Just bought a used rv from private seller

[SeniorFoxyLady]

It's been stored in Tucson AZ. Would you suggest draining fresh water tank and maybe cleaning it somehow? How would you suggest sanitizing the fresh water hose? Is that even necessary?

Love to hear any other suggestions for starting on the right foot.

Judy 

[way2roll · Accepted solution]

As with most things RV related - it depends. Does the tank have FW in it? If so, how long has it been in there? I have never sanitized our FW tank but I have only ever owned new RVs and empty every time I return on a trip. Public water is treated and chlorinated and we don't drink the water from our FW tank. On a used RV I would probably sanitize it once before using. Simply drain it (there should be a low point drain for your FW tank), add about a 1 cup of bleach to the inlet/fill (easier if it's gravity fill - if not, add the half a cup to the end of the hose before hooking up and turning the water on). Fill the FW tank, turn the water pump on, cycle some water through the lines and out each faucet (sink, bathroom, toilet, shower, outside shower), turn the water pump off, let sit for 24 hours and then drain the system. 

[StirCrazy]

yes I would definatly add sanitizer and flush the system out.  fille with the sanatizer and let sit overnight then drill, fill again and drain again.  its a small amount of work to ensure the tank is clean as you never know what kind of water the people before you put in it.  a lot of people don't use their fresh warer tank for drinking so they put water from anywhere in it.  if you intend to use it for drinking water like I do then for your own piece of mind I would clean it.  I don't like using bleach anymore as you hasve to rince it for days, it seems, to get the taste out.  I found THIS .  yes it costs more than a jug of bleach, but allI did was put a bit of water in the tank, premixed this and added the proper amount then filled the tank up, ran water to all the faucets, toiler and hotwater heater to make sure the treated water was everywhere then topped up the tank and let it sit over night, drianed it filled with fresh, flushed the lines and drianed.  best product I have found yet.  

[way2roll]

Had a hard time finding the ingredients for this product but it looks like sodium precarbonate (H2O2) which in my opinion would be safer and cleaner than bleach. We use Hydrogen peroxide for a lot of cleaning for that reason. Thanks for the tip Stircrazy!

[StirCrazy]

yup, thats one of the things I like about it.  I was going to see if I can source it in a raw industreal amount, like a 5 gam pail and see how cheep I can get it for, but I got side tracked, maybe I should look into that again..    just looked I can get 3.3kg for 26 bucks canadian off amazon, sp probably more savings to be has directly from a manufacture.  

it has the added benifit of getting ride of take sluge also not just making it safe to drink haha

[SeniorFoxyLady]

How many applications do you get from one container?

[StirCrazy]

I usaly get two maybe 3 but I only use it for the fresh water tank.  I also don't do it every year now, I did it for the first two years to make sure it was cleened out and now I do it every 2nd year just as a maintenance so 1 container lasts me 4 years...  its cheep when you look at it that way.  yes it is more expensive than a bottle of bleach but there is no taste no smell and you only have to fill and dump once to rince it out, bleach some times took me 2 hours of running water to get the taste and smell down to that of normal tap water.  

[way2roll · Accepted solution]

As with most things RV related - it depends. Does the tank have FW in it? If so, how long has it been in there? I have never sanitized our FW tank but I have only ever owned new RVs and empty every time I return on a trip. Public water is treated and chlorinated and we don't drink the water from our FW tank. On a used RV I would probably sanitize it once before using. Simply drain it (there should be a low point drain for your FW tank), add about a 1 cup of bleach to the inlet/fill (easier if it's gravity fill - if not, add the half a cup to the end of the hose before hooking up and turning the water on). Fill the FW tank, turn the water pump on, cycle some water through the lines and out each faucet (sink, bathroom, toilet, shower, outside shower), turn the water pump off, let sit for 24 hours and then drain the system. 

[SeniorFoxyLady · Accepted solution]

Would I need to rinse the system?

[valhalla360]

Yes, run the pump and empty the tank rotating thru all the faucets so all the lines are treated.  Then yes refill with just fresh water and run it out for a tank or two. 

A half cup of bleach will be quite strong both in smell and it can bleach cloth it contacts.  A tank of flush and it might smell of chlorinated city water but should be safe and harmless.

After that I agree,  we never sanitize as we turn the water over  when in use and drain when not in use. 

[way2roll]

Rinse? You mean as in re-fill and flush everything out when you are done? Not really necessary but you could hook the hose to your city water connection and run some water through the lines to get the chlorine out. 

[StirCrazy]

if you put it in your tank it is going to take more than a few fills and dumps to get rid of the super chloranated taste and smell.  when I used to use bleach it was like 3 or 4 fill and dumps then use the city conection and run the taps till the water tasted and smelt normal, some times up to 2 hours..  

[SeniorFoxyLady]

That's what I was thinking 🤔