Horrendous smell and pink water coming out of FW tank

Travelin2 wrote:

ppine wrote:
Drain your water tank after each trip.
I don't drink out of the tank. I use water containers for drinking water.

That's too bad that you can't see your way clear to use your freshwater system as it was intended. If you sanitize the system and fill with clean water, then it is perfectly safe to use for drinking. If you want an eye opener, you should have a look inside any public water storage tank and the plumbing or check out the inside of your well casing when you change out your well pump. If you want a confidence builder, take a water sample from your RV down to your county water dept. and have it tested. I think you will be pleasantly surprised...Good luck and all the best.

X2

ppine wrote:
Drain your water tank after each trip.
I don't drink out of the tank. I use water containers for drinking water.

That's too bad that you can't see your way clear to use your freshwater system as it was intended. If you sanitize the system and fill with clean water, then it is perfectly safe to use for drinking. If you want an eye opener, you should have a look inside any public water storage tank and the plumbing or check out the inside of your well casing when you change out your well pump. If you want a confidence builder, take a water sample from your RV down to your county water dept. and have it tested. I think you will be pleasantly surprised...Good luck and all the best.

ppine wrote:
Drain your water tank after each trip.
I don't drink out of the tank. I use water containers for drinking water.

I don't drink it either, but I sanitize it annually and drain the system completely after each trip. Once my girlfriend and I were debating whether it was safe to drink, so I chugged a glassful of it to make my point. It tasted okay and I lived to tell you about it.

Don't forget to run water thru the outside shower if it has one. RV Antifreeze is Propylene Glycol, sometimes described as "non-toxic antifreeze". It is also the main ingredient used in the colon cleansing stuff that the doctors proscribe prior to a colonoscopy. (sorry, I just had to say it). It works by preventing your body from absorbing water. Just so you will know how it works.........

As others have noted, drain your tank, fill it with water, drain it again, refill it, use the pump to run most of the tank full thru everything. If you have an undersink filter, remove it, use the bypass plug in its place, and install a new filter when done. After you think you have flushed all of the pink stuff out, do a fill and soak with a heavy dose of bleach as others have described, filling the hose works well. Just have it somewhere where the water will run away from the RV, as you will be dumping ALOT of water.

Charles

Use 1/4 cup for every 15 gallons of water capacity, including the capacity of the water heater. Pour it into the freshwater hose, put the hose ends together and slosh it around. Then connect the hose to the rv, and fill the tank full. Open all the faucets, including the hot sides, and let the water run until you smell bleach coming out. Then let it stand like that for 12-24 hours.

Drain the tank, fill with fresh water, run it until the bleach smell is gone. Repeat the drain and fill a couple of times.

Drain your water tank after each trip.
I don't drink out of the tank. I use water containers for drinking water.

If you are going to sanitize using bleach connect your white hose to the fill inlet. Add the bleach to the hose and then connect to the faucet. This is easier than trying to pour bleach into the fill inlet and your hose gets a probably much needed shot of bleach. Works for me.

:C

Bleach solutions are the usual way to sanitize the water system, yes.

The important ingredient in RV antifreeze is either ethanol (i.e. normal grain alcohol) or propylene glycol or some blend of the two. The ethanol based ones are usually a little less expensive and probably for that reason more common. Ethanol in particular can have a noticeable odor (and flavor).

By the way, automotive cooling system antifreeze is commonly ethylene glycol based. Winter windshield washer fluid usually uses methanol (wood alcohol) to prevent its freezing. Both of these chemicals are quite poisonous and for that reason obviously have no place in an RV water system.

The pink stuff is RV ANTIFREEZE.

It's not the type you put in your car radiator.

And, welcome to the forum. :)

Thanks everyone for all the input. It's definitely a chemical type odor, not biological
like mold or mildew. Is it the general consensus the best way to sanitize the tank is with some bleach?