Bad Tasting Water

Even if you don't drink from your tanks, I think it's still important to sanitize them. You're breathing in that water vapor when you take a shower, and you are usually rinsing your dishes with the same water. If you wouldn't drink it, you shouldn't do your dishes with it.

I sanitize my tanks and lines a minimum of once a year, usually when I de-winterize. If I fill with questionable water during the year, or the trailer sits for any length of time I will flush again.
My procedure is as follows; With the Hot water and fresh tanks empty I add a cup or two of bleach to the fresh tank then fill the tank. I then fill the HW tank with the bleach water solution and run all taps, showers and low point drains until I smell the bleach. I then leave it sit for 24hrs and drain the tanks then refill and flush the system twice.
We always drink from our tanks and have never had any issues.

I would also change the anode rod (if you have a Suburban heater) and flush out the water heater. Most RV water heater setups backflow into the cold as they heat and expand, relying on the airspace in the water heater to even out the pump pulses. This funky water can make its way to the cold faucet.

The typical hose connected water filter can be a breeding ground for anything that likes damp places, pitch it and get a new one (what $10-15)

Thanks everyone for your replies. I think we're just going to start over and, with your tips, sanitize everything again. We use a water filter in our hose, so we know it's something in the trailer, so we'll see what happens.

Pat

I have always used bleach thru my tank, lines and faucets but felt better to use bottled water for drinking and cooking.

My previous two RV's were truck campers . Where did i find more crud ? While cleaning the exterior of the RV or cleaning inside the water tank ?

Most TC's have water tanks inside the unit tucked underneath the cabover step.
Some truck camper owners cut a 6-8" hole in the top of the water tank , then sealed it closed using a marine deck plate which gets unscrewed in order to gain inside access to wipe the tank clean.
The stuff i found inside my tank really opened my eyes. :E
I'm glad i used bottled water and not the 'sanitized' water that wasn't. :)

dodge guy wrote:
When you sanitized the tank did you run the bleach solution through the cold and hot water system?

This.

Use 1/4 cup bleach to every 15 gallons of water. Put this mix in the tank, and run it through ALL the faucets, hot and cold, until you smell bleach through each one. Then let it stand 24 hours. Then drain the tank, refill with fresh, and flush the lines a couple of times.

Don't bypass the water heater while doing this. Drain it beforehand and fill it from the tank.

You may want to look at the fresh tank to see if it has anything growing in it. I removed a 50 gallon tank to clean it because you could see the black line in it. When I was draining it in a clean bucket I could see little globs of black funky stuff. I often times end up getting well water so I bleach it to drinking standards but also use a Berkey filter. The worst smell I have had was with a bad water heater which required a large dose of vinegar to remove.

dodge guy wrote:
When you sanitized the tank did you run the bleach solution through the cold and hot water system?

Sanitizing involves not just fresh water tank...have to do hot/cold lines thru all faucets, shower(s), toilet and low point drains. Plus any dead ended lines (lines run but not connected----options)

Then let it sit for overnight before flushing rinsing.
(Normally just a few hours is good----but in your case of stinky water overnight)

... Sorry, not the right post.. Mitch