What's your fresh water system strategy?

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What's your fresh water system strategy?

January 28, 2012, 10:01:32 pm

Greetings everyone,

Been searching the archives and elsewhere, but I'm still missing something here. Chalk that up to inexperience.

Dumb questions follow...

Trying to figure how to best keep the fresh water and tank sanitary in day to day use. I have the Everpure drinking water filter, and they seem quite keen on super chlorinating the water. However, chlorine attacks the polybutylene plumbing in my coach. Super chlorinating will likely accelerate deterioration of the tubing. I'd rather not go there if possible.

The previous owner left me some Thetford Fresh Water Tank Sanitizer which I will use when it warms up enough to clean everything out, but where do I go from there? I assume that the tank should be sanitized after taking the coach out of storage for any period, but does it need to be sanitized periodically while in full-time use?

There are numerous filters I can use at the city water hookup; some are sediment only, others also remove chlorine, and the ultimate would be a reverse osmosis filter, which I know at least one forumite uses. But if I remove the chlorine in the water going into the tank, how do I keep it sanitary? Will it not "go bad" over a period of a week or two boondocking? (Space limitations dictate I will need to use a portable type filter.)

I'll guess I should drain the tank if I end up staying any length of time at a site with full hookups. Should I do anything before filling it again?

I do have a 25 foot potable water hose - my guess is that's not enough. What do you carry on your coach?

Please share your fresh water strategies so I'll have a clue when I roll out of here soon. Thanks kindly for any tidbits and hints you can offer.

Steve

P.S. Was surprised to find the water fill adapter did not have a check valve in it. Looked to be original and untouched. I've since replaced it with a new one that does have a check valve in it.

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #1 – January 28, 2012, 10:16:58 pm

Steve,

The link below should help you understand about water sanitation and chlorine.
How to Purify Water amount of bleach per gallon

Peter

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #2 – January 28, 2012, 10:25:07 pm

I should add: once the tank and pipes are sanitized, if you are using treated water (not from a well), you should be okay if you use the tank water instead of the city hook-up. Using tank supplied water you're cycling the tank water often enough to have fresh sanitized water. BTW, the Everpure ADC drinking water filter will take out most organisms that would make you sick.

Sometimes if I don't feel like sanitizing the system for a week end jaunt, we will take bottled water for drinking, cooking, brushing and shower with the tank water.

Peter

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #3 – January 28, 2012, 10:29:41 pm

We stay in mexico a lot and everyone says it has bad water now and again so I started out using a dual system of --particle in one filter and a carbon filter in the other of 1 micron. I also put a teaspoon of bleach in the hose feeding tank (after filters) every few weeks. This has proved to be sufficient and I never put any other stuff in the fresh water tank at any time in the year,other than the filtered water.
I do get a bit surprised some times when I look at the sediment filter and what is in the filter bowl but what comes out the other end of system is fine, or at least has not caused us any problem!!
The Everpure is just another way to add to the filtering of water after the fact of the main tank.
When sitting for a length of time(after any trips) I put some bleach in the tank then fill and drive for a while (to move it around) then drain and flush a couple of times before the final fill to go away.
John

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #4 – January 28, 2012, 10:41:15 pm

Steve,

You will probably get a bunch of replies to this. My approach to keeping the water fresh is to always use out of the tank rather than staying connected to the campground water.

I drain the tank for winter and before the first use in the spring I sanitize the tank and the plumbing with a chlorine solution which I let sit for a few hours and then drain. I don't bother to flush everything after draining it as the bit of residual chlorine is probably a good thing and the Everpure filter will remove that from the drinking water anyway.

I always filter the water going into the fresh tank with a 5 micron whole house filter. I bought the filter housing at Sears and adapted the pipe fittings to hose fittings so I simply screw it onto the hose. Home Depot, Lowes and camping stores all have these. I usually get the replacement cartridges at Ace Hardware but they are a universal item available at many places. This unit filters out the dirt, rust and other large particles but lets the chlorine thru. I want the water in my tank to be chlorinated and I even use swimming pool test strips to verify the campground water is chlorinated if I have any doubts. I look for a concentration between 1 and 3 ppm. The low cost blue Camco filters have charcoal in them that removes the chlorine so they will not work for my application. I don't think the super chlorination recommended by Everpure is really necessary. YMMV

At many campgrounds the spigot will be very close to your utility bay and the 25' hose will be longer than necessary. Once in a while you will encounter a situation where it will not be long enough (e.g. Camp Foretravel) so you will probably want to carry two. If you use my filter approach, you will also need a short hose to attach the filter.

Monti

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #5 – January 29, 2012, 08:58:09 am

We use RO for the entire water supply. We fill the fresh water tank with RO and always use water from the fresh water tank. We fill from well water at home. We fill on the road from campground supplies. We fill at about five to ten gallons per hour. If we can't fill at a "leisurely" pace, I bypass the RO filters and filter through the three filters that are primary to the RO filters. We we fill via the RO filters, we have to disposed of the effluent. The volume of effluent is about the same as the volume we put in the fresh water tank.

Once or twice a year I bypass all filters and fill with water with an appropriate amount of bleach added. I run it through all systems, let it sit for a few hours then flush.

The system has seemed fine for our use. We use our coach for a few days at a time. We use it year round and do not winterize. We leave some water in the systems all the time. We have never noticed any bad tastes, bad odors, and harmful effects.

We are satisfied with our water system, but I don't recommend "whole house" RO for any system with any metal piping. My understanding is that Aqua-Hot has copper coils. I have been told by experts that RO will erode copper. If I were to start from scratch on a new filter system, I would probably use a softener and filters.

We carry a number of hoses. We normally use one 25' (?) hose for filling with fresh water. We carry a 25' heated hose for use when temperatures are below freezing.

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #6 – January 29, 2012, 06:28:12 pm

For the last 15 years we only connect to city water to fill our fresh water tank and never use city water to pressurize our plumbing. After filling tank, we remove city water hose.

We use our water pump for all water flow needs.

We fill our fresh water tank through a carbon filter, which removes chlorine if any. We add 1-oz of common laundry unscented Clorox for every 50 gallons for fresh water being added.

Using water pump instead of city water has several advantages like water turnover, eliminate campground water pressure surges, eliminate water damage from broken or leaking plumbing when we are gone from coach, knowing when to drain holding tanks, etc.

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #7 – January 29, 2012, 07:57:43 pm

We also fill the tank and use the onboard tank water pretty much exclusively. That means fresh water every ten days or so. If we use well water to fill the tank more than twice I will add a teaspoon of granulated pool chlorine in the fill hose just in case anything wants to grow in the tank. I will also do a thorough sanitizing once per year, probably unnecessary.

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #8 – January 29, 2012, 09:46:04 pm

We run off our tank with the pump nearly all the time. Like someone also said it helps me to know when to dump the other tanks. This seems to work very well for us. Of course have to replace a pump once in a while and also I carry a spare pump with me all the time.

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #9 – January 30, 2012, 05:52:38 am

I try to keep City (treated water) in the tank, if I do use well water to fill with I add a few ozs of unscented Bleach We use park water if it's available, and I travel with only as much water needed to get to where we are going. By doing that what is in the tank gets cycled frequently and I just don't see the need in hauling an additional 8-900 lbs of water down the road if you don't need it. Now if we had to store the coach for 2 or 3 mos I suppose I would fill the tank add the bleach cycle the system, then drain and flush before using it. I carry 2 25' hoses plus what is on the hose reel some times we go places with a group and park awning to awning so the utilities end up on the wrong side.

Just a thought when you are gone from your home for 2 or 3 weeks when you get home do you flush your home water system (well or city)?

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #10 – January 30, 2012, 06:11:07 am

Thank you all for the replies. Very useful information for a newbie.

I like the idea of using tank water vs city hookup. (I did at least purchase a pressure regulator with gage.) A spare pump is now on the shopping list, along with a shorter potable water hose.

Stationary water will stagnate quickly, hence my concerns. If I'm away from home for even a few days, I'll open a faucet to flush out the lines and run water through my filters for awhile before drinking any.

I use an RO filter now, but don't have the space on the coach for something like this. I think the whole house type filter cartridge is my best bet on the inlet side, and I have one on hand already, along with some 5 micron spun polyester filters.

I've read where some people are using pool chemicals instead of bleach to sanitize water. Supposedly a lot less expensive. Not sure on this.

The quality of the tap water here varies considerably. After spring runoff or a heavy rain, my whole house sediment filter turns brown or black fairly quickly. Many days, especially in the summer, the water smells like aquarium water coming out of the tap. Other days the chorine level is quite high. Hence my move to an RO filter system. Sure the water out of the tap has been "treated", but I often have doubts as to how to safe it is to drink.
In my mind, filtering everything out then adding back a fixed amount of chorine when filling the tank is worth considering.

I've spent a fair bit of time in Northern Ontario (and will again soon), where there are many unspoiled lakes and rivers. There is a spot in Elmira, Ontario where an underground aquifer empties out a pipe. There's always people lined up there waiting to fill their containers. The sweetest, cleanest water I've ever drank.

I've wondered this for a long time - have searched and searched, but have not found anything on this anywhere. If I had a transfer pump (and I do), why couldn't I fill my freah water tank from a river or stream? Talking far away from industry, population, and pollutants. Yes, it's untreated water, but probably a lot cleaner than city tap water. I can still filter it going in, and add chlorine. If I'm far away from a city hookup, why not? Just wondering... was also thinking about collecting rainwater...

Something else I've got my eye on --> Lifesaver Bottle - Water Purification Systems. Not cheap, but could save lives in an emergency. Planning to add the bottle to my emergency pack. Would love to see an RV version.

Giving this a lot of thought of late. Thank you again for sharing.

Steve

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #11 – January 30, 2012, 06:41:24 am

Hmm. I'm the exact opposite as I only use water from campground supplied spigots. I TRY to remember to turn off the faucet if we leave for a few hours though. Saw what can happen with a busted pipe to a neighbors RV once. We seldom dry camp. When I park mine for a few weeks, I do add a little bleach and just dump it and rinse it when I get to a camp ground.

Today, my RV is going to Classic Coach Works to get a SeeLevel installed

as well as some other mods, so since I will then KNOW how much water I have and WHERE it is I may change the way I use my tank.

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #12 – January 30, 2012, 09:06:12 am

Quote from: Merle Hench – January 30, 2012, 06:11:07 am

Thank you all for the replies. Very useful information for a newbie.

Stationary water will stagnate quickly, hence my concerns.
I use an RO filter now, but don't have the space on the coach for something like this. I think the whole house type filter cartridge is my best bet on the inlet side, and I have one on hand already, along with some 5 micron spun polyester filters.

Giving this a lot of thought of late. Thank you again for sharing.

Steve

I permanently plumbed in my whole house filter. I found room next to the manabloc.
It is hanging on a bracket screwed into the wall.
You cannot see it when the cover is on.
To lazy to bring out a filter when I hook up to water supply

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #13 – January 30, 2012, 11:04:45 am

I guess I'm the odd one here. Aside from always using a whole system sediment filter before the city water entry hose, and never using untreated water, I have taken no other precautions in 20 years of full timing. We only drink from the Everpure faucet, but have never sanitized the fresh water tank, or bought bottled water. Call us crazy I guess.

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #14 – January 30, 2012, 11:10:50 am

Barry, question on the filter. It looks like you have only one filter there and is plumbed by a tee on the supply cold in line. Do you have it supplying both Maniblock and tank at same time, or just tank. Hard to see in picture?
John

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #15 – January 30, 2012, 11:41:09 am

Quote from: John Haygarth – January 30, 2012, 11:10:50 am

Barry, question on the filter. It looks like you have only one filter there and is plumbed by a tee on the supply cold in line. Do you have it supplying both Maniblock and tank at same time, or just tank. Hard to see in picture?
John

It is plumbed just after the incoming supply line so it filters everything as it is coming in.

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #16 – January 30, 2012, 02:54:28 pm

Quote

I guess I'm the odd one here. Aside from always using a whole system sediment filter before the city water entry hose, and never using untreated water, I have taken no other precautions in 20 years of full timing. We only drink from the Everpure faucet, but have never sanitized the fresh water tank, or bought bottled water. Call us crazy I guess.

Nah. You're not the only one.

best, paul

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #17 – January 30, 2012, 06:02:38 pm

Fascinating that some of you have never sanitized your tanks. I have no experience either way, but after seeing black slime ooze out of the old accumulator tank when it was pulled, sanitizing the freshwater system seemed like a good idea.

Thanks for the pics of the filter install Barry. I have nowhere near that kind of space, but my creative side will come up with something. Cool manifold - my old bus is just point to point.

Steve

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #18 – January 30, 2012, 07:53:16 pm

Regarding using water from a stream that is far from industry and pollutants, and thus may seem safe, it may contain some bacteria that will give you a serious tummy ache. I think sanitization would be a better idea than drinking straight from a remote stream. The risk may not be huge, but I think it not miniscule. Outside of RVing, I have been taught to not drink from any stream without treating the water unless there is simply no other option.

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #19 – January 30, 2012, 09:46:56 pm

I agree with you Michael. Appears that the biggest threat is from animal waste. Could also be insect larva, and other parasitic elements. But hopefully, it's free of chemicals and toxins.

Don't know if there will ever be a need to draw water this way, but in an emergency it might become necessary.

Steve

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #20 – January 30, 2012, 10:03:17 pm

We keep a spray bottle filled with sanitizing solution in the utility bay. (1Tbl Clorox to 1qt of water is standard, but you can eyeball it for a smaller container.) It needs to be made up fresh every week to stay effective, but only takes a minute. Spray the ends of your hose connections and the water bib before hooking up. Ya never know if some guy emptied his tanks just before disconnecting the water and left a "gift" on the hook up.

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #21 – January 30, 2012, 10:50:41 pm

If you are going to sanitize water going into the tanks, I would add a bit of chlorine. If you nicely filter that water into the tank and there's something nasty in there you've stripped out any protection...

23 years in the Navy, I've been inside the fresh water tanks we used to hypochlorinate. It weren't pretty... It's like my dad would never eat a hot dog after working in a slaughterhouse... Shades of Upton Sinclair!

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #22 – January 31, 2012, 12:40:01 am

Interesting topic and one we've been researching as well. I personally don't feel comfortable using chlorine because of the environmental impact as well as possible health implications. Has anyone used hydrogen peroxide as an alternative to chlorine?

Here is a link to an article that explains some of the benefits:

Hydrogen Peroxide: A Real Treat for Well Water

Will definitely consider getting some oxy blast for our tank (once it's back in the motorhome)!

Tys

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #23 – January 31, 2012, 07:05:25 am

Quote from: amos.harrison – January 30, 2012, 11:04:45 am

I guess I'm the odd one here. Aside from always using a whole system sediment filter before the city water entry hose, and never using untreated water, I have taken no other precautions in 20 years of full timing. We only drink from the Everpure faucet, but have never sanitized the fresh water tank, or bought bottled water. Call us crazy I guess.

Brett, you are not the only one with Paul either. No issues here either. I use city water to fill the tank. It has chlorine in it. I use well water at home but fill with city water when I get the chance. Use the tank a lot and use the hose too. No issues over 6 motorhomes and 300K miles and more than 10 years.

Re: What's your fresh water system strategy?

Reply #24 – January 31, 2012, 07:21:12 am

Quote from: Carol Savournin – January 30, 2012, 10:03:17 pm

We keep a spray bottle filled with sanitizing solution in the utility bay. (1Tbl Clorox to 1qt of water is standard, but you can eyeball it for a smaller container.) It needs to be made up fresh every week to stay effective, but only takes a minute. Spray the ends of your hose connections and the water bib before hooking up. Ya never know if some guy emptied his tanks just before disconnecting the water and left a "gift" on the hook up.

Brilliant! Thank you for that.

Steve

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