Sanitizing Water System

[Darkspeed]

Iv actually worked with large quantities of ozone in a lab environment and you are correct at high levels it can be lethal but then so can sodium hypochlorite In small volumes, especially in an enclosed tank it should be fairly harmless. Good point though!

[dznf0g]

Originally Posted by jdalrymple

I would offer simply filling the tank with treated municipal water is sufficient.

After all, one does not "flush" or sanitize the plumbing in ones' home.

Regards,

Exactly! Finally! I sanitize once a year, in the spring after storage. Done it that way for 35 years. NEVER a sick family member. We drink it, do dishes with it......everything.

[Gene]

We used to have a hot tub and until the ozone generator failed, it worked fine. After that it didn't work so well. But we didn't drink the water and it was mostly under a cover in the dark with temps around 104˚. It isn't a good analogy.

Another system we have is that our residential water is delivered on a dole system to 3,000 gallons of water storage. They are dark, but not hot. We have been advised to clean the cisterns annually with chlorine, but the chlorine in the water system does an adequate job. We have never cleaned the cisterns and we haven't gotten sick. We also have an activated carbon filter for the house.

We all want to prevent sickness and have to ask the question: how much protects us from reasonable risks? Probably all of these systems work well and how much is too much?

Gene

[slowmover]

Originally Posted by jdalrymple

I would offer simply filling the tank with treated municipal water is sufficient.

After all, one does not "flush" or sanitize the plumbing in ones' home.

Regards,

One does when the city issues a "Must Boil" warning. Drought, floods, breaks, etc can happen and do.

A decent RV system that the owner maintains is just decent insurance. I'd rather not ever worry over it, thus the Everpure for me.

[jdalrymple]

I agree that water systems occasionally have issues and must employ alternatives for sanitizing the water they supply.

But, when public systems are operating normally the provided water is treated to remain safe during transport throughout the system. Tap water added to my tank from a trusted source, in my case my home's plumbing and a garden hose reserved for the purpose at hand, is safe enough for me. Untreated well water, for instance, would give me pause.

My opinion is that the more sterile we attempt to make our lives, the less resistant to the "bugs" of the world we become. And, the stronger the bugs become. Not to say reasonable precautions should not be taken, but something to be considered none the less.

Just my thoughts.

Regards,

[slowmover]

Originally Posted by jdalrymple

I agree that water systems occasionally have issues and must employ alternatives for sanitizing the water they supply.

But, when public systems are operating normally the provided water is treated to remain safe during transport throughout the system. Tap water added to my tank from a trusted source, in my case my home's plumbing and a garden hose reserved for the purpose at hand, is safe enough for me. Untreated well water, for instance, would give me pause.

My opinion is that the more sterile we attempt to make our lives, the less resistant to the "bugs" of the world we become. And, the stronger the bugs become. Not to say reasonable precautions should not be taken, but something to be considered none the less.

Just my thoughts.

Regards,

And mine are that when I am traveling I am far more vulnerable to problems that are easily handled at home, in a relative and absolute sense. It should not be disregarded that rural America suffers not only from a lack of medical personnel, but personnel of the same caliber as in the largest cities. Budget cuts and the rest of what is driving America out of First World status have immediate ramifications.

When I am at home I am surrounded by a support network that I do not have as a traveller.

Trusting that fruit and other foods that have passed FDA muster is enough of a gamble. The assumption of clean water does not pass the test any longer due to the consequences being greater if a problem occurs. "Privatization" of water supplies is practically a guarantee of problems not seen in this country for several generations.

We now live in an era where the answer to investigations uncovering fraud, waste and dangers is to remove the funding for such investigations. Imprisoning whistle-blowers is a more likely outcome than apprehending perpetrators, now.

Playing in the dirt, fine. Ingesting other than simply ordinary bacteria, no.

.

[dznf0g]

I understand the concern for sterilization if one has some overriding health concerns, but we should distinguish those concerns as the exception. Otherwise, we have newbies who will think it is necessary for ALL of us to panic about our FW tanks and systems. Fair enough?

[Ag&Au]

Perhaps I been lucky during 40+ years of RVing, but this is what I do.

After every trip I empty the tank.
Before every trip I fill the tank.
If I put some questionable water in the tank during a trip, I flush it with home water after I drain it.
If it has been sitting for a long time since the last trip, I flush it before I fill it.

My theory, which seems to work fine, is that there is enough chlorine in our tap water to deal with whatever might be in the little amount of water left in the tank after it is drained.

Yes,
We drink the water. I even open my mouth in the shower once in a while.

Yes,
I did get Giardia once, but I know where it came from, and it wasn't the trailer tank.

Ken