Water Tanks How Best To Clean The Water Tanks?

We winterized our tanks before heading to Yosemite in January, and I de-winterized them this summer before heading to Durango, but I seem to have a foul taste in the tanks that I can't seem to clean out, and I got a bit of an upset stomach after trying to drink what had been fresh water from the sink after pouring purified water into the fresh water tank. What do I need to do to make the fresh water tank usable again?

 

Some have good results with vinegar. Others recommend flushing with a mixture of Clorox and water; but need to rinse several times. Clorox can attack plastic and rubber if mixed to strong and not rinsed thoroughly.

 

Oh, good to know! I am going to try this.

 

Your manual has instructions, which are consistent with what you would find on the web:

"Sanitizing the fresh water tank- If your water has a strange odor, color or taste: •Drain the fresh water tank fully. •Sanitize the tank by adding one (1) cup (8 oz.) of plain (unscented) chlorine bleach then filling the tank with fresh water. •While filling, run at least one quart of water out of the faucet. •Fill tank until water runs out of the vent tube. •Let stand for 1/2 hour. •Drain the tank by running the faucet and allowing the bleach water to go down the sink drain. This will help clean out the gray water tank as well. •Refill the freshwater tank with fresh water, then 15 drain the tank again by removing the drain cap. •Refill with fresh water. •Run at least one gallon of water out of the faucet. •After this treatment, the water may have a slight chlorine taste and odor, but that will go away with time and is not harmful. •Remember to drain the gray water tank"

In my limited experience, you will need to flush the freshwater tank a few times. I can't compare this to the SaniTabs approach, though.

-Al

 

I use the faucet for washing hands and dishes but not for drinking.

 

Then you probably only need to flush the tank a couple times. Even if you don't use the water for drinking, I don't think you want to leave water with a high chlorine level in the tank (as it degrades plastic, etc.).

-Al

 

Update: I was able to get the tank water fresh again by doing both the bleach and vinegar rinses. We've now noticed that we lose water, though, so we're now trying to find the source of the leak. We lost about a 1/4 tank of water while driving to our campsite this weekend.

 

I'm not certain. We tried to tighten the shut off, but still had a leak, so either we didn't get it tightened enough, or there is another problem.

 

Or cross threaded the cap. I did that.

 

Just in case you determine you might need new caps, I bought this a few years back

Edit: removed link so as not to confuse people with a bad link

 

Don't use the brass metal caps like skissinger shows there. That is how they get cross threaded. Use a cap just like she shown but in plastic.

Cary

 

Thanks, Cary.

 

I’m wondering how many tabs to use for this size tank. The bottle instructions seem to be for smaller quantities.

 

Rinsing thoroughly, then using 'starsan' may be another option? Starsan is used by home beer making...its powerful stuff. The instructions would basically be the same as bleach with the big difference being this doesn't have any odor, and after a rinse the taste would be completely gone the first go.