Community Forums

CapnMorgan · 04-03-2012, 07:25 AM

In one of the threads on sanitizing water tanks, someone mentioned that if you fill with city water you will sanitize your system. Logically this makes perfect sense, am I missing something?

wb7auk · 04-03-2012, 07:47 AM

Where ever you read that it is not correct.
Treated city water and a lot are not has so little chlorine in it that it will not sanitize your system. I use 1/4 cup of house hold bleach to every 15 gallons of the fresh water
the tank holds I fill it up as well as the hot water tank and let is sit for several hours.
Then I drain it out and refill with clean water twice after I have run all taps and made
sure the whole system has been treated. I repeat the flushing with both cleaning refills and then system is ready for use. I do this a couple times a year.

**CLIFFTALL** · 04-03-2012, 07:52 AM

Ditto. Just did mine this morning and will flush with fresh water at 3:00.

Fred and Bonnie · 04-03-2012, 04:45 PM

I must walk on water, never worried about adding clorine to the fresh tank in ten years, just refilled the tank with city water every 30 days. Never had a problem.

fred

S2kskibum · 04-03-2012, 04:50 PM

We have a very good whole house filter - takes out just about everything. I have used that without incident for three years. Maybe I walk on water, too. Then again, I'll eat raw oysters on the beach in Mexico! Don't want any chlorine and especially flourine/floride/aluminum waste in my water.

scenic route · 04-03-2012, 05:16 PM

We sanitize as above... Most RV'ers don't use their RVs for months at a time...it's a good idea to kill those 'lil nasties that can breed in the FW tank.

We also use a 'just in case' inlet filter when hooked up to all CGs . Bob

wb7auk · 04-03-2012, 05:26 PM

I must be like you Fred but I do sanitize the system to make sure. Having been in
a lot of countries where you are very careful about the water you drink knowing what
bad water will do to you one does not take chances.

Mr_D · 04-03-2012, 05:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wb7auk

Where ever you read that it is not correct.
Treated city water and a lot are not has so little chlorine in it that it will not sanitize your system. I use 1/4 cup of house hold bleach to every 15 gallons of the fresh water
the tank holds I fill it up as well as the hot water tank and let is sit for several hours.
Then I drain it out and refill with clean water twice after I have run all taps and made
sure the whole system has been treated. I repeat the flushing with both cleaning refills and then system is ready for use. I do this a couple times a year.

Exactly what my owners manual says to do also, except only once per year.

garym114 · 04-03-2012, 06:13 PM

It will not because the chlorine is added at your city the water plant. The water is stored and delivered. By the time it gets to you the chlorine has done its job, and the chlorine level is much lower. The remaining chlorine level is not high enough to sanitize your tanks.

goldwingerx2 · 04-03-2012, 07:40 PM

We never winterize our MH since we use it year around. When I get to a campground that we will be at a few days I fill the FW tank full and leave it full until ready to leave, then I use the water to flush the black tank a little extra. Rarely do we travel with more than 1/4 tank FW. I also do the santization thing once a year. Has worked so far and hopefully will in the furture.

djbmsu · 04-03-2012, 07:48 PM

We must be the only RV'ers on the planet that does not drink water from our coach. I even have a water softner we use every time but we take bottled water. We don't even use the ice maker because basicly we just dont care for the taste.

gklehner · 04-04-2012, 04:34 PM

Here is my simpleton reply on the water issue. For around $10 buy a pool chlorine test kit. Test your city/park water chlorine level. Of course if you are using home well water, just add one drop of chlorine (4% is fine) per gallon then test. If less than 0.2 ppm (free chlorine residual - check color at less than 10 seconds on the test kit) your supply is questionable, find a new supply.
Drain your RV water and refill, run faucets for 2 minutes and refill, let set for a few hours. Run water for two minutes at the faucet farthest from your tank. Check the chlorine level using the pool test kit. If the chlorine residual is 10% lower than the previous check, time to sanitize.
Ignoring all this, on the basic level run your water at the furthest faucet for one minute (low flow is fine), if you have no free chlorine residual, sanitize! The 1/4 cup per 15 gallons remains a good base point.
Personally I prefer city water or tested well water over bottled. It's properly (really) regulated and you know what you are drinking (water test results are posted). So there is my more than two cents worth!

Gary RVRoamer · 04-04-2012, 04:44 PM

I don't worry about the safety of the water in the tank when I am using an actual "city" supply - it is already treated with chlorine and otherwise safe to drink.

But that's not the same as sanitizing the RV tank and system. That takes a much greater concentration of chlorine than normal drinking water. I do that once a year, just to make sure that I haven't picked up some microbe that can tolerate the mild chlorine dosage that most public water supplies use. I figure my RV is more exposed than the stick house - I am continually opening up the connections, attaching it to pipes that I know nothing about (did the last guy drip his black water hose onto the faucet?), and maybe using supplies that come from poorly managed wells or cisterns. To me it makes sense to take a few extra precautions now and then.

scenic route · 04-04-2012, 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary RVRoamer

. I am continually opening up the connections, attaching it to pipes that I know nothing about (did the last guy drip his black water hose onto the faucet?), and maybe using supplies that come from poorly managed wells or cisterns. To me it makes sense to take a few extra precautions now and then.

Absolutely agree. I've seen people put their slinky over the site faucet to flush it out. I've even had people let their dog do the three legged mambo on our faucet and inlet filter. Then there's the stinky slinky maintenance on top of the picnic table trick. It will surprise you what people do in campgrounds when they think no one is watching or they just don't care?? Maybe they just don't know any better

.

Spray bottle with high concentration of bleach to water...don't leave home or hook up without it.