# Tinaco Maintenance



## cuerna1 (Mar 7, 2015)

We have a cistern in the ground and a tinaco on the roof. The water comes in from the street and fills the cistern which is used for the sprinkler system as a an emergency backup for the tinaco. The tinaco is filled primarily from the street - but there is a pump which can pull the water from the cistern and send it to the roof.

We have a community well. Supposedly the water quality is as good as the Ciel bottled water. We have a cheap filter where the water comes in from the street and a better one under the kitchen sink. When I do change the filters sometimes they can be pretty gross.

So my question - those of you with a tinaco - how do you maintain them ? Do you empty them annually and clean them with soap ? Do you send chlorine through the system periodically ? if so how much ?


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

cuerna1 said:


> We have a cistern in the ground and a tinaco on the roof. The water comes in from the street and fills the cistern which is used for the sprinkler system as a an emergency backup for the tinaco. The tinaco is filled primarily from the street - but there is a pump which can pull the water from the cistern and send it to the roof.
> 
> We have a community well. Supposedly the water quality is as good as the Ciel bottled water. We have a cheap filter where the water comes in from the street and a better one under the kitchen sink. When I do change the filters sometimes they can be pretty gross.
> 
> So my question - those of you with a tinaco - how do you maintain them ? Do you empty them annually and clean them with soap ? Do you send chlorine through the system periodically ? if so how much ?


We have no filters except at the water processng plant our "privada" has installed and they have 2 large cement water tanks up on the hill. 

We yearly turn off the street water valve and not only drain the tinaco but the cisterna/aljibe underground by using it up and then get inside the aljibe and take a 1 liter plastic container and hand empty all the remaining water. Clean the remaining dirt wth a rag. Then with a mixture of bleach and water to wash the tank wearing a repiration mask and repeat this twice with the fresh water and bleach mixture. 

We do the same thing with the tinaco but I can´t get inside to do this so use a mop to get the remaining water and dirt out and a mop and a push broom to scrub the sides and bottom with a soapy mixture, not usually bleach as our tanks are newer. We use a bleach mixture at the rentals. Then add water and rinse the tinaco a few times. Most of the dirt gets into our tanks when they turn off the main to repair a line or repairng, cleaning etc. the tanks or whatever else they do. 

Bleach in the underground tank because our water pressure is high enough to fill the tinaco and the water sits in the aljibe not usually being used all year unless they turn off the water on the main.

We do yearly cleanings of the same setups at the rentals or more often when someone mentions they have cloudy water.

Once both tanks are drained it takes about 2 hours to complete.

I have read several times if you live in a more tropical climate it is smart to do the cleaning more than once a year.


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## Anonimo (Apr 8, 2012)

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I had been thinking about getting our tinaco cleaned. It has been too many years since the last cleaning.


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## sparks (Jun 17, 2007)

Some people just use cloro pool floaters. I haven't cleaned my 2 tinacos for 4+ years and the large cistern was done about 3 years ago


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

We never cleaned either the aljibe or tinaco 1n 13 years, but the supply lines were several inches above the bottom, allowing space for particulate matter to settle. We did use filtration with two 20“X2“ filters, which we changed at least every six months, or whenever we noticed a drop in pressure. At each filter change, we would chlorinate the system lightly.


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## makaloco (Mar 26, 2009)

My cisterna and tinaco have never been cleaned since installation eight years ago. The cisterna was opened once to check the shutoff mechanism but otherwise hasn't been touched. The tinaco was emptied once to move it to a platform. The tinaco lid blew off during Hurricane Odile last fall, so I tossed in a pool chlorine tablet in case of contamination. Other than that, our city water is so heavily chlorinated that I've never considered adding any.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

makaloco said:


> My cisterna and tinaco have never been cleaned since installation eight years ago. The cisterna was opened once to check the shutoff mechanism but otherwise hasn't been touched. The tinaco was emptied once to move it to a platform. The tinaco lid blew off during Hurricane Odile last fall, so I tossed in a pool chlorine tablet in case of contamination. Other than that, our city water is so heavily chlorinated that I've never considered adding any.


I clean my tinaco and aljibe about once every year or two, well, maybe less often.


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