Water and electric

[rhi24]

Hello,
We have recently bought a t6. This is the electric system for the battery, however the converters have put the water infront of this battery (separated by some carpentry). The blue pipe/tube I assume carries the water and thought it was unusual to have water next to electrics. Looking for some guidance from others as to whether you’d be concerned about this or nothing to worry about?

Thanks!

 

[Salty Spuds]

Absolutely no problems mixing water & electricity, as long as it's done correctly. Washing machine & pressure wash manufacturers do it all the time, to name a few.

 

[z1ts]

Washing machine & pressure wash manufacturers do it all the time, to name a few.

And pumps, boilers, UFH manifolds, kettles, immersion heaters, water softeners, dishwashers, coffee machines etc. etc.

 

[Salty Spuds]

And pumps, boilers, UFH manifolds, kettles, immersion heaters, water softeners, dishwashers, coffee machines etc. etc.

...to name a few more..showers, fish tanks, wet n dry vacs,...

 

[Badjamin]

Yeah agree with the above - hydro electric power stations do loads of water and loads of leccy...

In all seriousness, your setup could maybe use a bit of a bit of a tweak. If you can get a clip directly above the H2O hose and use a cable tie to maybe pull the pipe up so the dip in the pipe isn't directly over your electrics. Should there be an issue and water tracks back it's gonna go to the lowest point and drip on your electrics - perhaps?

 

[T6ChrisO]

^^^ Clip it to the sides and try and keep it level so the water doesn't have to rise if it doesn't need too (the 12v pumps aren't the strongest)

 

[Badjamin]

^^^ Clip it to the sides and try and keep it level so the water doesn't have to rise if it doesn't need too (the 12v pumps aren't the strongest)

Yeah that's a pro response right there. I need to adjust the 'a' to an 'o' in my name (the first a)

 

[Salty Spuds]

showers, fish tanks, wet n dry vacs,

^^^ Clip it to the sides and try and keep it level so the water doesn't have to rise if it doesn't need too (the 12v pumps aren't the strongest)

....for the sake of pedantry, the pump's work is determined by the difference between the inlet level (pump) and outlet level (tap nozzle) what the pipework does in between is largely irrelevant. BUT for the sake of OCD tidiness, I agree, that hose needs clipping.

 

[JumpShip]

Is it waterpipe? Or blue arctic cable ?

 

[rhi24]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I get that water/electrics often go together but seemed strange to have a pipe over an electrical battery was my thoughts, though sounds like others wouldn’t be concerned. Will consider sourcing a clip but as this goes into the Jerry can, I’m not sure whether there would be enough freedom to put the pipe/pump into the can if the water pipe was clipped. I believe it’s a water pipe, though I don’t know what an artic cable is.

 

[Badjamin]

Is it waterpipe? Or blue arctic cable ?

looks like water to me. the orange flex looks like the EHU cable and if they have arctic blue as well as that standard orange then that arctic blue is girthy AF hehe

 

[roadtripper]

The thing I would be concerned about, if the orange cable is 240v, is that it's tightly cable tied across both your positive and negative battery leads...

In the positive case it looks like on the fuse mounting where it's likely to fret and maybe short 12v to 240v and vice versa - which would be very bad indeed.

Get that properly clipped out the way and safe.

Maybe check the whole run for other issues.

 

[JumpShip]

Is that grey 2 core flex ? not solid core is it ?

 

[roadtripper]

Is that grey 2 core flex ? not solid core is it ?

That's a good point - if that's a 240v feed then:

1. Solid core needs supporting and is probably wholly inappropriate in a vehicle with vibration
2. A crimp connector not in an enclosure is really bad practice, they are not inherently insulated
3. An unsupported butt crimp connector is likely to fail mechanically at some point, those cable should be supported

Hopefully it's just the 12v feed to the submersible water pump and it's just the photo making it look like solid core... Still needs support either way.

It's a bit of a mixed bag as the positive supply to the battery has been run in copex and looks well supported, there are terminal covers and other cabling in copex, but then other pipework and cabling looks a bit thrown together and then some random "cable tie stuff together"...

 

[rhi24]

I must admit some of this has lost me a little….

So the orange cable I believe goes to the 240v plug or the hook up, I’ll need to check.
The blue and the white transparent looking cable that then goes to black cable is part of the water pump for the can.

Can anyone simplify what may need moving? Have I understood right that the advice is that the orange cable needs to be further up away from the battery? And the wire to the pump needs supporting rather than hanging over the battery?

Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

 

[roadtripper]

Basically you need to make it tidy and better supported while keeping the 12v, the 240v and water reasonably separated.

So the blue water pipe needs supporting over the electric area out of the way.

The orange 240v cable needs removing from being cable tied to the battery leads and supporting out of the way of the water pipe and 12v wiring.

The 12v wiring to the pump needs that joint supporting so it's not waggled around every time you fill the water. If practical you might want to secure it along the water pipe, it's not 100% ideal at keeping them separate but if (as I suspect) the pipe and wire go to the same submersible pump it's probably the better compromise.

The most pressing I would suggest is the 240v cable. That looks like the wheel arch there? So an option would be to use some of the stick on cable tie bases that have been used for the battery cable to secure it more along the top. Give the surface a good clean with some alcohol spray/wipes first to get a good stick. They don't last forever in my experience but you'll be regularly checking anyway if this is where the tank is in case anything comes unstuck. I've found in the past if they don't stay put cleaning the sticky pad off and bedding them down with a blob of RTV Silicone tends to work well.