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Tue May 24, 2005 11:09 am

Is it routine to sanitize the fresh water tank? What products could I use? How's it done? My wife's a little leary of water that sits for a while.

Tue May 24, 2005 12:59 pm

I had to do this when I got my Westy.

Open up the water tank (inside the van) and unscrew the top part that's under a metal plate inside the cabnet (ablve the electrical outlet).

Fill up the tank with h20 and a small amout of bleach. I used 1/3 cup bleach to 13 gla.

Mix it up, let it sit for 20 min.

Drain it.

Add about 1/3 water back into the tank and scrub with baking soda.

Drain and then rinse.

Leave top open with a small fan blowing into it, and leave the drain off. This will allow all the moisture and bleach to leave.

Worked well and didn't leave any funny taste.

If your wife is really freaked, just give her a gallon jug of "spring" water. And use the water in the tank for washing and cooking... Drink the spring water and use it for coffee and so on..

Tue May 24, 2005 5:23 pm

Here's an article on treating potable water tanks in RV's:

http://www.doulton.ca/rv_dilem.html

We treat the tank in our Westy at the beginning of every season and give it a rinse afterwards. You can still smell the bleach in the tank for a short while, but there's no taste in our drinking water thanks to our Culligan RV water filter.

The Culligan filter (model US-316) is a nice small unit that fits in the cabinet under the sink, without having to remove the shelf. It has a charoal filter which removes all the bad tastes and odours from the water. We also have an inline filter that we attach to the when we fill our tank, so we start out with fairly clean water to begin with.

Sun May 29, 2005 7:41 am

BP63

My Vanagon is not a camper, BUT, my motorhome watert tank?
When ever I fill it, I add a 1/2 cup of bleach.
It's a fifteen gal tank and I use it for washing only.
Drinking water, I use bottled...........
My MH is a 1977 model and the tank is super clean.
Shalombaby
Brian

Tue May 31, 2005 5:09 am

Thanks for the input all. I did the 1/3 cup bleach per full tank, let them sit a day. I then drained, refilled with freash water, let sit a day. Finally, I drained then left the tank open top and bottom to adry out. I used a little bit of the wife's stockings to cover the openings so no critters could get in.