Absolute newbie here/ water question

[Bayoutalker]

Originally Posted by 1Cruzin

To date, i have not filled my fresh water tank. i always hook directly to city water. If I ever intend to dry camp then I will fill the fresh water tank. i don't even know if my water pump works. Maybe I should find out. Enjoy camping your way.

Do that. When I needed mine recently I turned it on and it ran but too slow to pump. I got lucky and after turning it on and off several times and priming it it started working. I won't let it sit that long again without running in case of an emergency.

[cekkk]

I'm not a fan of the fresh water tank. I do sanitize it annually but other than that, it isn't used. No particular reason, just my preference. I keep two gallons of water in the toilet room for on the road flushes.

[Old_Viking]

Another perspective: If you left from home with an empty water tank & arrive at your destination to discover their water tastes horrible you’ll wish you had filled up before leaving!! Believe me, it happens. Nothing worse than the better half “reminding” you constantly how terrible the coffee tastes & drinking water too! I always fill the tank & the first thing I do is taste the distinations water before hooking the water hose up, then decide how to set up the water valves.

[cekkk]

Old Viking, the city water I've experienced in the West is uniformly foul tasting. And well water is always a crapshoot. Even here at home we brush and flush with it. Clothes and dish washers. That's it. We drink from the cooler and keep a three gallon bottle and a few one gallon jugs that I fill as needed. Don't even use it for the dogs.

[oldmanAZ]

We've encountered terrible tasting water in every direction from home. So all water for our fresh water tank first goes through 2 particulate filters and then a 0.5 micron carbon block filter. Great tasting water (and coffee!).

[Bluesky46]

No need to fill the fresh water holding tank if you are hooked up to a city fixture water supply. Only keep enough water in the fresh water holding tank to give you enough water for flushes and occasional dish washing when on the road between sites.

[mitchhelms]

We do both depending on the circumstance. We always carry some water with us to flush the toilet while on the road, maybe 1/3 of tank. While in camp, we set it on city fixtures. If there is decent water pressure, we just leave it there. If the water pressure is low, I will fill our tank and then use the water pump especially when taking showers. We have a tankless water heater and for it to work properly, it needs water pressure. If the water pressure is too low, the water heater will cut off. So each circumstance is different. Just play around with it and see what works for you.

[grantsoo]

Originally Posted by cekkk

... That's it. We drink from the cooler and keep a three gallon bottle and a few one gallon jugs that I fill as needed. Don't even use it for the dogs...

We never filled the tank. We started off carrying two 5 gallon jugs of fresh water from home and went down to 1 jug.
I always hooked up to city water but really only used that for the bathroom.
We always had a half dozen bottles and a jug of water in the fridge.
The waste water from the sink was used to "make sure the fire was out."
I seldom had to dump and and never worried about sanitizing the fresh water tank.

[AV8R]

It depends on how long I'm staying.

If I am in hot weather and planning to stay more than about a week, I will usually fill the fresh tank and add 1/4 cup of bleach. I'll then run off of the city water unless the water pressure drops to a point where it's difficult to use for showering.

The water pump will always give great pressure, and one quarter cup of bleach to roughly 70 gallons of water is unnoticeable, but it is nearly twice the amount needed to safely sanitize water for drinking, which would be 560 drops for 70 gallons. One quarter cup is 1,184 drops of bleach. Sanitizing drinking water is eight (8) drops of bleach per gallon of water.

At this higher ratio of bleach, it does prevent any growth that might otherwise occur in an empty water tank in hot weather. However, when running the water pump with this mixture, I will only use it to shower. I shut off the ice maker, and don’t run it into the line into the kitchen where we get drinking water. However, on the last day, while packing up, I do run the bleach solution through all water lines and just leave it in there. Then you water lines are nice and clean.

I have found the easiest way to get bleach into the fresh tank is to unscrew the water filter, take the filter out, put it in a sandwich bag, add one quarter cup of bleach to the water filter housing, screw it back on, then switch the valves to fill the fresh tank. Once the tank is filled, I take the water filter housing back off, replace the water filter and screw it back on.

When I know my rig is going to be parked for a month in southern Georgia in the summer, I add a full cup of bleach to the fresh tank, fill the tank and I then run that solution through all of the water lines and leave it in the lines.

Some people worry that bleach contaminates the environment. Bleach begins as salt water and ends as salt water. It does not contaminate ground water or anything else.

I keep a pan that holds two gallons of pure bleach in the attic of my home. The temperature gets will over 120 degrees in the summer, causing the bleach to slowly evaporate. It prevents any growth of mold. Once evaporated, you can see how it has crystalized - returned to salt.

Here is a chart to guide the about of bleach you can safely use in drinking water.

https://www.clorox.com/how-to/disinf...rifying-water/

[Fleetman]

Originally Posted by Bigmanat87

When I get to the campsite, do I hook up to city fill, then switch to city fixture when the tank is full? Or do I just hook up to city fixture from the start?

Are you thinking you have to fill your tank before using water?
I always have my header switched to power fill when I first turn on the water to clear the air out of the line, then switch to city water. I do usually carry about 20 gal. for flushing toilet on the road.

[namusmc65]

Our rig is 5 years old and we have never used the fresh water tank. We do use the pump every year for winterizing but that is it. We carry a couple gallons of water for coffee and keep a supply of bottled water for drinking. We keep a gallon in the bathroom for flushes along the road. Never plan on dry camping.

[TCNashville]

I always use my fresh water tank as most of the state parks here in Indiana are electric only. I try to book a site within 50-100' of a water spigot and fill it after I'm set up. Every trip I add 1/2 cup of bleach to the 80 gallons of water my camper holds so basically I sanitize each trip. I use the water for everything except drinking.