Campo living: how does a deposito work?

Hi,

I'm hoping someone has a diagram of a campo water supply system.

We are on town water, but the house has a deposito of around 20,000 litres. We live in a very hard water area, we've recently noticed the cal buildup in the kettle is turning blue, and I'm thinking copper contamination. I've been to the town hall and they showed me the water analysis results, and copper verging on non-existent, so I'm forced to wonder about the deposito.

Does anyone have a diagram of a typical system, or can tell me if town water passes through the deposito, so the water is constantly refreshed, or does the water in the deposito sit there getting stale, and only gets used when town water is off.

Any other thoughts/suggestions?

Hello Astro

Perhaps you could have asked your question when you were at the town hall, they should know better than anyone else. 

Why not consider just cleaning your kettle? For a hassle-free and cheap way to remove limescale, fill the kettle with a mixture of half white vinegar and half water, and leave to soak overnight. (Make sure the kettle is unplugged and there's a note on it so nobody uses it accidentally!). In the morning, the limescale will come off easily.

Hope this helps.

Astronautilus, I installed a small deposito ten years or so ago, only a 1,000 litre capacity tank.  This was just a reserve facility, to combat the effect of water cuts in the summer.  But it served it's purpose very well.

I used the water purification tablets to be sure that the water in the deposito was kept safe, but also when appropriate turned off the mains supply periodically so that that the deposito supply would kick in and be used regularly and replaced with fresh.

Sorry I don't have a plan, but the above worked for us.

Go to your nearest pharmacy (chemist) and ask for a water analysis. They will give you a bottle to fill. It costs a few euros and you'll get an analysis of what is actually in your tank, not what the ayuntamiento say is in the town water supply. They will send your sample away to be tested, it only take a few days. Everyone uses this service to test the water in their wells; it's accurate, fast and inexpensive. It will give you a benchmark to progress from. Let us know how it goes.

Água Fuerte will remove lime scale from a kettle within a few minutes. Of course one needs to careful when doing it amd rinse the kettle really well.   I know some here will reply negatively but I have been doing it for about 30 years. 

Água Fuerte is a very good cleaning agent for limescale and it's basis is for brick cleaning, it should also be said that any one thinking of using this in any way should put some water into any vessel before adding Agua Fuerte, never put this chemical on it's own into any vessel before water.

Água Fuerte is an aggressive cleaning fluid and not fit for human consumption. You should store away from children.

Angeleyes - your comment ..."Água Fuerte is an aggressive cleaning fluid and not fit for human consumption. You should store away from children"...intended as helpful advice, or an attempt to be funny?

Essential advice for those who are unaware.

what's in it ?  must be on the label 

It's Hydrochloric acid - not recommended as a mouth wash either... 

Quite right acer, but the label is all in Spanish and sold to everyone whether you understand what it is or not.Why make a big deal about it, members and readers of the forum have been informed accordingly.   

This was my first question on the Eye on Spain forum, and I just have one futher question... do other threads spend this much time so off-topic?

At this point I tried to insert a winking smiley, but this gave me an error saying "You cannot include web or email links until your account has been approved".

I'm not impressed so far.