💧 RV Fresh Water System Sanitization! (RV Maintenance Series) | RV Living!
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- Опубліковано 1 сер 2020
- A clean freshwater system is very important in an RV.
⚠️ Be sure to check out the blog post for detailed step-by-step directions!
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⚠️ We have some UPDATES on this process!!! Be sure to check out the blog post for detailed step-by-step directions!
🅱 Full Blog Post: changinglanesrv.com/rv-water-system-sanitization
What is Todd's channel? Ty
Thank you for the updates! I was about to ask why you didn't just run the water hot/cold using the bleachy tank after bypassing without all the extra syphoning in "winterize" mode. Awesome job and thank you!
Is it possible to add the bleach by putting it into the water filter casing after taking the filter out? I saw this suggestion on a fb thread regarding the " RV inline sanitizer" sold on Amazon. I am curious what you think about this suggestion.
This is too "new" for me to follow ( but I'm saving it!) > my Champion 328F 5th Wheel- purchased used/as is from private seller- doesn't have the fancy stuff, I know little to nothing about RV's & I don't have/ know how to get an owner's manual > bottom line: it's all above & beyond this widow 👵! Thank you for this excellent instructional video.
Glad to see we aren't the only ones who do the blue painter's tape warning signs...lol
I love you maintenance videos. It’s really helpful and a great reminder of things that need to be done that aren’t exactly on the top of the list as far as maintenance goes. Thank you.
I hope you’re both safe and well. Enjoy the rest of your summer.
Love Todd he is so direct and well spoken. You all add his clip perfectly. Love the channel!
Thanks for all the maintenance tips. We are still part time Rv’ers and have added this to our list of items to do on a regular basis. We love the bloopers too!
ill remember that. before sanitising water tanks, go to 2 breweries.!!!!
It's really a key step! 🍺
I was literally just talking about this with my wife today. And I told her I had to look up some videos to see how to do that. What a coincidence your new vid pops up and guess what the topic is? Haha 😂 love the video. Great info. Thanks guys!!!!
Great video, Chad, Tara & Todd :). Thanks for sharing.
Great job, as always!! YOU GUY'S make me smile!!!
I’ve watched other videos on water sanitization and still learned two new things. First don’t fill the hot water heater - oops. Second, drain the fresh water tank when putting it in storage (we aren’t full timers) or when you are using city water for an extended time period. Thanks again for an excellent and informative video.
Thanks for another great educational video.
Thanks to Todd for the valuable info and good idea by Tara about having extra jugs of water for usage during the sanitization process.
Perfect timing for this video. I have to do this. Thanks for this!
There is a simpler and faster way to do this, heed the warnings about the water filter and hot water tank, then:
'Note: It helps if you are using treated city water to do this process to avoid introducing any un-necceassary outside contaminants'
1. First make sure your fresh water tank is empty.
2. Now siphone or fill your fresh water tank (depending on your RV) with the 5 gallon bucket of water and bleech solution appropriate for your tank. You can do this multiple times to dilute the solution for larger tanks, just make sure you get the correct amount of bleech into your tank for your tank size.
3. Now fill your fresh tank up full so the solution you have just put in mixes in with all the water.
4. After this just run all your faucets, toilets, etc until the bleech solution comes through, using the solution from your fresh water tank and pump (dry camping mode)-Make sure your hot water tank stays bypassed during this time. Now wait the required time while the solution cleans (i believe 10 minutes is actually the minimum).
5. Now use your fresh water tank drain and drain the tank all out into sewer or approriate location. This avoids having to tax your water pump so hard to pump so many gallons through.
6. Fill your fresh water tank up again
7. Drain it wth the tank drain again
8. Fill your fresh tank up yet again
9. Use the fresh water tank and pump to pump some now-clean water from the fresh water tank through all your faucets, etc until the bleech solution is gone.
10. Drain ALL your tanks now using the tank drains, agian into the appropraite sewer/etc.
Now your all flushed and good to go!
Note: IF you have some kind of long inlet pipe inside your RV from your city water inlet connection point up-to your pump t-connction or valve, you may have to sanitize that specific section of the pipe with back flushing. Also, Alot of RV's have a one way valve just after where the hose connects to the RV, you may have to get creative to try and get solution into that specific pipe of the system, typically this pipe is very short up to the t-in point and it doesnt matter, unless you have rotten lines, then you may need to address it.
Thank you so much for these videos! They help out so much with understand all the systems.
Thank y’all for this video. Another task we now know how to do!
Thanks guys for the videos. My wife and I are new to rv ownership and your videos have been extremely helpful.
Thank you, I have a C class that is different but the demonstration gives me direction.
Awesome info! I am rebuilding a truck camper after someone else gutted some parts. I never would have thought to add the hot water bypass to sanitize. Very informative
Hey guys great video. Wanted to say how I sanitize my tanks. I just pour the bleach into my water feed hose for the RV. Then connect it to my water source and turn it on like I’m filling my tanks. When full I run all the faucets in my rig and then the water pump to all the faucets. Putting the bleach in my water hose also sanitizes my hose. I also bypass the hot water heater. Thanks for all your info you share. Keith
A necessary job, thanks for showing how you do it.
Going to do this Monday, getting ready for short trip.
It's a lot simpler with my trailer (but someday) ..... I really enjoy your maintenance episodes. Thanks
Thank You for the information to know about Sanitize your tank it was very helpful.
You two are fantastic on you maintenance videos. You do make these very easy to follow. My wife and me enjoy every video you do. Love you guys. Miss seeing Daisy in the video though. Have a great week, and happy camping.
The best outtakes yet!! The voicemail got me😂 And of course the water filter.
A little food colouring will help determine when the bleach gets to each faucet
G Alexander, I’m not sure but wouldn’t the bleach cancel out the food coloring?
Or you can just smell the bleach when it comes out.
Very much enjoyed this video for some reason... Thank you guys for your knowledge/wisdom
Great info guys! Thanks! Take care
Hi Chad & Tara! I’ve decided I’m going to hire you both when I get my Rv to my bleaching of the tanks. You both did a great job. That’s why I would love to hire you both. Lol 😃It’s looks easy but also complicated. You too are funny with your outtakes. I crack up. Can’t wait to see more how to videos or any videos you do. I love your trips you took camping. Looking forward to seeing more videos soon! Sherri Weber
By the way, you guys ROCK!!!! Love your videos!!
Spring sanitize! Thanks for this video again!
Love your how to videos and sanitizing will be on our list very shortly 🤗 It's RV Life/ Now or Never
Thanks for the video! Love the Nautilus system and it's ease of use on our GD Reflection TT.
Thanks for this. I never heard anyone go over this before.
A quick suggestion. Since your fresh water tanks are so large, after the first rinse, add a cup of peroxide then pump to each faucet. If you want, you can test with a chlorine dpd test kit before and after to prove it. The peroxide will kill any remaining chlorine. You won't need a second full flush.
We just did this as well. Good to have it sanitized even though we do not use for drinking water. Hope to find you out and about on the 🏍🏍🏍 someday!
Awesome information. Thanks for sharing!
Great video. I do santitze my tanks. Little different process. Liked seeing it emphasized. Notice the today is someday t shirt. I'm a fan as well.
Simple in concept, not so simple in practice. Thanks guys now i know what I need to do but I didn't see how often you should do this. You may have said but I'm getting old and forgetful. Good stuff guys and keep it coming.
1 time a year if full timing or when you begin to smell the water.
If you store the rig or not use the tank for a month or so it’s good practice to sanitize.
Excellent as always. Travel safe.
Great as always!
For example Having a 30 minute walk around the RV park for 30 minutes with your husband and your dog would be amazing letting us know what’s around you guys are amazing the cutest couple ever
Thanks! in your parents home town of Franklin, NC now so before I head out to Indianapolis this is a great time to sanitize and fill up my water tank on good ole Franklin city water....
great tips on sanitizing the tanks
You guys are very helpful! Thank you!
Nice That was Good INFO My Friends Will have to come back and Watch when its Time to do ... Thank You Be - Safe
Thank you for showing the process. Awesome video.
Thanks for your help! 👊🏼
Just got a bunkhouse 32feet getting ready to live in full time with family
Your videos are so helpful thanks
Welcome to our channel! 😊
Love your Today is Someday shirt Tara. I have it in red and it is soooo soft. lol Another valuable video, thanks guys.
Very helpful we will do exactly same. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks thanks ya both bunches you guys are awesome love to miss y’all some day 🤟
Love your videos. I am getting ready to get my trailer out of storage and get rid of the antifreeze. Then I will sanitize
I'm renovating my classic GMC motorhome and this will be added to my list to do thanks!.
Something to think about if you don’t have their fancy system, my water pump has a t-fitting with hose that I can bring out to suck up water from. I just fill my fresh water with the fresh water port and a gallon jug/spout that is premixed with bleach and the hose on the water pump.
Really great video.
Thank you for the great info!
You guys are amazing love your videos please please please make more videos sooner than four days
Great tips, thanks.
Thank you so much 👍👍👍
After what you guys did, I run the sinks and shower until the fresh water tank is empty and I refill it, and let that sit another 12 hrs so the gray tank gets its cleaning too.
(my fresh and gray and the same size)
I would totally disagree about when you drain your water tank so no bacteria grows. I have 30 years experience with bottled water and another 20 in keeping swimming pools sanitized. Your water tank is never ever dry. There just is never large enough vents to move enough air to dry that tank. So your sitting in a campground where daytime temps reach 85 degrees plus, you then have this moist tank that is going to rise close to those temps and the bacteria will be growing like crazy. Where as you have it full you have little to no air in the tank to eliminate airborne bacteria and that water most likely will never reach 85 plus degrees. The cooler your water stays the less bacteria will grow. I personally fill my tank and add a tablespoon of bleach and then it’s good to go.
Good to know if I every have to winterize my RV. The Florida life.
Without reading all 318 of the comments, I'll assume a few already mentioned a Berkey for drinking water and I will just echo that sentiment and also say how a Berkey is really the best filtered water that can eliminate the need for heavy cases of bottled water and it filters out FAR more than the Britta. While the Berkey is basically a really high priced water cooler that does require space on a counter or in a stand, it filters out EVERYTHING (did I mention way more than the Brittas?) AND, when equipped with the right filters, a Berkey can also strip out both fluoride and arsenic! But the Berkey is not an excuse to not sanitize the coach's water system. We just got our Berkey (the travel Berkey) for the house and camper and we love it! Another thought on sanitizing the camper's water system is to use Star-San which is a no-rinse (but you can rinse if you want too) sanitizer that a lot of breweries and home brewers use to sanitize their brewing systems (so it's not cheap stuff). Star-San is an orderless, tasteless, and food-safe sanitizer with a minimum contact time of 4 minutes per 1 oz to 5 gallons. That may make it sound really acidic, it's not as acidic as it sounds and it's safe on PEX/Plastic as well as Stainless steel and metal. This is something that some might like over using chlorine. The last piece of our camping potable water solution that we just moved to for pre-water filtering is a combination of Clear 2O pre-filter (20Micron pre-filter which is the same as the blue Camcos), a Aqua Clear in-line 5 micron filter (connected to the Clear 2O pre-filter) and then the Clear 2O 1 micron in-line filter. These three filters allow us to stop using (i.e. spend money) on the Camco blue in-lines since the Clear 2O is a removable and washable 20 micron (same as the Camco) filter. The Aqua Clear in-line 5 micron filter, filters at the same level as our whole house filter which we now removed since it was an awkward set-up on our travel trailer, and the Clear 2O (filtering at the 1 micron) is filtering at a new level that we were not previously filtering at within the Clear 2O 1 micron. I suppose people could replicate the same setup with a camco (20 micron) and two whole house filters that filter at the 5 and 1 micron levels but the whole house take up a lot of room and the housings can get expensive and they are really hard to find with needed Garden Hose Threaded (GHT) male/female fittings rather than the home National Pipe Threaded (NPT) male/female fittings which when connected with a hose, all too often leak. I found using the inline filters that are already GHT reduces leaks and cleans up the setup (no need for a whole house filter stand/solution) and storage for those of us that space constrained in a travel trailer. One point to note, the Berkey's filters do not like softened water so we are still working out the best way to still keep our travel water softener system hooked up for bathing while not using it for drinking. right now we just are not running the water softener due to the Berkey. Thanks for a great video on an important topic that a lot of people probably don't think about! I'm not sponsored by Star-San, Berkey or Clear 20/Aqua Clear - I just think these are some techniques to pass along that other might want to know about and how we use them! Cheers!
Thank you for the video
Just a nugget for thought. Somewhere in the system there is an air intake to prevent vacuum lock. You might want to find that and replace the little in line foam filter. Remember that it is sucking in all the ambient contaminants wherever you are.
I just bought a inline sanitizer today and I'm going to give it a try to flush and to clean my tank. Seems a lot easier. I'll let you know how it goes...
Thanks! I used to just sit with bleach water for half an hour.
thank's be safe have fun
Thank you for posting. I learned something about the water heater. However, instead of using a bucket and all the syphoning steps, I just pour bleach into my regular water hose...connect to trailer and water hydrant. Fill Fresh water tank (hose gets bleach ran through it). Then go in, turn on pump and run through lines. Let set. Then do the draining and rinsing 12+ hours later. It's amazing how many people do NOT sanitize their rigs.
I hope you still bypass your water heater... bleach is highly corrosive to the metal in there.
Why would you need to flush potable water tanks twice? City water has chlorine in it anyway, so some tiny residual of diluted chlorinated water doesn't seem significant. Dumping it twice just seems like a waste of water. Love your videos. Lot's of good info for a new RV'er.
Very helpful guys and always fun. I recently purchased a 2014 Lance 1885 travel trailer and I need to sanitize water system before my first camping trip 😎❤️😊🌎🎥 thanks for sharing and safe travels
Congrats on the new-to-you RV! 😀
The Potable Aqua makes water taste great.
Thank you for your service and your help. I have a 2023 376ths. The fresh water tank dump valve is a game changer. The RV parks frown greatly upon dumping 110 gallons of water on to the ground. Are you aware of a 2 1/2" to 3" sewer hose adapter so i can drain it to the RV park sewer system? I didn't initially see your idea to use water pump to empty the fresh water tank.
Thanks
Our setup is much simpler. I dump 2 cups of bleach into the filter housing then fill the fresh water tank (100 gallons). Then use the pump to water to everything and let it sit. Fortunately I don’t need to use the siphon connection.
Love watching your videos!
Definitely a great option.
thank you stay safe
Super interesting Chad, albeit in 30+ years of RVing, we've never done so, but something to be put on our list of course. Also, your tip on if you're in one location over a period of time, to empty the fresh water tank...I'll do that today, thank you! Regarding the RV course as mentioned in Texas, my wife & I took a very similar class in the town of Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada. The course is actually at the University in Kelowna, where the course is taught for those that want to become RV technicians, thus I'm sure it's similar to the one you mentioned in Texas. Also, we found their where SO MANY classes on RV topics, that I would go to one, and my wife would go to a different one, to fit them all in over the few days we where there. Definitely helped me on the many 'fix-its' on our Class A DP motorhome! Being a subscriber, I always look forward to your video's, so a big 'thanks' to sticking to it, and sharing them with us, as I honestly know the amount of time it takes on the filming and editing, as I'm a photographer and editing can take a ridiculous amount of time, and I hope your UA-cam audience realizes the time & effort you two put in! I also keep an eye on Phil & Stacy, and when you two get together, the antics keep us laughing and enjoying your video's even more! Stay safe you two!!
That's awesome they have those courses, and I bet you can sit in on them for free?
:-) fun to see the dirty water filter .. good video! And wearing “Video clothes’
Here’s a tip wrt recognizing when the bleach water has reached a given valve ... Put some food coloring in the bleach water! I learned to do this on my race car when changing the brake fluid. I would alternate the brake fluid color (gold or blue), which made it easy to know when the lines were flushed to the caliper.
Great idea!
Well done
I spent many years sanitizing potable water systems on Boeing airplanes prior to their delivery and this video is very similar to the way I did it there. One of the best ways we knew that we flushed the chlorine out of the system was by using chlorine test strips to test the water flowing from each faucet just make sure the levels are correct. They are cheap to purchase and more accurate than just smelling for the lack of chlorine. Just a thought.
Another idea is when you change to a new water filter run water through the new filter for 5 minutes to rinse out the carbon. Do this with water that is clean, such as city water before putting the new filter in the RV.
Just a thought. After adding the last cup to bucket, rinse the measure into the bucket to clean it and not waste the water as you are topping off the five gallon? And rinse all stainless steel with clean water to prevent pitting the stainless. Bleach is a monster to stainless steel. Thanks!
Great video! So our Entegra has the Sanitize lines and tank modes as well. I have a question though.. Couldn't you fill up your fresh water tanks with the bleach/water solution, then switch to 'normal' like you're boondocking and run the solution through your lines from your water tank? When done, just top off your water tank with fresh water? Just wondering..
I'm sure I'm not the only one to mention if you did the rear bathroom at the same time?
I'm pretty sure y'all did because Chad rarely misses stuff and if he does Tara reminds him...LOL
Another great how to video, thanks guys.
Safe travels and God Bless y'all...
I try to shock our well yearly and a well plumber will tell you a lot higher concentration than the amount you used, but you don't need to cause rust either. But it is also easier I just run the farthest faucet till I smell bleach then the others have bleach very quickly. At the low bleach level you are at you could run it in the water heater, I use instant hot water for our house so no tank but I just run a load of white towels when we are done bleaching. I also wash the house off with the bleach water after it sat in lines and well for overnight.
Nice video. A lot more people are plumbing in water softener systems into the RV's, they should also certainly be bi-passed during sanitation. Just a thought.
Love you guys video .I live in Scotland. I ride a Harley lol
Oops, I didn't bypass the water heater. I had to do mine while camping. IDK how the water goes bad when sunlight doesn't hit it? Mine was bad. It had a tint of green. Had to run 5 miles to get bleach. Luckily we had water hook ups and I could use their water to flush/ fill. If you're in my situation, drain your hot water heater when bypassing to rid it of stink.
Good video
Thank Y’all for this video!!
I’m not going to tell why I need to clean my fresh water tank but I do know I can’t start cleaning with out several good ole cold beers 1st~
(W00H00, HaPpYDaNcE)
Wow! What a process! Too much for me 🤪
Just start filling your fresh water, get a funnel and a gallon jug. Premix some in the jug, use the adjustable funnel to get it into the fresh water port. By-pass your hot water heater. Turn it off, letting it get cold. When your bleachy fresh water is getting full, turn on water pump and run all your lines. Then add just a bit more bleachy water to your fresh water port and top off. While you wait for the water to sanitize, you can empty our black water/change anode if required. The hard part is the next day. You gotta dump and refill fresh then dump again. Run the water pump on the refill to purge all lines. Then when your done, un-bypass hot water heater and fill/heat. I do it every year and use the in between time to either get anode rod or go grocery shopping etc. I’m not sure I ever wait more than 5 hours, but I use my fresh water tank all the time.
12:54 "yeah yeah" I give my wife that same answer all the time!
My GD 337RLS fresh tank has a 2" dump valve. Pull it open and swich it is gone. Refill it and flush lines the bleach out of the lines.
I know this is an older video but I just found it looking for tips on how to sanitize using the nautilus panel in my new Outback. I'm not sure if I missed something, but if you fill up the fresh water tank with the bleach solution, why not just use the water pump to pull for there to sanitize the fixtures instead of the back and forth using the winterization setting? I think the winterization would be just to prevent you from having to add antifreeze to your fresh tank... Just a thought! Thanks for a great video.
We’ve got a 375 RES with an ice maker in the residential fridge. We had an issue with stagnant water in the washer water lines (located in the front cap area) siphoning back into the rest of the fresh water lines. Took us a few weeks to figure it out, but once we sanitized, added some shutoff valves in the front bay to isolate the washer water lines (we don’t use a washer) and got on a regular sanitization schedule we didn’t experience any more issues. Very important issue. I would say if you have a residential fridge, don’t use any ice made for a few days, since it will contain chlorine.
Ah.. good point! 👍🏼
Great video! FYI, convert your units from gallons and cups to milliliters . So, based on my math you would use 24ml/5gal h2o..I enjoy your videos!
I wish the US would use metric!
*Question, why do you have to use a different line to blow the pyramids out of your black tank? seems to me the water going in shouldn't matter unless you are messing with the waste hose also, i am permanently camped on a lot i am buying. my hose stays hooked up so the water hose is all i ever mess with. i use an inline filter for my water inlet of course now i have to fix that too because last night i was changing out the filter after 3 months. i use the camco 40019 2x XL water filter for my rig. has worked great but when i pressurized the line again last night even after flowing the water through the filter and hose it completely blew the filter apart and in the process it blew my inlet completely off the RV. so now i have THAT to fix! i did learn the proper way to flush my black water tank and OMG the devil was burried in there. I run TST Max through mine as well as Zep Citrus degreaser and 20 Mule team water softener and it works WAY better than just washing the tank normally. of course i never take my RV anywhere. i live in it on my lot so it doesn't slosh around but that combination still worked well for cleaning all manner of shmutz out of both gray tanks AND my black tank. i had to flush my gray tanks twice but had to flush my black tank about 6 times before the water ran clear. i am on a septic tank here but i was also told that to keep the fresh water tank clean dump 1/4 cup of bleach in it each time you fill it up. that should keep the nasties out of it* Any idea how hard that city water inlet valve is going to be to replace? i can get a replacement valve from Home Depot pretty cheap but i've never done that kind of work on one of these before and i'm kind of afraid of screwing something up
What about your fresh water potable hose, does it require sanitation?
Thank you for your great explanation. Love watching your videos. Question: do you need to bypass the hot water tank if you have and AquaHot hot water system? Will it harm the system?
Yes you want to bypass the aqua hot. The coils are metal inside and we really don’t want a bleach mixture in there at all possible.
Thanks for another great video! Do you have a video on upgrading your water pump or did you do it yourself?
I believe we did the water pump in this video: ua-cam.com/video/h_KDcm5pg4k/v-deo.html
I love yall's videos! They have been SO helpful. I am wondering what kind of walkie talkies you use? I saw mentioned somewhere that you use them. Still have a lot of videos of yours to catch up on. Thanks so much!
We use these: amzn.to/2PpSzlP 👍🏼
@@ChangingLanes Oh you are amazing, thank you SO MUCH!!! Appreciate it!
I fill my fresh water tank to the full level with my bleach water mix and use the on board water pump to fill the lines, I turn on the pump allow the system to pressurize and turn each tap in one at a time till I get the smell of bleach out of the that tap, leave it about 24 hours and flush three or four times till the smell of bleach is gone. As for draining the system, does your fresh water tank not have a drain valve under your rig? I drain through the drain valve, close valve, fill tank and repeat till I have no more bleach smell, fill tank and run pump to flush the lines till I get no more bleach smell. saves running the pump for hours to pump 150 gallons multiple times.