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Sanitizing Your Fresh Water System

If your RV has been in storage, or has not been used for the winter season, the dark and damp fresh water storage tank is a great place for bacteria, film and slime to grow. In order to remove these problems from your RV, you should sanitize your water system and fresh water tank.

Here's how I would do it:

If you don't have a problem with algae or slime in your tank, and just want to make sure all the bacteria are removed:

Make sure the water heater is turned off.

Fill the water tank half-way.

In a gallon of water, dilute 6 ounces (2/3 cup) of chlorine bleach for each 10 gallons of fresh water capacity (including hot water tank). This is a stronger solution than the 4 ounces per 15 gallons generally recommended, but is a 200 ppm disinfectant solution recommended by the EPA.

Add the solution to the fresh water tank.

Fill the fresh water tank. This will mix the solution in the tank. If you want, you can even drive around the block to really mix it up.

Make sure the water system is pumping from the tank and not an external fresh water supply.

Each water outlet (faucet or showerhead) should be opened, one at a time, to let the treated water run through. Make sure you run the treated water through both cold and hot water lines. Run the water until the the chlorine smell is noticeable. This will probably take a couple of minutes. At one hour intervals, repeat this step until the smell of the chlorine is immediately noticeable.

Completely drain the fresh water tank and the hot water tank by opening all plumbing drains and the hot water tank drain plug.

Close all valves and faucets and drain plugs.

Fill water tank with fresh water and run water through all outlets (hot and cold) until the smell of chlorine is gone.

Flush each faucet for several minutes each repeating until the tank is again empty.

Fill the tank again. The water should now be safe to drink but if the chlorine odor is too strong you can add a mixture of 1/2 cup of baking soda and a gallon of water to the fresh water tank. Repeat the fresh water flush.

Your fresh water system should now be safe for use.

If you need to remove slime or algae from your fresh water system, before you sanitize the system do the following:

Following the procedures used above, flush the fresh water system with a solution of household detergent and water. Use 4 teaspoons of detergent for every 10 gallons of fresh water capacity.

Run the water full force through all outlets until the tank is empty. Refill the fresh water tank and run the fresh water through all outlets.

You are now ready to start the sanitizing procedures listed above.