Sanitizing Fresh Water Tank

bigskyline · 09-25-2017, 02:57 PM

Need help with the 2015 Itasca Spirit that wife and I bought. I'm trying to sanitize the fresh water tank with a bleach solution, but there is a check valve that is preventing me from pouring the solution into the tank using a funnel. Watched a lot of videos, but none of them have this. When the check valve is pushed water keeps coming out of the line. Is there something I'm missing in this process? Is there another way to do this? TIA

**ThomB** · 09-25-2017, 04:21 PM

One way to do it is to pour your solution into the hose then hook up to the RV and turn on at the source. This will force the water and solution into the tank. The other thing to verify is that the lever is set to fill the tank if you have one of those.

bigskyline · 09-25-2017, 08:06 PM

Thank you ThomB. I have seen that in other places and will give a try.

Best,

Bigskyline

MINWIN24 · 09-25-2017, 08:53 PM

bigskyline can you let me know how you make out with that. i posted similar question on IRV2 and got the same response. We are looking at the new Minnie Winnie 22M with that set up. I cant believe they took a simple task and made it so complicated. My camper has a gravity fill tank and I'm able to sanitize with just my dedicated bucket and funnel.

bigskyline · 09-25-2017, 09:20 PM

Yes, minwin24, I will let you know. If the check valve wasn't there, this would be a piece of cake. Stay tuned.

bigskyline · 09-26-2017, 01:06 PM

minwin24, I did the deleted bleach solution through the hose technique and it worked. I had to use the white fresh water hose I have, and get on a ladder to get enough gravity force to have the solution enter the water holding tank. I opened the two faucets I have and could smell the bleach. I will now leave it in the tank until tomorrow morning. Then I will take the MH to get some work done which will allow the solution to slosh around in the tank. Will drain tomorrow and refill. I will refill with plain water and drain again to get any remaining bleach out after another drive to allow for more sloshing. Hope this helps you. Thanks for asking.

Bigskyline

70ChevelleSS · 09-27-2017, 09:08 AM

If you have a setup to suck antifreeze in for winterizing you can use that. Our 2003 Adventurer has a valve and short hose/tube near them water pump. I mix a water/bleach solution in a couple of gallon water jugs. In the wet bay switch the valve to city water. Now when you turn the pump on it will suck from the water jugs and pump it back into the fresh water tank. Switch the winterizing valve back to normal operation. Fill the water tank with fresh water then use the pump to flush through all the faucets inside.

bigskyline · 09-27-2017, 09:28 AM

70ChevelleSS,

This is a new to me unit, but to my knowledge that feature is not available. I will double check to make sure though. Thank you.

DuaneMiller · 09-28-2017, 09:20 AM

Bigsky, our Sightseer does not have a gravity feed for the fresh water tank either. To sanitize our tank, I have use a "whole house" water filter housing that I use to get the bleach into the tank. I unscrew the housing, pour in the bleach (without a filter inserted), and connect the housing between two fresh water hoses and the spigot, and proceed to fill the tank like normal. I hope this makes sense...

bigskyline · 09-28-2017, 05:53 PM

DuaneMiller, it does make sense. Thank you for sharing.

Bigskyline

OldForester · 04-17-2019, 06:21 PM

In over 40 years of RVing I've never sanitized a fresh water tank. I just open the drain valve on the tank and drain it every time I park it for storage, or between camping trips, and run the water pump to get as much out of the lines as I can. And I always blow all the lines out for winter; no antifreeze. When I fill the tank, I run water through the lines with the pump for 30 seconds or so and then top off the tank and go.

Never go sick yet, but the fact I'm on city water that has the usual treatments probably helps.

BirchyBoy · 04-17-2019, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DuaneMiller

Bigsky, our Sightseer does not have a gravity feed for the fresh water tank either. To sanitize our tank, I have use a "whole house" water filter housing that I use to get the bleach into the tank. I unscrew the housing, pour in the bleach (without a filter inserted), and connect the housing between two fresh water hoses and the spigot, and proceed to fill the tank like normal. I hope this makes sense...

That’s what I do as well. I made the mistake of using splashless bleach last fall and it didn’t seem to clear out of the lines as well. I use about 1/4 cup Clorox in the filter housing.