saflyer Posted October 14, 2023 Share Posted October 14, 2023 We went to a Texas state park last week. After setting up and using some park water I saw a note on the door for a “boil water advisory”. Now I have to sanitize my system. Suggestions are appreciated. I have a few ideas. I can put bleach in the potable water tank and run the electric pump through each faucet, hot and cold, which should clean most lines. One problem is the water fill hose would not get any bleach water through it. Also, the water I would put in the potable water tank would come through that contaminated hose. Second, should I drain the water heater then fill it with the bleach water? How do I know when the water heater has been refilled? Anything else I should do? Ed ‘05 HR Ambassador 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martinvz Posted October 14, 2023 Share Posted October 14, 2023 What will be your source of water to sanitize your tank, assuming you have not moved to a new location that has ‘good’ water? Do you have a cartridge type water filter? You could remove the filter cartridge, put some bleach into the cartridge and let the water mix in the tank. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1nolaguy Posted October 14, 2023 Share Posted October 14, 2023 Ed, normally I would say there is no need to empty you HWH and sanitize it as the hot water will kill any bacteria or viruses but RV HWHs only get to 140 (preset thermostat) and water should be held at 160 deg F for 30 min. to sanitize it. I would suggest sanitizing the fresh water tank at 1 cup household bleach per 50 gal of water for 3 hr minimum. Draw through pipes until you smell bleach and let sit for 3 Hr minimum. Turn off HWH and run water pump until you smell bleach at the HW taps and hold for 3 hr min. This can all be done at the same time so you are only without HW for about 4 hr total. I tend to do this in the evening and leave bleach in the system over night. Note: after you turn off HWH run untreated water through until temperature is equalized before treating with bleach water. This is to protect internal components of HWH. After treatment, flush system thoroughly with fresh clean water ( this may mean going else where or waiting until boil advisory is lifted). Also, unless your party includes someone with immunity issues or highly susceptible to infection, you can still use your water system" as is" for toilet, bathing, laundry (if you have a washing machine on board) etc. and then sanitize after the boil ban is past. Note: This is just my opinion. NOTE: if you have a filter in your system remove cartridges prior to treatment and replace after treatment. Chlorine can eaisly be added to your system via the empty filter housings. Be sure to treat pressure regulator, hose and filter housing system as part of your sanitizing process or you run the risk of re-contaminating the system after you treatment procedure. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Cole Posted October 15, 2023 Share Posted October 15, 2023 (edited) Ed I think that it would be easier to just buy a new water fill hose than mess around trying to sanitize your existing . Edited October 15, 2023 by Gary Cole 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saflyer Posted October 15, 2023 Author Share Posted October 15, 2023 8 hours ago, Gary Cole said: Ed I think that it would be easier to just buy a new water fill hose than mess around trying to sanitize your existing . My hose is permanently installed on a power reel behind a wall in the wet bay so not an easy or cheap task. Also, from where that hose attaches to the coach water system to the point it intersects the potable water tank line would still be contaminated. 16 hours ago, Martinvz said: What will be your source of water to sanitize your tank, assuming you have not moved to a new location that has ‘good’ water? Do you have a cartridge type water filter? You could remove the filter cartridge, put some bleach into the cartridge and let the water mix in the tank. I have moved to where water should be good. I have run that water through all faucets for at least an hour so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ray Davis Posted October 15, 2023 Share Posted October 15, 2023 (edited) Pour water with bleach into your hose and run some water through it, later flush it out well. I use 2 hoses, one hooked to the faucet and the other to the coach, that way I can hold it high enough so the bleach doesn't run back out while I screw the 2 hoses together. Edited October 15, 2023 by Ray Davis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormMel Posted October 15, 2023 Share Posted October 15, 2023 (edited) 32 minutes ago, saflyer said: My hose is permanently installed on a power reel behind a wall in the wet bay so not an easy or cheap task. Also, from where that hose attaches to the coach water system to the point it intersects the potable water tank line would still be contaminated. I have moved to where water should be good. I have run that water through all faucets for at least an hour so far. I am hoping you get an answer to this. We are wanting to sanitize our hose as well, we have the same power reel system. Sanitizing through the water tank is pretty straight forward. We just can't think of a good way to do the connected hose. Edited October 15, 2023 by NormMel hit submit before message entered Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saflyer Posted October 15, 2023 Author Share Posted October 15, 2023 (edited) 40 minutes ago, NormMel said: I am hoping you get an answer to this. We are wanting to sanitize our hose as well, we have the same power reel system. Sanitizing through the water tank is pretty straight forward. We just can't think of a good way to do the connected hose. Think I could find a three story building and hold the hose all the way up to the roof then bour buckets of bleach water down the hose. Kidding but it might work. Wonder about something like the containers you attach to a hose and put weed killer in to meter with the water flow. If you could use one of those if it could be adjusted to mix 1 cup bleach with every 50 gallons of water flow? Edited October 15, 2023 by saflyer Add text Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martinvz Posted October 15, 2023 Share Posted October 15, 2023 There is a new gizmo available online to sanitize your water that is inline before your water hose. This might solve your problem. https://www.amazon.com/RV-Inline-Sanitizer-Easiest-disinfect/dp/B08F2QTQ5T 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocketman3 Posted October 15, 2023 Share Posted October 15, 2023 Just get a spare water pump, put “bleach water” in a 5 gallon bucket, then pump that water into your rig- through the hose. Then pump good water throughout to rinse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1nolaguy Posted October 15, 2023 Share Posted October 15, 2023 6 hours ago, saflyer said: Think I could find a three story building and hold the hose all the way up to the roof then bour buckets of bleach water down the hose. Kidding but it might work. Wonder about something like the containers you attach to a hose and put weed killer in to meter with the water flow. If you could use one of those if it could be adjusted to mix 1 cup bleach with every 50 gallons of water flow? MartinVZ posted a link for a gizmo that would solve your problem. Connect at the spigot and it will sanitize everything down stream. Alternately you can just put bleach water in a 5 gal. bucket and submerge your hose, etc in the water until sanitized. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormMel Posted October 15, 2023 Share Posted October 15, 2023 7 hours ago, saflyer said: Think I could find a three story building and hold the hose all the way up to the roof then bour buckets of bleach water down the hose. Kidding but it might work. Wonder about something like the containers you attach to a hose and put weed killer in to meter with the water flow. If you could use one of those if it could be adjusted to mix 1 cup bleach with every 50 gallons of water flow? 😅😂🤣We're saving the building monuever for the vinegar into the hot water tank. Actually thanks for posting your question, got me motivated, spent part of the day surfing for answers. One of the members here has linked a new gizmo to try. I'm thinking we'll give an empty inline water filter canister a go, we can actually hook up all the attachments (water spliter, pressure gauge, hose connectors) and everyone can join in on the party. Pretty cheap on Amazon, there are a couple of different styles. Not sure how you would be exact in the bleach ratio, thinking we'll go on the weaker side and just do it more often, we don't want to eat the rubber hose parts. Tried to copy Amazon links, but I'm not that techno savy. I'm sure anyone interested can find them with ease. Cheers, Mel https://a.co/d/12yrrxX https://a.co/d/bGSOE9G Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1nolaguy Posted October 16, 2023 Share Posted October 16, 2023 As another point of reference, there are a lot of Youtube videos on this subject that you can also reference. As they say "a picture is worth 1k words". 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solution Rudeinsky Posted October 17, 2023 Solution Share Posted October 17, 2023 If, you have a spigot in the wet bay for a sending water out, (my Diplomat does.) connect your fill hose to that and turn on the water pump and open the valve to recirculate the bleached water from your tank, run it for a while let it sit for 1/2 hour and run again. should do the trick. My two cents, Rudy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saflyer Posted October 18, 2023 Author Share Posted October 18, 2023 (edited) 20 hours ago, Rudeinsky said: If, you have a spigot in the wet bay for a sending water out, (my Diplomat does.) connect your fill hose to that and turn on the water pump and open the valve to recirculate the bleached water from your tank, run it for a while let it sit for 1/2 hour and run again. should do the trick. My two cents, Rudy Aha, good one. I’ll check it out. I always wondered what that spigot was for. Hopefully the pump supplies potable tank water to that spigot. Edited October 18, 2023 by saflyer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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