Anyone take their own water?

[THEPILL]

My tanks are pretty good sized.

As Follows:
39 gal. Fresh water
39 Gal. Black
37 gal. Grey
Shane

[sempi2]

Originally Posted by Gen Disarray

I forget the recommended ratios as I figured out my plan a while back and rely on my procedure by rote now. Frankly, just filling with city water and letting it stand several hours and flushing a few times will work wonders.

My procedure: for a 30 gallon tank add 1/4 cup of bleach to a full tank and allow to set several hours. Then pump water through all lines. Again let it set for an extended period. Flush entire system. Then flush 2X with normal treated water. Avoid the temptation to boost the amount of bleach as there is good evidence that diluted bleach solutions are more effective than high concentration bleach for the application. DILUTED bleach and TIME coupled with multiple flushes are the key here. Hope this is helpful

Thank you, and yes it is helpful. Do you keep a small amount of bleach in your tanks? When I read something recently about emergency kits they suggested (and here I can't remember) a few drops of bleach in your bottle water. When we start out on a trip I really like to have our water as it is few good, and I always just drink it out of the faucet at home.

[Boondocker]

Originally Posted by sempi2

Thank you, and yes it is helpful. Do you keep a small amount of bleach in your tanks? When I read something recently about emergency kits they suggested (and here I can't remember) a few drops of bleach in your bottle water. When we start out on a trip I really like to have our water as it is few good, and I always just drink it out of the faucet at home.

I run straight 'city' water. There is no reason to add bleach to treated water. If you can smell anything over the slightest amount of bleach you have way to much in the water. In fact, if the water is properly treated you should not be able to detect the bleach at all. The amount I described is to 'shock' the system.

I want to say something like 8 drops per gallon is sufficient to make untreated (clear) water safe to drink ( thats from memory so check that). BUT that is untreated water not already treated water. Big difference there. If you use bleach to treat water it MUST set for a half hour minimum before use.

[DreamStreamr]

I've listed a couple of good links for treating your potable water in the holding tank here.

And the Micropulse Systems tank monitoring in the International CCDs (this is the model they're providing at least 2005 through 2010) is easy for the owner to calibrate. Full easy-to-follow calibration directions are on-line from Camco (and unfortunately are not printed in the Airstream owners manual).

We spent a little over an hour doing all three tanks, each in turn, sixteen months ago and they are still right on the money. We use a Camco fill adapter on the end of our water hose when filling the tank. It allows an air gap in the fill pipe plus the holding tank has a small screened vent by the fill pipe.

You can tell right away when the 39 gallon fresh water tank on the CCD 25 SS is full -- water gushes out from the fill pipe and out of the screened vent. It takes about 4 to 5 minutes from empty to full, depending upon water pressure.

Funny, we have also learned by sound to tell when the black tank is getting "orange" or above 1/2 tank to at least 5/8 full -- it makes a different flushing noise when you open the flush valve. I guess (and I hope) the difference is the shorter distance the bowl contents are falling.

We don't carry the owner's manual hard copy -- too heavy, allows us to carry one more gallon of water by leaving printed manual at home. But we picked up an electronic copy and keep it with us on the laptops. You can find copies for free from Airstream -- parts manual -- owners manual.

You really don't know where bottled water is really from and it is less regulated than muni tap water. You know the source of water for your fresh water tank and how old it is -- you put it in there. Keep your fresh tank full and clean.

Jim

[sempi2]

Originally Posted by Gen Disarray

I run straight 'city' water. There is no reason to add bleach to treated water. If you can smell anything over the slightest amount of bleach you have way to much in the water. In fact, if the water is properly treated you should not be able to detect the bleach at all. The amount I described is to 'shock' the system.

I want to say something like 8 drops per gallon is sufficient to make untreated (clear) water safe to drink ( thats from memory so check that). BUT that is untreated water not already treated water. Big difference there. If you use bleach to treat water it MUST set for a half hour minimum before use.

Again, thank you. Do you also carry bottled water? We have not traveled far from home so far and have not encountered unsafe/undrinkable water. I am concerned about our traveling to places where we have no idea what the water may be like. My only problem is that in some areas the water tastes so bad we need to make a run to the nearest store for some bottled water.

[Steve & Susan]

We bring our own drinking water (3 gallon jug and some bottled water) and we use that for making coffee too. We use park water for everything else. We do sanitize the system every year so park water is probably safe to drink, but we still bring drinking water from home. Nothing is worse when Streaming than the effects of bad water!

[Boondocker]

Originally Posted by sempi2

Again, thank you. Do you also carry bottled water?

Rarely

[bfusco]

We take only enough water for the drive to the next camp site--drinking water, wash water and flush water. If we know we will be dry camping we fill the tank. We are gone for months at a time so bringing water from home is not an answer. We always fill up as we get to a campground and never had any problems with tainted water. However, I am not going to look in the tank or ask qustions!

I have only had one incident of bad water and that was in a Colorado State Park in the 80's. THey had had a flood that backed sewage into the water treatment plant but didn't post any warnings or anything. I was the only one who drank water, everyone else had had canned drinks or milk. It was one bad night. We were camped in a pop up camper amid several hundred bikers on the way to Sturgis For such ferocius looking guys they were very nice about me running to the facilities all night.

[AZ-JH]

We leave home with a full fresh tank plus carry bottled drinking water to avoid drinking from unknown sources. We want the convenience of having the water we need for comfort on the road. The added weight doesn't seem to make any difference on our gas mileage.

[purman]

I have a new fresh tank so I will drink the water. Our old one had a layer on the inside of something..... You still get that plastic taste if the water is in there for a day or so..... We bring drinks and a four gallon water jug for drinking mostly. I sanitized my tank last fall, but you can't get every drop out!!!!! Nice thing is my tank is under the couch so I can see it...

[thecatsandi]

Originally Posted by THEPILL

Going out this weekend and the water at the S.P is not drinkable. A SALINITY issue. Who takes along their own water.......and weight?

Just wondering.
Shane

I always leave home with a full tank. You never know where your journey will lead you and water is the basis for survival. In my case she tows better since the water tank is over the axles.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by Gen Disarray

I run straight 'city' water. There is no reason to add bleach to treated water. If you can smell anything over the slightest amount of bleach you have way to much in the water. In fact, if the water is properly treated you should not be able to detect the bleach at all. The amount I described is to 'shock' the system.

I want to say something like 8 drops per gallon is sufficient to make untreated (clear) water safe to drink ( thats from memory so check that). BUT that is untreated water not already treated water. Big difference there. If you use bleach to treat water it MUST set for a half hour minimum before use.

It's difficult to be exact because it depends on the temperature, pH, and clarity of the water and the strength of the bleach. Bleach loses its strength over time in typical plastic jugs.

If you can fill from a city water system that's already treated with chlorine, that's probably best. They measure the residual chlorine in the water constantly which is really the only way to get it right.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by Steve & Susan

We bring our own drinking water (3 gallon jug and some bottled water) and we use that for making coffee too. We use park water for everything else. We do sanitize the system every year so park water is probably safe to drink, but we still bring drinking water from home. Nothing is worse when Streaming than the effects of bad water!

I will note that coffee or tea is ordinarily safe to drink even if the water used to make it is of doubtful microbiological purity.

[Melody Ranch]

Anyone here remember the use of iodine...both drops right from the bottle or special water purification pills?.....This was before your time for many .
Along those lines...how about putting the iodine in a "Lister Bag" I guess it would work in an Airstream water tank.

[Boondocker]

Originally Posted by Melody Ranch

Anyone here remember the use of iodine...both drops right from the bottle or special water purification pills?.....This was before your time for many .
Along those lines...how about putting the iodine in a "Lister Bag" I guess it would work in an Airstream water tank.

Used that for years backpacking and canoeing the backcountry. It leaves an awful taste to be sure. As is with using chlorine, time is very important to get good result. And the colder the water, the longer the time required to get desired results.It is also important to remember to flush out the lines with clean water- the treated water has to get everywhere in the system.

I doubt many find need to purify water on the road (although I sometimes do due to my boondocking proclivities). When I find myself needing to extend my fresh water while boondocking with a water source nearby, I tend to use the untreated water for dishes, showers (I have a portable propane camp shower), and some cooking if I know the cooking will be sufficient to sanitize the water. Doing this easily extends my fresh water supply to a week and a half to two weeks. I also carry a couple 7 gallon jugs and it is rare that a chance to fill these up somewhere over the course of a week doesn't occur.

OTOH, if the idea is to periodically sanitize your fresh water tank, the method outlined previously should give good results in terms of maintaining your tank free of colonies of icky things.

[Ag&Au]

I have been camping in RVs since I was 14 (52 years) . It has never occurred to me that I couldn't drink the water from the water tank, and I'm still alive.. When I fill it at home, I am putting already chlorinated treated water into it. If I fill it at a campground, I fill it through a high quality in line filter. When we stop at a campground with water hook ups, (which is 90% of the time) I always have the same type of high quality in line filter. Unless there are dead bodies laying around the campground, I have no problem with drinking the campground water through my filter. Of course I don't camp in swamps or in Bangladesh, where I think some of you must have been going.
I have never heard this concern come up before I joined this forum, although maybe I haven't listened in the right places. Perhaps this is an off shoot of the recent affinity our culture has developed for small bottles of water everywhere. I always assume that they are just water out of someone else's tap. After all the recent bottled water exposees, I am more concerned about them than my tap water.
For those who say you see dirt when you flush your tank, I wouldn't even wash with that water.
If I didn't trust the water from my tank after thoroughly cleaning it, I would replace the tank.

Regards,
Ken

[ROBERT CROSS]

Our Java is a needed fluid in the total enjoyment of our Dock'n experience, as such, the careful monitoring of the conceiving process is paramount.
Perfectly potable not withstanding... odiferous & taste free water is my reason for not using the more than adequate storage ability of the Airstream.

Plain speak...it stinks after a few warm daze....and my noze reaches the cup first.

[Boondocker]

Originally Posted by w7ts

If I didn't trust the water from my tank after thoroughly cleaning it, I would replace the tank.

Regards,
Ken

Thats pretty much my position too Ken.

[Gene]

The water we get in one gallon jugs is distilled, so there should be nothing in it but hydrogen and oxygen. The gallon jugs with "drinking water" in them—who knows where that comes from?

We sanitize in the spring. The proportions of bleach to water are listed in our owner's manual. Chlorine loses it's effectiveness rapidly, so mix and use immediately. We put the solution in the tank and then run it through the lines until it comes out each faucet. First I'll run fresh water through the system to wash out the antifreeze. I don't know how antifreeze and chlorine react, but I don't want to find out. So the regimen is flush with fresh water, fill with chlorine treated water and let stand for several hours, then flush over and over with fresh water until there's no chlorine smell. That final series of flushes is usually three.

We sanitize again in mid summer. Maybe we're overdoing it, especially since there's a water filter under the sink (though bathroom is used for brushing teeth without filter), but waterborne diseases are no fun. We have been to places where the water is suspect. I remember a motel in Nova Scotia where the water was salty meaning ocean water was getting into the well and yellowish water in Newfoundland. We know people who got sick somewhere along the Alaska Hwy because the CG water came directly out of stream—something they discovered too late.

Boiling water for coffee and tea helps if you boil it long enough—I think the standard is 5 minutes.

Most city water in the US in Canada is fine, but mistakes are made, inspections are infrequent. A lot of CG's use well water and that water in many places is never tested.

Gene

[Ag&Au]

Originally Posted by ROBERT CROSS

Our Java is a needed fluid in the total enjoyment of our Dock'n experience, as such, the careful monitoring of the conceiving process is paramount.
Perfectly potable not withstanding... odiferous & taste free water is my reason for not using the more than adequate storage ability of the Airstream.

Plain speak...it stinks after a few warm daze....and my noze reaches the cup first.

I guess my nose is not that refined. But, maybe it is a blessing.
I spent the first 50 years of my life in the Seattle area. Some claim it to be the coffee capitol of the world. It is the home of Starbucks. Until I finally quit a few years ago, I used to drink a lot of coffee, but wasn't very fussy about quality. But in my case I think it was more of a drug than a pleasure.
Regards,
Ken