traveling after 3 months

[nomadicdrave]

hello all, happy holiday weekend.


I have a question, the last time we used our geopro 19qb was first week of may. Since then it's been in our driveway as we didn't have as much time to camp as we would have liked this summer. we are now prepping for our fall trips starting next week.



when we last camped, we did not drain the water heater tank, we used city water and did not drain the lines.


question I have is, do I need to flush the lines and sanitize the system (again) before our fall trips? we don't plan on using the fresh water tank this fall. I'm more concerned about the city water side and the water filter under the bed.


thanx for your time and assistance.


cheers,
--nomadicdrave

[ajlight]

If ours sits for more that 2 weeks I will run water through it for around 5 minutes or more hot and cold.

[HangDiver]

If our TT sits for several months I'll typically re-sanitize the entire fresh water system (I do use the fresh water tank). Is it necessary? Probably not.... Just part of my routine of getting it ready.

[Aussieguy]

drain the tank ... into a bucket check for any contaminates and odors.


if in doubt re-fill it with a bleach water mixture ... or you favorite chemical stuff
run it through your pipes / faucets etc

drain and re-fill

[Reverse_snowbird]

Since you aren't going to use the fresh water tank, drain it and sanitize the city water lines only.
It might not be necessary, but better safe than sorry.

[nomadicdrave]

thanx all. I'll probably drain the water heater, and just flush our plumbing, not sanitize it, and check the water filter in the camper to see if that has any odor, if so, will probably sanitize the lines.


I've only sanitized the lines by filling the fresh water tank. is there a way to sanitize from the city water side of things?

[Reverse_snowbird]

Originally Posted by nomadicdrave

I've only sanitized the lines by filling the fresh water tank. is there a way to sanitize from the city water side of things?

Yes. Put the correct amount of bleach and water into the fresh water hose and attach to the city water inlet. Then connect the other end to the city water and turn on the water. Then open each faucet til you smell bleach, turn off the faucets and let it sit for a few hours. You don't even have to drain the water heater.
Obviously, you don't need as much as a fresh water tank sanitizing.

[darndave]

I would temporarily remove the filter cartridge prior to introducing bleach thru the city water inlet. Unscrew the housing, remove filter to a clean vessel, and reattach housing. This is also a convenient place to put your bleach/water mixture. You can rinse off your filter prior to re-installing.

[njfishing]

My trailer gets used pretty much in the spring and fall and sits for months in between. We don't use the fresh water tank since we're always on city water and the only times I've ever drained the lines is when I winterize it.

Having said this and as mentioned above you can do a few things. When you get hooked back up to water it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to run it for several minutes when you first get set up. The issue with this is that water is going end up taking up room in your grey water storage tanks. For this reason, you might want to do this at home and dump your tanks before you get set up.

A word of caution if you decide to drain the system entirely by opening your low point drain outlets and your hot water heater can run on gas or electric. Make sure the breaker for the hot water heater is off or the switch on the heater is off. If not and the heating element comes on with no water in the tank, you run the risk of burning out the heating element and having to replace it. If you ever make this mistake it's a simple and fairly inexpensive fix.

[Oaklevel]

Personally I would just flush the lines and the HW tank.

[itat]

Like ajlight, I always drain my entire system if it’s going to sit for more than a couple of weeks. So I would definitely re-sanitize the system. It doesn’t take much time or effort. There have been enough stories of bad water, even municipal water supply (Jackson, MS is under a boil water advisory right now), that I don’t take water supply lightly.