27 replies to this topic

[buckland]

Now that I have the camper on full time I was wondering as to how folks keep the water tank clean. Should one drain it while in-between trips and let it dry out or should one keep in a small amount of bleached water? Don't want mold to start and especially I want the spring water I put in to taste like the water I put in.  

TIA

[BlueSky]

I drain it when I get home from a trip, and I leave the drain fitting open so when I drive around town it gets almost all the water out. I leave the top hatch loose and eventually the tank gets dry. When I re-fill for a trip I first flush the tank completely with new water and then fill. A little baking soda helps too. Never had a problem. Keeping the drapes/shades closed so the camper is as dark as possible when sitting also helps. You need sunlight to make things grow.

[buckland]

Thanks. I do drain and have a feeling all is well but not being able to see the tank w/o taking the box apart I wanted to hear from learned others on their experience. Baking soda sound benign enough ...how much you use for a fill?

[RONR]

I’m interested as well hearing what others do because I’m never that sure if how I do it is the best way.

I always empty the tank on the last day of camping while headed home. Then I park on a slope at home and leave the drain valve open until no more water is draining out. But I’m not confident the tank ever gets “dry” and that concerns me somewhat.

Because of this I only use the water in the tank for cleaning and boiling for cooking. I also do the bleach thing at least once a year. However I have to say that when I have tasted the water right out of the faucet, I’ve never noticed an off taste. If push came to shove, I would drink it. But I always bring about 5 or more extra gallons to drink anyway.

Btw: winterizing is not an issue because it does not get cold enough at home to freeze.

Anyway looking forward to hearing what others do.

Ron

[BlueSky]

Just a small amount of baking soda for my 18 gallon tank, half a teaspoon. This will eliminate tastes that can come from the plastic, or from the fill hose that you use. You could use bleach once per year too, but it takes several rinses to get all the bleach out. I run water through the fill hose for a few minutes before I fill the tank because water can sit in the hose and transfer that particular taste to the water in the tank.

 

My DIY water tank has a 4" round access hatch, so I can see into all of it and actually get my arm and hand in there to clean it if I ever had to, but it has stayed nice and clean for about 4-5 years. The water lines are another source of something funky growing. My Westfalia van had this problem. I designed my truck camper so water always drains back into  the tank when I turn the faucet/pump off. I made sure I had no sags in the water line that would hold water, it all drains out. When I drain the tank the water drains out of the pump as well. I also drink the water and have never had gastrointestinal madness from it.

Edited by BlueSky, 17 August 2022 - 11:27 PM.

[AWG_Pics]

I open up the back spigot, drain the tank, then run water through the fill pipe until a few more gallons come out the spigot. Let it fill a bit, then run water through the faucet in the sink for a gallon or so. Then fill it up. We are on treated city water, very good tasting water, and that seems to keep the mold and stuff down. We are always a bit sad when we run out of 'home' water on a trip, but thems the breaks, as they say.

[ckent323]

I do the same as RONR (above) and use the weak bleach mixture while filling the empty tank at the beginning of the season. Additionally,  I drain and completely fill and drain the tank 2 more times after adding the bleach mixture,  Then I fill with water for use which like ROMR is mostly for washing and cooking water.  I am comfortable that the water system is safe and the water drinkable,  However, our local water is quite hard and doesn't taste great

As a consequence we carry separate containers of drinking water which we start out with from our reverse osmosis system and them refill on the road as needed from RO water dispensers or bottled water.  I also carry a MSR backpacker manual pump type water filter just in case.

No need to winterize here.

[Vic Harder]

I fill with city water, run through a potable water hose, and a Camco carbon filter. In the camper, the water goes through the pump and into a 3m filter that claims it filters out 99% of bacteria, viruses and even chemicals. Water tastes better on the road than it does through a Brita at home.

I don’t drain between trips nor run bleach through it.

[craig333]

I'm like Vic except I do do a yearly bleach treatment.

[ckent323]

Vic, et al,

 

As long as you only fill with municipal treated water a 3 micron filter is OK to filter out sediment.  If you use a source from a steam or other non-municipal source it is safer to use a filter smaller than 1 micron to filter out bacteria, microbes and parasites like Giardia, Cryptosporidium.  To filter out viruses the filter needs to be 0.1 micron or less.

https://www.cdc.gov/...fo/filters.html

https://www.freshwat...-drinking-water

I hope this information is useful.

 

Craig