Sanitize Fresh Tank & Bleach
I would like to sanitize the fresh tank. My RV owners manual (& what I've found on the internet) says to use bleach with 5% sodium hypochlorite. The problem is all the bleach in the stores is now "c...
Forum Discussion
wing_zealot wrote:
The recommendation is generally 100mg of chlorine for ever liter of water with a 3 hour contact time. (Reference AWWA C651).
AWWA C651 is a set of recommendations for disinfecting water mains (or large pipes). To me, it hardly seems applicable to RV water systems which consist of small pipes and a water box.
The applicable RV standard is NFPA 1192 which recommends the following to disinfect the water system:
- 1/4 cup household bleach for each 15 gal of water tank capacity (50 ppm solution). Let sit at least 4 hours before flushing with clean water, or
- 1/2 cup household bleach for each 15 gal of water tank capacity (100 ppm solution). Let sit at least 1 hour before flushing with clean water.
Note the dwell times -- at least 1 or 4 hours -- which are necessary because for hard surface disinfection (which is what you're doing for an RV tank), you're supposed to clean the surface before using bleach.
However, since it's not possible to scrub down the inside of your water tank, the only way to ensure disinfection is to let the bleach sit a long time.
