Water tanks full or empty

[Charlie V]

This winter first time sitting still in RV park for 6 months we are deciding wheather to bleach tank and drain or leave it full and change water every couple of months?

[Barbaraok]

Leave it 1/2 full - there may be times when you need to run off of the tank (water main break in the park - been there, done that!)

If the park is served by municipal water, just run it through, you don't need to bleach it.  In fact, since you have six months, this is a good time to run municipal through several times.  Also make sure to back flush the black tank 2 or 3 times during your stay.   And boil a few pots of water for pasta and dump down the grey tank.  

[Daveh]

What Barb said.

[Kirk W]

8 hours ago, Barbaraok said:

Leave it 1/2 full - there may be times when you need to run off of the tank (water main break in the park - been there, done that!)

Haven't we all! It was a learning experience...  🙄

[FL-JOE]

8 hours ago, cvick said:

This winter first time sitting still in RV park for 6 months we are deciding wheather to bleach tank and drain or leave it full and change water every couple of months?

There may be a little more information needed.  Are you sitting for 6 months of winter in Michigan or Kentucky?  Could be a huge difference in what winter temps you are talking about.  If you are going to be in an area where the temps will go down to 0 to 10 above and stay there for extended periods then depending on what RV you are in you may want that fresh water tank drained.  

[JimK]

I suppose it makes sense to keep the tank at least partially filled in case of an outage.  But storing the water for a couple of months is too long.  Even if properly chlorinated the water needs to turn over every few weeks at the longest.  Some RV parks supply non-chlorinated well water.  Storage is even more of an issue.

[Smitty77_7]

While in a park with as mentioned municipal water supply for longer periods, we keep put tank between 1/2 - 1/3 full. Every couple of weeks, on whatever day we're doing wash in our coach, we'll turn off the hose bib. And run off the pump to draw the water down in the tank some. Get our showers, and usually be down to about 1/3 or so of a tank. As the martini glasses are chilling, I'll go out and turn back on the watery supply, and refill the tank up to between the 1/2 - 2/3 mark again. 

So far we've never had Murphy's Law kick in, with a water outage the day we're running the tank down some to get fresh water added back into the water tank:)! 

Probably not the perfect way to do this, but it's been working well for us. 

When we're home and the RV is stored next door to us. We do keep the tank completely full, fridge on, and non perishable food remains in the fridge, and freezer too. Along with we have a good stock of can goods we rotate out yearly as we travel. In the Southern California area, we keep our coach as our Emergency Preparedness for fires and earthquake prep:)! 

Every four to six weeks, we take the coach out to exercise all of the systems, as well as the engine/trans/tries, etc. Before putting it back in, we drain about 1/2 of the tank out, and refill with fresh water. (Probably not needed that frequently, but again, what we do.) The drained water goes to the garden for watering:)!

Best to all, travel safe,

Smitty

[Kirk W]

1 hour ago, JimK said:

 But storing the water for a couple of months is too long.  Even if properly chlorinated the water needs to turn over every few weeks at the longest.

 

That would be to the upper end of time for me also but we just use from the tank about once a month and then refill. I use it down to near empty but don't completely drain it. 

1 hour ago, Smitty77_7 said:

So far we've never had Murphy's Law kick in, with a water outage the day we're running the tank down some to get fresh water added back into the water tank:)!

That probably won't happen until the day you get busy and put off refilling for a day or two.  😀

[Charlie V]

We will be at dream catchers in deming NM thanks for the reminder about possibly losing park water I think I will keep half full drain every couple weeks.

THANKS 

Charlie

[bigjim]

Doesn't make since to drain  it that often. Especially in a place like Deming. Use it for flushing or cooking if you are cooking something long enough to boil or even simmer for extended time.  It won't hurt to wash your hands with it or shower with it. At the very least catch it and put on park plants. IMO ( might see you in Deming at some point)

[Ray,IN]

On 9/19/2018 at 11:49 AM, JimK said:

I suppose it makes sense to keep the tank at least partially filled in case of an outage.  But storing the water for a couple of months is too long.  Even if properly chlorinated the water needs to turn over every few weeks at the longest.  Some RV parks supply non-chlorinated well water.  Storage is even more of an issue.

 I keep our water tank full, you never know what lies ahead. Some travel trailers however are so close on weight that a full tank unbalances it for towing.

JimK;   That may be true if you simply fill the tank from city water, however I use Sodium Dichlor to treat my water tank, so it stays safe  for many months at a time during storage.

An aside to this: In the 1990's I was on a team  clearing out old cold ware era bomb shelters at the university here. We opened/unsealed a barrel of drinking water and had it tested for safe drinking water. It tested as good as the city drinking water.

[bigjim]

7 hours ago, Ray,IN said:

It tested as good as the city drinking water.

Probably better than a lot of cities water.

[Waterjosh]

5 hours ago, bigjim said:

Probably better than a lot of cities water.

Comments like this truly bother me, there are lots of people out there like myself, working in shitty conditions with shitty hours for MEH pay, working our ass's off to make sure the water you have come out of your tap is safe to drink.  I once was told by Verizon that I didn't "count" as a emergency responder working for a water department... My response was who do you think the Fire Department calls when they need more water.  If you look at the cost of water, you can't find a cheaper substance more necessary to life anywhere.  I understand many jobs are thankless, but when people say stuff like that it really hits a nerve.  My dad retired from Water Treatment and I plan on doing the same.

[Jim Gell]

We run our fill water through a particulate and a carbon filter.  The carbon filter should remove most, if not all, the chlorine when we fill with municipal water.  I have two questions that relate to how this might change some answers provided to OP and other readers if they use a carbon filter, and for my own knowledge of course.

1) Assuming potable tank was properly sanitized and flushed with chlorine recently, how long would carbon filtered water be safe to drink?

2) When removing the chlorine every time the tank is filled, how often should the chlorine flush procedure be done to assure  the water stays safe? 

 

[Barbaraok]

5 hours ago, Waterjosh said:

Comments like this truly bother me, there are lots of people out there like myself, working in shitty conditions with shitty hours for MEH pay, working our ass's off to make sure the water you have come out of your tap is safe to drink.  I once was told by Verizon that I didn't "count" as a emergency responder working for a water department... My response was who do you think the Fire Department calls when they need more water.  If you look at the cost of water, you can't find a cheaper substance more necessary to life anywhere.  I understand many jobs are thankless, but when people say stuff like that it really hits a nerve.  My dad retired from Water Treatment and I plan on doing the same.

Where is my  LIKE, LIKE, LIKE button.   Very well said.  

[Second Chance]

We keep our fresh water tank at least 2/3 full for use while traveling (flushing the toilet, washing hands, etc.) and for instances like two weeks ago. We're currently staying on Aberdeen Proving Ground (an Army facility). One morning the city water went off (it's actually provided by the City of Aberdeen). I went outside to investigate and a city water crew had turned off a main valve next to the adjacent family housing area to remove an unused fire hydrant. Turns out the old schematics were not related to reality and it also shut off the water to the RV park. No problem! We had plenty of water to do anything we wanted until the city water came back on. It's one of the advantages of living in an RV. Next week when we pull out for Richmond, we'll have a full fresh water tank since we'll be dry camping for three nights behind my MIL's retirement community (and the retirement community is even putting in three full-hookup RV sites for family members with their new construction!).

So, always be prepared.

Rob

[Kirk W]

3 hours ago, Jim Gell said:

1) Assuming potable tank was properly sanitized and flushed with chlorine recently, how long would carbon filtered water be safe to drink?

2) When removing the chlorine every time the tank is filled, how often should the chlorine flush procedure be done to assure  the water stays safe? 

A carbon filter removes most of the chlorine and other water additives so it isn't really chlorinated water in the tank. We have been using a carbon block filter for all of the water that enters our RV so may be able to help. We were fulltime for nearly 12 years and kept water in our tank all of the time, using from the tank about once each month and replacing it with fresh and in that time the only problem we ever had was green algae in our water supply hose once when campground hosts with well water for our RV. I would go through the sanitizing process annually .

[bigjim]

9 hours ago, Waterjosh said:

Comments like this truly bother me, there are lots of people out there like myself, working in shitty conditions with shitty hours for MEH pay, working our ass's off to make sure the water you have come out of your tap is safe to drink.  I once was told by Verizon that I didn't "count" as a emergency responder working for a water department... My response was who do you think the Fire Department calls when they need more water.  If you look at the cost of water, you can't find a cheaper substance more necessary to life anywhere.  I understand many jobs are thankless, but when people say stuff like that it really hits a nerve.  My dad retired from Water Treatment and I plan on doing the same.

The problem here is you are taking this personally which it is not. You and I both know there are cities that are not diligent.  I have no way of knowing but I would assume that the vast majority do a fantastic job but  again no doubt some don't. Sometimes the bad ones are due to politicians squeezing the budget and other reasons.  Where I volunteer now they have a well that served the entire complex. I worked with the maint. guy/ water operator often and usually when he went to do water tests.  A fair no. of folks critisized the quality of the water  but I always made a point of drawing off and drinking a glass before we did the water test. Never once in all the years we did the test did one fail. We maintained the system diligently.  I did not take their comments personally they were just ignorant of the process and did not trust the tests.  Now we are on a municipal system and I know the water operator and I drink the water everyday but it was a big waste of taxpayer money to change off our well.  But I still believe there are cities out there that don't do a good job. Can you say lead leaching in Michigan?

[Jim Gell]

1 hour ago, Kirk Wood said:

A carbon filter removes most of the chlorine and other water additives so it isn't really chlorinated water in the tank. We have been using a carbon block filter for all of the water that enters our RV so may be able to help. We were fulltime for nearly 12 years and kept water in our tank all of the time, using from the tank about once each month and replacing it with fresh and in that time the only problem we ever had was green algae in our water supply hose once when campground hosts with well water for our RV. I would go through the sanitizing process annually .

Thanks Kirk!  Your answer was better worded than my question.  

Your algae statement reminds me.... I am thinking that after one fill with bad water, all bets would be off.  

I didn't want to muddy my original question, so I didn't include this information, but I installed a UV sanitizer under our kitchen sink.  I did that because I don't think I would know when I picked up a bad water fill. How would I know when that happens?  I have seen real good tasting well water test unsafe to drink with a pretty high count for e. coli /coli-form bacteria.    

I  did not install my UV system to protect all taps and it's not currently wired to our inverted circuits, so it is only powered when we are on shore power.  I need to decide what to do with that.  It would be nice to have it sanitize all my RV water, but more important to work when we are boondocked.  I think it's drawing 25 watts 24/7, rather than  just "on demand".   As long as the sun was out during the day to recharge my battery with solar, that should be OK, but during those periods when the sun does not shine much, I would need to fire up the generator that much sooner.   

I may see you at the Escapade in March as we will be "wintering" in Tucson.  That would be nice.  However, we are thinking of leaving  before the Escapade.  

Jim

[Kirk W]

1 hour ago, Jim Gell said:

I did that because I don't think I would know when I picked up a bad water fill. How would I know when that happens? 

I don't know that you would know that water was bad, but that is part of the reason for the filters in the supply line. I think that it would be pretty unusual for an RV pad in any public or commercial park to not be supplied from an approved water supply.  Here are the specs for the second cartridge that we used. We had a dual canister filter housing and the first used a cheap sediment filter and the second one was carbon block below.

Quote

F1Pb cartridge, 10"

$21.95

BUY NOW

Excellent flow, Filters Chlorine, Taste and Odor (CTO's) removes cysts, lead, and heavy metals, and natural resistance to stagnation due to fiber material. 

Model:F1pb

Flow:3-4 GPM

Microns:0.5 microns

Life:6-12 months

Class:Class 1

Material:Modified Carbon Block

Primary Function:Removes Chlorine taste/odor, Chemicals and pesticides, Cysts, lead and heavy metals

 

2 hours ago, Jim Gell said:

I may see you at the Escapade in March as we will be "wintering" in Tucson.  That would be nice.  However, we are thinking of leaving  before the Escapade.  

Stick around at least until we get there. If you don't stay for Escapade, we are part of the advance staff, arriving on Tuesday before the event begins so we could meet somewhere for lunch or dinner even if you won't be participating.  As a side note, I just registered for our staff position today! 

[Waterjosh]

On 9/25/2018 at 11:53 AM, bigjim said:

The problem here is you are taking this personally which it is not....  Can you say lead leaching in Michigan?

You are right bigjim, and I apologize, I didn't mean to come across as taking it personally, however, it seems that most RV forums make it sound like we are a 3rd world country where the only way to get safe water is to make it safe yourself.  The problems with the lead leeching out are primarily due to a drop in PH of the source water that they switched to in Flint, and they did not start the process of adding a corrosion inhibitor far enough or at all to the best of my knowledge.  Also the way that the industry tests for lead is quite archaic in my opinion in that its usually taken from the customers kitchen faucet, which means if the pipes in their house are lead, it can fail the test even tho its not the water system itself failing.

I know that the water I treat is extremely hard, as is most of Arizona's water, and if people have taste or odor issues I tell them a Brita style water pitcher or a filter that mounts to the faucet will fix that 99% of the time, they are just carbon filters.  

A lot of people believe that bottled water is safer, but I have seen it fail more than 1 Bacti test due to a lack of chlorine.  The reason I bring that up is the people that say they filter out the chlorine as they fill the tanks in their rigs, they are getting rid of the disinfectant that is there to protect them.  

I am just trying to help by providing this info and if anyone has any more specific questions I am happy to either provide an answer with my personal knowledge or find the answer for them if I can.

Once again bigjim, you are right in that I shouldn't have taken it personal, I had had a bad day leading up to it.

[bigjim]

No harm, no foul.  On this type of communication it is easy to take things wrong since we don't know the person and can not see and hear their body language.   All in all I am really thankful to most of the operator out there, even the ones at the south end where the effluent arrives.  Heck I am really thankful to the person that cleans toilets and puts out toilet paper.  (sometimes thats me too)

[Sehc]

Yes, when you hear about lead in water it almost always from the building's plumbing, and water siting static. The case in Flint was operator error, if not criminal acts. I am also a retired Licensed Operator from Municipal Water Treatment, 35 years. I trust most water systems, but there can be things that go wrong, and not discovered until into the system. Don't get me started about campgrounds, trailer parks, and other small systems with lack of maintenance and part time operators that may show up once a month. I drink bottled water after our local operator, my replacement, is so scared of lead he over doses the treatment chemicals and it shows.

[TLRam1]

On 9/25/2018 at 10:31 PM, Waterjosh said:

 

A lot of people believe that bottled water is safer, it doesn't even have to meet drinking water standards, it meets beer and soda standards and much of the time it would fail a Bacti test due to a lack of chlorine.  The reason I bring that up is the people that say they filter out the chlorine as they fill the tanks in their rigs, they are getting rid of the disinfectant that is there to protect them. 

 

I was thinking the same thing, would this setup be best?

1. Sediment filter for water coming into the rig

2. Carbon filter at the kitchen sink for drinking water

 

[Kirk W]

6 hours ago, TLRam1 said:

 

I was thinking the same thing, would this setup be best

1. Sediment filter for water coming into the rig

2. Carbon filter at the kitchen sink for drinking water

 

 

We and many other RV owners use a common two canister filter system with a cheap sediment filter in the first and a carbon block or other higher quality filter in the second. I used to change the sediment filter monthly and the carbon block filter quarterly.