fresh water tank stinks!

I put gasoline in my boats fresh water fill once (who is the moron who put the two fills next to each other, haha). I cleaned it all out but it still tasted bad and smelled until I put some activated carbon in. That seems to work on organic odors. You might try that.

I would probably continue the sanitizing treatment a couple more times with a higher dose of bleach. And make sure it smells of bleach at the faucets. I would also drive around with the bleach in the tank to help.

korbe wrote:
I would probably continue the sanitizing treatment a couple more times with a higher dose of bleach. And make sure it smells of bleach at the faucets. I would also drive around with the bleach in the tank to help.

I second this.

Driving around not only mixes the bleach in the water, it splashes the bleach solution on the top of the water tank.

If after using bleach it still smells then I would just replace the tank. If you are going to be using the fresh water tank and are keeping the unit then just replace it.
You have to decide what having a clean fresh water tank is worth to you.

I traveled all winter and stored my rig for 2 months while visiting in Houston. When I was getting ready to go I was draining the fresh tank on the pavement and I noticed little chunks of crud. At that point I dropped the panel under the fresh tank and could see a dark witness mark a few inches up in the tank. Well....I wasn't using it until I cleaned it so out comes the tank. It had a moldy looking black line around the inside. I used simple green and about 10 pounds of various nuts and bolts and used 2 people to tilt, roll and agitate and scrub until clean. I bought the rig 2 years ago and had the under covers off to see everything and it wasn't there at that time. I now bleach it and circulate/flush everything while sitting. I didn't worry too much about well water while using it all winter because we go through so much water. I would never start using a used rig until I'm 100 % sure the tank is clean. Yes, it was a pita but what are you gunna do?

Before replacing try these:

First try sodium bicarbonate, baking soda. Get a big box in the laundry isle. Mix as much as you can into 5 gallons of water and pump that into the tank followed by another 5 gal of plain water. Let the taps run a bit and then go for a drive to slosh it around. Let sit overnight. If that didn't work...


Try hydrogen peroxide, buy it bulk at Costco or Sam's. It is more aggressive against microbes than consumer grade bleach, unleashing pure oxygen on them instead of chlorine salts.

Use it straight, don't add water.

I use the water in the fresh water tank for everything except drinking. I buy spring or distilled water by the gallon for drinking.

I second the aggressive sanitizing procedure, and driving around with the bleach in it. Even if you don't drink it you want it to NOT stink, for other purposes.

Typically the tank cleaning kit sold at RV stores have always worked for me, you start with a cleaning/sanitiser solution, drive around, let it sit, drive again, and then use a rinse solution.

I have had good results with a used unit I purchased.