Sanitizing Your RV’s Fresh Water System
Susan J
Sanitizing your RV’s fresh water system should be a part of your regular RV maintenance. You want to sanitize it at least once every six months. It is pretty simple to do, but it will take around 6 hours, so plan accordingly.
You will need a few things to sanitize your fresh water system. The main thing you will need is a good amount of regular bleach. You will also need a funnel with a hose and stopper. This is also a good time to change the inner and outer water filters, so you will need new filters as well as tools to change them.
The first step is to go ahead and sanitize the funnel and hose by soaking it in bleach and water. Let it soak for ten to fifteen minutes. In the meantime start draining your fresh water tank to half its capacity. Then use your sanitized funnel to pour bleach into the fresh water tank. You will need about a 1/4 cup for every 15 gallons that your tank holds. Then, refill your fresh water tank with water until full. Next you want to get the bleach solution in your water lines. Turn off the water supply to the RV and turn on the pump to draw water from the fresh water tank into the lines. Open all the faucets in your RV and let them run until you can smell the bleach, then close them. Finally, turn back on the fresh water supply to the RV, top off the water in your fresh water tank, and then let it sit for around six hours to sanitize.
Now that your fresh water system is sanitized, you are ready to rinse it out. Drain the bleach solution from the fresh water tank and refill it with water. Then turn the fresh water supply back off and the water pump back on. Open all the faucets to rinse the bleach from the lines. Let the water run until you can’t smell the bleach as much, it is ok if you can smell it a little bit. If the bleach still smells strong after a few minutes, you can drain your water tank, refill it with water and try again.
Now you can replace your water filters. First make sure your water supply and water pump are off. Replace the external filter first. Then replace the internal filter. You can use to petroleum jelly on the O-ring on the water filter body to make it easier to change next time.
Follow these steps and your fresh water system will be properly sanitized in no time!