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Old 07-26-2019, 08:28 PM   #1
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New trailer .... water issue

We have a relatively new 21. We've only been out a few times since we bought it a few months ago. Our plan is to use it a lot, snowbirding from Montana this coming winter.

We made a week long trip earlier this month and the water system had a weird chemical taste. We drank bottled water.

Since then I've filled the tank (and run the taps) a half a dozen times. The water gets a bit better each time. But five minutes ago I filled two glasses, one from the house and one from the trailer, both ultimately from the same 230' foot well.

I didn't tell my wife which glass was which. She curled up her nose and said "this glass came from the trailer" after a single sip, and pointed at the right glass. She had it right. Then she added "But at least it's a lot better than it was."

Perhaps I should fill the system and let it sit for a month rather than draining it each time I come home. Then perhaps a mineral scale would form on the inside of all the pipes.

Is there anything else to do? We had a 19' footer for five years prior to this new 21 and we didn't have this water taste problem.
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Old 07-26-2019, 10:45 PM   #2
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All I can is that you were lucky that your previous 19 didn't have any tank taste to the water.

I've had s/s and aluminum tanks in boats and they didn't have a tank taste. But any plastic tank that I've ever had has some degree of tank taste or smell. It does diminish in time but my acid test is, can I make a good cup of tea? I've yet to have a plastic tank, no matter how clean and flushed that didn't impart some taste to tea.

Probably a filter could take the taste out but we carry 1 gallon jugs for drink water and making tea and coffee.

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Old 07-26-2019, 10:53 PM   #3
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I carry 1 or 2 5 gallon 'carboys' (water cooler style bottles) and a Dolphin brand hand pump in the back of teh truck. trailer water is for washing, showering, flushing. At home, I fill these from the local 'pure water' business, and on the road I'll refill them if/when the local tap water tastes good. my tap water at home is awful. our coffee is 10X better made with purified water than our tap water.
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Old 07-26-2019, 11:10 PM   #4
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Could be the reaction of your well water to the plastic tank. Or the pec piping. Have you sanitized it with the recommended bleach solution?
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Old 07-26-2019, 11:32 PM   #5
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We carry a separate 3.5 gallon water container for drinking and cooking.. when we ran out we usually run the potable water at campground thru active charcoal filter to remove some bad taste.. or buy from "water station" , or sometimes at the park visitor center that has water bottle fill station... we get good soft water here at home.. but we become less picky once we were "on the road" for more than a week.
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Old 07-26-2019, 11:35 PM   #6
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We don't drink from trailer tank- just use it for showers and washing dishes. We do take a 3 gallon jug used to refill the one gallon jug- both of which are BpA free. Mayo clinic describes some health concerns with BpA.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-l...a/faq-20058331
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Old 07-27-2019, 01:18 AM   #7
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I don't understand how plastic water containers ( including water cooler jugs ) somehow don't taint the water, but the trailer's plastic food-grade tank does. The water you buy is stored in plastic tanks and run through plastic tubes at the grocery store, or wherever you get it. Most often it comes out of a municipal tap.
That said, I can't argue that you don't detect a taste.
I'm not sure you can buy containers with BpA anymore.
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Old 07-27-2019, 05:00 AM   #8
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Has the trailer water system been sterilized?



Here's a recent thread about a chemical water smell, as opposed to taste.


I drain mine between trips too. Don't drink from it often, only if it's water from home, but I've not noticed a bad taste with that. Once I fill it on the road I stop drinking it.
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Old 07-27-2019, 08:51 AM   #9
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With a new trailer I sanitize right away and again in a short while, and from there on in a year or more often with lots of use. It is so easy to do and gives you great tasting water as long as the source is good.

If my water tank has been cleansed within the last year, and our water is from home or a good tasting source, we use water from the tank for drinking. With a good water source we never have a problem. Should we experience poor tasting or smelling water at a campsite, we do hook to the trailer in most cases, but don't fill the tank.

We do flush it out after a few weeks of sitting between trips just in case before filling it. We also flush it when camping if we were exposed to not so great water and are now in a place with some good stuff.

On long trips we do take one or two 5 gallon plastic jugs so we can refill our tank if boondocking. We also have one full with good water all the time in case we run into a lot of foul water where camping. Most places I have got water in Canada are great.
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Old 07-27-2019, 09:03 AM   #10
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We cook, drink, and do everything else with our onboard water, which is odor and tasteless, as well as bacteriological and chemically purified, regardless of source, because we carefully filter (not the standard blue Camco filter) everything that goes into the trailer, then filter the drinking/cooking water yet again with an additional under-sink filter. This, combined with regular sterilization if the system is going to sit stagnant, for more than a few weeks.
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Old 07-27-2019, 10:49 AM   #11
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I agree with Glenn - what can be tasted is probably something in the tank or plumbing, not the material of the tank itself.

And the PEX piping in the trailer is the same as the PEX piping which is now normal in home construction, so it that is the source of some taste then it should be worse at home (where the piping runs are longer).
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Old 07-27-2019, 11:45 AM   #12
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Smell coming from hose?

Quote:
Originally Posted by pittendrigh View Post
We have a relatively new 21. We've only been out a few times since we bought it a few months ago. Our plan is to use it a lot, snowbirding from Montana this coming winter.

We made a week long trip earlier this month and the water system had a weird chemical taste. We drank bottled water.

Since then I've filled the tank (and run the taps) a half a dozen times. The water gets a bit better each time. But five minutes ago I filled two glasses, one from the house and one from the trailer, both ultimately from the same 230' foot well.

I didn't tell my wife which glass was which. She curled up her nose and said "this glass came from the trailer" after a single sip, and pointed at the right glass. She had it right. Then she added "But at least it's a lot better than it was."

Perhaps I should fill the system and let it sit for a month rather than draining it each time I come home. Then perhaps a mineral scale would form on the inside of all the pipes.

Is there anything else to do? We had a 19' footer for five years prior to this new 21 and we didn't have this water taste problem.
I had a similar issue with our new 21 we picked up in May. It had a very strong chemical taste, that was so bad we had to use bottled water for everything except for washing dishes and showering. I even posted about it here but do not know how to get back to my own posts to do an update.

We traced it back to the 25 foot hose we bought from Escape when we picked up our 21. After we sanitized the water system and filled it up again it still had the taste but was not as bad. When we filled it up again we used 2 hoses together. Later at a campsite we hooked up only the 25 foot hose directly to the city water on the 21 and the smell came back which is how we figured it out.

I sanitized both hoses, we bought a 50 foot Camco one after but it did not smell bad. The smell seems gone from the hose now so I will try it again.

When I looked up the hose that Escape sells on their site, Flexon, it's reviews on Amazon quite often mention the strong chemical taste.

So it might be worth checking out your water hose.
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Old 07-27-2019, 11:55 AM   #13
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So the weak link could be the supply hose? See here https://blog.rvshare.com/rv-water-hose/
I have had good luck with the blue hose
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Old 07-27-2019, 12:37 PM   #14
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Yep, good, portable hose, kept clean and separate from regular watering hoses. Also, we regularly add about a cup of bleach. (Then drain and refill a few times). Water can taint after a couple of weeks or so.

But, we bringing gallon jugs of drinking water for coffee, and small 16oz - 20oz bottles for drinking. Maybe from Walmart, or at the Dollar General near the CG. They’re either the distilled, purified, or spring water kinds.
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Old 07-27-2019, 12:42 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cpaharley2008 View Post
So the weak link could be the supply hose? See here https://blog.rvshare.com/rv-water-hose/
I have had good luck with the blue hose
Jim! You have been holding out on us!

I use the Camco 25' white hose but will buy the blue one next time. That is a nice hose. Better fittings and thicker hose to prevent kinks.
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Old 07-27-2019, 02:02 PM   #16
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If I gave away all my secrets then no one would read my posts...........
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Old 07-27-2019, 07:50 PM   #17
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Mmmmmmm you mean we were supposed to read them
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Old 07-27-2019, 07:55 PM   #18
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Mmmmmmm you mean we were supposed to read them
For you I'll just post pictures, to make it easy for you.........
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Old 07-27-2019, 08:46 PM   #19
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We encounter water that does not taste good. Since we camp on the edge of the Gogebic Iron Range, water is often rusty from the iron ore in the ground. To the geographic extreme we find the water in Florida is sulphur tasting. Both variations make terrible coffee. The answer is a Brita water pitcher. We do not drink out of taps, only external water we draw from a spigot. Saves carrying or buying store bought water, I trust the safety of water I am only concerned about taste.
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Old 07-28-2019, 07:35 AM   #20
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Sweet now my one working brain cell can go back to sleep
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