Drinking water from fresh water tank

[nana's ride]

We do not drink our water at home and buy bottled water for drinking and cooking. The last time we were out with the RV we filled the fresh water tank up and been using it for drinking and cooking at home for a couple of weeks now and still have 1/2 tank of water. How long will the water stay safe for drinking, it still taste good but all of a sudden I am worried that the water could be bad and the tank is not made to keep water for a long period of time. Please let me know how long you have kept water in your fresh water tank.

Thanks
ruth

[HowieE]

If your tank was clean before you started there shouldn't be any reason for the water to go bad. The water in some of the spring in England is 80,000 years old and they don't know where it comes from.

A different question would be what materials are in your plumbing, ie plastic or copper pipes and tank material. Will they leach out over prolonged time.

How old is your trailer?

[Blevi]

We were told during our 2 hour delivery instructions that we should drain the fresh water after every outing if the trailer will sit for 3 or more days. So we've drained the hot water tank and fresh water. Being new to this, I'm also interested in the responses.
Bob

[jcanavera]

I think the key is what HowieE stated above. How clean was the tank before you started? That is the paramount question since the sanitizing of the tank prior to water storage can be the difference in how you answer this question.

The Red Cross states that bottled water coming from treated City water systems usually can be stored for 6 months before having to replace it. Obviously your water system is not sealed from the outside so storage time will be shorter. If the water is coming from an untreated system storage time is much shorter.

I know that in my case I sanitize the tank prior to using it. Using St. Louis water with it's mix of chlorine and other goodies, I know that I have a fairly long shelf life. Normally within 4 days we've exhausted the water supply anyway and I refill if needed. As long as you are introducing fresh chlorinated water back into the tank, the need to sanitize the tank is usually limited to that first fill, or if it sits for an extremely long period. Personally if it sat more than 3 weeks without a fresh fill, I'd probably sanitize the tank and refill.

Now untreated water is a different animal and when you are dealing with campground water, you really don't know what they are using. I know one of the campgrounds I go to in Branson has an 800 foot well. Knowing that source, I know that a fill of their water in my holding tank wouldn't have the shelf life that my STL water does.

Jack

[Ahab]

Originally Posted by nana's ride

We do not drink our water at home and buy bottled water for drinking and cooking. The last time we were out with the RV we filled the fresh water tank up and been using it for drinking and cooking at home for a couple of weeks now and still have 1/2 tank of water. How long will the water stay safe for drinking, it still taste good but all of a sudden I am worried that the water could be bad and the tank is not made to keep water for a long period of time. Please let me know how long you have kept water in your fresh water tank.

Thanks
ruth

First of all, your wasting money with bottled water. A home filtration / RO system can quickly pay for itself and they are available for RV's too. We have a 432" well and use a filter system for drinking water only. Water in the TT is used for cooking and coffee. Since it's boiled it's no problem. We bottle the home filtered water for drinking and bring it along on our trips. Done this for years and never had a problem.

[HowieE]

Originally Posted by Blevi

We were told during our 2 hour delivery instructions that we should drain the fresh water after every outing if the trailer will sit for 3 or more days. So we've drained the hot water tank and fresh water. Being new to this, I'm also interested in the responses.
Bob

I fill my fresh water tank with city water in the spring and let it drain. That is done to "Clean" the tank. Then I add a 1/4 tank that I carry, use, and add to throughout the season. As for the hot water heater it remains full once filled. The biggest danger I see with draining the hot water heater is if someone ever fires it up without water in it. At the least you will lose a hot water heater, but maybe the whole trailer.

Unless you blow the system down with air simply draining the tanks does nothing. The balance of the system remains full of water.

Now is this not to say that the system can not go stale. I have seen trailer water systems that will take on an onion smell. Not sure what causes this and if it happens a good purging with bleach is required.

If you are faced with this problem, I have had to work on 3 trailer in 40+ years, what I have done is while your garden hose is attached to the trailer fill the hose with bleach. Now connect the hose to a water supply. Run water from each faucet, hot and cold. You may have to fill the hose more than once and you will have to flush the system with clean water when done.

[lewster]

I'm with Ahab on this one!

I use a reverse osmosis system when I'm in FL at my digs and the water quality is far superior to any bottled water I have used. The taste is just excellent!

I would have the same system on the Airstream if I had more space, but a 19' really has no place for 5 filters and an accumulator tank.

I really miss my water filters!!!!!........... but I do use a particulate and carbon block filter while on the road. It's far better than nothing!!!!!!!

[easyride]

My old 77 overlander came with an everpure 300 filter for drinking water,I use it for drinking and cooking,granted it won`t get out the Mexican run bug,but after sanitizing it will get the chlorine out. As far as RO water I can`t reccomend it,water must maintain a hardness,RO water has no hardness,so it will take it from your body [calcium] on it`s trip thru. [Or so I was told in my continuing education class.] Dave

[TBRich]

We use an in-line filter so that the water that comes into the trail is filtered. We leave whatever water remains in the fresh water tank between trips...but it rarely sits for more than 3 weeks or so... We also add water purifier (which is nothing by a diluted bleach solution) to the tank each time we fill it. That keeps the water fresh and clean tasting. If we are not going out for a month or longer, I drain all but a little water...I don't want the tank or lines sitting there with nothing in them in our summer heat...everything would dry out. When sitting for longer periods, we run water occasionally to keep the traps filled...

[Wire Paladin]

Your travel log link is not working for me. If it has changed pls let me know. Thanks.

[Excella CM]

We use the fresh water tank for drinking and cooking. We have an everpure canister that supplies a faucet for purified water. I don't worry abut contamination from sitting, although I usually dump the fresh tank when the trailer is stored. When you refill, you can superchlorinate the water by adding a couple of tablespoons of household bleach in a quart of water before you fill the rest of the tank. This will get any bugs that are likely to make you sick. An drinking water filter and faucet is cheap and easy,too.

[RivetED]

Life is an adventure, I drink a lot of bottled water......................Chlorinate my A/S system per J.C. instructions (proper concentrate of chlorine and complete system saturation, min. 4 hours contact time, etc.) every year. BTW: Do you still have your appendics?

[moosetags]

We drink and cook with water from our fresh water tank regularly. We do this even when city water is available so that we can rotate our water stock. We usually hit the road with a full fresh water tank, and top it off along the way as necessary. We have never drained it other than by use.

[TBRich]

Originally Posted by Wire Paladin

Your travel log link is not working for me. If it has changed pls let me know. Thanks.

Thanks for the heads up about the link, Wire! It should be fixed now and it should work...if you still have trouble with it, copy and paste the address into your browser.

And welcome to the Airforums! Glad you could join in...