Cleaning hose from fresh water tank to water pump

[maiki724]

Searched the forum and couldn't find an answer.
I want to separate the hose from the fresh water tank under the trailer to the water pump since it has some mold growing there. My thought was to disconnect the hose and use a bottle brush to clean out the gunk as much as possible. However, when I remove the metal clamp, the hose does not easily come off. Is there some kind of hose nipple or something that is preventing this? Don't want to damage the hose with a screwdriver or use a wrench that might snap off the plastic fitting on the tank.

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by maiki724

Searched the forum and couldn't find an answer.
I want to separate the hose from the fresh water tank under the trailer to the water pump since it has some mold growing there. My thought was to disconnect the hose and use a bottle brush to clean out the gunk as much as possible. However, when I remove the metal clamp, the hose does not easily come off. Is there some kind of hose nipple or something that is preventing this? Don't want to damage the hose with a screwdriver or use a wrench that might snap off the plastic fitting on the tank.

The plastic hose is probably just gripping the barbed fitting very tightly. Try prying up around the edge of the hose with a small screwdriver and maybe heating the area with a hairdryer. It will eventually break free.

[Eggscape]

Sometimes there is enough slack that you can cut the hose at the end of the barbs. Then carefully slit the half inch of hose on the barb and remove it. Very careful not slit the barbs as well. This way once the hose is clean you have a fresh seal on the barbs.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by rubicon327

maybe heating the area with a hairdryer.

My usual way of removing vinyl hoses that have been on for awhile. Warm it up nicely and it'll almost fall off.

I do the reverse installing vinyl hose on hose barbs and I put the hose clamp on while it's still warm. Tightens down really well.

Ron

[elongest]

After you get the hose off of each end you can feed a piece of .032 safety wire through the hose. Then twist the wire to attach a small cleaning rag (A piece of T-shirt soaked in bleach water) and pull the rag and extra wire through the hose. Pull the rag back and forth through the hose until the hose is clean.
Eddie
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...d-b31d6b1bfbee

[Luckyf4]

If it was me, I would just cut the hose off the pump nipple and holding tank and replace the whole hose. Now it’s clean and new and no mould. I would also replace the clamps at the same time.

[maiki724]

Thank you all for the suggestions! as soon as it stops raining here in South Florida I will attempt some of the suggestions. I am inclined to just replace the hose but will see how difficult that will be since it runs through foam underneath. I need to access the water pump which of course is under the mattress...lol

[Ian and Sue]

Originally Posted by maiki724

Searched the forum and couldn't find an answer.
I want to separate the hose from the fresh water tank under the trailer to the water pump since it has some mold growing there. My thought was to disconnect the hose and use a bottle brush to clean out the gunk as much as possible. However, when I remove the metal clamp, the hose does not easily come off. Is there some kind of hose nipple or something that is preventing this? Don't want to damage the hose with a screwdriver or use a wrench that might snap off the plastic fitting on the tank.

I would just do the recommended shock chlorination regime and not worry about it unless the hose is already in rough shape and needs replacing.
To review water tank chlorination:
1.Add 1/4 cup 6% chlorine(JUST chlorine no smells or thickeners) to a gallon of water in a clean container.
2. add chlorine solution to water storage tank in camper.
3. fill tank from a hose to the top.
4. run water pump in trailer and open each tap one at a time. Run until you smell chlorine, shut off and move to the next tap. Don't forget the outside shower and the toilet.(I don't drink from there but...)
5. Wait 24 hrs. Then drain and flush tank a couple of times. DONE!

WARNING! DO NOT DRINK OR GET THIS ON YOUR CLOTHES OR DUMP IT ON YOUR LAWN OR IN A STREAM! Dump the chlorine water on your driveway or road where it will soak in and not run off. The chlorine will evaporate. If you run the water into a bale of hay or straw it will use up the active chlorine pretty fast too.

[Bobbito]

That chlorination is not likely to do anything once you have a green buildup. Stick with your idea of scrubbing the hose clean or replacing it.
Bob K

[Ian and Sue]

Originally Posted by Bobbito

That chlorination is not likely to do anything once you have a green buildup. Stick with your idea of scrubbing the hose clean or replacing it.
Bob K

Hunh? The chlorine will kill anything living! Especially at 50 ppm for 24 hours. Yes it may still be there but everything will be dead. Do you take apart your plumbing in your house every year and give it a scrub? If you do, you need to chlorinate or you will just inoculate everything and the growth will start over! The Specs for Public Water Systems REQUIRE that all pipes that are opened up and exposed to people's hands etc be shock chlorinated to the same specs above before returning to service. Same with a trailer.

[viator36]

I agree to the applying heat method mentioned above. On a previous project I cut off pex clamps but couldn't separate the connector from the pipe, after warming them up with heat gun they separated easily.

[Bobbito]

Ian, I didn't mean to be disrespectful to you. The OP described the buildup as gunk, which implies that it has depth. I feel that even if you kill the surface algae and/or bacteria, failing to remove the buildup could result in continued colonization by algae and bacteria. Algae gives a better indication of growth in that it is green. Bacterial buildup isn't so easy to see, and bacteria may use the dead algae residue left after the bleach shock treatment to colonize. I wouldn't weigh in on this if I didn't have many years of painful experience with lab and hospital pure water systems. Following are a few relevant thoughts, followed by a more in depth opinion I posted in another thread several years ago. (PDF document) I don't pretend to know it all, especially not community water systems. I think my hospital experience is more relevant to the trailer plumbing than house plumbing because the tubing and the circulation speeds were similar.

We had a circulating ultra pure lab water system that developed bacterial biofilms on sitting stagnant a few months (broke down) Millipore and Culligan experts met with us a gazillion times as we tried to eliminate it many times, using their own technicians and very strong solutions that were supposed to kill the growth. We ended up discarding the central Type 1 system with circulation (never should have been designed with low flow and long runs) and going to multiple point of use systems.

Bottom line re the OP, if a shock treatment removes the green gunk it might be enough. If not, I think his idea of physically removing it or changing the tubing is necessary.

A few thought re the comparison to household plumbing:

A trailer is more susceptible to microorganism water supply growth than your home because:

1. Water sitting in the tank is stagnant when the trailer is not in motion. Even drawing water from the tank isn't likely to prevent the bacteria growing on surfaces over time. If you had a holding tank as part of your home water system it would also be more susceptible to microorganism colonizing.


2. Bleach (hypochlorite) in chlorinated water from your home supply will be neutralized by heat or light, or evaporate into empty space in the trailer's tank if left standing.This allows the organisms to grow and colonize the system unless the water is circulating adequately and frequently.


3. I know that water circulates through tubing quickly has a scrubbing action. Your house's water circulates much faster than in your trailer, and could scrubs away some biomasses that can form when water sits for long periods of time.

4. Considering how easily our lab ultra pure water system was able to develop biomasses when stagnant, I can only imagine how quickly our trailer water systems can grow it under warm, wet conditions.

Bob K

[CharlesPou]

my home water is apparently heavily chlorinated, can smell it. some time ago I noticed my 5 gallon plastic water can had mold inside. I wasn't too concerned, but would prefer it not to be there. forgetting about it, next time I used it on a long trip it was clean by the time I returned home and emptied it. so, apparently my home water with it's chlorine removed the mold? might take awhile, but just circulating some fresh chlorinated city water might remove the mold?

I'm curious if OP drains tank from time to time, like before putting in storage? also, does OP use water on demand or mainly use city water? I like to use water on demand and will normally not use city water even if available. my potable water tank and plumbing maybe stays clean with more use? I know a lot a RVers get grossed out with RV water by letting it stay in the trailer too long. I try to flush my system out by using it, and drain it before puttng in storage. I've never had smelly water, or mold build up that I'm aware of?

I'm no expert, but as I understand food safety, if you can see it, it's probably not going to make you sick, such as mold on cheese for example. it's the organisms that you can't see that will make you sick, like E coli. cheers

[Patandlinda]

Originally Posted by Bobbito

Ian, I didn't mean to be disrespectful to you. The OP described the buildup as gunk, which implies that it has depth. I feel that even if you kill the surface algae and/or bacteria, failing to remove the buildup could result in continued colonization by algae and bacteria. Algae gives a better indication of growth in that it is green. Bacterial buildup isn't so easy to see, and bacteria may use the dead algae residue left after the bleach shock treatment to colonize. I wouldn't weigh in on this if I didn't have many years of painful experience with lab and hospital pure water systems. Following are a few relevant thoughts, followed by a more in depth opinion I posted in another thread several years ago. (PDF document) I don't pretend to know it all, especially not community water systems. I think my hospital experience is more relevant to the trailer plumbing than house plumbing because the tubing and the circulation speeds were similar.

We had a circulating ultra pure lab water system that developed bacterial biofilms on sitting stagnant a few months (broke down) Millipore and Culligan experts met with us a gazillion times as we tried to eliminate it many times, using their own technicians and very strong solutions that were supposed to kill the growth. We ended up discarding the central Type 1 system with circulation (never should have been designed with low flow and long runs) and going to multiple point of use systems.

Bottom line re the OP, if a shock treatment removes the green gunk it might be enough. If not, I think his idea of physically removing it or changing the tubing is necessary.

A few thought re the comparison to household plumbing:

A trailer is more susceptible to microorganism water supply growth than your home because:

1. Water sitting in the tank is stagnant when the trailer is not in motion. Even drawing water from the tank isn't likely to prevent the bacteria growing on surfaces over time. If you had a holding tank as part of your home water system it would also be more susceptible to microorganism colonizing.


2. Bleach (hypochlorite) in chlorinated water from your home supply will be neutralized by heat or light, or evaporate into empty space in the trailer's tank if left standing.This allows the organisms to grow and colonize the system unless the water is circulating adequately and frequently.


3. I know that water circulates through tubing quickly has a scrubbing action. Your house's water circulates much faster than in your trailer, and could scrubs away some biomasses that can form when water sits for long periods of time.

4. Considering how easily our lab ultra pure water system was able to develop biomasses when stagnant, I can only imagine how quickly our trailer water systems can grow it under warm, wet conditions.

Bob K

I know this is a little different but for our pool at home bought into new sanitizing that had come out instead of chorine well the pool developed a bio film that was horrible to get rid of mind you pool water is circulated and filtered eventually it required dumping the water getting in the pool and scrubing off the walls that was about 4-5 years ago we use pool chorine and no more problems usual 1/2 water dump once a year and I test constantly that bio film was awful shocking and chorine now our pool is 5000gal Pat

[Ian and Sue]

Originally Posted by Bobbito

Ian, I didn't mean to be disrespectful to you. The OP described the buildup as gunk, which implies that it has depth. I feel that even if you kill the surface algae and/or bacteria, failing to remove the buildup could result in continued colonization by algae and bacteria. Algae gives a better indication of growth in that it is green. Bacterial buildup isn't so easy to see, and bacteria may use the dead algae residue left after the bleach shock treatment to colonize. I wouldn't weigh in on this if I didn't have many years of painful experience with lab and hospital pure water systems. Following are a few relevant thoughts, followed by a more in depth opinion I posted in another thread several years ago. (PDF document) I don't pretend to know it all, especially not community water systems. I think my hospital experience is more relevant to the trailer plumbing than house plumbing because the tubing and the circulation speeds were similar.

We had a circulating ultra pure lab water system that developed bacterial biofilms on sitting stagnant a few months (broke down) Millipore and Culligan experts met with us a gazillion times as we tried to eliminate it many times, using their own technicians and very strong solutions that were supposed to kill the growth. We ended up discarding the central Type 1 system with circulation (never should have been designed with low flow and long runs) and going to multiple point of use systems.

Bottom line re the OP, if a shock treatment removes the green gunk it might be enough. If not, I think his idea of physically removing it or changing the tubing is necessary.

A few thought re the comparison to household plumbing:

A trailer is more susceptible to microorganism water supply growth than your home because:

1. Water sitting in the tank is stagnant when the trailer is not in motion. Even drawing water from the tank isn't likely to prevent the bacteria growing on surfaces over time. If you had a holding tank as part of your home water system it would also be more susceptible to microorganism colonizing.


2. Bleach (hypochlorite) in chlorinated water from your home supply will be neutralized by heat or light, or evaporate into empty space in the trailer's tank if left standing.This allows the organisms to grow and colonize the system unless the water is circulating adequately and frequently.


3. I know that water circulates through tubing quickly has a scrubbing action. Your house's water circulates much faster than in your trailer, and could scrubs away some biomasses that can form when water sits for long periods of time.

4. Considering how easily our lab ultra pure water system was able to develop biomasses when stagnant, I can only imagine how quickly our trailer water systems can grow it under warm, wet conditions.

Bob K

Bob,
I don't disagree with the basic premise of your evaluation but there are a few points to consider.

Yes if the growth is thick enough it can harbor bad bacteria and that could be a problem. That is why I am an advocate of periodic light treatments(a teaspoon in a full tank and run faucets until you get chlorine) of chlorine so that this kind of algae growth cannot happen or is less likely.

Actually flow conditions in trailer, household and municipal systems are all similar. Under normal flows and pressures, which are roughly the same in all three (without getting into a class on hydraulics), the flow is straight line or laminar. To attain the scrubbing action you mention you need to change from laminar to turbulent flow which basically means that you induce a flow that is higher than what the design is for "normal" flow. This is why they flush municipal system with a wide open fire hydrant. So the scrubbing action is not normal and biofilms can and do grow. While these are not dangerous as you say they could harbor dangerous bacteria. It has been shown that periodic light treatments of chlorine and seasonal shock chlorination can reduce or eliminate this problem. I like to do a light treatment to my trailer system whenever I plan on a layup of more than a few weeks or so. And yes it does its job and then evaporates....it does help to keep the tank full and somewhat sealed up(if it is sealed the nasty bacteria cannot get in). The bacteria we are worried about that will make us sick typically come from fecal matter (lab ultra pure has much stricter requirements not necessary for drinking water) so they are not likely to get in if we are careful.

Sorry you had such a bad experience with you lab water....not an uncommon occurrence unfortunately as many lab test protocols are VERY finicky!

[Ian and Sue]

Originally Posted by CharlesPou

my home water is apparently heavily chlorinated, can smell it. some time ago I noticed my 5 gallon plastic water can had mold inside. I wasn't too concerned, but would prefer it not to be there. forgetting about it, next time I used it on a long trip it was clean by the time I returned home and emptied it. so, apparently my home water with it's chlorine removed the mold? might take awhile, but just circulating some fresh chlorinated city water might remove the mold?

I'm curious if OP drains tank from time to time, like before putting in storage? also, does OP use water on demand or mainly use city water? I like to use water on demand and will normally not use city water even if available. my potable water tank and plumbing maybe stays clean with more use? I know a lot a RVers get grossed out with RV water by letting it stay in the trailer too long. I try to flush my system out by using it, and drain it before puttng in storage. I've never had smelly water, or mold build up that I'm aware of?

I'm no expert, but as I understand food safety, if you can see it, it's probably not going to make you sick, such as mold on cheese for example. it's the organisms that you can't see that will make you sick, like E coli. cheers

Agreed flushing and use of shock and maintenance chlorination can help give you clean water and help stave off the biofilm growth.

Interestingly enough most E. coli will NOT make you sick. There are a couple of strains that will but they are actually fairly rare. E. coli is an indicator (it is easy and reliable to test for) that there is fecal material from warm blooded animals present. This fecal matter may hold other bacteria, viruses etc that could make us sick.