Sanitizing Question

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mudshark

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Hi All
Sanitizing our Class A for the first time with bleach.
I printed out Gary's Water System Sanitizing paper. It says, "after running solution thru all the water outlets, let water stand for several hours."
How long do you guys let the bleach solution sit in the tank and lines before you flush them out?
Thanks
Jim
 
3-4 hours is plenty of time to kill off any "bad guys" that might be living there. Even a couple of hours is usually adequate for an annual sanitizing, but I'd go longer for the first time...
 
Thanks Dutch
It is suppertime here.
Do you think overnight is too long??
 
Thanks Rene T
I will leave it in overnight. Tomorrow is another day.
 
"Too long" would be.. Well you won't be camping this summer if you leave it sit too long cause you will need to Winterize again.

Frankly I do not think you need to leave it for long.

Make your next pass with baking soda water to delete residual Chlorine taste. Bleach is nasty.
 
mudshark said:
Thanks Dutch
It is suppertime here.
Do you think overnight is too long??
Click to expand...

The effectiveness of the bleach will diminish the longer it sits open to the air (tank is vented), so overnight is ok, just not necessary.
 
Chlorine bleach pretty much kills on contact, so the question is how long does it take to be sure the solution has permeated every part of the water system. Chances are excellent that every part has been reached in 20-30 minutes, but 2-4 hours is a more sure bet. Beyond that, there probably isn't much to be gained.

As for the tank itself, it's hard to get it full enough to bring the bleach in contact with the top, plus you would really need to force the solution out the vent, overflow and drain lines as well.  Fortunately, hardly any of the really nasty pathogens seem to thrive in water tank. I leave it to you to decide how much effort to put into sanitizing the fresh tank, but I gave up on it altogether in my last coach (10 years of use).  We always had "city" chlorinated water in it anyway, so I just ran in some fresh city water and then drained it, sort of a rinse job.  Your mileage may vary...  :-\
 
  We’re on well water here at home, and rarely do RV parks/campgrounds, so the only chlorine our unit sees....is what we do at home. Our  RV may  sit unused for several weeks to months....our method is (as some have mentioned), fill fresh tank with a fairly strong bleach solution, run solution throughout all plumbing, and refill tank till run over achieved. And this may be a little overkil, leave in system for 24(or so) hours. Flush system....refill....go camping!
 
Depending on the ratio you are using (I used what Winnebago recommended), if you leave it overnight you may cloud any clear plastic (small strainer on the water pump or other filter system components).  Not saying this will cause issues, but, leaving it in too long can result in some visible effects.  Ask me how I know  ::)
 
Gary, when you say you "gave up on it", do you mean you didn't think it was necessary or other?  Just curious.

I sanitize once a year, lightly now  :p, and we have a Doulton Ultracarb filter with a drinking water faucet I installed in the bathroom (just in case of pathogens/other).  It greatly improved the taste considering the wide variations you get going from place to place.
 
Gary, when you say you "gave up on it", do you mean you didn't think it was necessary or other?
Click to expand...

Not worth the effort to do a big job that I knew would be only marginally effective anyway. Since my normal water supply for tank fills was already chlorinated, my risk was tiny to begin with.  Instead of "sanitizing", I just added 15-20 gallons of city tap water to the tank, let it sit 30 minutes and drained it out.  That passed for "sanitize the tank" for my purposes.  Then put in another 20 gallons or so of city water for use.  We always keep some water in the fresh tank, just in case, even at home.

If in the same situation as Memtb, without a chlorinated supply, I would probably have done more. 
 
Thanks Guys
Here is what I did. I made up the bleach/water solution according to Gary Brinck's article. I went just a tad heavy. The bus has a 100 gallon tank so filled it to the brim and let water run out the fill and the overflow. I opened all the faucets until I smelled bleach. Then let it sit overnight. Next morning I drained everything out. Then I mixed up baking soda and water in a gallon container and poured that in. Opened all the faucets until the bleach smell was gone. That is sitting in there now. Tomorrow I will drain that completely and refill with fresh water and we will be good to go.

The only problem I have, and it is a small one. I can't seem to get the chlorine smell out of the hot water lines. Seems that I just can't get the hot water tank flushed out no matter what I try. I am sure the smell will dissipate over time.
Jim
 
Getting the residual chlorine out of the tanks (fresh and heater) can be a real bear in some rigs. Generally the water heater can be flushed once or maybe twice using its drain plug, but many times the fresh tank cannot be fully drained.  If there are 3-5 gallons of heavily chlorinated water remaining in the bottom (as was the case with my last coach), it often takes multiple fills and drains to get rid of it, even using the baking soda. And that chlorine taste lasted for months if I did not do that. One of my trailers had the tank drain right in the very bottom so it fully drained, but that was only one of five rigs. The others all had some residual.
 
I am most fortunate that the  2000 Bounder 36S has two drains on the freshwater tank and it easily accessed thru a door. I can see it as it fills and empties.
The water heater is a bit problematic. I see no drain under the bus and the electric  heater was capped off long ago. I can only heat water with propane. I have attached a pic of the heater panel. If the drain is where the anode went in I don't think I can get a wrench in there.

Today I will be draining everything and filling with fresh water in preparation of our trip. Finally leaving Mass. to see this wonderful country of ours!
 

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Yes, the anode on a Suburban heater acts as the plug for the drain hole as well. Sometimes it is awkward to get a wrench in there, but that's how you do it.  Since you need to change the anode occasionally anyway, you may as well practice.

Not sure what you mean about the electric being "capped off". Did somebody actually remove the heat element and replace it with a cap?  Or maybe just disconnected the electric wires?  Have you considered replacing the element or re-connecting 120v power?  Should not be difficult if you can get at the backside of the heater where it is located.
 
Thanks Gary
I had a mechanic look at it when I had a valve problem. When the water got hot it would trip the over pressure valve and shoot hot water everywhere. He replaced the valve and noticed that the wire to anode was messed up and not working. He said it was easier to just cut the end off and wrap it with electrical tape. He did remove the heating element. I don't know enough about this to attempt fix it.
 
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