Boon Docker
Mountain Foothills of Southern Alberta
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Joined: 10/30/2015
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Wow, lots of useless answers on how to use the least amount of water.
To the OP, try this:
Fill fresh water tank with 15 gallons of water and 1/2 cup household bleach.
Tow your trailer around for about 10-15 mins to slosh the bleach mixture around.
Bypass the water heater, then pump the mixture through the hot and cold water lines.
Leave mixture sit for a few hours then drain the tank and fully fill with water. Run the fresh water through each hot and cold line for 15-20 secs. You are done.
Works fine for me.
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2112
Texas
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Joined: 07/16/2011
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Funny thing is I use to not sanitize and now I do. We got some bad water a few years ago.
I use 1 Step No Rinse sanitizer once a year now. The same thing I use for my brewing equipment.
Dissolve 2lbs in a 5 gallon jug. Add that to my 40gal tank, fill and let it sit overnight. Drain, refill and flush the lines.
2011 Ford F-150 EcoBoost SuperCab Max Tow, 2084# Payload, 11,300# Tow,
Timbrens, PullRite SuperGlide 2700 15K
2013 KZ Durango 2857
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toedtoes
California
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I use chlorine granules for pools. It takes very little and it does not have the "icky" taste that household bleach has. So, you don't have to rinse the tank after dumping the bleach-infused tank.
Add chlorine granules to some water and mix. Dump into the tank. Fill the tank partway - drive and slosh (or fill all the way and leave sit for a couple hours). Run through all the faucets until empty.
Add water for your trip as needed.
I do this when I first get an RV. After that, I only do it if I've left water in the tank for several months or I filled my tank from an unfamiliar water source.
1975 American Clipper RV with Dodge 360 (photo in profile)
1998 American Clipper Fold n Roll Folding Trailer
Both born in Morgan Hill, CA to Irv Perch (Daddy of the Aristocrat trailers)
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3 tons
NV.
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TechWriter wrote:3 tons wrote:Never done it in 14 years - I can visually see up close both ends of the fresh tank and it is still spotless
My eyes aren't as good as yours. I can't see bacteria.
3 tons wrote:BTW, cith water has chlorine in it and apparently this is enough to do the job…
All campgrounds don't have chlorinated water supplies.
OP, I think most folks, including myself, sanitize our RV water tanks periodically. Once or twice a year for me.
I use either bleach or Purogene. Bleach is cheap, but caustic as hell. Purogene is pricey but easy on people.
For a typical 50ppm bleach sanitize, it's 1/4 cup bleach per 15 gal of holding tank capacity and let sit for 4 hours. For a stronger (100 ppm) concentration, it's 1/2 cup bleach per 15 gal and let it sit 1 hour.
Finally, you'll probably get some interesting rationale from folks who never sanitize their water tanks like . . .
- "I haven't gotten sick yet." (Also a popular excuse for smokers.)
- "I used to drink out of a water hose when I was a kid" (What this has to do with tank sanitation still escapes me.)
Okay Fair enough (though from my perspective, a bit of myopic hyperbole ![[emoticon]](https://forums.motorhome.com/sharedcontent/cfb/images/rolleyes.gif "rolleyes") …), but we fill the tank before each outing with pre-chlorinated city water, and we drink only bottled R.O. (reverse osmosis) processed water, and if you care to think about it (whether at home or not…) chlorine is a very effective and economical water disinfectant which has benefited the entire world (especially, due to economics, the third world), but chlorine is also a known well established carcinogen (though this fact is mostly dismissed - possibly a mere case of ignorance is bliss??…), whereby the bulk of one’s exposure occurs through directly the derma (skin) when bathing… So in my view, rather than paint with such a broad brush (facts matter, eh?), in my judgement each person need be aware of this risk and (based on information) chose whatever the best informed option of their own choice - FWIW, this may contrary to conventional wholesale wisdom…
I would also add here that the chlorine in city water tends to evaporate from a storage tank in about 30 or so minutes, we see the same thing happening in swimming pools as well…
Upon re-read, Techwriter also wrote: “My eyes aren't as good as yours. I can't see bacteria.”…..
Well, this migh surprise some but there’s about 2 billion bacteria within the human body’s interstitial fluids alone, all of which are in circulation and are beneficial (by design, ingesting toxins)… Point being (ego aside - lol) is that we are all just another part of this vast biosphere…
Thanks in advance ‘for tolerating’ this opposing point of view…
3 tons
* This post was
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edited 04/20/23 11:08pm by 3 tons *
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azrving
Oatman
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Boon Docker wrote:Wow, lots of useless answers on how to use the least amount of water.
To the OP, try this:
Fill fresh water tank with 15 gallons of water and 1/2 cup household bleach.
Tow your trailer around for about 10-15 mins to slosh the bleach mixture around.
Bypass the water heater, then pump the mixture through the hot and cold water lines.
Leave mixture sit for a few hours then drain the tank and fully fill with water. Run the fresh water through each hot and cold line for 15-20 secs. You are done.
Works fine for me.
This is the answer. Include the low point drains.
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Bobbo
Wherever I park
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Joined: 09/16/2007
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Boon Docker wrote:Wow, lots of useless answers on how to use the least amount of water.
To the OP, try this:
Fill fresh water tank with 15 gallons of water and 1/2 cup household bleach.
Tow your trailer around for about 10-15 mins to slosh the bleach mixture around.
Bypass the water heater, then pump the mixture through the hot and cold water lines.
Leave mixture sit for a few hours then drain the tank and fully fill with water. Run the fresh water through each hot and cold line for 15-20 secs. You are done.
Works fine for me.
Do you not feel the water heater needs disinfecting too? Some water sits in it all winter.
Bobbo and Lin
2017 F-150 XLT 4x4 SuperCab w/Max Tow Package 3.5l EcoBoost V6
2017 Airstream Flying Cloud 23FB
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Bobbo
Wherever I park
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OP, whatever you do to conserve water, to disinfect your water system, you need to wet all surfaces with the bleach solution, and keep it wet for about 4 hours. (Bleach doesn't kill bacteria instantly, it takes a certain amount of time.) That includes all surfaces of the fresh water tank, the water heater, and every water line in the RV, including the outside shower. I do this once a year, every spring when de-winterizing the RV.
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3 tons
NV.
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Bobbo said:
“Do you not feel the water heater needs disinfecting too? Some water sits in it all winter.”
If you want to disinfect it, just turn it on for an hour or two…
3 tons
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bigfootford
Fair Oaks, California
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Joined: 12/03/2002
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Ok, so what do you do with well water? Buy bottled water to drink?
Our wells in our Oregon property was less than 20'... Wonderful water!
As a kid all the farms I visited and lived atl were on wells...That was down in the Fresno area, some of the water tasted like sulphur but we all drank it. Cows lived right over some of the wells....
For me, that hose and the place I get water from is critical and has been for over 50 years of RV and trailers. I always make darn sure that hose is MINE and I make sure it does not touch any ****...
Jim.
2000 2500 9.6 Bigfoot,94 F250, Vision 19.5, Mich 245/70XDS2's, Bilstein shocks, air bags/pump, EU2000, PD 9260,Lifeline 100ah, 200W. solar, Morningstar Sunsaver 15A/ display panel, Trimetric, Delorme/laptop, Holux gps rec,led lights, Wave-3 heat.
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3 tons
NV.
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bigfootford wrote:Ok, so what do you do with well water? Buy bottled water to drink?
Our wells in our Oregon property was less than 20'... Wonderful water!
As a kid all the farms I visited and lived atl were on wells...That was down in the Fresno area, some of the water tasted like sulphur but we all drank it. Cows lived right over some of the wells....
For me, that hose and the place I get water from is critical and has been for over 50 years of RV and trailers. I always make darn sure that hose is MINE and I make sure it does not touch any ****...
Jim.
Ha! Well Jim, there you go again injecting a bit of sorely needed common sense !! ![[emoticon]](https://forums.motorhome.com/sharedcontent/cfb/images/doh.gif "doh")
FWIW, my dear old Grandad (RIP) was a farmer and a willow branch ‘Well Witcher’ (in today’s modern vernacular, ‘Water Douser’), in the old ‘backwards’ poverty stricken South…Oddly, many folks there tended to live past their 90’s and often in their 100’s…I seriously doubt many of them ever heard of chlorine - in fact, some might likely have called it a useless yankee trick - lol!!
It truly amazing just how distant we’ve strayed from our roots…
3 tons
* This post was
edited 04/20/23 08:52pm by 3 tons *
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