Cleaning fresh water tank after winter.

Tnanks for that question and the answers.
We are heading to Flamingo in the Everglades NP in another week, and haven't used our fresh water tank in several years and were wondering the best way to sanitize it.

So thanks again

Jack L

Thank you all so much for the information. It's very helpful. One final question if I can. I can not bring my TT to my house as the slope, angle, length of my driveway won't allow it. Do you typically do this at the CG with trips from water to dump station or is there another place you typically do it?
Thanks so much,
Spap

To elaborate on the bleach aspect... I make sure to use plain Clorox (name brand, no added stuff), and then once the FW tank is full, empty it out through both the grey and black tanks. This kills odors in both, and also helps with odors in the sewage hose. After running that through, I like filling the FW tank part way, adding baking soda, draining that, then filling up the FW tank for real use/consumption. The baking soda does nothing to sanitize, but more of a taste/odor neutralizer.

A 1/4 cup of bleach for every 15 gallons of tank capacity is what is recommended by most RV manufacturers. During the de-winterizing process, we fill tank adding an appropriate amount of bleach, run water through system to sinks, toilets, showers etc. Let sit for an hour or so depending on severity, drain and flush with fresh water. Bleach doesn't stay in system long enough to do all that much damage and if you don't overdo it in terms of how much bleach or how long it sits, damage is negligible.

We primarily use chlorinated city water from home in our FW tanks (always travel with at least one tank full) as we have run into some questionable water on the road, for us the process of sanitizing the freshwater tank is simple since the tank is pretty much clean already. We have even skipped sanitizing our FW tank a year or two over the 7 years of ownership of our current rig with no ill effects.

When I de-winterize I usually first run water through the system do get rid of the RV antifreeze that had been in the traps and tanks. When that is done I place the hot water heater back inline, add a small quantity of bleach to the city water inlet and the remote camping inlet, flush that through, drain the fresh water tank and hot water tank,close them back up and then add water to the system. This usually works. Also, be sure to drain/fill the water in your fresh water and hot water tanks every few months during the spring/summer/fall. If you don't the water will start to smell and/or taste funny. I always thought that if you used city water, that it would flush through the water in your fresh water tank. That's not the case.