City water or On-board tank?
Can anyone provide specific reasons why one is better than another? I see a lot of folks who fill/use their tanks even at a site with city water hookup. I understand that you may want to have so...
Forum Discussion
Filters!
You have no idea what sh#t can be in city water. Even city water that is supplied by a municipal gov't agency can have undesirable stuff in it even though it has to comply with federal regulations. Below is a photo of some kind of biological material we found on our filter screen after a weekend outing early in the season. Not really the kinda stuff I want to ingest. In cold climates with few or no users in a CG, water in piping stagnates, chlorine concentration dissipates over time, and biological "stuff" can grow in the piping system. A CG should flush all their lines at the beginning of the season and I would guess most probably don't.
I called the manager of the local water district and he said the material was a non-toxic "biomass" due to failure of the CG to flush their lines. He contacted the CG to do some flushing and said it wasn't the first time.
City water can have many types of undesirable stuff in - chemicals, bacteria, viruses, organisms, sediment, heavy metals, and more plus sediment that can plug up your RV's plumbing system. You may not know where the CG gets its supply from and if it is treated and monitored.
Unless you are confident in the water quality at a particular CG or anywhere else, you may want to use your FW tank and fill up at a known good source. Or use some decent filtration. After I found the sh#t on our filter screen, I installed 4 stage filtration inside our TT that goes down to 0.2 microns (which is very small). We never dry camp and always use the water at CGs and have never had a problem. We have never used our FW even once.
BTW, some organisms are chlorine resistant such as Cryptosporidium and Giardia which can make you very sick. Don't think you can just put some chlorine in your tank and you'll always be safe. Even when using a FW tank, filtering the water could be a good idea.
The occasional CG can have really low pressure and the way around that is to use your FW tank.
You have no idea what sh#t can be in city water. Even city water that is supplied by a municipal gov't agency can have undesirable stuff in it even though it has to comply with federal regulations. Below is a photo of some kind of biological material we found on our filter screen after a weekend outing early in the season. Not really the kinda stuff I want to ingest. In cold climates with few or no users in a CG, water in piping stagnates, chlorine concentration dissipates over time, and biological "stuff" can grow in the piping system. A CG should flush all their lines at the beginning of the season and I would guess most probably don't.
I called the manager of the local water district and he said the material was a non-toxic "biomass" due to failure of the CG to flush their lines. He contacted the CG to do some flushing and said it wasn't the first time.
City water can have many types of undesirable stuff in - chemicals, bacteria, viruses, organisms, sediment, heavy metals, and more plus sediment that can plug up your RV's plumbing system. You may not know where the CG gets its supply from and if it is treated and monitored.
Unless you are confident in the water quality at a particular CG or anywhere else, you may want to use your FW tank and fill up at a known good source. Or use some decent filtration. After I found the sh#t on our filter screen, I installed 4 stage filtration inside our TT that goes down to 0.2 microns (which is very small). We never dry camp and always use the water at CGs and have never had a problem. We have never used our FW even once.
BTW, some organisms are chlorine resistant such as Cryptosporidium and Giardia which can make you very sick. Don't think you can just put some chlorine in your tank and you'll always be safe. Even when using a FW tank, filtering the water could be a good idea.
The occasional CG can have really low pressure and the way around that is to use your FW tank.
