Ive been thinking on and off about getting a water tank put in my van to hold my pure water.
I currently just drive around with my DI tank and plug into a water source.
Whats your opinion? What are you doing? Do you think having a water tank is worth it?
The way I see it, lugging around 2-300 hundred gallons of water sucks up gas and im assuming you’ll go through your brakes like butter.
Well, I’m gonna weigh in on this subject despite my lack of experience- because I intend on having some sort of WFP setup next year.
Pros:
I think that having a tank will offer some flexibility, allowing you to move from one job to another without connecting your hose to a supply (I there’s even one available)
You also have the possibility of harvesting rainwater, which is typically much cleaner than tap water, extending the life of your di tank and filters. Plus you can claim you are using a “greener” method
Cons:
Like you said- water is heavy (approximately 8.3 lbs per gallon)- which will cause more wear and tear on your vehicle
You might run out- making you rely on tap water anyway
If you are at the same job all day I think you would lose the benefit of “flexibility”- because a regular cart wouldn’t require any addition setup/teardown throughout the day, anyway
personally, I’m looking into getting a small tank that I can tow with my car for doing small monthly jobs. Hopefully that will lead me to getting a more complete setup 
Hmmm, I have a 250 gallon water tank. I just haven’t felt convinced that its even worth setting up in my van. I mean Ive yet to come across some place with NO water source. Right now I just plug-in to where ever I go, and its not like that’s some kind of giant hassle…
Yeah, if it’s working for you, I see no need to change. Plus that tank would use up a lot of space that could be used for something a lot more useful, like a pressure washer. I think that the main advantage to a tank would be for people that are going from job to job all day, or if you don’t have a water source.
Same here been thinking about getting a water tank. Cons are they take a lot of space, brakes wear out faster, your adding more weight so your van gets quiet more thirsty. Pros are worry free about water at work sites… idk wat else is good?
We use a 250 gallon tank and ONLY fill it when we’ve reached the job site.
Your looking at 1 ton of water in your van. I would presume your van’s shocks and springs are going to wear out pretty fast. Also as you mentioned gas. One thing to keep in mind is if the thing is not secured correctly and you crash. Well that tank can crush you. If your customers are not complaining about using their water, why go bother with the extra expense and headache of making the water to place in the tank. Also on that note, your going to be spending more on on your own water bill. 250 gallons extra per what? 1 month, 1 week? I dont see any good reasons for doing this. I would sell the tank on ebay or craigs list.
I am willing to bet the extra money you are going to spend over the year would be better spent on a RO/DI. Roll up with a full blown out cart and you can kiss your monthy DI replacement fees good bye. Coming on my 4th year with my cart and will have to replace all the filters this year at a cost of just under $500. That comes out to roughly $14 per month cost over 3 years of using the thing. On average 4 days per week, two jobs per day on residential work.
Mr window can you please explain to me the reason for filling a tank on the job site? I don’t understand why you would take a customers water and put it in your tank and not on their windows? Or is the 1st customer of your day, paying for the rest of the customers throughout the day?
Do you fill it with tap water? What do you do then?
Carrying water doesn’t even make sense to me. The only scenario where I can think of it as a good idea is if you have one of those DI/RO system that produce very little pure water like the Merlin, or if you take rain water and purify that at your house/shop, but for the rest doesn’t make any sense. A tank weights, I don’t know, 70lbs ? compare to a ton of water moving around inside a tank. You have to secure the tank somewhat, drill the floor of your van, strap, get one of those partitions to separate the cargo from the cabin space in case you get into an accident.
A tank gives you as much water as you need if you know the water in your area and measure your TDS before and after each job, so there’s no need to complicate everything carrying water.
If you don’t have access to a water source on the jobsite then I might consider it, but that’s pretty much the only situation for me.
That’s just my 2 cents
they make smaller tanks. You could get a 65 or 45 gallon tank. enough water for a job or 2 in a pinch. light enough it wont burn out your brakes easy to strap down. We carry a 65 gallon water tank in our trucks for screen cleaning. goes straight to our power washer. Dont need to waste time finding water , hooking it up unhooking and reeling back up. Hey all those little steps take time and when you can eliminate them thats more time to make money. Also a few times weve come apon houses with very little water pressure so it helps in that.
Well what about store fronts? I never seen one with a water source… of course I’ve never looked either. and one story houses, I think it would be much easier to grab a back pack and go at it right away then screw around looking for water.
Ha!
Cant see the point in a tank unless you are doing a lot of smaller jobs and you are trying to save time in setting up. Unless you live over here in the UK…customer catches you plugging into their water supply then most would tell you to **** off! All the wfp users here seem to have tanks. I use mostly trad methods with some use of backpack, (water being stored in 25 litre containers)but have just ordered a 125 litre tank with hose and pump etc so I dont have to carry the back pack around…think I’m getting old!..
I guess I’m gona sell my tank lol…
Don’t do it man. I love my tank. I’ve got a 12 foot open air trailer* with a 200 gallon tank that holds water that I’ve purified at home. This gives me enough water for a few days worth of work.
Pros:
*This trailer also has a 100 gallon roof cleaning setup that hasn’t been put to use yet. Next!
I’ll post pictures when I take some.
Water tank on vehicle makes no sense, a house will take around 60 gallons, just would cost more for gas, using your own water and still using your di tanks at home. Just makes no sense, did I mention it makes no sense?
I have a 65 gallon tank in my truck that I use for detailing. I tried to now use one by getting out my hose and then finding a house hook up…if they even had one! Then if I did, I didn’t work half of the time and it was usually on the back of the house…miles from where I was. Then, after I was done and tired, I had to go unhook hook it and reel it up. Usually took about 10 minutes. Now, with a tank, I fill it up while I’m getting my kids ready in the AM. Takes about 15 minutes to fill. I then can pull up to a car, pull out my pressure hose and wash/rinse and be done. I can have the hose out and back up in less than a minutes (that’s not the wash just the hose). Big difference. If I did 6 washes a day, that would be 60 minutes saved!
Now when I wash a house I do take the time to hook my hose up. I will use more than 60 gallons and would not be efficient to just fill the tank up…wasting time.
Simply put, if you have a lot of small stops, a tank is a must to saving time. Just average out how man gallons you will need a day and buy a tank that will hold a little more. If you have only one or two big jobs, then take your hose and take the time to find a constant water source.
Both set ups have their place and if used wisely will save you a ton of time per day…and time is money!
Hmmm im thinking maybe ill just save my tank and use it on my pressure washing set-up im working on.
I love my setup. I have a low profile 100 gal tank. It weights 20lbs empty. Here are a few videos. I have 0 problems with tank system. I will be glad to help you. Watch the progression of my setup in videos.
YouTube - vanmount
MobileMe Gallery video dated Aug 16th
I did the exterior of two houses today for $550. Used 39 gallons.
Last one was $250, did 40 windows and was in and out in 40 minutes. NO SETUP TIME!
Oh…those were all french pane windows.
