Do you sanitize your system and how often?

[Timmer]

Hi all,

We are on our 3rd camper. We thoroughly flush everything out in the spring after it had been winterized. I will admit, however, we have never sanitized. We are weekend campers, and we travel with the fresh water, water heater, and low point drains open. The bouncing of the road ensures that all water leaves the system. We have never had any mold or other issues to our knowledge. In my first two campers I had reasons to pull the chloroplast and checked the water tank while I was there. They were both very clean looking. Is this a critical item for which I'm being foolish?

[Calbar]

Hi all,

We are on our 3rd camper. We thoroughly flush everything out in the spring after it had been winterized. I will admit, however, we have never sanitized. We are weekend campers, and we travel with the fresh water, water heater, and low point drains open. The bouncing of the road ensures that all water leaves the system. We have never had any mold or other issues to our knowledge. In my first two campers I had reasons to pull the chloroplast and checked the water tank while I was there. They were both very clean looking. Is this a critical item for which I'm being foolish?

I always santize my fresh water system in the spring when I flush the antifreeze. I don't like to take a chance of anyone getting sick.

Rob

[PaulKuda]

I always santize my fresh water system in the spring when I flush the antifreeze. I don't like to take a chance of anyone getting sick.

Rob

Do you flush with bleach or hydrogen peroxide?

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[Timmer]

Do you flush with bleach or hydrogen peroxide?

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Neither, just run water.

[Calbar]

Do you flush with bleach or hydrogen peroxide?

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I use granular chlorine from my pool. Same as bleach since it has chlrorine in it. I portion the chlorine to get the same per volume as using the bleach formula.

Rob

[Wicked ace]

Most RV antifreeze, being primarily ethanol will sanitize the water system just fine. All those hand sanitizers we are using these days are at least 70% ethanol. The only part I sanitize each spring is the water fill to the fresh water tank as I blow it down through the tank and leave it drain until dry.

[PaulKuda]

Most RV antifreeze, being primarily ethanol will sanitize the water system just fine. All those hand sanitizers we are using these days are at least 70% ethanol. The only part I sanitize each spring is the water fill to the fresh water tank as I blow it down through the tank and leave it drain until dry.

Since this is my first winter winterizing the unit, I am more concerned with the clean water holding tank. The antifreeze will sanitize the lines fine and flushing with clean water will do the trick, it's the holding tank. Unsure what kind of goodness grows without use. Looks like a standard bleaching of it "is" warranted, especially since it's been filled once when we purchased it and never used again. If we are ever in need to use it, I want it ready to roll and not require a larger black tank because of bad water [emoji6]

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[Wicked ace]

Since this is my first winter winterizing the unit, I am more concerned with the clean water holding tank. The antifreeze will sanitize the lines fine and flushing with clean water will do the trick, it's the holding tank. Unsure what kind of goodness grows without use. Looks like a standard bleaching of it "is" warranted, especially since it's been filled once when we purchased it and never used again. If we are ever in need to use it, I want it ready to roll and not require a larger black tank because of bad water [emoji6]

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I use a half cup of bleach poured into the fill hose then turn on the hose bib at my house and slowly fill the tank to about 2/3 full. I let it sit a bit and then do a drain and several flushes to get the bleach out. Even though I drain antifreeze after filling the water system, I don't leave it full of antifreeze, I do a long flush of it as well to get any remaining antifreeze out.

[Calbar]

Most RV antifreeze, being primarily ethanol will sanitize the water system just fine. All those hand sanitizers we are using these days are at least 70% ethanol. The only part I sanitize each spring is the water fill to the fresh water tank as I blow it down through the tank and leave it drain until dry.

@Wicked ace you need to be careful with this assumption though since RV antifreeze or at least the one that I use is only 10 - 30% Ethanol that content may not be sufficient to sanitize effectively. I know that the 70% in the hand sanitizers kills bacteria and viruses quickly but not sure that the low content in the antifreeze is strong enough to sanitize over the long period or not.

Rob

[Wicked ace]

@Wicked ace you need to be careful with this assumption though since RV antifreeze or at least the one that I use is only 10 - 30% Ethanol that content may not be sufficient to sanitize effectively. I know that the 70% in the hand sanitizers kills bacteria and viruses quickly but not sure that the low content in the antifreeze is strong enough to sanitize over the long period or not.

Rob

Then I guess you have some homework to do! See what happens when you ask questions in class.