de winterizing without bleach

westend wrote:

darsben wrote:
So you never drink city water?
The risks of using the bleach to kill all microbes that can harm or kill you and afterwards thoroughly rinsing with fresh water are much less than leaving the tank untreated. If you are very concerned bring bottled water to drink.
But as for me the sodium hypochlorite (bleach) is the only way to go.
Makes sure you run the solution through all the pipes.

X2

X3

Anon, Use bleach and flush the lines. No harm will come to you or your rv systems.

If your camper will be connected to city water, you won't need to sanitize. Hook up to the city water, flush the pink out, and just use the water in the camper normal. (for a week or so, I'd use bottled water to drink), after that your system should be sanitized because of the chemicals in the city water. The difference between city water and your own bleach water solution is the strength of the chlorine.

Now, if you are on a well, you'll want to use chlorine-water solution, but not needed if on city.

how many hours can the bleach solution safely be in the pipes?
thank you

anon125 wrote:
how many hours can the bleach solution safely be in the pipes?
thank you

Essentially forever because bleach breaks down over time.

Remember, you're not using full strength bleach (which would be 1 gal bleach for each 1 gal of water tank capacity). You're putting in a pretty dilute solution.

The recommended dosage is either 50ppm (1/4 cup bleach for each 15 gal of water tank capacity) or 100ppm (1/2 cup bleach per 15 gal capacity).

• For a 50ppm bleach solution, at least 4 hours.
  
• For a 100ppm bleach solution, at least 1 hour.
  

These times & recommended solutions from "Standards on Recreational Vehicles" (NFPA 1192, 2011).

so it is okay to leave it in for a day or 2. thanks
who knew the national fire protection assn. help with RVS!!!
do I have to join to get a copy of that?
thanks

I leave mine in for 2-4 hours. Enough for the bleach to sanitize, then flush.

DutchmenSport wrote:
If your camper will be connected to city water, you won't need to sanitize. Hook up to the city water, flush the pink out, and just use the water in the camper normal. (for a week or so, I'd use bottled water to drink), after that your system should be sanitized because of the chemicals in the city water. The difference between city water and your own bleach water solution is the strength of the chlorine.

Now, if you are on a well, you'll want to use chlorine-water solution, but not needed if on city.

This is ABSOLUTELY WRONG WRONG WRONG. And not just wrong, but DANGEROUS.

A water system sitting with antifreeze in it (or with just water in it, for that matter) can harbor all kinds of mold and bacteria. These are NOT anything you want on your hands from washing, on your body from showering, and POSITIVELY not to drink.

I would use 1/2 cup bleach/15 gallons of water. Drain everything as best you can, fill the tank, run through all faucets. Drain the tank again. Partly fill the tank, pre-dilute the bleach in about a quart of water, add the bleach, finish filling the tank. Open all faucets until you smell the bleach coming out. Let this stand for about 12 hours. Then drain and flush again several times with clean water.

coolmom42, If you simply use a swimming pool chlorine tester kit on the water coming from the faucet on city water, you'll be surprised how much chlorine is already in the water. Try it, if you'r on city water. When we lived in town, I paid the price to have my water analyzed. The chlorine content was awful ... almost scary to drink! But that did explain why all our laundry faded so quickly and whites were really WHITE without needing bleach... for 16 years! We used filtered and bottled water at home to drink to KEEP from getting the chlorine.

All I'm saying is, if you take the time to test your city water, you'll see sanatization in a whole new way.

There's nothing wrong with doing your own sanitazation method, nothing at all. But if you're on city water, more than likely, you don't need to. There again, the only difference between doing it yourself and doing it with city water, is the strength of the chlorine. The stronger the chlorine, the less time it takes to sanitize.