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Old 05-08-2018, 02:26 PM   #1
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Water safety best practices.

I posted this in a FB forum but I figure I’d ask you smart folks also

Can anyone tell me what the water safety best practices are.

I installed a water softener, sediment filter, KDF filter, and UV light.

I just got finished sanitizing the freshwater tank and lines for the year using bleach. I am now rinsing out all the lines and tank.

Questions:
This is mostly a weekend warrior rig that will sit for a few weeks then be used for 3-4 days then for a month straight once a year so, how often should the unit be sanitized?

Should the freshwater tank be drained after every use?

Should the filters be left in the canisters with water in them or should they be drained and dried?

Should the water softener be unhooked and have water run through it for five minutes before each use or can it be left installed?

How often should you replace your filters? Will they discolor so you can tell or should you keep track of how many gallons/days have been put on them?

Thanks in advance.
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Old 05-08-2018, 02:36 PM   #2
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This is mostly a weekend warrior rig that will sit for a few weeks then be used for 3-4 days then for a month straight once a year so, how often should the unit be sanitized?
Normally at the beginning of the year, but if water gets nasty more often. A lot of this depends on the water source.

Should the freshwater tank be drained after every use?
It is about a 50/50 split on draining after each use, I always drain after a trip. Be sure to drain WH before opening the low point drains.

Should the filters be left in the canisters with water in them or should they be drained and dried?

Most people only replace the filter once a year.


Should the water softener be unhooked and have water run through it for five minutes before each use or can it be left installed?

Can't say for sure on the WS should be OK.

How often should you replace your filters? Will they discolor so you can tell or should you keep track of how many gallons/days have been put on them?
Need more info here. Several types of filters, most do not change color Most people change once a year.
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Old 05-08-2018, 02:46 PM   #3
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I am following as I am curious. I am a weekend warrior using for 2-3days once every few weeks in season.

I drain the tanks after each trip. I left them full once and found the water heater was starting to deteriorate the anode quicker so now I drain it if longer than a week. I always drain fresh water and refill for use. I sanitize with bleach after dewinterizing once a year and will blow out lines between trips once it starts to get cold.
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Old 05-08-2018, 02:58 PM   #4
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I understand that UV treatment is 'the thing' lately but you should know that it has no affect on contaminants once the water has passed through the radiation unit where chlorine would still be effective and offer protection.
My BIL is head of operations at a municipal water treatment system and he says they have significant more problems with E-Coli in their drinking water compared to the previous chlorine treatment especially after maintenance or repair work on the grid.
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Old 05-08-2018, 03:10 PM   #5
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It's also going to depend on how long your season is. We start our season beginning of May, and push it through to mid October (Thanksgiving weekend for us). For us, as Bob mentioned, we typically changed our filter once per year. Install the new one in the spring with the de-winterizing, use that one until we winterize in October. We're often out at least every other weekend, with 3 or 4 week long trips when the kids are out of school, so the filter, HW and the lines all see a change over in water often enough that I don't worry about it.

We also tend to fill the tanks once in the spring, and use that all season until we winterize. We pretty much only camp where we have hookups, so the FW tank gets little use. It's just typically got some on board for roadside pit stops, etc... Which means we don't use the tanks for more than flushing and washing of hands. For that, I'm ok with the old water, since it goes through the onboard filter anyways. If we ever do stay where we need to use the tank, then I'll drain the FW tank (but not the HW) and refill it with 'Fresh' fresh water. I don't bother with resanitizing, in those cases. I figure the Spring sanitize I did for cleaning out the antifreeze got it clean enough and our house water that I put in it is clean enough that I'm not worried about it growing 'stuff' beyond what the onboard filter can handle.

The new trailer though doesn't have an onboard, so I'm going to have to rethink my FW tank practices. We'll see how we do this season.
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Old 05-08-2018, 03:27 PM   #6
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When we first started RVing we way over thought the water stuff. We had inside filters, outside filters, softener, and sanitized the tank and lines frequently.

About ten years ago we threw all the filters/softener away. Grew tired of constant cleaning, replacing and dealing with low water pressure due to them.

Now, we still sanitize the tank about once a year. But we only use the water in the rig for showers and dish washing (use a little bleach with dish water). For drinking and cooking we use bottled.

Much simpler, and we are much happier not carrying and setting up all the filter apparatus
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Old 05-08-2018, 05:06 PM   #7
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You said "Water Safety" and I instantly thought "Wear your life jacket"

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Old 05-08-2018, 05:17 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NMWildcat View Post
When we first started RVing we way over thought the water stuff. We had inside filters, outside filters, softener, and sanitized the tank and lines frequently.

About ten years ago we threw all the filters/softener away. Grew tired of constant cleaning, replacing and dealing with low water pressure due to them.

Now, we still sanitize the tank about once a year. But we only use the water in the rig for showers and dish washing (use a little bleach with dish water). For drinking and cooking we use bottled.

Much simpler, and we are much happier not carrying and setting up all the filter apparatus
Spot on.
Sometimes the filters themselves can become the actual problem.
However, I would keep a sediment filter to catch the coarse stuff that can physically do damage to the plumbing.
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Old 05-08-2018, 06:00 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NMWildcat View Post
When we first started RVing we way over thought the water stuff. We had inside filters, outside filters, softener, and sanitized the tank and lines frequently.

About ten years ago we threw all the filters/softener away. Grew tired of constant cleaning, replacing and dealing with low water pressure due to them.

Now, we still sanitize the tank about once a year. But we only use the water in the rig for showers and dish washing (use a little bleach with dish water). For drinking and cooking we use bottled.

Much simpler, and we are much happier not carrying and setting up all the filter apparatus
+1
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Old 05-08-2018, 09:10 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Flybob View Post
This is mostly a weekend warrior rig that will sit for a few weeks then be used for 3-4 days then for a month straight once a year so, how often should the unit be sanitized?
Normally at the beginning of the year, but if water gets nasty more often. A lot of this depends on the water source.

Should the freshwater tank be drained after every use?
It is about a 50/50 split on draining after each use, I always drain after a trip. Be sure to drain WH before opening the low point drains.

Should the filters be left in the canisters with water in them or should they be drained and dried?

Most people only replace the filter once a year.


Should the water softener be unhooked and have water run through it for five minutes before each use or can it be left installed?

Can't say for sure on the WS should be OK.

How often should you replace your filters? Will they discolor so you can tell or should you keep track of how many gallons/days have been put on them?
Need more info here. Several types of filters, most do not change color Most people change once a year.
All good advice. I would add that we always drain WH and FW system since we only use the rig 2-3 days each month and we have well water i.e. no chlorine. I found after a week or two in real hot weather it would start to form algae. So we drain and that solves the problem.
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Old 05-08-2018, 09:27 PM   #11
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I guess after 35 years of camping we are going not survive.........


We fill water heater in March empty it in November....... Whats a water filter?? do not use one ......... Sanitize the water system did not know that was needed until a couple of years ago so why start now?


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Old 05-08-2018, 10:39 PM   #12
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Quote:
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I guess after 35 years of camping we are going not survive.........


We fill water heater in March empty it in November....... Whats a water filter?? do not use one ......... Sanitize the water system did not know that was needed until a couple of years ago so why start now?


X2
I'm in my 3rd season, but went as a kid. We never did any of that stuff. I'm going to remove my water filter (nearly always use home water anyway (yup, driving with water!)) as the dang thing has been my only leak so far.
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Old 05-08-2018, 11:10 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Oaklevel View Post
I guess after 35 years of camping we are going not survive.........





We fill water heater in March empty it in November....... Whats a water filter?? do not use one ......... Sanitize the water system did not know that was needed until a couple of years ago so why start now?







X3 but only for 28 years
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Old 05-09-2018, 01:20 PM   #14
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And for the love of all that is holy, PLEASE spray the water faucet at your campsite with bleach and water mix before hooking up your water hose. And let it sit a bit to kill off anything living on that faucet. The things we've seen in campgrounds -- like people putting their sewer hose right up under the faucet to rinse the hose. Hepatitis is not your friend.
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Old 05-09-2018, 01:44 PM   #15
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Yea... and don't touch your cellphone, a shopping cart, your bathroom toothbrush holder, the kitchen sink sponge, remote controls, keyboards/mouse, doorknobs, outdoor picnic tables and on and on. All proven to be some of the dirtiest things we touch EVERYDAY

Geesh!
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Old 05-09-2018, 01:58 PM   #16
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I do have a plastic spray bottle with a chlorine mix in it. I do spray the water connection before connecting. It is an especially good thing to if the water spigot is low to the ground. Male dogs pee everywhere[emoji35]
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Old 05-09-2018, 02:10 PM   #17
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I do have a plastic spray bottle with a chlorine mix in it. I do spray the water connection before connecting. It is an especially good thing to if the water spigot is low to the ground. Male dogs pee everywhere[emoji35]
Yes, I've seen it and some of their two legged cousins do it too.
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Old 05-09-2018, 03:11 PM   #18
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I use my travel trailer on an occasional basis. I sanitize and flush the entire system before taking it on a trip, and I completely drain all the tanks and lines before I store it. I have seen people that do not sanitize get dysentery. Not very pleasant, and there are other protozoans that can cause even more damage. I am using a KW1 filter that is going on three years. It has turned a light tan color as compared to a new filter which would be white. If I was in the trailer for extended periods of time, I would opt for using a new filter, but for just 2 or 3 weeks of camping every other month, I will use this filter until it starts to hinder water flow, the charcoal filter media breaks down or my water quality test kit indicates some other compromise. I test the water quality with a First Alert WT1 kit before actually using the water from on site sources. I also make it a point to remove the anode from the water heater and store it in a case I made. You can get aluminum or magnesium poisoning from excessive exposure to those elements. My KW1 filter is stored outside of the canister in a sanitized container that holds a vacuum.
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Old 05-09-2018, 07:28 PM   #19
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Thank you all for the helpful answers. I think I’ve got a pretty good grasp on this now. We don’t have a traditional hot water heater. I had the dealer install a in demand heater. I don’t believe that has an anode but I haven’t researched it yet.

The one question I still have is when you drain the FW tank in between trips is, do you also drain the water from the filter canisters and let them sit dry? I do have a air fitting to blow out all the lines and filters to extend our camping season into the winter without having to put in antifreeze. I just didn’t know if once the filters were wet if they needed to stay that way for some reason.

Thanks again to all you helpful happy campers
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Old 05-09-2018, 08:27 PM   #20
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I keep the filter canister empty when the trailer is in storage. No water in it.... no filter cartridge. I forgot to add that I do sanitize the water connections before connecting to a campsite spigot. I run the water from the spigot before sanitizing and connecting. One time I ran the water for 10 minutes before it ran clear. Rust and sand from well water settled into the pipe system after some repairs had been made at the campground. Enough particles to clog a faucet or get stuck in valves.

A little side note: In 1974, I camped in a campground where the fresh water well was being contaminated by a drain field for a septic system. The well water was also being contaminated by water being pumped in from a lake and being used for irrigation. The lines ran right next to the well, and there were a couple of connectors leaking lake water directly into the well. We knew about the lake water... (we found out about the septic after the campground was closed down... because so many people were getting sick from the water). We filled the water tank with the intent of using it for showers because the water pressure suffered unexpected drops. After one week of camping, the lines were clogged with a weird goo... Analysis showed that all the goo was an explosion of Amoeba. I started following sanitation procedures for every camping trip since then.
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