Sanitize fresh water tank

Just fill your hose with bleach, pour it in, vinegar both, and hook it up...

Pour the bleach into the hose and connect it up as usual. Fill the FW Tank, run it thru the lines and let it set for at least three hours. That is what I do.

OR,
I fill the fresh water tank about half full with a white hose. But I only use the water from it for the outside of me. I buy gallon jugs of distilled water for coffee, cooking and soaking my teeth :). Its cheap and not nearly as much trouble.

Jim Shoe wrote:
OR,
I fill the fresh water tank about half full with a white hose. But I only use the water from it for the outside of me. I buy gallon jugs of distilled water for coffee, cooking and soaking my teeth :). Its cheap and not nearly as much trouble.

But you STILL should sanitize the fresh water system. Even if you don't drink the water, you don't want algae/mold growing in there.

Do you?

Thanks. Will try pouring the bleach into the hose - that seems to be straight forward.

Enrique54 wrote:
Thanks. Will try pouring the bleach into the hose - that seems to be straight forward.

I suggest that you wear old clothes when you do this.

Don't ask me how I know that. :B

Everyone has their own way of doing this. Me? I use about twice as much bleach as is normally talked about and I leave it in the lines, tank, everything for 24 hours when time allows. Then, I flush it really well. I just figure I want to kill everything possibly in there. I have done this for thirty years and never had a problem.

However, we are also one of those that just buy cheap bottled water by the gallon for coffee, tea, cooking and drinking. We most often boondock and often fill our tanks with hand pumped water in some remote national forest site. For 80-90 cents a gallon at the grocery, why take a chance?

PSW,

I add about a 1/4 to 1/2 gallon of bleach into our 41 gallon fresh water tank and then fill with fresh water. It is a very strong mixture. I then run it through the system including all faucets, the hot water tank, & accumulator, then top off the fresh tank again and let sit in the entire system for an hour or two, not longer because I heard the bleach is hard on the waste tank valves and some faucet seals, basically anything rubber. After a complete drain and refill twice & such, we are good for the season. The water smells like a swimming pool for not more than a week. We'll use it for cooking and drinking after the smell is greatly reduced by boiling for a while, but generally avoid drinking cold only for the peace of mind.

I sterilize the fresh water plumbing at the beginning of the season and only the waste tanks at the end of the season to avoid sewer gas in our garage. I don't know if what I do is good or bad but it's worked well for us for 8 years so far.

Even though I can pour the bleach and water mixture into the tank I sanitize my water hoses, all 3 of them, so I don't introduce any bugs when using campground water running thru my hoses.

tenbear wrote:
...I sanitize my water hoses, all 3 of them...

Very good point about sanitizing your fresh water hoses too. Who knows what grows in them.

Thanks!