Contaminated Drinking Water

[itat]

Here is a recent article on this subject.

Are You Drinking Contaminated Campground Water? - RV Life

While the suggestion for an ultraviolet light or reverse-omosis system may be overkill, a good quality filter is a great defense against poor quality water. You may not drink campground water but do you wash your dishes in it? Bathe in it? Wash your face with it? Any one of those activities may put you at risk of ingesting poor quality water. For cheap insurance, I use a 0.5 micron water filter.

 

[Iwannacamp]

I read here about a member who brushed his teeth and didn't use bottled water and near bout died from the illness. I use the water and haven't died... lucky maybe?

Looks like i will be adding that filter I bought before the weekend...

 

[Iwannacamp]

I should ask a question. I have a carbon based ?? micron filter one pc. whole house filter system. After I use the filter for the trip...now what? Flush before the next trip 20-30 days from now?? Replace filters? Cap and don't worry? Drain and store in freezer?

Any suggestions?

 

[itat]

I just came across this page on the Centers for Disease Control website for some impartial information on potential water-borne hazards and how effective different water filtration methods are.

https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/home-water-treatment/household_water_treatment.html

 

[ben31]

Good information. Thanks!

 

[itat]

I should ask a question. I have a carbon based ?? micron filter one pc. whole house filter system. After I use the filter for the trip...now what? Flush before the next trip 20-30 days from now?? Replace filters? Cap and don't worry? Drain and store in freezer?

Any suggestions?

The filters I used have KDF. Here is an excerpt from the water filtration info page on RVWaterFilterStore.com's website.

"What is KDF and Why Would I Want It? KDF is an alloy containing zinc and copper that can be incorporated into carbon filters to make them bacteriostatic. That means that bacteria cannot grow inside the filter. This is particularly good for people who use their RV intermittently, as KDF will protect the filter while the RV is not being used. There are several other chemicals that manufacturers use to make their filters bacteriostatic, but many of them affect you as well as the bacteria! KDF has a very good record as being the safest agent yet found for keeping bacteria from growing in filters, although silver nitrate is common, also."

If our TT is going to sit for more than a couple weeks, I will usually drain the filter housing and all the water lines. I almost always drain the water heater tank after each trip. I may be overly cautious but that's what I do.

 

[Iwannacamp]

The filters I used have KDF. Here is an excerpt from the water filtration info page on RVWaterFilterStore.com's website.

"What is KDF and Why Would I Want It? KDF is an alloy containing zinc and copper that can be incorporated into carbon filters to make them bacteriostatic. That means that bacteria cannot grow inside the filter. This is particularly good for people who use their RV intermittently, as KDF will protect the filter while the RV is not being used. There are several other chemicals that manufacturers use to make their filters bacteriostatic, but many of them affect you as well as the bacteria! KDF has a very good record as being the safest agent yet found for keeping bacteria from growing in filters, although silver nitrate is common, also."

If our TT is going to sit for more than a couple weeks, I will usually drain the filter housing and all the water lines. I almost always drain the water heater tank after each trip. I may be overly cautious but that's what I do.

Great. Thank you! I hoped someone would know.

 

[itat]

I have to correct my previous post #6 here. It turns out that my F1Pb filter cartridge from the RV Water Filer Store isn't one of their models that has KDF. However, it has "natural resistance to stagnation due to fiber material." I emailed their customer support and they said to remove the filter from the canister if the trailer will be sitting for more than a few weeks and just let it dry out, and re-install it before the next trip. Their filters with KDF are supposed to be left submerged.

 

[TheWolfPaq82]

Been camping for 40 years at least...should've died like 20 times now from campground water. I do know that a lot of the regular sites we use, they are all on city water now and not a private well system.

 

[Jim34RL]

I bring my house water for us to drink in 1 gallon bottles. When the bottles our empty we will fill them up at grocer stores. Simply and safe.
My wife and I learned a long time ago not to drink campground provided water. Our 9 month old son and us both came down with dysentery from a campground in Door County Wi in the early 70's. We have never drank campground water since. We will filter the water and use it for washing dishes and bathing but never drinking water.

 

[eye95]

We buy gallon bottles of distilled water for Keurig, steam iron, and drinking. We take a few gallons of it camping for same purpose.

We don't drink tap water at home or while camping.

 

[itat]

If you camp at state/provincial or national parks their potable water should be reliable. Private parks maybe not.

It sounds like most folks here either fill their FW tank at home or they take bottled water, or both. (We use bottled water since our trailer is not stored at home.) People use that for drinking and cooking. However, if you use campground water for showering or brushing your teeth (maybe even for washing dishes) there is still the possibility of ingesting that water or the bacteria that's in it so I choose to use a good quality filter with a 0.5 micron rating. I may just be a bit more cautious than most having worked in the municipal water supply industry for over 25 years.

 

[gectisme]

Interesting and informing stuff. We have used campground water for the past 14 months almost continuously through a whole RV Camco bullet type filter and I guess with great luck, as it has not made us sick so far. Maybe we should go buy a lottery ticket... I always assumed the campground water would be tested on a regular basis, even the private ones, is this not the case? It would be in the best interest of the campground to know if the water is contaminated so I always figured they did. The article even mentioned a couple of other campgrounds where they found contamination, since they didn't mention anyone getting sick at those, it must have been found from some sort of regular testing? I know sh@t can happen, literally, but that can also happen to anything including bottled water, (of course much less likely). Anyway, gives me another thing to think about.
Thanks for the post.