Sanitizing Water System

[camaraderie]

Hey...good tip from RVDailyTips today on how to properly sanitize the potable water system. I thought this picture of the inside of a water pump might be sufficient reason to share this link!

The article link is at RV Daily Tips Issue 373. April 30, 2014 | RV Travel
Basically...if you want to eliminate bacteria from every part of the water system...

• Dump in about 25 ounces of bleach for every 100 gallons of tank. Then fill the tank.
• Open the hot & cold water taps of EVERY water outlet...sinks, in and outside showers and any other spigots...one at a time until you smell bleach.
• Let it fester for an hour or two.
• Empty the tank through the faucets and refill...repeat as necessary till all smell of chlorine is gone.

This is the shock method. You can also use 1/2 the bleach and wait 4 hours if you have the time.

Hope this helps some!

[Triguy]

Thanks for posting. 25oz seems like an awful lot of bleach; though I can see where that would definitely "shock" the system.

My method is more like your last line saying to use half of that bleach. I use a quarter cup of household bleach for every fifteen gallons of water that my fresh water tank holds. That would be 1.7 cups for a 100gl tank or about 13.5oz.

I let mine sit for 24 hours, but 12 would probably be sufficient.

[camaraderie]

Your welcome and your method works just fine as well...less bleach...more standing time. I've done my version of the shock treatment on boats with all kinds of crud in the lines which are sometimes decades old...it works...but there you have to first make sure that you're not dealing with aluminum tanks which gets eaten up by any remnants of the bleach and results in eventual pinholes.
This is for plastic or steel tanks only!