The Complete Caravan Water Treatment & Purification System

It is entirely a personal choice and up to you. Water quality around Australia can be variable and not always consistently treated to municipal water  treatment standards.  With the increase in the shear number of people camping, over development of our rural areas and increased runoff from increased flooding events, pollution levels in natural environments have been gradually becomming higher. This is why water filters are invaluable for anyone living or travelling in a caravan or RV, regardless of whether you are staying for a while in a caravan park, travelling from town to town, or you’re going off road and exploring the outback. A caravan water filter is invaluable for those travelling with young children. Why? Children’s immune systems are not fully developed when they are born and typically their immune systems only become fully developed around age 7-8.

A caravan water filter needs to be the right type of filter for the job. And, water purification isn’t a simple “silver bullet”. And, if you want a cheap simple filter just to fill you van tanks then we are not the company for you. To provide safe drinking water caravan water filters need to be both effective as a purifier and compact, light weight, and technologically advanced. The Thirsty Nomad system will enable you to access and use, with confidence, mineralised bore water. With our 12 Volt portable purifier kit, you can purify free flowing water from rivers, creeks and streams. Our specialist range of products feature a Bore Water & 1 micron Sediment Pre-Filter which enables you to safely fill your tanks with bore water, along with a 5 in 1 purifier that can be installed in your caravan or RV to purify the water you use for drinking or cooking. 

It is not uncommon in rural Australian caravan parks to be accessing water from a local potable bore water source. While it can be of high quality, if it is properly maintained, groundwater can nevertheless be susceptible to a variety of contaminants, such as industrial pollution, radioactive materials, animal waste or more. 

It is important to understand that those outdated, generic, overpriced Granular Activated Carbon filters (GAC) will mineralise with bore water and do not filter bore water sufficiently for it to be used to fill your tanks with confidence. GAC filters cannot effectively remove sediment, silt, rust and dust – a sediment filter can.  A GAC is not a Stage 1 filter, a sediment pre-filter is. Additionally, CAG filterswill remove the chlorine that you may be provided with, this is wrong, as the chlorine going into your tanks is actually useful as a means of keeping your RV water tanks clean and safe. CAG filters cannot kill bacteria and viruses, nor can silver in a point of use water filter, without very long contact times. 

In contrast, the Thirsty Nomad 1 micron Bore Water and Sediment Pre-Filter is designed specifically to reduce the amount of calcium, magnesium and iron, as well as reduce sediment, silt and dust in bore water. All of which can cause a bio film to form in your tank and provide a perfect breeding ground for harmful pathogens. 

Our 1 micron bore water & sediment pre-filter should be combined with the Thirsty Nomad 5 in 1 Caravan Water Filter & Purifier, designed to produce safe, clean drinking and cooking water for your van. Our 5 in 1 Caravan Water Purifier is engineered, tested, and proven to international and Autralian Standards. The only inline water filter that purifies thanks to the Thirsty Nomad’s 0.001 micron Quantum Disinfection media – providing you with the elimination of 99.9999% of harmful pathogens upon contact.

To answer this question depends on water quality, water volume and filter type. Filters and purifiers are designed to ‘load’ over time, this means they are doing what they are designed to do. No quality water filter will last forever — you will find that any such claim in reality can’t be backed up — however, we want you to get the maxium life out of your Thirsty Nomad “5 in 1”. To get this longevity, we recommend you use your Thirsty Nomad as a dedicated drinking water purifier on a dedicated drinking water line in conjunction with our Bore Water & Sediment pre-filter. 

The carbon particles used in our 5 Micron Carbon Fibre Block technology are between 5 and 20 times smaller than in those outdated GAC filters. The fibres in our Carbon Fibre Block are much more tightly packed, so that even the smallest particles and contaminants are unable to get through (this also means it can continue to remove high levels of chlorine throughout it’s whole operating life). 

You can expect our 5 in 1 Caravan Water Filter & Purifier to effectively filter 7,500 lites of water before it needs to be changed (determined by volume and water quality). It is also possible to backwash your purifier. 

One of the best ways of ensuring that you get maximum operating life and efficiency from your inline water filter for caravan or RV is to make sure you have the right filter for the right job.

That’s why we always recommend that you pair our 5 in 1 purifier with our Bore Water & Sediment Pre-filter. Giving you a 7 stage filtration system in 2 filters. 

Our Bore Water & 1 micron Sediment Pre-filter cartridges will last for approximately 3,500 litres, please note, this too is dependent on water quality and the level of dissolved minerals within the bore water. By using the pre-filter, this will not only protect your purifier so that the purifier lasts longer, but it will also help to protect the appliances in your camper or van from scale, algae, rust, dirt and sediment. 

If you use our pre-filter to fill and our purifier to purify at the tap, you can expect your purifier to be able to last even longer than the 7,500 litres (depending on the quality of water it is filtering). When the water flow rate inside of your van starts to show signs of slowing, this is the indicating factor that tells you that it’s time to change your filter.

It is a straightforward procedure to install our ‘5 in 1 purifier inline  into your caravan or RV.

The Thirsty Nomad 5 in 1 Purifier should be installed after a 55psi pump (the pressure helps the purifier to perform at optimum level) in either a 16 mm PEX, 12 mm, 8 mm or 6 mm cold water line (ideally a dedicated drinking water line), as this will give you longer operating life. The purifier can be mounted in either a horizontal or vertical position, and if installed after a 55psi pump, you can expect a flow rate of 4-6 litres per minute. We note that some caravan manufacturers are installing pumps that are lower than 55psi – our purifier will work with as low as 40psi pumps but the water flow rate will drop. 

To make installation easier for you, the 5 in 1 permanent option comes complete with simple push fittings that mean it is the work of a moment to connect, including:

• 2 x ¼” (6 mm) BSP push fittings
• 2 x ½” (12 mm) BSP push fittings
• 2 x 1/2″ BSP male Nylon fittings
• Set of mounting clips

The 2 x 1/2″ BSP male nylon fittings will fit most standard connections, including braided hoses with two female ends.

The Thirsty Nomad 5 in 1 Caravan Water Filter is also a Caravan Water Purifier. Our exclusive Quantum Disinfection™ media, has been independently certified by over 14 laboratories to kill 99.9999% of bacteria, viruses in line with Australian Drinking Water Guidelines for e.Coli. Our purifier has been independently tested to Australian Water Microbiology testing standards to achieve “zero” e.Coli content.  Additionally, our caravan water filter meets the internationally recognised NSF P231 Protocol for water disinfection. Designed in Australia by Australians, the Thirsty Nomad has an International Process Patent lodged with IP Australia. 

Our exclusive Quantum Disinfection™ media is odourless, high purity and environmentally friendly, as it is a solid ceramic, alumina based insoluble activated media. It is able to eliminate 99.9999% of pathogens within 0.1/second via a catalytic reaction and does not leach anything into the water. Quantum Disinfection media is 0.01 micron equivalent rated. This is 100 times finer than any other inline caravan water filter system on the market, and is why it is able to purify water so effectively. 

Yes, you can buy each the filters separately. You do not have to buy the Complete Kit – you can buy the Bore Water &  Sediment pre-filter seperately and you can also buy our 5 in 1 purifier seperately but we always highly recommend that our customers use the two filters as designed for the most opimal water treatment experience.