Fresh Water System Sanitizing

[bhirst]

Trying to get our 2012 Melbourne 29D on the road. Have flushed the antifreeze from the winterizing process, but now cannot get the bleach sanitizing solution to pump into the fresh water tank. The tank is about 3/4 full, so there is plenty of room for the bleach solution. The water pump works fine through all the lines with valve switches in the "normal" position. When I turn valves to the sanitize tank position and turn on the pump, nothing happens. There is no suction on the short hose attached to the fresh water inlet. Also, nothing through the sanitize lines setting. I have the bucket with the bleach solution raised about two feet off the ground, and I've tried priming the fill hose by pouring solution into the raised hose through a funnel. Can I just pour bleach through a funnel into the inlet hose with a gravity feed? That's all I did with my old travel trailer, and that worked fine. That said, I'd sure like the motorhome system to work!

[Brownie]

Originally Posted by bhirst

Can I just pour bleach through a funnel into the inlet hose with a gravity feed? That's all I did with my old travel trailer, and that worked fine. That said, I'd sure like the motorhome system to work!

That's what I always did with my old trailer, as well. It won't sanitize the city water connection/line, but perhaps someone with a little more experience with them will chime in with a solution to that problem. Best of luck.

[3'senough]

It sounds like you have air bleeding into the line somehow and it's not creating enough suction. I put a hose clamp on my pickup tube to eliminate that issue. Did you try the winterize mode to see if the suction worked? In essence it will do the same thing. Usually to get it into the tank I use "country fill"

[mcfarmall]

I pour bleach into the gravity fill spout followed with a tank full of water. Let it sit for an hour then let the pump suck it up, push it through everything but the water heater and let sit for another hour. Follow with a fresh water flush if desired. I don't drink the water from my fresh tank...just for flushing and brushing so I really don't care about any residual bleach smell or taste.

[mjlaupp]

The "Country Fill" valve position, if you have it, is used to fill the fresh tank from the bucket.

[bhirst]

Follow up to the fresh water sanitizing problem. Seems that the water pump lost prime when it switched from pumping in normal setting to suction in the tank sanitizing setting. I filled the feed hose before placing it in the bucket of bleach solution, turned on the pump, and the suction primed and worked fine. Water pump working correctly in all appropriate settings. Thanks to all for feedback and suggestions. One step closer to getting on the road!