Sanitize Fresh Water Tank

[WilleyB]

Originally Posted by Ray,IN

That works for me! What my Dad called the KISS principle, keep it simple stupid; every time I complicated something we were doing. Here is a helpful webpage: RV Tech Library - Sanitizing Your Fresh Water System

Thanks Ray,IN for the link, a very informative read. I copied it for the spring de winterizing. Guess I was doing it wrong, but in the past we carried our drinking water in separate sterile containers and purchased drinking water along the route. Probably wont be doing that in the future as we are now on a municipal water instead of our well.
Cheers
Willey

[Barbaraok]

Originally Posted by Jim28730

To sanitize the fresh water tank after winter storage. It's 12 degrees today but I'm trying to have a positive attitude by thinking about Spring!

If you drained and winterized the tank, then just add municipal water to the tank, open faucets and pump through each line, dump water and fill again. Two fills with municipal water should do it, unless the municipality has a real problem with bacteria in their system or chronically under chlorinates - the usual problem is over chlorinating at city systems.

Barb

[Jim28730]

Barb,
No city water here...just good old mountain well water

[Dale777]

I tend to agree with the solution suggested above by Barbaraok. However, I would also suggest replacing any filter(s) that you have in your coach. Doing those two things is all I have ever done. Of course, this solution does require that you not allow stagnant water to sit in your tank and lines for an extended period of time.

[EngineerMike]

For those w/the dual canister filters, the secondary filter is a carbon-block type element (assuming you are still using the original type) which will adsorb 100% of chlorine coming in from city water. If you want chlorine in the tank, you have to take this filter element out. You can add it in the empty canister as suggested above, or you can hook up to chlorinated city water w/the carbon element removed.

Although there are plenty of great wells in mountain areas, within 5 miles of my house (Sierra Foothills) there are artesian wells producing huge volumes of great water, and wells producing measurably acid water that will perforate copper pipe within 5-8 years. Well water is a function of the very specific aquifer from which it is pumped, and oddly, the acid water near here tastes fine and looks crystal clear. The only reliable way to tell if water is good (and if not, in what way) is testing at an outfit like NTL Labs. If you have never had well water tested, IIWMI'd get a one time bacteria + chemical analysis. I'm working w/a neighbor right now to fix the drinking water portion of his well production (he irrigates 4 acres so he only needs to treat a small portion), and the first step is some basic testing for about $250 to determine further treatment needs. If you start w/a simple Total Dissolved Solids reading, and it is less than 60, you can forget anything further as that is pretty pure water (the 60 would have to contain seriously bad stuff to be a problem). Water at my house is ~45. Water at our lot in AZ (source is a well) is about 730, is treated by the local water district, and tastes foul. Water from the local well in Baja is about 830 TDS, is treated by the local water district, and tastes great. I always treat those latter two regardless, and get them down below ~40 before calling it drinkable. I.e. water, regardless of source will probably look & taste fine; only testing can tell the real purity of water.

[Roger L.]

Originally Posted by EngineerMike

For those w/the dual canister filters, the secondary filter is a carbon-block type element (assuming you are still using the original type) which will adsorb 100% of chlorine coming in from city water. If you want chlorine in the tank, you have to take this filter element out. You can add it in the empty canister as suggested above, or you can hook up to chlorinated city water w/the carbon element removed.

Although there are plenty of great wells in mountain areas, within 5 miles of my house (Sierra Foothills) there are artesian wells producing huge volumes of great water, and wells producing measurably acid water that will perforate copper pipe within 5-8 years. Well water is a function of the very specific aquifer from which it is pumped, and oddly, the acid water near here tastes fine and looks crystal clear. The only reliable way to tell if water is good (and if not, in what way) is testing at an outfit like NTL Labs. If you have never had well water tested, IIWMI'd get a one time bacteria + chemical analysis. I'm working w/a neighbor right now to fix the drinking water portion of his well production (he irrigates 4 acres so he only needs to treat a small portion), and the first step is some basic testing for about $250 to determine further treatment needs. If you start w/a simple Total Dissolved Solids reading, and it is less than 60, you can forget anything further as that is pretty pure water (the 60 would have to contain seriously bad stuff to be a problem). Water at my house is ~45. Water at our lot in AZ (source is a well) is about 730, is treated by the local water district, and tastes foul. Water from the local well in Baja is about 830 TDS, is treated by the local water district, and tastes great. I always treat those latter two regardless, and get them down below ~40 before calling it drinkable. I.e. water, regardless of source will probably look & taste fine; only testing can tell the real purity of water.

Hello Mike, Question for you..does a Alpine Coach have a hose where you can suck the solution into the fresh water tank using the water pump like other RV's? If so, can you tell us where that hose would be?
Thanks

[EngineerMike]

The two convenient methods are 1) remove filter media from the canister & add disinfectant, screw canister back on, run water thru intake to tank, etc. (only works for those w/canister filters, but this is really easy), or 2) hook up a hose & pour disinfectant into the hose (messier unless you have a funnel), and proceed like #1.
There is no specific adaptation for installing disinfectant (tho the canister filter process is pretty near perfect).
In either case, if using chlorine concentrate, I'd put 5-10 gallons in tank before adding the chlorine for starting dilution.

[Roger L.]

Thanks Mike, I'll do the filter way

[SRAlpine]

Namwob,
Thank you so much for the idea of using an external filter to add chlorox to the water tank. That’s an elegant solution. I’ve been using a ridiculous method since 2003. Thanks!

[Olean]

I have just picked up my alpine and was getting ready to sanitize my system, but came across some thing in the Hydro hot manual that stated not to use bleach do to the copper heat exchange in the hydro hot. Any experience with this from any of you out there with hydronic heat source.

[Spk64]

I sanitize annually with HydroHot system.
1. Limit to 50 PPM concentration of chlorine
2. Limit exposure time to 12 hours, 4 hours is usually plenty of time.

[Dudley do-right]

That might be fine for a Monaco, but many Alpines have reverse osmosis systems built into the water supply. Although the R.O. system has to be brought on line manually, I think it's possible for a heavy concentration of chlorox to get into the R.O. filter, and I believe it will ruin the filter; and they aint cheap!
Dudley Do-Right, '06AlpineApex40MDTS