Water!

winger999 wrote:
How often do you clean your water tank?

Once at the beginning of the season I disinfect the trailer's entire water system including the FW holding tank with a bleach mixture (about 1/3 cup in a gallon of water for every 15 gals tank capacity), fill the tank with water, run the system, let it sit overnight, then drain and flush it out the next day. Thereafter the tank always has some water in it, the water system remains pressurized for the entire season, and I don't empty it at all until I winterize.

Fresh water? Never. What would I clean out? When I fill it I use potable water and I drain it when I am heading home.

We sanitize just once during Spring time prep for the upcoming camping season using 1/4 cup of bleach for every 15 gallons. Our FW tank can hold over 100 gallons that we fill with chlorinated city water if at all possible. If water is suspect where we might camp we fill up at home as we have experienced poor water quality on a few occasions.

Thanks for the help. We were sanitizing before every trip, no big deal with a small water tank. Since I sanitized in the spring before our first trip, I will call it good for the season until winterizing in the fall.

Thanks,
Steve

Once, at the start of the season.

eichacsj wrote:
Fresh water? Never. What would I clean out? When I fill it I use potable water and I drain it when I am heading home.

Even when drained some water remains. Over time, that can grow mold.
I hope you don't actually drink the water from the tank.
If you do, you REALLY need to sanatize it periodically.

At the start of the season I add ¼ cup of beach to 15 gallons of water and dump it in the fresh water tank. I open the facets to until I can smell the bleach. This includes the hot water heater.

Two days later, I drain the fresh water tank, refill with fresh water, and flush the facets. All this also help flush the residual antifreeze that always seems to remain in the lines. This is what the TT manual recommends.

I do drain the water tank between trips; including the hot water heater because it is really funky smelling, but I only “sanitize” the system at the start of the season. We usually stay at State Parks with only electric hook ups, so we haul 15 to 20 gallons of fresh water and refill as needed from the campground supply. We also have had no problems with campground water hook ups when they were available.

Some people are sensitive to their water supply, but the DW and I have grown up on iron rich Indiana well water or at times chlorinated and fluorinated city water, so TT water is no big issue to us. Besides, I do not flush my home hot water tank or purge my water softener tanks when I return from a several weeks trip and who know what lurks in them?

ONCE when I first purchase the RV (new or used)

Only other time would be IF I had an issue.......and that was only once due to high sulfur content water source.

Vulcan Rider wrote:

eichacsj wrote:
Fresh water? Never. What would I clean out? When I fill it I use potable water and I drain it when I am heading home.

Even when drained some water remains. Over time, that can grow mold.
I hope you don't actually drink the water from the tank.
If you do, you REALLY need to sanatize it periodically.

When not on full hookups, we always drink from the fresh water tank. Never have a problem, tastes great. I too sanitize at the start of the season, however we camp a lot between the months of May and September. I imagine that if you were to go a month or more between uses, you might want to sanitize again. I also always do the initial fill at home before leaving on a trip. As part of that, once there are several gallons in my 40 gallon tank, I turn all the faucets on full for about 10 minutes to get fresh water flushed through. Probably overkill, but that way I'm not purging air at the campground, and wasting tank water.

I couldnt imagine NOT using that water to drink. After all, if you wont drink it, then you probaby wont cook with it, or do dishes with it, or make coffee with it, brush teeth with it.....why bother having it then?

Don't be afraid of the microscopic world. It isn't out to get you.

We all eat and breath mold all day; yes, that bread or cheese you bought has mold all over it already. Most, if not the majority of mold isn't dangerous. Breathing large amounts of it can cause problems if your sensitive, but eating it (ingesting), well, maybe if it's in the hallucinogenic family of fungus things could be interesting.

I doubt mold would grow in a fw tank, there's nothing in there for it to eat. Algae also won't grow, there's no sunlight.

Bacteria already in the water and air are reproducing in the tank, like it or not; that's really what the sanitizing process is meant to take care of. Unless you're filling it from non-potable sources, the only bacteria in there are ones you've already been exposed to and if they haven't killed you yet, what difference will it make.

I'm more worried about getting side-swiped by someone on the expressway, or a freight truck running a red light.