How do you drain the fresh water tank?

[weekenderdude]

I never used the fresh water tank in our rig. We also use the city water. I was told that we should sanitize the tank a couple time a year.

1. How do you drain the tank?
2. Where is it?
3. What should be use to sanitize?

2004 36CK3

Thanks for any help or advise.

-Todd

[rdunk]

Quote: "I never used the fresh water tank in our rig. We also use the city water. I was told that we should sanitize the tank a couple time a year".
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Well, shows what I know! We are nearly three years into this, and I have never sanitized the fresh water tank, nor the gray water tank :lol: , and nor the black water tank :wink: . lol.

I wonder why anyone who doesn't use the fresh water tank for drinking type water would worry about sanitation of it. Our only use of the fresh water tank is for flushing the toilet when on the road, so, no sanitation for me.

Now someone might say that when flushing the toilet, the water does go into other more important water lines also, then, that might create a little more need to sanitize anyway???????

Now, in our 2005 RE3, the drain valve for the fresh water tank is in the equipment bay, behind the outside water connection box, pretty down-low. Our drain valve takes a long reach down to get to. Our valve has a "drain" label on the handle. As I said, I haven't sanitized, but I seem to remember that some people use chlorine bleach for that -- could be wrong. Do a little searching on RV.net, and you probably can learn more than you ever wanted to now about this subject!

Good Luck!

[Motor31]

If you do not use the fresh water tank at all and it is empty, don't worry about sanitizing it. Wait until you have a need to use it before doing that job. The tank is isolated from the rest of the plumbing and is not used except by the internal pump.

Draining it is simple. Inside the basement there is a valve to drain it. You'll have to follow the line as it goes towards the floor of the basement behind the sliding door. The factory put the valve just above the floor covering and buried in the insulation in the case of my rig. Simply open it and leave it open until water no longer drains out. It will take a while as this never seems to drain very fast at all. Once it's dry close the valve and forget it.

If you find you will need the tank soon, sanitize it then other wise you are just wasting the effort.

[hitchup]

Sanitizing is only required if you keep water in tank. We keep some water in the tank because of emergencies when power is out in RVP & they are on well water.

We've only done it once or twice in 3 years on the road. It requires a funnel to pour in standard Clorox bleach into the fresh water fill in the utility compartment. There is a "cup of bleach per X gals of water" formula, but can't recall what it is. Then run water from the tank through all your plumbing lines, toilet, both sinks, until you smell the bleach. Do it when you aren't using any water from the tank by leaving for the day or overnight. Or you can add it to your tank when you're moving the RV to the next place. Sloshing will help clean all sides of the tank.

Then Drain & refill as needed.

We've also done it on our stixnbrix well water. Got our original instructions from the County Health Dept.

[MooseSuite]

We use the tank to increase the water pressure when needed i.e showers and dishes.
The quickest way to drain the tank is purging the water through the pump. When draining I noramlly just turn the pump on by using the switch by the exterior shower, and turning on the cold water faucet on the shower.
We do not use the water for drinking but we do sanitize with an ounce of bleach per full tank a few times a year.

[MooseSuite]

posted twice

[jdwilson3]

http://rvbasics.com/techtips/sanitizing-your-rv-fresh-water-system.html

[weekenderdude]

Thanks for all the posts. My main concern is mold growth. A little moisture is all you need. I just want to make sure I am not growing a jungle in the tank due to non-use.

I have seen all the lines behind the sliding door. I was just hoping there was a simple way to do this. I'll get my flash light and look at it this weekend.

I do appreciate the help.

[JBoldennew]

Hmmmmm ....

Doesn't anyone use their rig in cold weather? One of the reasons I settled on the MS is the 100 gal water tank. I don't leave the city water hooked up in the winter. Why waste the electricity. Just fill the tank every three or four days.

[Carny Bill]

We stay in Illinois til christmas, this year we never got out til mid jan.

Our unit stays very warm and only once it my drain pipe freeze up.

[hitchup]

Doesn't anyone use their rig in cold weather? One of the reasons I settled on the MS is the 100 gal water tank. I don't leave the city water hooked up in the winter. Why waste the electricity. Just fill the tank every three or four days.

Don't quite understand your post. :?:

We don't use much electricity with our heat tape. Are you saying the water pump doesn't use any? We have water for emergencies, but haven't had to use the water in our fresh tank, once this season. And Yes, we are out here in the cold and even a few days of snow this winter again.

[Motor31]

We keep a 1/3 tank of water all the time. That's for those times when we need to stop and there are no hookups or we just need the toilet and sink without having to be at a park. There have been very few and far between times we really needed much of that water and we "cycle" it regularly so it doesn't get old. At least once a year we do dry camp during the winter so we have a use for it then but that's the only time we fill it for primary use. At one park we like a lot the water pressure is rather low so we'll fill the tank so we have the pump pressure for showers.

When we have to drain the tank we'll do a load of laundry. Two whole loads will use most of it then we drain the "dregs" via the bottom drain and let the tank dry a bit before refilling to 1/3.