How long to keep potable water in holding tank

[jacqui583]

Hi folks.

We will be camping four weeks from now at an electric-only campground (no water hookup). The water quality is questionable where the trailer will be stored until then so I filled the holding tank today with good water while I had that option. How long will a full tank of water remain safe to drink sitting still? Was this a bad idea? And should I drain the hot water tank in the meantime? (it is currently full from camping this week). I have heard that it can get stinky.

Thanks.

[K_Charles]

We use well water but only drain the tank to winterize. It used to set for a month or two and never made us sick. The only thing close to sanitizing is when we stop at a park that just opened in the spring and the water tastes like chlorine. We never do it on purpose.

[Trackrig]

I only drain my tank when I winterize it which is every 3 or 4 years when we leave it in a colder place for a while.

Bill

[MitchF150]

If you filled with your home city water and not from a well and it has the chlorine the city puts in the water (my city does), then I'd say you will be fine..

I do that all the time, and then I only use MY water even if the park has a water hookup... I never hook up my hose anymore.

I use my fresh water a lot different than the majority of members here do.... 🙂

I drink from it, I have never put bleach thru my system, I have never put the pink AF stuff in it.... 😉

I do drain it and blow the lines out for winter storage, but during the camping season, I fill the tank before we leave and what's left when we get back just stays there and I top up before we leave for the next trip. That can be anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks between trips.

My camping trips are only for long weekends, so really don't use all that much water anyway.. I grew up tent camping in remote areas, so know how to conserve water as needed...

Most of my water goes down the toilet, but I do have a drinking water faucet with a cheap filter on it for coffee in the morning. For my daily water consumption needs, it's the bottled water variety that stays cold in the fridge..

Just the way I roll and works for us when we are "camping".. 🙂

Good luck!

Mitch

[jacqui583]

Thanks everyone. I am on city water (which I used to fill it), but it will be stored at my partner's who is on a well system that we have never had tested as we don't use it for drinking. That's great to know that we don't have to worry about sanitizing after each use and that we can basically do that as a seasonal thing. This week was our maiden voyage in our new trailer, after years in a popup where we never used the on board water system but instead worked with water jugs. Thanks for sharing your experience 🙂

[GordonThree]

My fresh water tank hasn't killed me yet. I sanatize, drain and refill once in the spring and it hasn't been drained since. Likely mid October will be the time to drain and winterize.

Same for my hot water heater.

Your milage and comfort level with water storage is probably different than mine. There's a vocal group on these forum that are quite afraid of their onboard water system, and tap water in general.

[Ivylog]

Are you on city water or a well? If city water I would not worry about it unless your filters are more than 3-4 months old. If well water then I'd want new filters and then I'd not worry about it. We do not buy drinking water and are still here after decades of drinking out of the tank but we are on chlorinated city water for the fist tank on a trip.

[Lwiddis]

Four weeks without use and refilling is too long for me. You could add a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of bleach depending on the size of your tank.

[SoundGuy]

My process has always been to sanitize and fill the fresh water system in the spring and don't empty anything until I winterize in late fall. Any water we ingest we bring from home in Aquatainers, never from the holding tank.