water tank question

[navigator]

I see many trailers that have these permanent water tanks installed.
Is there any concern for them getting contaminated? What kind of maintenance do you do?
Do you store them full or empty, do you put a little bleach in from time to time?

Just curious how you keep them safe for drinking water.

 

[Robert Bills]

Sanitizing your tank is simple. Drain your tank, add bleach, then fill the tank to the top. For a thorough job, usually at the beginning of each camping season, I use about 1/2-1 cup/gal. For "maintenance" midway through the season or if I think I filled the tank with questionable water while on a trip, I use half that ratio. Fill the tank, run some of the water through all the water lines and fixtures until you can smell the bleach, then turn off any valves, refill the tank to the top, and let sit overnight. Flush it out once or twice (or until you can't smell bleach), and refill. A little bit of baking soda added to a full tank after the final rinse will "sweeten" the tank and remove any residual taste of bleach if there is any.

I store my tank full, and typically drain (into a planter so as not to waste the water) and refill before each trip.

See these links:

http://www.campingroadtrip.com/outd...11/how-to-keep-your-rv-fresh-water-tank-clean
http://rvservices.koa.com/rvinformation/rvmaintenance/how-fresh-is-your-rv-fresh-water-system.asp

http://traveltips.usatoday.com/rv-water-tank-cleaning-20151.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOlPwmwlaMo

 

[navigator]

thanks Robert, I figured some bleach was involved.

 

[vwalan]

if you have chlorinated mains water just use that . fill leave over night empty fill and away you go. here in uk just about all mains water is chlorinated at the works .

 

[navigator]

thanks vwalan, we have well water here.