Sanitizing question: How long do you leave bleach solution in your fresh water tank?

Prlcarey · March 2

When searching online, most RVers say to leave a bleach solution in your fresh water tank for 8-12 hours before flushing and refilling your tank. We called Nucamp and were told to empty the bleach solution after it sat for only 15-30 minutes. What do most of you do? Is 30 minutes sufficient to sanitize the tank?

scott14 · March 2

The manual for our 2019 T@B 400 says to leave the solution for at least 3 hours. It also says 1/4 cup household bleach per 15 gallons of tank capacity.

marleecamps · March 2

I leave mine overnight.

pthomas745 · March 2

I leave mine in for at least 8 hours. In one case, I left it in for a couple of days. The very weak bleach solution is not really an issue for anything, it seems to me.

scott14 · March 2

@pthomas745 How many times do you have to flush the system in order to be free of the bleach odor?

My experience has been it takes multiple flushes to clear out the odor. I may be doing something wrong.

elbolillo · March 3

I usually leave it in overnight and then flush the system twice. A little residual bleach doesn't bother us as we don't drink water from the fresh water tank.

pthomas745 · March 3

@scott14 Maybe once? I might not have as big a sensitivity to the smell, but usually one tank run through to clear things out usually.

marleecamps · March 3

One flush does it for me as well.

AnOldUR · March 3

Old homebrewer here. I drain and add five gallons of a Five Star Star San mixture. Run it through the system and give it five minutes before draining. It's a no rinse sanitizer, but I'll still do a single rinse with fresh water to be sure that the system is clean. Never any odor or taste.

db_cooper · March 3

@AnOldUR
That's a great suggestion. I'm an old homebrewer as well, so have that on hand. I also have spa chlorinating granules, so I've been using that for years. With our small tanks it only takes a teaspoon to sanitize, and since we're on well water, I often put just a pinch in. We don't drink the RV water, so a little chorine taste is no issue, but I'd still drink it if I needed to.

Horigan · March 3

I've found a little vinegar (1/4 cup) in the first rinse helps eliminate the chlorine odor. Seems odor free after the second rinse.

JDRotz · March 10

When I asked this question to a tech at Princess Craft, his answer was, "How much time do you have?". More bleach (1/2C in the Tab400) for a couple hours 'or so...', or 1/4C overnight. He said the concerns about bleach effecting the aluminum in the Aldi Flow at these concentration are overblown for the limited duration. Then drain, refill, flush/drain, refill, check for odor, flush again if necessary until there's no odor.

FriendsofMario · March 17

After we drain the bleach solution, we mix an 8 oz. box of baking soda in a bucket of water, put it in the fresh water tank, fill the tank, & then flush the lines. We let the baking soda water sit overnight then drain it. That usually takes care of the bleach smell.

Sanitizing question: How long do you leave bleach solution in your fresh water tank?

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