Forum Discussion

hedgehopper's avatar
hedgehopper
Explorer
Sep 18, 2014

How do you get rid of smell from water in fresh-water tank?

When we drove our "new" 2002 camper home from Idaho in June, the water from the fresh-water tank didn't have much of a smell. But after sitting for a month or two, the water smelled bad.

DW keeps flushing clean water through the tank and the smell is almost gone. But there must be a better way.

Do you completely drain the fresh-water tank between trips? That's what we did on our previous camper. But with our "new" camper, we would have to pump all the water from the fresh-water tank down the sink and into the grey-water tank and then empty it.

We are also wondering if the smell is left over from the antifreeze. (We never used antifreeze in our previous camper. We just drained all the fresh water before the cold weather.)

23 Replies

  • hedgehopper wrote:
    ...Do you completely drain the fresh-water tank between trips?


    Yes.... except for July, when I forgot.... and yep, the water smelled bad last Saturday when I used it. ICK.
  • It sounds like it's time to clean and sanitize the water system. Here's a link on how to do it. I do this procedure 2-3 times per year.

    Sanitizing RV water system

    BTW, are you SURE you don't have a fresh water drain somewhere under the rig?