I discovered a dead squirel in our cold water tank in our attic on return from a holiday. This resulted to smelly contaminated water running from cold taps supplied from this tank and also all hot water taps. I removed the animal from the water and let the system run through with a lots of fresh water but how can I disinfect the system to ensure safety? What should I do? How can this be done? Or do I need to replace both cold water storage cistern and hot water cylinder to be safe? Please help. Thank you.
contaminated cold and hot water system
- Thread starter Petra
- Start date
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Was it grey or red?
You should really have a lid on the cistern, or make sure the local squirrels can swim. Best bet may be to drain down both cold tank and cylinder (can be a bit tricky) to minimise residual polluted water, then add bleach (chlorine) in sufficient concentration to kill off any bacteria. Then flush through until the chlorine smell is cleared, then refill to normal. Any residual smell should be of chlorine rather than squirrel.
You should really have a lid on the cistern, or make sure the local squirrels can swim. Best bet may be to drain down both cold tank and cylinder (can be a bit tricky) to minimise residual polluted water, then add bleach (chlorine) in sufficient concentration to kill off any bacteria. Then flush through until the chlorine smell is cleared, then refill to normal. Any residual smell should be of chlorine rather than squirrel.
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