Fresh Water Tank Issues

[Stevepkam]

Fresh Water. We have 80 gallons fresh water capacity. How often do you drain out your water or disinfect? Can the tank sit half full for a couple of months in between trips?
What secret tricks have you learned in dealing with water in RV in general?
Thanks

[Clifftall]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stevepkam Fresh Water. We have 80 gallons fresh water capacity. How often do you drain out your water or disinfect? Can the tank sit half full for a couple of months in between trips?

I would not let it sit for a couple of weeks, forget about a few months. When we travel, we frequently keep 1/3 tank as we usually have full hookups.If we're not using the tank water, we dump it and refill at least every 2 weeks. Further more we don't drink the water .

[Five2o]

People puddle jump in their sailboats using water up to 5 weeks or longer without incident.
I grew up on a farm where we filled our cistern end of August (unchlorinated water) and drank it till the following April.
Don't fill your canteen downstream if there's a dead cow in the creek.

[Voyager35L]

I clean mine after each trip and before each fill If you ever drank bad water, it is not something you wish to repeat.

[wildtoad]

Drain it after each trip, put just enough in to handle enroute toilet needs and hand washings. Always use bottled water for drinking needs.

[Highlife]

I drain it & the water heater each time we are done, and it usually is cleaned and sanitized in the middle of the season once. We use bottled water for coffee.

[Rich and Cork]

I'll jump in, just because. I have owned motorhomes continuously since 1979. During that time I would guess I average using it at least a couple of weekends a month (California guy). In all those years I bet I only put chlorine in the water tanks less than a dozen times (maybe less) and that was early on. Once in a while I will drain my tanks, but that may only be yearly. I would guess my water tanks are usually left half full. We use the holding tanks for drinking water. I am not a bottled water kind of person. We have never had an issue.

[Ranger429]

Well I am in the middle of cleaning my entire water system in my coach right now. I don't think the previous owner had done a very good job of keeping up with it. I ended up pulling the water tank from the coach to do it right. You can see how far I've gone here: Flushing the fresh water tank

And just a little insight as to how bad my tank was. This is looking in the fill hole of the tank. Nothing like a little bacteria to start your day off right.

[UFO Pilot]

I leave water in my tank all the time. I drain and refill with added chlorine once a year. I open all of the faucets until I smell chlorine at each faucet. I let it set like that for a few hours and then I then refill and flush the tank until the chlorine smell is gone. Someone told me peroxide is better than chlorine so I am going to try that next time.

We do not drink the water in the tank, we carry bottled water for drinking and for making coffee.

[melvonnar]

I never drink water from the tank; drain and flush obout every two months;

[Clay L]

We never drink bottled water.
If the water is chlorinated and not being used (as when we are connected to shore water) I sometimes let it stay in the tank for a month or so. If it's not clorinated maybe a week or two.
I haven't disinfected the system for several years but that is on the to do list for the next month or so.

[Gary RVRoamer]

I sanitize the entire system once a year. We drink the water from the tank and fill/refill as needed. Once in awhile I'll drain & refill it if it has been sitting long in hot weather, mostly for taste reasons. However, if I have reason to believe the water source was not adequately chlorinated, I'll dump and refill when I get to a better source.

[Norm4015]

I've been RVing since 1972 and fulltimed over ten years. I have never sanitized a fresh water tank and we drink the water. If you use city (chlorinated) water it is sanitized continously. Just don't use a chlorine filter between the city water and the fresh tank.

City water will remain good for months in the fresh water tank. This has been proven by tests.

[HarveyP]

We consider our motorhome to be a lifeboat if needed in any sort of disaster situation. I try to keep it ready to leave in a very short time if needed. We have not had a problem with water. Hope to keep things that way, HarveyP