silverbullet02

Bought a '93 Lance 300, been sitting a couple years, had to pull hot water heater out to fix a little damage on the left rear, and when I got it out I tipped it down to drain it and rusty lookin water came out. I'm gonna hit it with the hose and flush it real good before I put it back in, but as far as the rest of the system, what is a good thing to use to sanitize it? I figure I'll run it empty, fill it up, run it empty again and what not, but what chemical(s) would you recommend putting in there so I don't get sick? Hopefully will have it finished by end of week and already have a trip planned for camping/boating Memorial day weekend. Thanks for the help here,

Brian (MM1/SS)

gmctd

Simple clorox bleach - prollem is the rust - that ain't good on the ole belly no matter how sanitized the water - if it's just minor surface rust you can get a powdered product called IRON OUT to clean that and make it useable

- LIMEAWAY will clean the mineral scale, then the IRON OUT, then the chlorine bleach, such as clorox - or even the stuff from that moron on TV that screams at you about how good his oxy clean is

silverbullet02

Wow, thanks for the fast reply! I'm not in a particular hurry to put hot water heater back in, so maybe I could put the Iron Out in the Hot water tank and let it soak for a day then flush it out hard with the hose? Where you get that at? As for the rest of the system, just regular clorox, eh? Any particular ratio, or just dump some in? I appreciate any input, as I've been in my dad's truck camper since high school, but we put a brand new tank in it and it was not near as fancy as this thing is...so most of these RV plumbing systems are new to me...thanks again!

Brian

mstark

I put 1.5 cups of bleach (cheapest I can buy) for 36 gallons of water in the tank. Then open each valve to pump the bleach water mixture through the pipes, then let it sit 8 hours or over night. Then drain and fill/flush a few times to remove the bleach smell/taste. Then I fill it full and let it sit a couple days. No bleach smell or taste, no bacteria either.

SundayMoney

Same here.

mooseman

dont know why or how it works but 2 cups of vinigar to a fuul tank of water then flushed takes out the chlorine smell/taste and the plastic taste out of the water. Been doin it for years every time we go out. Water always tastes like fresh spring water.

Danderson

I've used the bleach flush technique on my Northstar following the manufacturer's suggestions. I always refill using a charcoal inline filter and potable water rated white hose to keep out the minerals we have in San Diego.

WestTN

Here is a proven procedure to sanitize your water system:

Recreational Vehicle Water System Chlorination

This is an easy step by step guide to sanitizing the RV water system. If the RV has been sitting for a few weeks in warm weather, or if this is the first use of the season, the fresh water system should be flushed to remove the old water or RV antifreeze.

You start by draining the water from the fresh water tank and the heater tank. These have drain valves mounted on them. Locations of all valves are marked on the outside of the trailer.

Refill the 40 gallon fresh water tank half way with water and add 24 ounces of household bleach. This makes a mix with 0.5% available chlorine.

Pump the mixture through the hot and cold water faucets. Allow each to run until you can smell the chlorine. Just take small sniffs because your nose soon loses the ability to smell chlorine. You will not be able to tell if it is getting to the last faucets if you spend too much time smelling the first ones. Allow the mix to stand in the tank and pipes for one hour or more.

Drain and refill the system with fresh water three times, running the faucets each time. Don't forget to flush the toilet. This will make sure there is no bleach trapped in the piping to cause problems later.

Completely dissolve a small box of baking soda in a gallon of hot water. Pour this into the fresh water tank and allow to stand for a short time.

Drain and flush the system at least three times and refill with fresh water, purging each faucet each time. The system is ready for use.

In hot weather you may wish to add bleach to your water system periodically. If you do, you may prefer to drain the fresh water tank and add bleach to the fresh fill. You can add household chlorine bleach at 2/3 ounce for forty gallons. This is .01% available chlorine, which is the amount used by most city water works.

Fueling around

Make sure you use bleach without scent or detergent. My wife uses the flowery stuff for the laundry.
I had to buy a plain bottle just for sanitizing.

davelinde

If you can smell it at each tap the concentration is enough. However if you use an unscented bleach (good advice) you can get a little bottle of the pool test thing. Run the water until you get a color "show" yellow or orange usually, then leave it sit for 8 to 24 hours and flush it with clean water.

Really not so important for sanitizing a small RV system - but helps if you are doing bigger stuff. (I just needed to to my house after we failed a well test for bacteria). Now that I know about the pool tester I use it everywhere. Easier than sniffing and wondering if the concentration is high enough.

The key to effective sanitizing is concentration of chlorine (bleach) and time (8+hours). Then getting the smell/taste flushed out is only a matter of running enough fresh water and it will eventually fade. Even if it does smell a bit (of chlorine) it will not hurt you.

diesel96

You better remove and check the zinc anode. Chances are there isn`t to much left of it

Jeff in TD

Also, more isn't better with the bleach. In higher concentrations that stuff will be hard to rinse out.

I also think it is quite important to partly fill the tank, then add the bleach and continue filling.

Some rust and scale in the hot water heater is normal. There is a product called tanksaver that is a spray wand that attaches to the end of a garden hose, intended to be inserted into the drain/annode hole to clean out the tank and blast the debris out the drain. As a general rule, though, I wouldn't consider the water from the hot tap of an RV as drinkable.

Depending on the tank material it may or may not have an annode, which should be replaced when it gets down to the center steel rod.