Sanitizing the Fresh Water Tank
Adventures in water tank sanitation.
We've had our rig a few years, but we have only boondocked one time. This season I thought it might be a good idea to sanitize the fresh water tank, both to clean it and that we might go out to boondock a little more this year.
Conventional wisdom seems to be 1/4 regular household bleach for every 15 gallons of capacity in your fresh tank. For those of you who have ever used bleach to purify water might look at that volume with a little suspicion. I know I did. But, something to keep in mind is that this is to clean the tank, so we're not really purifying the water.
Dilute your bleach in a gallon or two of water, and take appropriate safety precautions. Chlorine Bleach is dangerous if you get it in your eyes, and I highly recommend wearing gloves (latex, nitrile, etc.) to keep from getting bleach on your hands. If you do get any on your skin, wash it off with water. That slimy feeling when you get it on you is it dissolving your skin.
I filled the tank about 1/4 full before adding the bleach. This took longer than anticipated since I had managed to leave my low point drain open and so was loosing water for about five minutes before I realized it. In my defense I made this mistake while resolving another mistake, I had left the water in the water heater tank all winter long. So I was draining that water, which made it hard to hear the other water draining onto the pavement. I added the bleach and then continued to fill the tank until it was full.
Remember to drain your water heater tank when you winterize.
Make sure your water heater is in bypass mode, so no water goes into it from your water system. Now fire up the water pump and run your facets. You want to run them one at a time until you can smell bleach coming from the facet. Then shut that one off and run the hot side. Repeat this for all of your water delivery points, including the external shower if you have one.
How long to leave this water and bleach mixture in place seems to vary a little. Some people say an hour, some say as long as six. Since our campsite was an hour from home, and we were still a couple of hours from getting underway I thought that would be plenty of time.
As I mentioned in a previous post, if you're not used to driving your rig with anything in the tanks make sure to give yourself some extra time. It will handle differently with any serious volume of liquid in your tanks.
Once we got to the campground and unhitched I went about purging the tanks. I had also decided to clean my grey and black tanks this trip. Run the water from your fresh tank into your grey and black. Most of the rigs I have ever looked at the specs for can easily support your entire fresh water capacity in your waste tanks. You might need to split the load some, but it should all fit. Then dump.
After you've run all the water from the fresh tank, it's time to give it a rinse. How many times you need to rinse is up for debate, but you should do it until you feel comfortable withe the water coming out of your fresh tank.
I decided to do a single rinse. If we plan to do any boondocking this year I might run another rinse cycle, but for this evolution I decided to just do a single rinse. So, fill the tank and repeat the purge. The second time I decided to pump more of the fresh water into the black tanks, since I had made an effort to clean it this trip.
Once you're rinse is done, make sure to finish draining the tank. Some folks say that it's okay to drain it right at the camp site, but I waited until we were on the way home. It's a low toxicity level, and the volume of water would have been fairly low, but I prefer to dump it on the road and then secure the low point drain once I'm home.
My Low Point Drain for the fresh tank
What about you? Do you have any special tricks or tips you'd like to share about fresh water system cleaning?
We've had our rig a few years, but we have only boondocked one time. This season I thought it might be a good idea to sanitize the fresh water tank, both to clean it and that we might go out to boondock a little more this year.
Conventional wisdom seems to be 1/4 regular household bleach for every 15 gallons of capacity in your fresh tank. For those of you who have ever used bleach to purify water might look at that volume with a little suspicion. I know I did. But, something to keep in mind is that this is to clean the tank, so we're not really purifying the water.
Dilute your bleach in a gallon or two of water, and take appropriate safety precautions. Chlorine Bleach is dangerous if you get it in your eyes, and I highly recommend wearing gloves (latex, nitrile, etc.) to keep from getting bleach on your hands. If you do get any on your skin, wash it off with water. That slimy feeling when you get it on you is it dissolving your skin.
I filled the tank about 1/4 full before adding the bleach. This took longer than anticipated since I had managed to leave my low point drain open and so was loosing water for about five minutes before I realized it. In my defense I made this mistake while resolving another mistake, I had left the water in the water heater tank all winter long. So I was draining that water, which made it hard to hear the other water draining onto the pavement. I added the bleach and then continued to fill the tank until it was full.
Make sure your water heater is in bypass mode, so no water goes into it from your water system. Now fire up the water pump and run your facets. You want to run them one at a time until you can smell bleach coming from the facet. Then shut that one off and run the hot side. Repeat this for all of your water delivery points, including the external shower if you have one.
How long to leave this water and bleach mixture in place seems to vary a little. Some people say an hour, some say as long as six. Since our campsite was an hour from home, and we were still a couple of hours from getting underway I thought that would be plenty of time.
As I mentioned in a previous post, if you're not used to driving your rig with anything in the tanks make sure to give yourself some extra time. It will handle differently with any serious volume of liquid in your tanks.
Once we got to the campground and unhitched I went about purging the tanks. I had also decided to clean my grey and black tanks this trip. Run the water from your fresh tank into your grey and black. Most of the rigs I have ever looked at the specs for can easily support your entire fresh water capacity in your waste tanks. You might need to split the load some, but it should all fit. Then dump.
After you've run all the water from the fresh tank, it's time to give it a rinse. How many times you need to rinse is up for debate, but you should do it until you feel comfortable withe the water coming out of your fresh tank.
I decided to do a single rinse. If we plan to do any boondocking this year I might run another rinse cycle, but for this evolution I decided to just do a single rinse. So, fill the tank and repeat the purge. The second time I decided to pump more of the fresh water into the black tanks, since I had made an effort to clean it this trip.
Once you're rinse is done, make sure to finish draining the tank. Some folks say that it's okay to drain it right at the camp site, but I waited until we were on the way home. It's a low toxicity level, and the volume of water would have been fairly low, but I prefer to dump it on the road and then secure the low point drain once I'm home.
What about you? Do you have any special tricks or tips you'd like to share about fresh water system cleaning?
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