Campground water differs from the water provided by a typical municipal utility. Campground water might be well water that is not as thoroughly filtered, chlorinated, and tested as municipal water.
Frequently we fill our freshwater tank on arrival at a campground. This tank holds freshwater when our site does not have a “City Water” hook up or so we can easily switch to using our pump should the campground system get interrupted. Water sitting in our tank will deposit any sediments on the bottom of the tank. Sediments and the possibility of organisms growing on the inside surfaces necessitate sanitizing an RV’s freshwater system once or twice a year.
The freshwater hoses sit outside in the sun thus they are likely places for various organisms to grow.
When sanitizing the tanks I also change our onboard water filter as a year of water usage will clog it with sediment.
The anode rod in the hot water tank should also be replaced to keep the tank from rusting. And while the anode rod is out, rinsing the hot water tank with vinegar helps to loosen and dissolve calcification inside the tank. Calcification also clogs the faucet aerators thus they too benefit from soaking in vinegar.
Individually, each of these tasks is relatively straight forward. However since each of them overlaps at least partially with the others, doing them all at once is more efficient, but slightly complicated.
To facilitate doing all of the steps I developed the following procedure and a tool to pour the bleach mixture into the freshwater tank. A similar tool can be used to add vinegar to the water heater. The tool below ends with a tube that slides into the freshwater fill tank. To add vinegar to the water heater, replace the fill tube with a flush wand.
Gather Parts & Tools
- Water Heater anode
- Water Filter
- Distilled White Vinegar
- Disinfecting Bleach
- Baggie and Cable Tie
- Funnel
- Fill tube, elbow, Water Bandit
- Flush wand
- Anode wrench
Procedure
- Fill Freshwater Tank with city water.
- Turn off water heater.
- Open windows and vents to rapidly dissipate bleach and vinegar odors.
- Mix 8 oz bleach and water to make 1 gallon. We have a 54 gallon freshwater tank, plus a 6 gallon hot water tank, plus an other gallon or so of piping.
- Sanitize Freshwater hoses and fixings.
- Connect all hoses and fittings into one long hose.
- Using funnel and Water Bandit pour the mixture into one end of the hoses. One gallon of liquid will fill about 50 feet of ¾ inch hose.
- Connect hose ends to keep mixture in the hose.
- With a higher concentration the mixture needs only a few minutes inside the hose. The following steps may be done while the hose sits.
- Flip the hose occasionally to move any trapped air so the entire hose is treated.
- Drain water heater by opening an adjacent hot and cold water faucet and the adjacent low point drains.
- Remove old anode rod. This requires a large socket wrench. After a year my anode rod was about 50% depleted.
- Pour vinegar into Water Heater. I connected an elbow to a Flush Wand, a Water Bandit to the elbow, and a funnel in the Water Bandit. Pouring vinegar into the funnel resulted in the vinegar squirting up inside the water heater. The next few tasks allow time for the vinegar to work.
- Dump all sanitary tanks. This prepares the grey tanks to receive most of the bleach-water mix for disposition through the sewer system rather than damage local flora and fauna.
- Rinse out Water Heater sediment using pump and FW Tank. Simply turning on the freshwater pump forces water into the water heater flushing lumps of calcification out through the opening for the anode rod. The flush wand can be used to nudge deposits from the bottom of the tank. Covering and uncovering the anode hole will cycle the water level in the tank yielding swirling water that will flush more calcification deposits from the tank.
- Install new anode rod. Replacing partially depleted anode rods is much less expensive than replacing a water heater that has prematurely rusted after a rod was fully depleted.
- Remove old water filter then reinstall case. A water filter with activated charcoal will remove chlorine, defeating the sanitizing process. Reinstalling the filter case allows the pump to circulate water through the freshwater system.
- Flush bleach from hose into Freshwater Tank.
- Carefully uncouple an end of the hose to keep the mix inside the hose.
- Connect one end to city water.
- Insert the other end into the freshwater fill tube.
- Fill the freshwater tank until the fill tube is full to ensure that all surfaces in the tank are in contact with the bleach mixture.
- Mix FW Tank using Shower Miser. Our shower has a valve that returns water to the freshwater tank. This valve conserves water while not connected to city water when waiting for hot water in the shower. Allowing the pump to circulate the water from the bottom of the freshwater tank up to the Shower Miser valve and back to the tank mixes the bleach in the rest of the water.
- Circulate chlorinated water to all faucets.
- Open all of the faucets to let the air out of the system. This will also fill the water heater so it too is sanitized.
- Shut the valves when water comes out. It should smell slightly of chlorine.
- Add city water to replace water now in the pipes and water heater.
- Allow time for the bleach to sanitize the pipes, water heater, and freshwater tank.
- Meanwhile clean faucet aerators with vinegar. Remove aerators and soak in distilled vinegar. Or pour vinegar into a baggie and tie the baggie around the end of the faucet.
- After an hour or two remove any baggies and reattach the aerators.
- After 4 hours, drain the Freshwater Tank.
- Turn on the pump and open all of the valves.
- When air sputters from one or more valves, turn off the pump.
- Dump residual bleach and water from the tanks by opening low point drains.
- Rinse & empty Freshwater tank with city water via the fill tube.
- Shut all low point drains.
- Refill Freshwater Tank via the fill tube.
- Connect to City Water and run clean water through sinks and shower until odor free.
- Install new water filter.
- Turn off city water.
- Remove the empty filter case.
- Put the filter in the case and reinstall the case.
- Turn on city water.
- Purge air introduced while changing the filter from faucets. Flushing the toilet may be sufficient to remove air from the system. I also opened the hot water valve on the sink nearest to the water heater to ensure all air had been vented from that tank.
- Turn on the Water Heater.
- Check for leaks at low point drains, filter case, and anode rod.
- Dump gray tanks. All of that bleach water mix and subsequent rinse water filled our grey tanks to capacity.
- Set a reminder for next year to sanitize and replace anode and filter.
- Congratulate yourself!