Community Forums

sknight · 02-04-2015, 01:01 PM

From the moment that civilization was saved by beer (Boiling the water as part of the process removed contaminates, allowing people to gather in large groups, presumably to laugh at that guy that said to hold his beer and watch this.) until recently we've done fine drinking water that wasn't sterilized and bottled.

There have been instances along the way where problems were found and fixed, such as the Romans lining aqueducts with lead. I'm not saying that we're perfect.

But in general, we're in good shape water wise. I hear about more people dying in car crashes or airline incidents or in the streets by some thug than some bug they got drinking unfiltered, unpurified water.

We still drive, fly and walk down the street. But drink that nasty water from the tap? Eww.

Yes, I drink from my fresh tank, have for years. Yes, I grew up drinking from the neighbors water hose. Still do actually. My 14 year old dog gets in front of hose and drinks it straight like it's candy.

Are there those that are sensitive to things found in water? Sure there are. But don't look down your nose at me because I said I don't spend the money on bottled water, tap water hasn't hurt me yet, and don't believe it will in the future.

rgwilliams69 · 02-04-2015, 01:07 PM

Well to try and stay with the theme, "I've been drinking from my fresh water tank since before fresh water tanks even existed!". Not really, but we do drink from our tank. We travel weekly minimum, with about 5 weeks of week or better trips, from February through November. Use the sanitizing procedure about 3 times a year (opening, late Spring, Mid Summer), and drain the tank totally at least every 3 or 4 weeks. We have a pretty constant turnover rate. There is a whole house filter on ours right upstream of the pump, but no reverse-osmosis. We tend to drink from the residential refrigerator which puts yet another filter between us and the tank. No problems yet. Use tank water for the ice maker too.

TwelveVolt · 02-04-2015, 10:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UsualSuspect

We disinfect with bleach the tank and plumbing every year. I highly doubt you will run into bad water, if a Campground was dispensing it you would see almost everyone sick and the place would go out of business.

How many years or decades has it taken to associate cause and effect in places like Love Canal? How many millions of dollars have been spent on testing and legal fees to connect the toxic dumping with contaminated ground water with abnormally high incidence of cancers?

Closer to home, Fort Lauderdale and other large cities will issue boil water warnings because bacteria was detected in one of the wells that supply the city. Are other cities and private well operators as meticulous in their testing?

camato5 · 02-05-2015, 07:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CampDaven

Our water softener is between 2 whole house filters, so everything onboard is soft and clean. Always great showers, no bits in the ice, cleaner dishes, etc.
YMMV

RVM1
AKA: Captain Forehead

What kind of water softener do you have on your MH. I have a filter but had thought about adding a softener

CampDaven · 02-05-2015, 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by camato5

What kind of water softener do you have on your MH. I have a filter but had thought about adding a softener

It is the On-The-Go Double, 16,000 grain softener. I have a standard whole house filter fore and aft of the softener.
Here it is:
http://www.amazon.com/On-The-Go-OTG4.../dp/B00KVPNVJ6

RVM1
AKA: Captain Forehead

TwelveVolt · 02-05-2015, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CampDaven

It is the On-The-Go Double, 16,000 grain softener. I have a standard whole house filter fore and aft of the softener.

Are all these components on the way into the tank, or some before and some after?
Do they affect the flow rate?

trode · 02-05-2015, 10:29 AM

Haven't read every post here but curious about a couple of issues. I do not drink from my FW tank on board, I usually put 10-15 gals in it on departure for use in bathroom, handwashing, etc while in transit to campground. Haven't camped anywhere yet without city water so do not need to use tank often. When home from trip I drain tank. MH is stored with tank empty. Not sure if this is preferred, but how I operate. We make coffee with bottled water or city water at campground. I live in hurricane country so keep supply of gallon bottles of water and rotate stock by using in MH. I drink beer so drinking water not an issue

. I suppose if I was fulltiming this would be a more important issue, and I would likely use the FW tank for drinking, coffee, washing, etc when WalMarting or dry camping, but not part of the mix now.

Curious what you all think about storing with tank empty (main concern is freezing during winter months), and also curious how you manage to sanitize tank with bleach. I do so on my boat but my water input to fill tank on boat is easy, take off cap and put in bleach. MH has no input other than hose, do you use some sort of adapter to draw in bleach with hose water??

Thanks

CampDaven · 02-05-2015, 10:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwelveVolt

Are all these components on the way into the tank, or some before and some after?
Do they affect the flow rate?

One filter before the softener, one onboard. After filter 2, the softened water goes either live or to the fresh tank, per the MH gate valve selection in the wet bay. Soft water everywhere, no mineral crystal build up. The flow is not impeded at all. My adjustable Valterra water regulator is set at 50 PSI.
It is double normal size so recharging (2 boxes of table salt) lasts twice as long. 3 months in PA, 2.5 weeks worst case in Yuma.

RVM1
AKA: Captain Forehead

deandec · 02-05-2015, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trode

MH has no input other than hose, do you use some sort of adapter to draw in bleach with hose water??

Thanks

Pour the bleach into the hose.

Connect hose to MH.

Turn on shore water.

BillL · 02-05-2015, 10:36 AM

I sanitize my tank before each trip if there is any amount of time between them. I'm comfortable with that. We've never had any issues with drinking water from out tank. In fact, we had a leak when we were hooked up to city water. The Tiffin factory told us to use our tank as our water supply until we could get the leak fixed. They thought our sanitizing routine was fine.

mel s · 02-05-2015, 10:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BillL

I sanitize my tank before each trip if there is any amount of time between them. I'm comfortable with that. We've never had any issues with drinking water from out tank. In fact, we had a leak when we were hooked up to city water. The Tiffin factory told us to use our tank as our water supply until we could get the leak fixed. They thought our sanitizing routine was fine.

We use tank water for everything when we have no campground water hook up.
My water tank, (and the fresh water system), has only been sanitized 2 times in the 14 years I've owned my coach... and I'm comfortable with that.
Mel
'96 Safari

nothermark · 02-05-2015, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwelveVolt

How many years or decades has it taken to associate cause and effect in places like Love Canal? How many millions of dollars have been spent on testing and legal fees to connect the toxic dumping with contaminated ground water with abnormally high incidence of cancers?

Closer to home, Fort Lauderdale and other large cities will issue boil water warnings because bacteria was detected in one of the wells that supply the city. Are other cities and private well operators as meticulous in their testing?

You might be surprised. If you wade through the politics Love Canal was caused by government action. Hooker Chemical told them not to build there or disturb the dump so they built a school and homes on it. That was one of the driving forces behind some of the clean water and clean air legislation that now mandates water testing.

FWIW My favorite so far is the the operator of the New Orleans water plant is required to drink a glass of water every set interval. ;-)

ssalsman · 02-05-2015, 11:30 AM

We never use the tank water except for bathing or cleaning dishes. We take water jugs that we fill from the house. We have always owned used RVs and just do not feel comfortable of what has been in the tanks from other people. Even when we use city hookups at campgrounds will fill coffee pot from the jugs. We never drink from the facets. But we have owned older RVs. We have a newer one now that we are talked about using the tank water, but old habits are hard to break and so is the OCD wife.

1ciderdog · 02-05-2015, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mel s

We use tank water for everything when we have no campground water hook up.
My water tank, (and the fresh water system), has only been sanitized 2 times in the 14 years I've owned my coach... and I'm comfortable with that.
Mel
'96 Safari

Mel, I'm with you on this one. I've sanitized once in the five years we have had this RV. Maybe my wife and I have tough systems - In my younger years I've been in places where water (and everything else was suspect) but my body system was OK. Can't say about some of the people with me. Bottom line is I am happy with the water system but one bad "bathroom" attack could start me rethinking. I don't have a concern if someone uses bottled water or sanitizes the tank often. Works for them & works for me.