Test: Aqua Plus Water Filters

When we’re out on the road, we all have a responsibility to ensure our loved ones are only drinking clean water. Using a good quality water filter, such as these by Aqua Plus, is one of the best, and easiest, ways to achieve that…

By Max Taylor -

March 23, 2023

When you’re touring Australia, can you really be 100 per cent sure about the quality of the water you’re about to drink or take a shower in? Obviously, bottled water bought from a store is fine – I’m talking about the water from some remote holiday park, or the town water in the outback.

The best, and cheapest, insurance you can possibly buy is a water filter. A good quality water filter will remove harmful bacteria, heavy metals, chlorine, tastes, odours and more – all stuff you don’t want in your van’s water tanks, or in your body.

AQUA PLUS WATER FILTERS

One of the easiest ways to achieve this is to grab yourself a commercially-available filter. We had the opportunity to try two filters from Aqua Plus: The Inline Silver GAC Caravan Filter, and the RS2000 Caravan twin system.

We hooked a food-grade hose to a rainwater tank on a five-acre property. Immediately, I was impressed by the quality of the fittings. Both filters come with brass fittings that look like they’ll go the distance.

aqua plus — The Inline Silver GAC Caravan Filter by Aqua Plus.

Then, it was just a matter of connecting a food-grade hose to the other side of the filter, and then connecting it to the ‘town water’ inlet of the van – we could’ve just as easily filled the water tanks.

The quality of the water was impressive. Clean, clear, no odour, and as tasty as water can possibly be.

The carbon inline filter uses ‘Silver Safe’ technology to neutralise water-borne nasties that might be found in a questionable water source, and filters to one micron. It is suitable for filtering creek and river water, too. Further, it is suitable for ‘back flushing’, i.e., you can reverse the flow of the water so as to flush it out after use. It is a serviceable life of six months or 2500 gallons.

The RS2000, as the name suggests, uses two cartridges. The first cartridge is there to remove sediment and other particles, before the water moves to the carbon cartridge. It’ll remove dirt, sand, rust, chlorine, unpleasant tastes and odours, and some organic chemicals.

It also comes with a bracket that will allow you to hang the filters from the chassis, or wherever you choose to install the filters. When packing up, it’s just a case of slipping the bracket off the screws – easy.

Each cartridge has a replacement period of 10 to 12 months, and it’s just a matter of screwing the old one off and the new one on – again, it’s easy. This system also comes with the same quality brass fittings as the inline filter.

At the end of the day, we all have a responsibility to ensure our loved ones are drinking clean water, and using a filter such as these is arguably the best way to meet this responsibility. Additionally, they are extremely simple to use. If you have ever fitted a new spray nozzle to your garden hose, you can install one of these filters. Highly recommended.