Distasteful Water

[3bcamper]

We have an AI, but this could apply to any camper; who else finds the water in their domestic system undrinkable? We now bring separate, tap water for cooking, drinking, teeth-brushing, and only use the domestic system for showering, cleaning, dishwashing, as the camper water is very distasteful. I have flushed the fresh water system several times, but is still distasteful. Cleansed with bleach at beginning of season. Just curious.

[Ernster]

We use a whole house water filter to fill the fresh water tank or when hooked to park supply. It eliminates bad tastes and odors.

[eubank]

Check your hose, which can impart an absolutely awful flavor. Even one of our white hoses does it.

Basically, ugly tasting residue is coming off of the inside of the hose into the water JUST when the hose filled with water sits out in the sun, heating hose and water. We learned to drain and flush the hose, then fill the fresh tank with fresh water from the spigot.


Lynn

[Piggy Bank]

Originally Posted by eubank

Check your hose, which can impart an absolutely awful flavor. Even one of our white hoses does it.

Basically, ugly tasting residue is coming off of the inside of the hose into the water JUST when the hose filled with water sits out in the sun, heating hose and water. We learned to drain and flush the hose, then fill the fresh tank with fresh water from the spigot.


Lynn

This is brilliant. No one has ever specifically ever mentioned this before. It makes sense to let the hose rinse itself out a bit before hooking things up.

[SteveSueMac]

I purchased an adapter for my air compressor that I connect to the hose to blow it out before storing after a camping trip. If your hose has water in it and is sitting in storage for a week or two it can get awfully funky.

[HiJoeSilver]

If I'm not going to be using my hose for a week or more I'll put a little bleach in it then coil and seal end to end, then swirl around a little. Before using it again I'll run water through it onto the ground for a minute before hooking it up. You may want to shock treat your FW system.

[FlyFishinRVr]

The owner's manual has a recommended treatment regimen for your fresh water tank. It involves adding a small amount of bleach to the system, letting it sit for a few hours, and then flushing it out with clean water. If you haven't done this in a while, it may be worth a shot.

[Lily&Me]

Using a filter will neutralize the taste of your water, in my experience.

Maggie

[OTRA15]

Buy a new potable water hose and use it regularly. Don't let it sit unused for long, or store it with bleach solution inside as suggested earlier. When possible, stretch it out on a sunny slope and let it dry out inside. Or buy a new hose every few months -- sounds crazy but any hose stored without ventilation in a warm place is basically a Petri dish for mold and bacteria to grow from even the best water. A Camco inline filter at the hose bib is a good thing, as is a pressure regulator there as well.

Happy Trails!

Peter

[InterBlog]

I cycle the tank before every trip, sometimes purging it doubly, and my short trips can happen almost weekly, so at times I'm purging the tank weekly. I also use a Sears rubber hose to deliver water from the house line, not one of those vinyl ones. All that, and we still don't drink directly from the tank. I keep a separate military can for that (we live in the subtropics where pathogens can grow at the drop of a hat).

Bear in mind that, depending on where you fill, the tank / hose combination may not be the source of the problem - the local water supply might be the issue. For instance, we found that we simply cannot drink tap water in the Texas Plains area. It is simply not palatable. We refill our military jug with bottled water - when we can find it, which is not always, because other people are using similar strategies.

[3bcamper]

Originally Posted by FlyFishinRVr

The owner's manual has a recommended treatment regimen for your fresh water tank. It involves adding a small amount of bleach to the system, letting it sit for a few hours, and then flushing it out with clean water. If you haven't done this in a while, it may be worth a shot.

Yes, did that at beginning of year. Perhaps with additional flushings, it may become palatable. Have only filled it with St. Paul water, which is very palatable.

[LBOskiBear]

I replace my drinking water hose 1-2 times per year. We use the AS year-round here in SoCA so it does get frequent usage.

I'm a bit OCD about these things so have a few steps:

1. Fresh water hose has an inline filter which also gets changed when the hose gets changed. When I first hook up to the water, I run the hose for a while to clean out anything odd before attaching

2. Fresh water tank gets sanitized 1-2 times per year. Never drink out of it

3. There's a water filter for drinking from the kitchen faucet - only use this when connected to fresh water lines, not when pulling from the tank

4. Water then goes into a Brita filter for drinking

5. Coffeemaker has its own water filter as well.

So, basically, drinking water goes through 3 filters, coffee through 4 filters. Probably overkill, but generally tastes fine.