Sanitizing fresh water tank - anybody use Vinegar? - Page 2 - Escape Trailer Owners Community
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Old 02-17-2020, 11:16 PM   #21
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Originally Posted by Ian and Sue View Post
More than likely the problems people have with their check valves are due to hardness(calcium) buildup that the chlorine breaks off and gets stuck in the check or they use waaaaay too much chlorine...
Or scale buildup due to not sanitizing often enough...
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Old 02-18-2020, 07:53 AM   #22
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What’s a shot glass? Like a tumbler or Something?
Good idea Arnie. Then sterilize the glass with alcohol.
Iowa Dave
It is a good tip. But Dave, I would clarify that I am not predisposed to filling shot glasses with water and I do not pour them into the RV’s pump!
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Old 02-18-2020, 09:01 AM   #23
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Or scale buildup due to not sanitizing often enough...
Agreed. Sanitizing with a small amount of chlorine regularly can keep the scale at bay. My point is that stronger is not better but you are right more often IS better.
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Old 02-18-2020, 04:44 PM   #24
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Definitely use bleach rather than vinegar. Vinegar won't actually fully disinfect it (for example, it doesn't kill staph bacteria), and to even get close you'd have to use quite a bit of it. Bleach will fully disinfect at relatively low concentrations.

I've seen peroxide suggested, but it has similar problems: at high enough concentrations to be at all effective, it's super expensive and would probably be harder on tanks and seals than an adequate concentration of bleach.
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Old 02-19-2020, 01:44 PM   #25
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From my experience ... Our house was flooded during hurricane Florence on the North Carolina Coast. We had Servpro clean walls, floors, under the house and outside. Bleach will make the mold appear to disappear and look great. Everything in our house was cleaned professionally with a vinegar based cleaner. Vinegar will actually kill mold spores but bleach will not according to them. Just repeating what the pros said.
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Old 02-19-2020, 01:54 PM   #26
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Totally different situation. The problem with (and advantage of) bleach is that it's quickly neutralized by organic materials (leaving behind just water, which mold loves), so it's not good for sterilizing organic porous materials like wood. It'll kill mold spores just fine on a surface, but it'll react with the wood on the outside before it can get inside to where the rest of the mold is.

For a freshwater tank the entire system's inorganic and nonporous, so bleach is able to get everywhere. You also want to kill bacteria, viruses, and algae in addition to just mold and bleach is definitely better at that.
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Old 02-26-2020, 10:23 AM   #27
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I know! I would have never known that bleach expired or even lost its effectiveness. It came to light when my daughter was researching cloth diaper washing/disinfecting and reported this info to us......Liz
I am glad to have read this, since the purpose is to sanitize I think it is best to do this by a means that is effective. Thank You LarryandLiz
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Old 02-26-2020, 12:23 PM   #28
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I use a vinegar solution after the bleach. It neutralizes the bleach and removes the chlorine taste.
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Old 02-26-2020, 12:36 PM   #29
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I use a vinegar solution after the bleach. It neutralizes the bleach and removes the chlorine taste.

How do you get rid of the vinegar taste?
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Old 02-26-2020, 12:41 PM   #30
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There is no vinegar taste, they neutralize each other. Also, I don’t use straight vinegar or bleach.
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Old 02-26-2020, 12:46 PM   #31
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The chlorine smell / taste will go away on its own with exposure to the air. Main thing is to not use more bleach ( unscented ) than called for and to flush well. The rest will take care of itself.
You can also get sanitizing chemicals at beer and wine making stores where aftertaste would be a big problem.
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Old 02-26-2020, 02:51 PM   #32
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Smile Apple juice jugs.

We avoid all that extra work by not using our water tank. We just carry two one gallon former apple juice jugs, filling the one that depletes from water dispensers at many grocery stores.
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Old 02-26-2020, 03:02 PM   #33
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We avoid all that extra work by not using our water tank. We just carry two one gallon former apple juice jugs, filling the one that depletes from water dispensers at many grocery stores.

You might want to read this:
https://www.thoughtco.com/reusing-pl...azards-1204028
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Old 02-26-2020, 03:09 PM   #34
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Great link Glenn, thanks for the eye opener. Back to glass for me or the approved plastic container.
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Old 02-26-2020, 04:48 PM   #35
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We usually bring 5-10 gallons of purified drinking water with us on a road trip, in 1-2 5G 'bpa free' plastic carboys. you can't even get glass carboys anymore, and they are fragile and heavy.

my water bottle is stainless steel (Hydroflask).
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Old 02-26-2020, 05:03 PM   #36
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We use food grade hydrogen peroxide. You don't need to worry if you don't get it all rinsed out as all it does is add extra oxygen to your water. People use it to disinfect your well so any farm supply shop should have it in larger amounts.
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Old 02-26-2020, 05:08 PM   #37
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We bring 28 gallons of purified water with us, conveniently located in our onboard fresh tank for easy distribution through our onboard plumbing system.

If you keep your system clean (sanitize it periodically, much as you do with any other food container or utensil when you wash it), and then only put clean water into your system, then you have a generous supply of good water ready at hand.

When we use it up we just put more clean water into the tank. (We do use a more robust water filter setup than the common Camco filter, which is junk, FYI). Good to go. No messing around with auxiliary water containers, which only shifts the sanitation requirement to a different vessel, while simultaneously limiting your fresh water capacity.
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Old 02-26-2020, 05:21 PM   #38
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Vinigar is not bleach

I have checked his note against other sources EPA etc. and it seems to be accurate. Don’t worry about what bleach leaves behind. If you follow directions you rinse it out after you’re done.

The reason is that it's not an EPA registered disinfectant or sanitizer, which means you can't count on it to kill 99.9% of bacteria and viruses. Some of its limitations are that it doesn't disinfect MRSA, STAPH and other nasty germs that can make your family sick.
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Old 02-26-2020, 05:27 PM   #39
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Every Spring we flush the RV antifreeze out of our system . flush and sanitize the system with bleach and finally flush with fresh water
Come Fall we drain the system , add RV antifreeze and wait for next Spring
We have a Camco filter which we use if I remember and YES we drink , cook and clean with the water from our onboard tank
I figure if the water is good enough for the local residents then it’s good enough for me .
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Old 02-26-2020, 05:39 PM   #40
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I always carry a ready supply of beer and have never run out of fresh water from the trailer tank.
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