~ “White H 2 O Hose / Fresh Water Tank

My spring ritual used to sanitize everything. Hook all hoses together. Attach male end to water storage tank fill. Take female end to hose spigot. Slowly pour bleach into female end of hose until I get at least a quart or more into the hose. then hook the hose up to the water supply. Slowly turn on the water. Don't crank it open full bore. Just let it slowly fill the hose, moving the bleach along the length of the hose and into the water tank. After a few minutes you can up the flow to fill the water tank the rest of the way. Then go into the camper and run water using the water pump through every water line in the camper including filling the hot water tank. Let it sit over night. Next day drain the water tank, the hot water heater and you can open the low point drains if you want. Refill your tank and run water through the system again. At this point I normally just drain the tank to rinse out some of the bleach. Then I am done. We don't normally drink water from the tank. We bring it from home.

relaxin wrote:
well first you need body armor,,,, just in case a germ or 2 have guns, then you need a level 3 bio hazard suit with respirator, just in case some microbe jumps out at you,,, have a 2000 degree incinerator handy just in case things get out of hand and the germs are overwhelming you.

ohhh wait, we're talking about rv hose and tanks

LMAO!!!! kidding,,, (though you may need the biohazard suit if you intent to crawl up the dump pipe to clean the black tank)

I don't know about this whole garden hose thing, seems more an attempt to sell a more expensive hose to everyone,,, talk about getting hosed literally, any hose for residential use has to be made suitable for potable water (here in Cananida anyways) anyone who lived in a house previous to the eighties had 50 50 solder or even pure lead solder previous to the 60's I beleave in their copper waterline joints.
if you want to be on the safe side, tie one end to a chair pointing up mix a bucket of water and bleach, 25% bleach, good and strong tie the other end to a chair pointing up put in funnel and pour into hose, let it sit for an hour then hook up to tap and push out into rv tank and run water through it for a couple minutes to rinse out, put a couple cups total of bleach in your tank and slosh around either air bubbler or take for a drive, run through system, let sit for a few hours and drain and rinse out, if your not using right away (within a month) ad a couple ounces to the tank with like 5 gallons of water (city tap water) just to boost it a bit.
I give mine a flush once a year, it gets used enough through each season to not worry about it between trips, and I use a green hose, I have one for the unit not a cheapy, that is not used around the yard.

Hey, save your bleach, you don't need anything near that strong to sanitize anything. This organization recommends 10% but my own real-world experience points to even less.

Like you said, though, sanitizing doesn't have to be the Bourne Ultimatum. :B

Mr.Beebo wrote:
Every white hose I ever purchased was junk in short order. Kinked, frayed, split, etc. They were useless after one season so I never concerned myself with cleaning them.

Same experience here, but I bought the cheap white hoses from WalMart, total junk. They do make quality fresh water hoses that won't kink but they're not cheap.

well first you need body armor,,,, just in case a germ or 2 have guns, then you need a level 3 bio hazard suit with respirator, just in case some microbe jumps out at you,,, have a 2000 degree incinerator handy just in case things get out of hand and the germs are overwhelming you.

ohhh wait, we're talking about rv hose and tanks

LMAO!!!! kidding,,, (though you may need the biohazard suit if you intent to crawl up the dump pipe to clean the black tank)

I don't know about this whole garden hose thing, seems more an attempt to sell a more expensive hose to everyone,,, talk about getting hosed literally, any hose for residential use has to be made suitable for potable water (here in Cananida anyways) anyone who lived in a house previous to the eighties had 50 50 solder or even pure lead solder previous to the 60's I beleave in their copper waterline joints.
if you want to be on the safe side, tie one end to a chair pointing up mix a bucket of water and bleach, 25% bleach, good and strong tie the other end to a chair pointing up put in funnel and pour into hose, let it sit for an hour then hook up to tap and push out into rv tank and run water through it for a couple minutes to rinse out, put a couple cups total of bleach in your tank and slosh around either air bubbler or take for a drive, run through system, let sit for a few hours and drain and rinse out, if your not using right away (within a month) ad a couple ounces to the tank with like 5 gallons of water (city tap water) just to boost it a bit.
I give mine a flush once a year, it gets used enough through each season to not worry about it between trips, and I use a green hose, I have one for the unit not a cheapy, that is not used around the yard.

Every white hose I ever purchased was junk in short order. Kinked, frayed, split, etc. They were useless after one season so I never concerned myself with cleaning them.

If the hose sits unused for periods of time and the compartment is hot, it's always a possiblity that something could start growing in it. In the compartment where my fresh water hose is, I have a small bottle of bleach. After using the hose, I'll put 2 - 3 drops in the hose and then screw the ends together. It's not enough bleach to taste and it should take care of anything that want's to grow in the hose. Evenif it doesn't help, it makes me feel better.

Bill

Never thought about sanitizing those POS white hoses.
DW makes me use them saying she can taste the rubber\whatever in the water when using a "non DW approved" hose.

Seems to me there's enough chloramine gas in our water here to kill almost anything it runs thru.

When I sanitize the freshwater system, I unroll the fresh water hose and hold both ends up in one hand and put some bleach in one end. Does not take a lot. Then while still holding both ends up, add water until it comes out the other end. Screw both ends together and let it lay for an hour or so. Flush hose with fresh water.
Like has been said, don't obsess over it.

I don't worry about the white potable hose. Then again I drank from a green rubber garden hose many a time as a kid.

Only sanitized the fresh water tank when we first got rig.
Course our tank is used very often and water doesn't sit long in tank.
Always filled with city water or treated well water.

You could just pour some bleach in one end of hose...then hook up to spigot and flush thru hose or into tank.

Don't get OCD about stuff........camping is suppose to be fun :B