Another dumb question

melpeter

I have never filled my fresh water tank. I always hook up to shore water supply. Does that mean my fresh tank is empty? (I did once empty it from the valve under and behind the step.) I guess I’m asking if I’m unknowingly carrying water weight on the road even if I don’t use that second fill port. And if I should routinely open that valve and drain the tank before road trips.  

pthomas745

Do you have a tank monitor?  The See Level?  You could also turn on the pump (without being connected to shore water) and see if water comes out.  But, if you have never filled the tank and have drained it, you must not have much in the tank.

Google tells me a gallon of water weighs 8 pounds or so.  Most likely your tank (if it is pretty close to empty, as you think) won't be weighing too much.

Bayliss

@melpeter, the fresh water tank is not filled by connecting to a campground/house water supply.  When connected to a municipal/campground water supply line, the water goes directly to your faucet & shower(s) and will also fill your Alde hot water tank.

The easiest way to find out if there is water in the fresh water holding tank is to open the drain valve.  Be careful, because the valve drain tube points out toward the passenger side of the camper, so if the tank is full, you may get sprayed by the water.  Opening that valve will reveal whether there is any (even if just a small amount) of water in the fresh water holding tank.  If it continues to drain, then you likely have a full, or partially full, tank.  Sounds like you will want to completely empty that tank since you have no need for that water when hooked up at a campground or at your house.  If and when you do decide to use the fresh water holding tank, you will want to sanitize it first.

You fill the fresh water tank separately through the fresh water tank fill inlet on the driver's side of the camper.  It is totally separate from the water supply connection that uses a hose from the campground/house supply.  The water pump, which is located behind the toilet wall (the small compartment with the door behind the toilet) pumps water from the fresh water tank.  The fresh water tank is your water source when you are boondocking and do not have access to a municipal/campground water connection.

melpeter

Thank you both!
Bayliss, in case I ever need the fresh water tank, how do I sanitize it? pthomas745 I have See Level. It never says anything about the fresh tank but “13.” But it’s ok, I can just open the valve to be sure it’s empty. That tank monitor is another mystery to be solved on another day. 🙄

Sharon_is_SAM

@melpeter, the fresh tank See Level reading of 13% is pretty empty.  If you turn on the pump and open a tap, you will probably get a little water and a lot of gurgling.  

Best to sanitize where you can hook up to sewer.  To sanitize the fresh water tank, first isolate your Alde by turning the Alde bypass valve parallel with the pex, and close the valves on the hot and cold water supply.  Prepare a dilute mixture of 1/4 cup of regular household chlorine bleach in a gallon of water and pour that into the fresh tank.  Then fill the tank with water.  Turn on the pump and open a tap until you smell bleach then close.  Do that with all your taps - hot, cold, shower, outside shower, sink.  Then turn off your pump and let it sit for a few hours.  Then, turn on your pump and open all your taps and empty your fresh water tank.  If hooked up to the sewer, I would open the gray tank valve so you don’t overflow into your shower.  After your tank is empty and the taps are sputtering, close your taps, fill your fresh tank with water and then open your taps and flush again.  Do this until no further bleach odor.  After there is no further odor of bleach, close the Alde bypass valve and open the hot and cold water supply valves so you can let water into the Alde tank and camp on!  Close your gray tank valve, too.

(Check our your valve arrangement in the Alde Manual.  To sanitize and protect your Alde from bleach, put your valves into the position for winterization.  Don’t forget to put them back into camping mode after sanitizing.)

elbereth

@melpeter, you may well have a gallon or two (13%) in the tank left over from the previous owner.  I find it’s really hard to get all the water out of the fresh tank.  It works best on my unit to have the driver’s side wheel up on leveler blocks and drop the tongue a bit.  But I usually just leave that valve under the front step open as we drive home, hoping that’ll get a few more drops out as we go over bumps, around on-ramps, etc.

All the more reason to sanitize the fresh system each year like @Sharon_is_SAM describes.

Bayliss

@melpeter, ditto what @Sharon_is_SAM described re sanitizing.  However, (and you may have already figured this out), I think her "auto-correct" added a word she did not intend........."After there is no further odor of bleach, close the Alde bypass valve and open the hot and cold water supply valves so you can not let water into the Alde tank and camp on!"   (I often find my trigger finger adding words I didn't intend, so no biggee.)

Sharon_is_SAM

Thanks @Bayliss.  I edited my entry.

Glider11

OH, NO!  Just saw this today. 5/19.  Tell me the bad news: I did the chlorination process, without turning off the hot and cold valves, and turning Open the Alde by pass valve.(until just reading this, ran out and switched). OMG I really hate the ….. manuals!  What do I need to do now to "save" the Alde system from chlorine?  

melpeter

@Sharon_is_SAM I’ve taken the liberty of putting your instructions in the form of a numbered sequence. 

Sanitize fresh water tank

1. Isolate your Alde by turning the Alde bypass valve parallel with the pex
2. Close the valves on the hot and cold water supply
3. Prepare a dilute mixture of 1/4 cup of regular household chlorine bleach in a gallon of water and pour that into the fresh tank
4. Fill the tank with water
5. Turn on the pump and open a tap until you smell bleach then close
6. Do that with all your taps - hot, cold, shower, outside shower, sink
7. Turn off your pump and let it sit for a few hours
8. Turn on your pump and open all your taps to empty your fresh water tank. 
9. If hooked up to sewer, open the gray tank valve so you don’t overflow into your shower
10. After your fresh tank is empty and the taps are sputtering, close your taps and fill your fresh tank with water
11. Open your taps and flush again.  Do this until no further bleach odor
12. After there is no further odor of bleach, close the Alde bypass valve and open the hot and cold water supply valves. 
13. Close your gray tank valve. 

(Check our your valve arrangement in the Alde Manual.  To sanitize and protect your Alde from bleach, put your valves into the position for winterization.  Don’t forget to put them back into camping mode after sanitizing.)

Sharon_is_SAM

@Glider11, I would not worry about it.  I think many of us on the forum have exposed our Alde to bleach.  I think it is probably damaging related to the concentration, exposure time and repeated exposures.  Just rinse it through and next year you will remember.  I just made a step by step instruction on de-winterizing and sanitizing you may find helpful.  Under the User Manuals/PDFs.

https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/8904/de-winterizing-and-sanitizing#latest

Sharon_is_SAM

@melpeter, I formalized the list.

https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/8904/de-winterizing-and-sanitizing#latest

ScottG

Yeah, what Sharon said, @Glider11. I seriously bleach-bombed the Alde before my first season. I blame a combination of poor instructions, and my natural tendency to ignore instructions.  :-)

Of course there's no way to peek inside and check for actual damage, but I can assure you my Alde has worked flawlessly and remained leak free going on five years now.

(Unless, of course, I just jinxed it by saying that...)

klenger

You really don't even need to run the water pump after bleaching the fresh water tank.  You could bleach the tank, maybe drive around a bit to slosh the water around, and then dump w/o ever pumping any of the water into the fresh water system.  The fresh water hose from the tank to the pump would not get bleached, but I doubt that would be much of a problem anyway.  Another option would be to run the cold water to sanitize the cold water line, but not run any hot water and the bleach would never get to the Alde. The bleach concentration can be quite low and still do the job.  Not sure of the concentration, but maybe a cup or so to a full tank of water.

ScottG

I like the idea of sanitizing the pump and CW distribution lines in addition to the FW tank.

Conventional wisdom says you shouldn't drink water that has been through a heater anyway, so the Alde and the HW distribution are less important.

And if you don't drink at all from your FW tank (I do), it probably matters even less.