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dpgllg's avatar
dpgllg
Explorer
Mar 06, 2018

Fresh Water Tank Cleaning

Hello!

We went yesterday to inspect our 5th wheel RV stored underground in a limestone mine. I have to admit I was nervous because the humidity is elevated in the mine but it stays at a constant 54 degrees year round. There was no mold anywhere and other than a little dust the RV looked as good as when I parked it last October.

Well seeing the RV and seeing signs of Spring made me think about what I will need to do to prep it when I pull it out next month.

I want to clean out the fresh water system and was wonder since I have a rapid fresh water drain could I use my hot water tank wand and use that to do a good flush of my fresh water tank? My old 5th wheel required me to fill tank with mild bleach solution and then drain. The drain was small and took forever to drain everything. This rapid drain drains my tank in just a couple of minutes.

The fresh water and sanitation system is rather new to me (Nautalus P1 System) since we picked up the 5th wheel last June.

Photo of fresh water drain



I drained all holding tanks (put some water in black tank with tank treatment) and hot water heater prior to storing. I blew out the water lines including black tank flush with my compressor. I did not use any pink antifreeze as I stored prior to freezing temps and won't be pulling it out of the mine until the middle of next month.

With the Nautalus P1 system is there anything special I need to know?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Dave
  • Use bleach, 1/4 cup per 15 gallons. leave in for one week and drain and then fill and drink.

    I believe that you can drink the water at that mix, but I don't.
  • DogTrainer wrote:
    Use bleach, 1/4 cup per 15 gallons. leave in for one week and drain and then fill and drink.

    I believe that you can drink the water at that mix, but I don't.


    When you put the bleach mixture in the tank, run the water pump and open the cold water outlets until water comes out. Then close off the cold. Then open the hot water outlets, make sure the water heater gets filled (not bypassed), and run the pump until water comes out of all the outlets. Don't forget the outside shower if you have one.

    Let the bleach mixture stand at least 12 hours (longer won't hurt). Then drain the tank, fill it with water, and flush water through the lines in the same manner as you did to sanitize.

    Don't use extra bleach in the spirit of "more is better." You will have a hard time getting the bleach taste out.
  • Leaving the bleach in for overnight or even just a few hours will sanitize everything. Clorox actually says 30 minutes for water tanks.
    To neutralize the bleach, you can either add the hydrogen peroxide straight to the bleach water or drain and refill with fresh water (what I do for some reason) and a few ounces of hydrogen peroxide (perfectly safe, even consumable). Then run that through the lines and there will be no bleach left. Drain again if you want.
  • path1 wrote:
    54 percent humidity....perfect


    Not 54 percent humidity 54 degrees
  • I do exactly as ScottG said and I also have a full size dump valve, although mine is inside the heated space above the coroplast. No need to flush with a wand, the flushing action of the drain will carry any sediment away. I rinse twice after draining the bleach water out and have no taste after. Once would probably be enough but it just takes a few minutes to fill and less to drain.