Cooking and drinking water

[Crawfordville]

I've always wondered what everyone does regarding cooking and drinking water. When you stay at a campground that has water and electricity do you use the water that is connected to the campgrounds water supply for drinking and cooking? If so, do you use a filter? I'm assuming you don't fill your fresh water tank at your house and drive to your location. Or do you bring bottled water or one of those portable 5 gallon water jugs?

We seem to do a little bit of both but we don't have a filter. I have found though that some campgrounds water tastes different than what I'm used to. The last campground we stayed at it affected the way the noodles tasted.

Karen

[dadmomh]

Completely agree on the NO bottled water. We added a PUR faucet mount filter, in addition to the filter for the whole system, and we're perfectly happy with the taste and purity.

We don't travel with more than minimal amount of water in the FW tank...just enough for a bathroom stop/hand washing enroute. We always have at least water/electric and don't feel the need to haul around 8.3# per gallon of water x however many gallons your tank holds. About 250# + or - equals more weight, equals more gas, equals more $. CG water fills all our needs.

[fallsrider]

I don't like the taste of the water at our local state park CG, where we usually camp. I do, however, like the taste of our city water at home. So I usually take half a tank or so, plus a 7 gal tote. Coffee, drinking and cooking water come out of the tote.

[JordanH]

I travel with a full FW tank regardless, If I end up at a site with water connection I just use it instead. I usually bring a case of bottled water for drinking, but do use the FW tank or FW hook-up for cooking.

[doxiluvr]

We do have a filter on our water line, but fortunately where we have stayed they all had really great water. I buy bottled water occasionally just to take along in the truck if we go somewhere. Most bottled water is just filtered tap water anyway. So we don't fill our water tank at all and I use the campground water for everything.

[mosseater]

We do both, I fill before leaving and top off as necessary at the camp ground.

Since we do state parks, I have a bigger gripe than water quality. That is, the hydrants located around the park for drinking water are used in all manor of carelessness. People wash their dishes, clean their pets, I even saw a guy dumping his gray water tote in the catch basin once (NOT a drain in the conventional sense). To me, that's third-world country behavior. Don't they understand that they risk contaminating a whole lot of people? It a potable watersource for drinking! Not a carwash. I've taken to hosing it down with peroxide before I hook to it.

[rfryer]

I generally keep some water in my tank for emergencies and fill up near or where I’m going to camp. And I don’t use a filter. I’ve used the local water, whether on foot or in an RV, for 50 years and never once gotten sick from it. The only time I’ve seen anyone sick was backpacking. They would wash their dishes with soap, and water being critical backpacking, they cut corners rinsing the soap off. So I’m convinced the water didn’t make them sick, the residual soap did.

That said, I saw some posts and pictures of water back east, PA sticks in my mind, that looked so bad no one in their right mind would drink it. In that case even I would be looking at bottled water.

[Lantley]

I always travel with a full fresh tank. If available we use CG water for showers and such . But we bring water from home for cooking,drinking, coffee etc.s

[fla-gypsy]

Of course I use CG water, nothing wrong with it. I do filter what I am going to drink only

[aluminum_flyer]

Don't forget that city water contains chlorine up until it hits your glass. Your water bottles are made of HDPE plastic. Your tank in the TT is made of HDPE. Just thicker and bigger. Sanitize it and use it. Ask yourself... do you eat at McDonald's? I guarantee you the burger you eat there is more contaminated than the drinking water to use in the TT.

[Aluminum_Siding]

Dry camping, fill tank at home.
Hook ups, roll with 5 gallons in the tank to use the rest room on the road. Then use the hook ups at the campground.
All trips 5-10 gallons (big 5 gallon bottle with built in spigot) for drinking, coffee, spaghetti noodle boiling etc. We usually camp with 4 to 9 people.

I know it's generally safe but drinking from my TT with a city water hook up scares me. The dude that just pulled our before I pulled in used that spigot with his hose to flush his pooper. It's a mental thing but I just don't trust any water. Not even my tank filled from home. It's too easy for my kids to get sick and even easier to bring better tasting bottled water for a buck fifty for five gallons

[DiskDoctr]

We fill and use our fw tank for dished, toilet, shower, brushing teeth. But we bring Aquatainer with our fresh mountain spring water for drinking, coffee, etc.

Want to use bottled water? Watch this movie on Netflix. Tapped.

He conclusions you can draw on your own, but the info on bpa and stuff may make you think twice.

[ckwizard777]

We always keep water in the tank and use it regulaly.
when using full hook up's I use a whole house filter connected to the hose and a faucet mounted Brita filter on the kitchen sink for coffee and iced tea.
Just can't see the sense in buying water in a bottle.

[aluminum_flyer]

Crawfordville wrote:
We've never used our fresh water tank. I was always afraid that it would be gross (slimy or mildewey) or taste like plastic. I guess I need to look into using it and figuring out how to prep it and keep it clean.

But you drink out of a plastic water bottle...

Sanitize and done.

[MontanaCamper]

we travel with a full tank of water...we have winds all the time and the trailer seems to travel nicer with a little weight..and when you stop, you can use the tank. I fill the tank up and put a 1/8 of a cup of bleach in it...we do not drink, shower with it. Just wash dishes and hands. We carry 3 5 gallon juggs with us for drinking and for the dogs. The bleach is used for sanitary reasons, to clean its 1/4 cup for 8 gallons..to sanitary I figure 1/8 per 50 gallon should work, so far never have been sick and have been doing this for 10 years.

[wmoses]

Crawfordville wrote:
I've always wondered what everyone does regarding cooking and drinking water. When you stay at a campground that has water and electricity do you use the water that is connected to the campgrounds water supply for drinking and cooking? If so, do you use a filter? I'm assuming you don't fill your fresh water tank at your house and drive to your location. Or do you bring bottled water or one of those portable 5 gallon water jugs?

We seem to do a little bit of both but we don't have a filter. I have found though that some campgrounds water tastes different than what I'm used to. The last campground we stayed at it affected the way the noodles tasted.

Karen

Karen

I only bring bottled water if I have it but we don't believe in drinking bottled water. I do use a filter (actually 2 or 3) on the CG water supply. For water other than drinking, it passes though the outside inline filter that is between the spigot and the trailer, and then it passes through the RV filter. We also have a Brita jug which we use for drinking water. Prior to this trailer, our old trailer did not have a filter so there was only 1 or 2 filters in our system. This is good enough - water tastes excellent all the time, and the only thing I am concerned about is water hardness, but that is a different story.

As for carrying water in the holding tank - we only bring 10 gals approximately for flushing, washing hands etc. while underway. Never sanitized the FW tank so never drank from it.