Clorox And Gray/Black/Fresh Water Tanks

[dogear]

Will the use of Clorox to sterilize these tanks damage the water/plumbing system? I was told by someone at Featherlite that it would but their owner's manual suggests sterilizing at least the fresh water tank one a year with Clorox. Thoughts? Thanks.......JR

[merle&louise]

Jim,

I would think that Clorox in small amounts would NOT hurt your tanks. I would NOT pour it in the toilet because it might damage the rubber seals on the flap or something else internal. If you have a washer/dryer I would put it in the washer and allow it to enter your tank that way. If you have separate grey/black water tanks I don't know how you could put it in your black water tank. Perhaps, you could rig up something so you could pour the Clorox down the opening for the washout connection.

I use a product called "Always Fresh" and I don't have to use any Clorox with it. Here's the website if you are interested.

800 548-2162 or www.alwaysfreshinc.com

[wayne]

We also use Always Fresh and have for 12 years.....in our opinion it is the best product on the market. :-)

[Jon Wehrenberg]

It has been our practice to use Chlorox to sanitize our water system, but only in controlled quantities. For our size freshwater holding tank I use about 2 1/4 cups. I run the treated water through all our plumbing by flushing the toilet, running water in all sinks and the shower, etc.

When I smell chlorine at the fixture I shut off the water and let it sit for an hour or so. While letting it sit I drain and refill the tank with fresh water, change the two house sized filters and then run water again to flush the lines of the Chlorox treated water. After flushing the lines I add about a half cup of Chlorox, the odor and taste of that being removed by the new charcoal filters.

At one time in the early 90's there was a recall of the type of plastic plumbing lines that were used in our buses and houses. Exposure to high concentrations of chlorine would cause the plastic material to fail, a serious issue and a very expensive fix. At the time I still used the process described above and I feel the concentrations described were not excessive and the flushing minimized the exposure to chlorine. I don't believe our bus piping is adversely affected today, but to avoid any risk I make sure I do flush the system. The practice is primarily because when our bus and water sits between uses our water is not suitable for use and a sanitizing treatment protects us even though we only ingest water that has passed through our RO unit.

Paul Horner is an expert on water treatment and if he responds to this post his opinion should be held in high regard.

[jack14r]

I have also heard that TSP(tri sodium phosphate)is very good in a waste tank,about a pound with the tank 70% full of fresh water then drive an hour or so for it to do its job.You can buy it at most hardware stores.

[dogear]

Hi Jon, your proceedure is pretty much the one outlined in Featherlite's operation manual. One question is how often would you treat the grey and black water tanks? Thanks for all the replies all. JR

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I have never treated the waste tanks. Why would any one want to treat them? How would you know they are clean? And if you clean the waste tanks, does it not follow you should clean the pipes?

[phorner]

As luck would have it, I had a minute to scan the forum before work this morning and caught this thread.

Jon has it exactly right. The concentration should be 1/4 cup of bleach per 15 gallons of water. Let it sit so that ther is adequate contact time, then flush.

We used to sterilize public water storage towers in much the same way.

Keep the critters out.......

[Gary Carmichael]

The piping that Jon refered to is Quest clorine in any quantites will eventually break it down. It would not burst when subjected to freezing was it's good point. I think there might be a new product out now with the freeze proof capability but not affected by CL2

[jack14r]

The replacement for Quest is Pex

[gmcbuffalo]

Quest is that the gray stuff with the copper bands to hold the connectors on?
Greg

[Yankee802]

Don't know what brand I have, but I have gray pipes with copper bands on my fresh water pipes. I assume they are original for my '84, would like to know if I should use bleach or not in these.