pipe reducer with pipes connected with jubilee clips

waste trap connected to the pipes.

The waste pipe has a tap at the end to let the water out. I leave it open most of the time, but when in certain areas parked up ile dispose of the dirty water in a portable waste container. This is stored on the van roof when not in use.

At the end of the waste pipe, there is a tap connected.

Waste tap outlet.

The waste pipes are secured/fixed in place with cable ties. On the chassis of the van, there are some little holes in places that I could connect the ties too.

Cable ties holding the waste pipe in place.

This post has been a brief description of my water system in my van conversion and I really hope it has helped or inspired anyone reading this. Any questions please don’t be afraid to ask.

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