HOW TO: Sanitize an RV Fresh Water Tank

We've been drinking the water directly from our RV's fresh water tank for over 12 years with no problem at all. Here's how we sanitize the system to keep our RV water safe to drink.

Don't have a winterizing kit? No problem! Click here to see the trick we use!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEBscJ...

Want to sanitize both hot and cold sides of the fresh water system? Here's how to do it:
http://youtu.be/jEepug8N-aE

Click here to find Slunky sewer hose support: http://tinyurl.com/khullxj

It's perfectly safe to drink the water from an RV's fresh water tank (we've been doing it for over 8 years) as long as you keep the tank clean. In this video, we show you how to sanitize your fresh water tank, which should be done about once every 6 months.

Clean, safe, sanitary drinking water is a breeze when you take a few basic steps to manage the fresh water system on your motorhome, travel trailer of fifth wheel. Fresh, drinkable, potable H2O doesn't only come from bottled water, but right from your RV's tank.

We'll show you how to use bleach to kill any bacteria that may be present in your camper's water system, and have all the safe drinking water you need.

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The intro music is my own piano performance of Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag from 1899.

Full-Time RVers since April 11, 2003, we share DIY (do it yourself) RV maintenance, repair, travel, upgrade and operational tips & tricks.

While we're not RV technicians, we're very mechanically inclined and have learned a lot about RV systems over the years. We've handled most of our own minor service, maintenance and upgrade work on both of our RVs.

We meet lots of newer RVers who are eager to learn some basics about using, maintaining and caring for their rigs. After more than a decade on the road, we're happy to share what we've learned (some of it the hard way). ;-) We hope our experience can help other RVers go DIY, saving time & money while experiencing the satisfaction of a job well done.

We are not professional RV technicians and do not pretend to be experts on any particular topic. We mostly know about maintaining our own motorhome, so be sure to confirm that all methods and materials used are compatible with your equipment. Every RV is different, so your systems may not be the same as ours. Regardless of what we recommend, consult a professional if you're unsure about working on your RV. We encourage you to do your own research. Any task you perform or product you purchase based on any information we provide is strictly at your own risk.

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Closed Caption:

today we're going to show you how to
sanitize your fresh water tank and this
is all you need
if you boondock very often
you probably have one of these essential
pieces of boondocking equipment 1 gallon
picture
all you need to do is clean it out
thoroughly and you can use it to
sanitize your fresh water tank a couple
of important things to remember before
you get started first make sure you have
access to water turn off your ice maker
make sure you start off with a less than
full freshwater tank
don't run water through your water
dispenser at the sink or on the
refrigerator and this is easiest to do
if your RV is equipped with a
winterizing kit which provides a tube
for drawing antifreeze into the water
system so that you can prevent the lines
from freezing
we're going to use this to instead to
draw bleach into the fresh water tank to
sanitize it all we have to do is flip
these two valves valves a and B
and what that does is it causes the
water pump to draw water through this
hose
what we're going to want to draw through
there is a bleach solution
we're going to mix up by adding one and
three-quarter cups of bleach to about a
gallon of water
now the reason we're using one and
three-quarter cups of bleach is because
we want to use one quarter cup of bleach
for every 15 gallons of fresh water
capacity we have a hundred and five
gallon tank 15 gallons x 7 equals a
hundred and five seven quarter cups
equals one and three-quarter cups so
we've already put some bleach in here
we're going to add the last cup
be very careful obviously with the
bleach you don't want to splash it you
don't want to get it on yourself
it's obviously going to will ruin your
clothing if you get it on you and you
don't want in your eyes are on your
hands be very careful using I or I
protection or gloves as you see fit
now all we're going to do is we're going
to take this hose
put it down into our bucket very
carefully so that we don't splash
so with your water pump turned on and
the spicket leading into the RV turned
off or disconnected so that you're
absolutely using water from the water
pump
we're simply going to turn on our tank
fill valve as soon as we flip that
going to see that water is going to
begin being drawn in
by the water pump
the bucket
this is how we're gonna get the bleach
into our freshwater tank
turn off your water pump and when I
recommend doing is filling this bucket
one more time with fresh water to get
all the excess bleach out of here
fire up your water pump again
now you're drawing in mostly fresh water
with just a little residue and bleach
just want to clean that pose out make
sure that you've gotten all the
strong bleach solution out now that
you've got your bleach into the tank
you can turn your valves back and you
can turn your tank fill off and now go
and turn your fresh water source back on
at the spigot
now it's time to fill the freshwater
tank completely full of water which will
mix up the bleach solution into the
water thoroughly mixing it and also
filling the tank to the top so we
thoroughly sanitized the entire tank so
flip your tank fill valve on start
filling your tank we want to fill that
freshwater tank completely fault and the
way we'll know that it's fall is by
watching for water to come out the
overflow on the bottom of the RV
as soon as we see that water begin to
come out the overflow or immediately
going to turn off the tank fill valve
and we're also going to turn off the
water at the spigot and there it is
ok not come up into the house and turn
on all the faucets wanted a time on cold
water only
you don't want to turn on any hot water
you don't need to be drawing these
through your hot water system
it's very important to remember a couple
of things about it you want to make sure
that you're now drawing water off the
water pumped from the tank not from the
hose hooked up to an exterior water sort
of external water
and all you need to do is run the water
and call you can smell bleach
did you smell some bleach coming up
shut it off what you want to do is keep
the pipes full of bleach your water
while your sanitizing the water tank
you're also sanitizing the plumbing
lines we prefer not to run bleach
through the hot water tank though you
can if you want to we've never done that
the father then without food till you
smell bleach
we run every faucet in the house and
cold water you get that we choose now we
even run water up in the shower until we
smell bleach to sanitize all the water
lines if you don't have a wand like we
do you need to run water right from the
shower head
ner veer who's ever boondock before
probably knows this trick but running
shower water up into the bucket prior to
taking a shower runs the hot water up
and avoids putting this water
unnecessarily down the drain into the
great tank when you're going docking and
now you can use this water to flush the
toilet
so a gallon jug is something we think
every RV should have in it
we've used this from day one every time
we're dry camping
now if you want to you can just let that
bleach water stay in that tank for a
couple of hours two three four hours
you don't need any more than that if you
really want to be thorough and really
wanted to mix around and get the entire
tank thoroughly sanitized take the RV
for a ride on a twisty road and when
you're ready to rinse the bleach water
out of your tank
there's two ways to do it if you're in a
place where it's not inappropriate to
drain that water onto the ground
knowing that there's one and
three-quarter cups of bleach in it
simply open the low . drain for
freshwater tank like back here and train
your tank
it's probably gonna take a while under
the five gallons
ok if you don't want to do it that way
the other way to empty the tank out is
to turn on a faucet at the kitchen sink
and simply run the water out the sewer
line so we prefer not to do it that way
if we can
we'd rather not run the water pump
continuously for a hundred and five
gallons but it's not the end of the
world and the matter of deciding which
is more appropriate in your situation to
run your water pump for a long time to
empty that water out or to decide if
you're in a place where it's okay
running onto the ground ok once your
water tank is completely emptied out
hook yourself back up to fresh water and
turn on your tank fill and fill that
freshwater tank all the way back up with
fresh water
once your fresh water tank is completely
full
turn off your water spigot outside and
go back to water pump
turn your water pump on so you're
drawing water out of the freshwater tank
turn the faucet back on all of them time
and keep running that water and Kelly
does it smell like bleach anymore
I want all the bleach other line
if you're not getting any smell of
bleach at all after the first rinse out
your good to go
and your tank is now sanitized and
you're set for six months
if you're still smelling bleach drain
your fresh water tank one more time
refill it with fresh water you'll be
good to go