Water questions

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Water questions

June 19, 2013, 04:32:06 pm

Now that winter has turned into summer (hey, we had snow six weeks ago) we want to sanitize and fill the water system. I found the three valves that were open to drain the system and closed them. I then found the fresh water fill and connected a short length of hose to that and put a funnel in the other end of the hose. I held it while Jo Ann poured the bleach solution in. It didn't take much to full the hose. After several minutes of waiting, though, the water level hadn't gone down at all.

What am I doing wrong?

Re: Water questions

Reply #1 – June 19, 2013, 04:35:37 pm

Quote from: kb0zke – June 19, 2013, 04:32:06 pm

Now that winter has turned into summer (hey, we had snow six weeks ago) we want to sanitize and fill the water system. I found the three valves that were open to drain the system and closed them. I then found the fresh water fill and connected a short length of hose to that and put a funnel in the other end of the hose. I held it while Jo Ann poured the bleach solution in. It didn't take much to full the hose. After several minutes of waiting, though, the water level hadn't gone down at all.

What am I doing wrong?

You need pressure to get it past the check valve. Hook the fresh water to the hose.

Re: Water questions

Reply #2 – June 19, 2013, 05:01:00 pm

That's what I thought, since it looks like the fill is fairly low compared to the height of the tank. How do I get the bleach solution in, though? Is there some other access point?

Re: Water questions

Reply #3 – June 19, 2013, 05:15:52 pm

Raise hose up, pour in bleach, if more bleach needed use longer hose, then as Barry suggested hook up to faucet. That's how I did it.

Keith

OK. I did look like an idiot standing on a picnic table with a funnel and bottle of bleach but who will know?

Re: Water questions

Reply #4 – June 19, 2013, 05:23:18 pm

Okay, I'm game. I'll see how high above the tank I can get. Hmmm, maybe I can tie the funnel end of the hose to the top of the ladder and pour in from there.

Seriously, how do the rest of you sanitize the tank? Or don't you?

Re: Water questions

Reply #5 – June 19, 2013, 06:09:03 pm

Quote from: kb0zke – June 19, 2013, 05:23:18 pm

Okay, I'm game. I'll see how high above the tank I can get. Hmmm, maybe I can tie the funnel end of the hose to the top of the ladder and pour in from there.

Seriously, how do the rest of you sanitize the tank? Or don't you?

You can always do this modification:
Water Tank Gravity Fill

Re: Water questions

Reply #6 – June 19, 2013, 06:10:29 pm

Bleach into hose as they said, then fresh water connect to hose, turn on water, the water pushes bleach into tank. Let stand a while, run thru house hoses/faucets. Rinse. There is a formula in prior threads and FMCA lit on concentration of bleach you need, but I do not have that handy

Re: Water questions

Reply #7 – June 19, 2013, 06:39:35 pm

We have the bleach mixture ready. Sounds like all we have to do is fill the hose with bleach mixture and then fill the tank. Thanks.

Re: Water questions

Reply #8 – June 19, 2013, 07:43:19 pm

If you go with bleach in the hose and chase it into the tank by connecting hose to water spigot, you need to have the water fill valve open to the tank. Otherrwise all the bleach will go into the water lines to the faucets and toilet and not the tank.

Re: Water questions

Reply #9 – June 19, 2013, 08:12:47 pm

I guess that you know where the water fill valve is located? I should be under the sink in the bathroom. when you hook up the hose and turn it on the valve under the sink has to be turned to on to let water into the tank

Re: Water questions

Reply #10 – June 19, 2013, 09:28:45 pm

We have a filter between the street spigot and the coach. I remove the filter cartridge and pour the bleach in, close the top and turn on the water.

Re: Water questions

Reply #11 – June 20, 2013, 12:06:18 am

Can you tell me what filter do you use before water enter the MH tank. Thank you.

Re: Water questions

Reply #12 – June 21, 2013, 06:45:23 am

A standard sediment filter is all you need for incoming water.

Re: Water questions

Reply #13 – June 21, 2013, 11:47:03 am

If you are concern for healthy water, you will need more than a sediment filter. We use a reverse osmosis filter system with two filtration filters and a charcoal filter. The EPA mandates that drinking water should be less than 500 parts per million of total dissolved solids. Bottle water is about 100 parts. We are at a site now where the water is 654 parts. Yuma is at 666 parts. Why do these places go above the EPA mandate. Simply, no one checks. I am always amazed at how Rvers do not have an inexpensive tester to check their water. Check out this great site for more information.

RV Water Filter Store: Standard Filter Canisters for Whole RV

Re: Water questions

Reply #14 – June 21, 2013, 12:14:33 pm

Steve,
Very interesting, but would you mind elaborating? What kind of an tester do you use?
Don

Quote from: Steve and Anna Lindemann – June 21, 2013, 11:47:03 am

I am always amazed at how Rvers do not have an inexpensive tester to check their water.

Re: Water questions

Reply #15 – June 21, 2013, 01:35:11 pm

Quote from: acousticart – June 21, 2013, 12:14:33 pm

Steve,
Very interesting, but would you mind elaborating? What kind of an tester do you use?
Don

Here is the tester we use: TDS meter for measuring the total dissolved solids in water. Monitor the performance of your RO system, and check the quality of your tap water. 0 - 1999 ppm. Sells for $24.95 from the RV Water Filter Store

RV Water Filter Store: Useful Gadgets for the RV

Re: Water questions

Reply #16 – June 21, 2013, 06:02:21 pm

We have a filter similar to Lindemann for all the water that comes into our coach under normal circumstances. We use two cascaded RO filters to get more throughput and about 50/50 effluent/filtrate. We also have the dissolved solids meter.

Water from our well at home is about 400-500 ppm dissolved solids. We soften house water, and RO filter drinking water. I would recommend similar filtration for a coach, i.e., filter for sediment and soften all water; RO filter drinking water. However, a sediment filter for all water and one of the Everpure filters under the sink for drinking water is probably adequate. A lot of folk use bottled water for drinking in the coach.

We bought the filtration equipment and some gadgets for the coach from the RV Water Filter Store. The equipment for the stick house is from Kinetico.

Re: Water questions

Reply #17 – June 21, 2013, 09:17:50 pm

Thanks to all of you who provided advice, we now have a tank full of fresh well water with 1.75 cups of bleach (less what leaked out from the hose connections). According to the instructions, this should sit for several hours, so in the morning when I go out to water the front plant I'll drain the water tank. Since it is going to be 90 again tomorrow, I suspect that I won't have much of a muddy mess.

I did find out that the faucet in the utility area leaks, so looks like I need to do some plumbing one of these days.

I suppose that before I actually drain the tank I ought to run some water through all of the lines.

Re: Water questions

Reply #18 – June 21, 2013, 09:24:11 pm

David, you do need to fill all the water lines with the chlorinated water before you drain all the lines and the tank. Include the hot water heater.

Re: Water questions

Reply #19 – June 21, 2013, 09:35:34 pm

Thanks, Peter. I assume that the hot water heater will fill when I turn on the pump and open a hot water faucet. I probably ought to go out and do the lines now before I forget it.

Re: Water questions

Reply #20 – June 21, 2013, 09:54:42 pm

Well, looks like I have more plumbing work ahead of me. I turned on the pump and got water from the kitchen faucet, both hot and cold sides. Turned the water off and went back to the bathroom. Just a dribble from the sink and the same in the shower. Then I tried the toilet. Nothing. Tried the sprayer and got lots of water - on the floor! Cleaned up the mess, turned off the pump, and went outside to see what's what. Found a wasp crawling around on the hot water heater. Time for bed.

Re: Water questions

Reply #21 – June 21, 2013, 10:13:17 pm

Check the Manablock manifold to make sure the valves are in the open position for those areas you mentioned.

Re: Water questions

Reply #22 – June 21, 2013, 10:16:48 pm

When you turn on the pump for the first time all the plumbing might be full of air. I think you said the coach had been winterized. It is going to take a time for the pump to fill all the plumbing lines with water, including the hot water tank,.

You might need to purge all the air, from the lines to the bath sink, the shower, and the toilet. Our system spits air for some minutes after a complete drain down.

When we picked up our U225 that had been sitting all winter, I found that I had to take apart the shower drain down fitting at the wall. This is where the shower hose attaches to the wall fitting. Inside that fitting, I found debris that was blocking good shower head pressure. I then took off both sink spout end fittings and cleaned the screens.

The sprayer is best used to squirt into the toilet to clean the bowl, carefully.

Wasps love to go thru the hot water grills, and the furnace ones as well. They build nests, same with mud dabbers. I have added aftermarket screens to help stop them from getting in. Know you now will need to clean the flame chimney, completely from the burner to the top of the exhaust stack.

Don't think you have a manablock on a U300 in 1993.

Re: Water questions

Reply #23 – June 21, 2013, 10:59:09 pm

Thanks for the link Steve. I have been on their site before, but I never noticed that gadget...
Don

Quote from: Steve and Anna Lindemann – June 21, 2013, 01:35:11 pm

Here is the tester we use: TDS meter for measuring the total dissolved solids in water. Monitor the performance of your RO system, and check the quality of your tap water. 0 - 1999 ppm. Sells for $24.95 from the RV Water Filter Store

RV Water Filter Store: Useful Gadgets for the RV

Re: Water questions

Reply #24 – June 22, 2013, 08:56:04 am

This morning I turned on the pump and opened the bathroom sink faucet. After breakfast I went out to see what was happening. All I got was a few drips. Obviously water is not getting to the bathroom sink faucets. Any more valves to turn? I found three drain valves under the hot water heater and closed all three. I found the valve under the bathroom sink and turned it. What else?

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