I have pondered this question myself recently after a trawl of the Hymer-Eriba website and came up with the same pros and cons, except for the suicidal small animal! Mine came with Whale submersible and this suites our needs perfectly, however I noticed that the Eriba Feeling and Nova Light models come with a 45l internal tank with external fill as standard which made me wonder how that would work for me? Answer, terribly. I camp off grid with four dogs and use 40l per day and fill my aqua roll from a stand pipe that could be hundreds of metres away in the corner of a farmers field that has been taken over (with permission) by 400 dog owning campers! The other odd thing I noticed is, while the Touring range has the option of on board clean and waste water tanks, the Feeling/Nova Light have no option of waste tank.

Incidentally, my aqua roll travels in the wash room happily, but I do travel with approximately 10l of water so we can brew up and water the dogs while setting up before beginning the search for the stand pipe!

Another pro for the internal water tank, though hardly relevant to most of us, is that it won't freeze while winter camping like an outside container might. Hymer mention that all water and gas pipes are internally routed for this reason. I've seen pictures of caravans covered in snow with skis propped up outside, so this must be useful for some hardy souls.

To have a hot water heater fitted you have to opt for either an onboard, permanently fitted, tank under the seat at the rear of the van. This is filled from outside using an electric pump (don't remember the name) and an external filling point as shown above by Randa and unless you are within hose reach of a tap you still need an aquaroll to fetch the water. Or you can use an aquaroll for an external fill (i.e. via an Aquaroll or Fiamma tank) using a whale pump and an external point. You then just have either the one tank or aquaroll and don't have two smaller tanks in the washroom and under the kitchen sink. (In our previous van the one tank also flushed the loo and the loo had a sort of carbon filter thing to scare away bad smells as obviously you couldn't put pink fluid in the one tank! But they seem to have abandoned that idea now). The onboard tank is quite sizeable and you do lose most of that locker space under the seat. Unlike in a motor home you can't travel with the tank filled and you still have to take along an aquaroll or similar anyway.

Hi Magpie!
We have the water heater (Truma Therme?) which was factory fitted but we specified 'no onboard tank' so it is supplied from a standard aquaroll.

We did have issues with the Whale water inlet system which leaked around the housing so I replaced it with a Crystal 2 which has a much more secure locking fit into the inlet housing.

We prefer taking the aquaroll to the tap rather than carrying a smaller water container more frequently. Incidentally we have used it in freezing conditions quite often. We usually remove the filling pipe and pump overnight but we also have an insulated jacket for the aquaroll which also covers the inlet tube. It's one of those things that spends most of its useful life in the garage because we forget to take it when it might be needed and conversely, if we carry it around it never seems needed!

TonyP

The 420 we have just bought second hand has a permanent on board water tank. We have only used the van for 2 nights on our way home from buying it. So it may be too early to tell but filling it seems like a major pain, draining it apparently is no biggie, not really done it yet so can't comment. Apparently it is just a matter of breaking an electrical connection then it drains from the tank, for extra reassurance open the taps too. Time will tell but it came like that so I guess we will learn to deal with it.
Now where is the watering can with the hosepipe attachment

When we ordered our van the options were a fixed tank (30l) or two under sink tanks (13l) each. So the difference is only 4l total! As someone else posted, the fixed tank takes up a fair chunk of the under seat storage.So we opted for the small tanks under the sink option. I believe you have to go for the fixed tank if you want hot water I can't tell you if we made the right choice until June when the van arrives!

We use a Superkettle for hot water and drinks, we just keep it topped up and it provides enough hot water for both of us.

http://www.superkettles.co.uk/

Onboard or Outboard.. Well I have had both,it only works really if you have a hot water system and you need a feed for the hot water,there is no advantage in onboard tank for cold water I removed my tanks and now use a aqua roll but that has no changed to a fiamma 23ltr with a submersible pump, one pump serves both taps, wandering around with a watering can is not my scene, that is motor homers and wobbly boxes😊

Well, ours has the on board tank We've only been away for a weekend but it worked fine. Yann filled it from a jerry can with a nozzle and to empty it, I ran the tap until the water ran out; He obviously didn't fill it to the top for a weekend. No problemo. But, I do appreciate the comments about how much space it takes up. Ours has a nozzle you pull for fast emptying/sterilising.
Thinking of which, how often do you setrilise yours? With Milton?

That is my point of view, plus when the water runs out, I take the chance to empty the waste at the same time,one journey both my tanks are fiamma 23 ltr
Easy Peasey 😎

Quote: Islay Corbel wrote in post #27

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Ours has a nozzle you pull for fast emptying/sterilising.
Thinking of which, how often do you sterilise yours? With Milton?

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Thanks, Hob. I'll do it next time.