** Update 23 April, 2025.**
Now nearly 4 years since I painted it last. Just an update, what I did that time previously I didn’t was left it to cure for 7 days. That is after the VACTAN was applied, it had 7 days to dry before I put the water back in.
Here’s what it currently looks like.
As you can see. There’s not a lot of rust. The water seems clear. If you wanted it potable from the tank, you’d have to do more, maybe get rid of the rust by giving it a few more coats every couple of years.
** Update 5th June, 2021.**
How long does Vactan last?
I’d say the last coat, (of Vactan), stopped working around 12 months ago. That’s around the summer of 2020, so it lasted around 2 years.
The symptoms of it stopping working were; flaking into the watertank, sinking to the bottom, and after some time, maybe a year, going into and clogging the waterpump filter.
That is: the very thin coating that is Vactan eventually flaked off, sometimes taking a coat of the Rylards beneath it, sometimes not, coming free from the sides of the tank and falling to the bottom…
This is what the watertank looked like as I started work on it.
It’s a combination of the paints that I’ve talked about lower down in this post. As you can see, some of it has been flaked off, either by me going around with my
or come away over the course of time.
There isn’t much bare metal, nor is there a lot of the original iron oxide that I put on there to start with.
It took from the 27th July 2018 to get fully to this point. So 3 years.
Prep for a brighter better future (for your watertank)
In my case, the prepping is already done…
The majority of the paint remains intact on the layers beneath. To prep in this case, I need to remove the flaking paint. Then make sure the surface is good to receive another 2 coats of Vactan.
Doesn’t take long. Maybe an hour to get it all off.
Continue reading “Painting a narrowboat water-tank – The third coming…..”
