Water Filter Advise

Hi Gil,

I’ll comment on some of your thoughts in an attempt to help as you work your way through this.

myredracer wrote:
I had no idea what the effect of a carbon block filter can be from chlorine reduction on the downstream water. I am going to go back to the drawing board on the "whole house" filter I bought, a Pentek Floplus-10. I chose it because it's 0.5 microns, is designed for a high flow rate and it combines carbon, sediment and micro-organism filtering all in one. While it does have a polypropylene media, it does not have KDF or silver in it. I just looked at the fine print that I didn't see before and it says "Warning: For drinking water applications, do not use with water that is microbiologically unsafe or of unknown quality without adequate disinfection before or after the system." It sounds like if you are not using water from a treated municipal system and the water quality is unknown, this filter is not a good choice.

I found this cut sheet on the Pentek Floplus-10. Strange I could not readily find it on the Pentair Water web site, but found their tech sheet on a retailers web site http://www.allfilters.com/files/pentek-floplus.pdf

If you are going to use this as an entire camper filter, you may find if you put a sediment filter upstream from it may help. It all depends on the water source, however a 50, 20 or 10 micron may help as a pre-filter to help slow down clogging of the main filter. I suspect you will find going with a straight 0.5 micron filter as the primary unit may give very slow flow after a short while. While the pressure drop may be better than a comparable 0.5 micron unit you may experience ~ 30 minutes to fill the fresh tank. If you are hooked to city water, then it may not be “as” noticeable. Many RV faucets have small restrictors in them to about 3 gpm at full flow. According to the Flotech-10 chart, with a new filter, there is 2 psi/1 gpm. Or 6 psi loss when the main sink or shower is running wide open on a new clean filer. That pressure drop will increase as the unit becomes more clogged.

Their warning sticker I’m assuming comes for a general caution to only use this filter on known potable water and that has something chlorinated downstream. If a high bio load comes into the unit that was not from a potable source, given the right conditions that may grow out of control as the carbon unit does not contain a bacteria static agent.

In a house system on chlorinated city water this is generally not a concern. However on a RV, it will reduce the chlorine downstream by a good amount and our campers can get real hot inside when stored during the summer out in the sun. So that is something to think through. If you use this filter, you would fall into the group of folks who some put them in the freezer between trips. As I said before, I have no experience in doing that and cannot comment on how effective it is.

I grew up on chlorinated city water. After being on well water for 20+ years, when we go anywhere that has chlorine in the water, it seems almost overpowering at first. We don't find it offensive enough though to make a carbon filter a must. It seems like the carbon particles aren't just there for the chlorine though.

Yes, you are correct, the carbon takes out things other than chlorine.

I still want a decent flow rate filter with a lower micron rating and with KDF or silver to prevent bacterial growth. I was looking at a 10" Pentek whole house filter that has KDF in it but it is 4.5" in dia. and retails for $80, so that's not an option. Perhaps two filters would be a good choice - a main whole house one and a separate one under the kitchen sink just for drinking water? I drink a lot of water straight out of the tap. In reading your links on KDF and Silver, it seems like KDF would be a good choice. I don't know what that does to cost or dimensions.

Yes, KDF is the newer method. When I have broken the top off of one of ceramic carbon filters I can see the KDF mixed in with the granulated carbon. It looks like the granulated KDF right off the KDF web site I linked you too. From my background, I would recommend the KDF or silver when using a carbon filter.

Yes, if you use a fine sediment filter on the incoming city water this lets the chlorine come through. The pleated filter I linked Fisherguy is a washable one. As we know, only use sources you know are potable. At the sink, then go with a fine micron carbon filter as a point of use filter to reduce out the chlorine and other things carbon tanks out. Again a filter with KDF or Silver in it and work through how to drain it and dry it out when not in use. Mount it in an easy access area. Naturally this all comes with 1 or 2 system sanitizes per year pending use of the system and good water practices.

Here is a photo of the strainer out of the water inlet fitting on the exterior of our TT. This is how it looked 2 months after winterizing at the end of the season. It looks to be about 50% or more covered in something. Interestingly, the strainer at the end of the hose at the CG faucet is perfectly clear. I always check the one at the faucet end but never thought to look at the one on the inlet. I have no idea what the material on the strainer could be. Algae? I don't exactly relish the thought of ingesting the stuff whatever it is. Could the stuff also be somewhere in the water dist. system inside our TT?

I myself have not seen rust colored algae. The types I have seen are a variety of green. Even when I find a bio mass in our machines that goo is more milky colored. And our bacteria “goo”, may be from the types of bacteria we have feeding on the proteins and fats in the products we make.

That said, were you camping in an area that was high in iron? This is total speculation but there may be “something” stuck to the screen and then a high iron source came through and attached to the stuck something. Does it smell like iron or foul something? This one I do not know. I would for sure do a good sanitize of the camper come spring when you start using it again.

Related to this thread, I came across the below article recently on Legionnaires disease in RVs. When I looked into to it, it seemed highly improbable that this would be a concern in RV systems because it normally occurs in highly complex water systems such as in large buildings; in systems with lime scale, sludge & rust buildup; and in holding tanks where there are elevated temps (68F and higher) for long periods. And then you need to inhale the infected water, not drink it. Not really conditions present in an RV.

The article cites a case of an RV-er that contracted the disease but was already in a higher risk category to start with and it doesn't include any evidence on exactly how and where he might have contracted it. If it was a problem in RVs, I have to think you'd hear a lot more about it. In reading through the article, it doesn't seem particularly credible the way it was written.

Legionnaires disease in RVs

Thanks for the link. Interesting to read. I am not really up on that disease, however the study did site this in their investigation.

3.2.2. Demographics

All of the RVs in the study were registered in southern states including: TX, GA, FL, SC, VA, and NC except for one registered in the state of OH. The four RVs culture-positive for Legionellae were registered in different states, GA, SC, TX, and TN (Table 1). The average model year of all the RVs included in the study was 1997 and the average model year of all of the four positive RVs was also 1997. No specific make or model was associated with a positive Legionella culture.
3.2.3. Maintenance

Fifty percent of all the RVs surveyed had RV general maintenance performed within the last year with 60% of RVs having the water tank cleaned within the last year. Only one reported cleaning the water tank with chlorine. Others reported draining and or flushing as the cleaning procedure.

Forty-five percent of all the RVs would have the water tank drained when the RV was put in storage. However, only one of the RV owners treated the RV tank with chlorine before putting the water tank back into use.

A few points that stick out, southern US states, = hotter temps. When the temps are hotter, many bacteria thrive a lot better. Older campers, while they themselves are not a problem, regular chlorine shock sanitization was not done. This does not matter new or old, however if years have gone by with no sanitization, odds are not in ones favor in a real hot climate for not having an out of control situation.

You mentioned you had to inhale the water, this may be possible. This stuck out.

2. Case Report

A 50-year-old previously healthy man who smoked occasionally and drank moderately attended an antique car exhibition in rural Pennsylvania in the fall of 1993 with several other enthusiast friends. The group traveled by RV and lived in the vehicle for several days using water for drinking and bathing directly from the storage tank. The water supply was replenished when required by refilling the tank with local tap water from a municipal system.

If someone is showering in their camper with heavily infected water, odds are present you could inhale steam vapor or even mist while showering. This might be a path for an inhaled infection. And while they used chlorinated water to fill the tank, if the bioload in the system is high, there is not enough chlorine in potable water to knock it out. The free chlorine that is present gets consumed trying to burn off the infection until can’t any longer as it is all used up. If it never knocks out the source, it just keeps leaching out nonstop into the water in high temperature conditions.

Hope this helps

John

JBarca wrote:

Red,
Here is what I know. If we happen to have a RV'er who is a water treatment person or a microbiologist they may add some more.
Hope this helps
John

Thanks for some more excellent info. This seems to be a whole new area of RV-ing that never occurred to me. I thought all you ever needed to do is hook up to city water and you are good. We are primarily weekend campers until DW retires so water may be in the system far a week or two or three between use. Have only had to use the holding tank once. We wouldn't drink the water on the rare occasion we need to use it.

I had no idea what the effect of a carbon block filter can be from chlorine reduction on the downstream water. I am going to go back to the drawing board on the "whole house" filter I bought, a Pentek Floplus-10. I chose it because it's 0.5 microns, is designed for a high flow rate and it combines carbon, sediment and micro-organism filtering all in one. While it does have a polypropylene media, it does not have KDF or silver in it. I just looked at the fine print that I didn't see before and it says "Warning: For drinking water applications, do not use with water that is microbiologically unsafe or of unknown quality without adequate disinfection before or after the system." It sounds like if you are not using water from a treated municipal system and the water quality is unknown, this filter is not a good choice.

I grew up on chlorinated city water. After being on well water for 20+ years, when we go anywhere that has chlorine in the water, it seems almost overpowering at first. We don't find it offensive enough though to make a carbon filter a must. It seems like the carbon particles aren't just there for the chlorine though.

I still want a decent flow rate filter with a lower micron rating and with KDF or silver to prevent bacterial growth. I was looking at a 10" Pentek whole house filter that has KDF in it but it is 4.5" in dia. and retails for $80, so that's not an option. Perhaps two filters would be a good choice - a main whole house one and a separate one under the kitchen sink just for drinking water? I drink a lot of water straight out of the tap.

In reading your links on KDF and Silver, it seems like KDF would be a good choice. I don't know what that does to cost or dimensions.

Here is a photo of the strainer out of the water inlet fitting on the exterior of our TT. This is how it looked 2 months after winterizing at the end of the season. It looks to be about 50% or more covered in something. Interestingly, the strainer at the end of the hose at the CG faucet is perfectly clear. I always check the one at the faucet end but never thought to look at the one on the inlet. I have no idea what the material on the strainer could be. Algae? I don't exactly relish the thought of ingesting the stuff whatever it is. Could the stuff also be somewhere in the water dist. system inside our TT?

Related to this thread, I came across the below article recently on Legionnaires disease in RVs. When I looked into to it, it seemed highly improbable that this would be a concern in RV systems because it normally occurs in highly complex water systems such as in large buildings; in systems with lime scale, sludge & rust buildup; and in holding tanks where there are elevated temps (68F and higher) for long periods. And then you need to inhale the infected water, not drink it. Not really conditions present in an RV. The article cites a case of an RV-er that contracted the disease but was already in a higher risk category to start with and it doesn't include any evidence on exactly how and where he might have contracted it. If it was a problem in RVs, I have to think you'd hear a lot more about it. In reading through the article, it doesn't seem particularly credible the way it was written.

Legionnaires disease in RVs

myredracer wrote:
Jbarca, what's the story on filters that have silver or an anti-microbial agent in them to help kill bacteria and organisims? Is it correct that some filter media are more resistant to bacteria growth? I think I read that polypropylene is better in that respect and that paper is not good?

Should an RV filter be tossed out once a year regardless even if it's had low use?

Red,

Here is what I know. If we happen to have a RV'er who is a water treatment person or a microbiologist they may add some more.

Silver and KDF are used in carbon filters to create an environment where Bactria does not like to reproduce in. They call this bacteriostatic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriostatic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_filter

http://www.bestek.net/silver.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kdf-55

http://www.kdfft.com/products.htm

That said, not all carbon filters have this feature of adding silver or KDF. Bacteria actually really like to grow in carbon filter beds. I have heard some RV'ers after a campout take their carbon filter that does not have silver or KDF in them , drain it and put the element in the freezer between camping trips to help keep the filter element from growing out of control. I have no background on this practice but understand they are using the low temperature to not allow the bacteria to reproduce. I myself would avoid using that type of filter on a camper if I was only weekend camping. Full timers that keep flushing it all the time are in a different set of conditions.

I too have heard the all plastic filters (polypropylene etc) are better over paper as the paper creates a bacteria problem. I "think" the issue is some papers being made from an organic substance creates a food source or a place that bacteria can harbor in the poris structure of paper. Plastics do not have these 2 issues. I am not 100% sure of the reason, however I believe these 2 areas are part of the problem.

How long should a filter be used? This partly depends on the type of filter and how it is used. 1 year of use regardless how many gallons have gone through it is a common recommendation that I have seen. Others are 3 months, my home fridge filter is 6 months. If the filter cannot be cleaned, then 1 year may be too long pending what it was subjected to. If the filter never had water in it, then I do not know of a shelf life that it cannot be used if it is a year old. Only if it has been in use. That said, my ceramic/carbon filter with KDF that are dried out and stored cool have gone over a year. I would not think of doing that on a carbon element with no KFD or silver in it.

The problem is there is no good way to know how much sediment or bacteria it was subjected to and how imbedded it is on non cleanable filters. And then there is materials of construction. Some filters may not hold up being wet that long.

If the manufacture states they have a 1 year in use life, then they have some kind of justification to base it on. And it may only be good practice so the filter does not fail in service not knowing how old it is.

Hope this helps

John

myredracer wrote:
JBarca,

More good info. Seems like all of your info. would be good for a sticky...

Apologies for asking more questions... :)

Hi Red,

Ask away. Glad to help as I can. I do not know it all but will add what I know. Sorry this took so long.

1. What does a carbon block filter do to chlorine in your water after the filter? If I install a carbon block filter that filters the entire TT, is that possibly detrimental? It seems like some RV-ers use a carbon block filter. In our case, the water inlet is right below the kitchen sink (only a few feet of pipe) while the bathroom sink is 10'+ away but the only time you'd ingest water in the bathroom is a small amount when brushing your teeth.

Carbon filters tend to "reduce" chlorine and a good number of other bacteria, tastes etc. Notice I said "reduce". How much they reduce depends on how fine they are and what the chlorine ppm was when you started. Each time you fill up the camper, the source you are drawing from can have a different ppm of chlorine to start with. If it is 3 to 4ppm, a 0.9 micron carbon filter can reduce it pretty far. Maybe down to 1.0ppm. If you start with 1.5 ppm you may end up with almost nothing.

From my use/testing/background, yes, stripping out almost all chlorine in the camper is a concern. This is why I spike it back to levels that create a stable system again. You do not need much on a clean system to keep it clean. 0.5ppm free chlorine if you can hit it that close, is good. 0 ppm chlorine starts raising the risk. You may not have a problem right away, it will take some time to become a problem after an infection starts. The good part is, the carbon filter did strip out a lot, if not all of the food source so that can slow down reproduction. If it is cool out, the cooler temps help too. The concern is if the bacteria gets out of control and then you ingest them. The only way I know how to stay ahead of that is by a good water program of both filtering and then checking and adjusting chlorine as needed.

2. I noticed at the end of the last camping season (51 nights), that the little screen filters on the hose and water inlet were plugged up with some kind of crud. Not sure if it is sediment and/or algae. Any idea what it is and what the negatives are? Would it originate from a public system or private well system?

It is hard to say without seeing a pic of it or seeing it directly. By chance did you smell anything foul? Or was it slimy/gooey? Bacteria smell bad.. I'm mean really bad when they are alive and well. At least water borne varieties I have dealt with. Our micro lab managers says "follow your nose"... and it has truth to it. If the screen plugged from pipe rust, hard water calcium, dirt etc, those particles can clog but they do not stink.

3. Just how good is bulk filtered water that you buy at stores or bottled water compared to city water that you'd use at a CG? I seem to recall reading that it's not as good as they make it out to be. We get bulk water in 5 gal. bottles for DW as that's all she will drink. The bulk water comes out of the filling machine pretty quickly so I am guessing the level of filtration isn't that great? I'm pretty sure they are supplied by city water.

I'm not a bottle water expert however since it is sold as a public water source it should be potable. There are all kinds of bottled water. Some are made by taking standard city water and running it through a reverse osmosis (RO) system. And RO water really does not taste very good as it is so pure. If it is what they call 1st stage permeate, it is the cleanest and purist and many folks do not like water that pure as far as taste. By having some level of good minerals in it, it helps the taste. Some times on the back of the label they tell how it was made. As far as speed, that all depends on the size of the filter system. At work we can made 350gpm of RO water and we have multiple systems generating up to 1,000gpm. The little home RO systems are tiny and may only put out 1/2 gpm as a point of use system at the sink.

I've been drinking well water for about 20 years at home. One was 300' deep or so and artesian. Our current well is a recently built shallow one (30'). When you build a new house here in Canada that has a well, your municipality requires you to meet "Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality". Link below. I think some provinces have their own regs. for public and semi-public water distribution systems. For private homes at least, they don't require any on-going testing. If you construct or drill a new well, there's no testing requirements which seems odd.

In our state/county the Department of Environmental Conservation keeps track of all wells dug in the county/area going back a long time. And they have a copy of the well drillers report and if you call them, it is open the public. We are building a new home that we have to have a well on so I'm up on this local area. Once a well is drilled, we have to sanitize the well and home piping and do a water test that has to pass for our health dept. as part of the occupancy permit. So it needs to be clean at least once at the start. After that it is up to the home owner.

A 30 ft well, that can be a concern. A shift in water table due to a municipal reservoir etc can some times leave you on reduced water capacity. However we have several older country homes like this.

Our area is on lime stone which is good and our new well is estimated to be at about 150 feet. The neighbor next to us has 50 gpm...a t150 feet which is a boat load for a normal 3 bedroom house. In eastern OH that area is on a lot of shale and that is a higher concern for sulfur wells. They are going gang busters now with natural gas in that area.

John

Hi Will,

Sorry this took so long too...LOL work has been off the wall and has had a severe impact on my camper forum habit... But I'm back and here goes on your questions.

Fisherguy wrote:



Hi John, been really busy lately and just now got caught up on this thread, thanks for the in depth reply, here do you find the time to help so many people like you do? You're a big help to a lotta people on here.

My water heater has an anode, it's a PITA to remove it everytime to drain it, is there something I can get to make draining it easier? Right now when I drain it I always have this thought in the back of my mind that there's water getting in the seam between the tank the the trim around it even though it seem well caulked, must be something I can do?

Thanks for the good words. Much appreciated. Now to your HW heater, it sounds like you have a Suburban heater? Is this correct? The anode is only used on the Suburban. I have the Atwood and there is no anode. I can easily install a drain valve in the Atwood.

Here are some options maybe, A pic of your setup may help may help spark an idea. I have some thoughts on a drain valve setup using the anode and still leave it in, but not knowing what room you have to work with they may go out the window real quick... or spark another idea.

Do you have an air compressor at home? That is another option

Guess I could drain/clean the filter after every trip, but I wish my housing had a drain on it, it's a little awkward unscrewing it where it is in the cabinet.

If they buried the filter canister housing under the sink and there are cabinet draws in front of it... Gee thanks... Yeh it is the cheapest way to do it, but a royal pain in the neck to service. If this is situation, for me, I would unhook the filter, connect the water line and remote mount the filter. Or do away with the filter and use other options on a camper water program that does not need an under the counter sink filter.

On my last camper, I did use a point of use filter before the sink. With that layout I had a cargo hole right next to the kitchen. It allowed me to remote mount the filter and I can take the entire filter out and connect the hose ends to either use the filter or not. Here is that setup





This one was a 0.1 micron ceramic carbon unit. Again I could remove it, drain it, clean it if I needed to. Which I really never did have to clean it as the source was so clean pre-filtered. Then I dried it out in the sun to store in the house in a clean vented plastic storage box in a dry cool place.

On my current camper, I added a similar remote point of use filter with this same setup, however I have found I really do not need it as I filter everything going into the tank.

There is also the Britta options, some of the pitchers are more conducive to an RV fridge now. This gets rid the camper sink filter all together. Ideally if you go this route you use the Britta at home too as those filters are not really cheap either.

Filtering the water when filling is probly a good idea, so what's a good filter to use when filling that will filter the bad stuff but not the chlorine?

There are lots of filter options. The issue is more what do you want to accomplish with filtering and then what to do with it after the campout?

These guys are pretty good and they do not say, just do this and all your problems will be gone. Which is the 1st thing that makes me respect them. There is no one size fits all in filters. http://www.rvwaterfilterstore.com/ABChoosingASystem.htm

Your simple question had 2 parts to it.
A. What is a good filter when filling?
B. but will not filter out the chlorine?

If you do not want to affect the chlorine, then you are after a sediment only filter. It just takes "particles" out. This is a canister filter with disposable cartridges and are sometimes "reusable" that you can wash if they get plugged. Which is good thing.

http://www.rvwaterfilterstore.com/ABFiltration.htm This page has a link to sediment only filters. The pleated one are claimed to be "reusable". Now comes the micron size. The RV filter store recommends 5 micron for the sediment filter. And if all you are worried about is particles, that is a pretty fine filter. 5 micron is 0.0002” Yes, 4 decimal places or less half a thousandth. You are not going to see by eye a partial that small. 100 micron is 0.0039” or 4 thousandths. Coming from a machine shop background, I can just see 0.004” if it is held to the light just right.

If all you are after is protecting the water pump and trying to get particles you can see out, well 50 to 100 micron will do that. Even a 20, or 5 micron can help if they do not plug on your water source.

I would pick an all plastic/synthetic pleated cartridge. This Flow Max series would be where I would start if I was going this way. I can clean it, and then dry it out in the sun. And after digging this up, I may add one as a pre-filter in front of my ceramic carbon filter. They sell the 5,20,50 and 100 micron which are washable pleated and the pressure drop is attractive along with the gpm. The finer ones they do not say they can be cleaned. And if your looking on gpm, much less than 2.5 is a real bear to fill the fresh tank. 42 gallon system at ~ 2 gpm is 21 minutes to just fill the system. But 1 gpm as a point of use filling a glass of water is tolerable.

http://www.freshwatersystems.com/specifications/FlowMaxbrochure.pdf

The FM series on page 4 of the pdf

Flow max is by Watts http://www.watts.com/pages/_products_details.asp?pid=5753

They sell the filters on Amazon or other filter places. Just get the size to fit the right canister. And some canisters have a clear cylinder so you can see how good or bad it if before opening. You can experiment with the sizes. Finer size (lower numbers) filters more and plugs faster. Here is a 50 micron on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Watts-FM-50-975-Flow-Max-Micron-Pleated/dp/B005XTY6C6

Just to note, I have not bought the Watts, yet anyway. I use the ceramic carbon and deal with the chlorine. But like I said, I will look into getting a 50, 20 and a 5 micron cartridge and experiment as a prefilter for the ceramic carbon. If you get too fine, in the 1st stage it will drive you nuts clogging trying to fill the fresh tank.

This much I can say, 1 micron filtration will plug quick if you have a high iron source. One camp we go to that has high iron, I use a 100 micron Camco carbon filter so I can use the camp water on full hook up as my ceramic/carbon 0.9 micron will not work direct with all the iron. For folks who have tried filters and give up on them as they plug too fast, well they are doing their job just they may have selected one too fine as a first stage filter. Most times this is done in 2 or 3 stages if you are going down to the less than 1 micron.

I'm not a big germ-o-phob like a lotta people, I don't use paper towel on the doors of the handles of the bathroom door at work, don't use hand sanitizer etc and I think overall I'm pretty healthy but maybe I could do a little more for the water system..?
Thanks
Will

If you get the sediment filter it will help with the particles and leave the chlorine alone. If your after bacteria, taste, reduce chlorine etc. the carbon filters start coming into the equation and it starts reducing the chlorine, how much depends on how fine a filter and how high the chlorine was to start with. Then you need to start adding your own chlorine if you went too low.

Hope this helps

John

lol
you're a lot like me by the sounds of it ... ;)

We've been RVing since 1989, an average of 8-10 weekend trips (3-4 days each) per year, half boondock, half hookup. Have ALWAYS used the on-board water system (tank filled from home city water, or direct campground hookup) for washing, cooking, and (gasp!) drinking. To make matters worse, I don't remember if I ever sanitized the system on our first MH (used it for 10 years), and have only "sanitized" my current system twice; when we bought it 14 years ago, and after the MH sat for 2 years un-used (financial issues at the time). We do have one of those "filtered" spigots on the counter, but only use it to fill ice trays; have never changed out the filter (another gasp!). I'm still alive, as is my wife and 3 "now-adult" kids, although my wife prefers bottled water for drinking just because of the slight plastic taste from the on-board tank.

There is really too much fretting over bacteria. Just use chlorine to disinfect your water system seasonally, add TastePure to the fresh water tank regularly, winterize with the pink stuff (it will kill much bacteria)and change the existing filters seasonally even if used very little.

Everything else is just OCD overkill.

Jbarca, what's the story on filters that have silver or an anti-microbial agent in them to help kill bacteria and organisims? Is it correct that some filter media are more resistant to bacteria growth? I think I read that polypropylene is better in that respect and that paper is not good?

Should an RV filter be tossed out once a year regardless even if it's had low use?

JBarca wrote:
Hi Fish,


In reviewing what you have been doing, consider these 4 things to help lower your odds of an infection of your water system. You are not doing real bad now, just these areas can help cover more conditions.

1.Review your sanitization method if it is enough to kill a heavy infection.

2.Drain the HW heater each trip. Get a valve setup on the drain port to make it quick and convenient.

3.Drain and remove the under the sink filter. What method is used to keep it from growing between camping trips?

4.Consider filtering CG water to keep food sources out of the camper. If filtering, figure out the filter technology you need for your situation and what it does to chlorine for the sources you use. If it reduces the chlorine to too low a level, work through that. Figure out how to control the filter from becoming a breading ground between camping trips. The filter can be a double edged sword, it can do a good job of keeping your camper clean, however not used right it can infect your camper.

If you made it this far in reading... Hope this helps

John

Hi John, been really busy lately and just now got caught up on this thread, thanks for the in depth reply, here do you find the time to help so many people like you do? You're a big help to a lotta people on here.

My water heater has an anode, it's a PITA to remove it everytime to drain it, is there something I can get to make draining it easier? Right now when I drain it I always have this thought in the back of my mind that there's water getting in the seam between the tank the the trim around it even though it seem well caulked, must be something I can do?

Guess I could drain/clean the filter after every trip, but I wish my housing had a drain on it, it's a little awkward unscrewing it where it is in the cabinet.

Filtering the water when filling is probly a good idea, so what's a good filter to use when filling that will filter the bad stuff but not the chlorine?

I'm not a big germ-o-phob like a lotta people, I don't use paper towel on the doors of the handles of the bathroom door at work, don't use hand sanitizer etc and I think overall I'm pretty healthy but maybe I could do a little more for the water system..?
Thanks
Will