SANITIZING MY SYSTEM USING ONLY 20 GALLONS OF WATER
HOW TO SANITIZE YOUR RV FRESHWATER TANK USING ABOUT 20 TO 30 GALLONS OF WATER.
FACT; When bleach makes contact with bacteria, mildew and algae, it’s dead, it’s instantly totally dead, the kill has taken place. Knowing this, let’s continue. Knowing that bleach creates an instant kill, it’s important to have the bleach treated water makes contact with the entire tank sides, bottom and top. How do we do this, by driving around, yes, the bleach treated water swishing and splashing around makes contact with the entire holding tank, driving even a very short distance is the key. Let’s observe the theory that you need to fill your tank to capacity and not travel around and remain parked, well, have you ever filled your water tank to full capacity, maybe not, why, because all tanks have an OVERFLOW hose that allows you to only fill your tank to “NEAR” full, so if you fill until the water flows out of your over flow hose, how is the treated bleach water going to totally come into contact with the extreme top, highly unlikely it won’t and now you only sanitized a part of the tank, the top goes untreated and you now have treated only a part of the tank, the top of tank has not been treated so you still have bacteria, mildew and algae growing plus look how much wasted water and time you have invested and only did a partial job. Here is what we do with our own units and what we recommend our customers to do.
Trusting that we have come back from a trip, we have about 25 to 30 gallons of unused water, we simply connect our hoses to the canister, connect our hoses to the fresh water supply and the other hose to the RV fill spout making sure that all the hose fittings are leak proof tight, using a 13/16 open end wrench, remove the fill plug, pour in our desired amount of bleach, the cavity holds 7 ounces and if we want to add more, no problem, why, the hose entry and exit holes in the canister are situated so that any access bleach starts to fill the hoses so if I feel that I have more water than 25 or 30 gallons, I just keep pouring my bleach because I know the extra bleach is starting to fill the hose and once I turn on the water, all my bleach in the hose and cavity are going into my holding tank, testing shows about 3.7 gallons of water and the entire 7 ounces in the cavity are now in my tank. NOW that I have added my bleach into the canister, I need to return the fill plug and TIGHTEN THE PLUG all the way down so that I can barely see the blue O ring or gasket, don’t worry, the threads will withstand much tightening as I don’t want my bleach to spray out and on to me. Once all my hoses are tight, my plug is tightened down to the blue ring/gasket I can turn on my fresh water knowing in about 3 to 5 gallons I have dispersed all the bleach into my RV tank and I can shut my water down. Once I have disconnected my canister and hoses, I will go for a drive, sometimes wait until morning when I know I have a trip planned or I can just drive around town trying to make the water splash and splash all interior sides of my tank. Now I can do several things, if just driving around town to created water movement I can wait until I get home and run my house interior water pump to force the untreated water out of my faucets, shower and toilet or I can stop on the way knowing that my mixture will not by any means harm my RV plumbing or hoses, sometimes I will even leave the bleach treated water over the weekend, anyway, sometime before I release all my bleach treated water I want to run enough through the hoses and faucets to also treat those areas, again, I am not worried about doing any harm to my RV plumbing hoses or faucet’s so time is not an issue, all I know is I want to treat my hoses and fixtures with treated water by using the water pump in my RV before I drop my tank.
Now that I have dropped my treated water completely, I want to refill with clean clear fresh water and again run my RV water pump to pump the treated bleach water through the hoses and faucets until I no longer smell any bleach, about a gallon and a half, the toilet, I don’t flush as the small amount of bleach in the line serves me well to be in the black water tank. Once I no longer smell bleach coming out of every faucet or shower, I am good to go. THE DECISION TO TREAT MY HOT WATER TANK AND ICE MAKER is something I do about every other time knowing the hot is hot and the cold is very cold so those areas are not normally ideal growing areas for bacteria. Refer to your owners’ book if you need any info about diverting the water supply. So this is how I sanitize my motor home with whatever left over water I have in my holding tank, never have I filled my holding tank to simply disinfect my system, driving around, splashing and splashing is the best.
NOW LET’S CONFIRM ALL OUR HOSES AND THE FILL PLUG ARE LEAK FREE BEFORE WE BEGIN. REMEMBER, IF THE FILL PLUG IS NOT TURNED DOWN TIGHT IT WILL SPRAY AND LEAK, IF THE HOSE FITTINGS AREN’T TIGHT, THEY WILL LEAK