New rig, sanitized water system - water tastes like summer garden hose water

[TheMcLellans]

So we are on our second trip with a new 2021 303RLS - we have carefully sanitized the tanks and system with chlorine. We then freshen it up with a vinegar rinse. Flushed everything and headed out with 20gal in fresh tank just in case. Attached to camp water with a filter at spigot. Turn everything to city water — The water tastes just like water coming out of a old summer garden rose that has been sitting in the sun. (Leached plasticizers) How can I treat the rig to get rid of this taste? (Verified campground water from spigot tastes great)

[TucsonJim]

The only recommendation I can give is to flush the heck out of the water system. All that new plastic is going to leave a taste and odor.

Jim

[Jlawles2]

Verify that the hose you are using is not suspect first. Also you may find that the water from the spigot was rancid at first and cleaned up. I usually smell it before I hook up (also do this to burp the air out of the hose).

When you put up your hose between trips, do you drain the water from it? Do you connect the ends together to prevent contaminants from entering the hose? I found these quite useful: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I have a couple of spare and use one on the spigot at the parks since handling the short nipple is much easier than fighting a stiff hose to get the threads aligned.

You might want to try this also: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 to flush the system. To me it smells like Bromine from a hot tub for a short period.

Something occurred to me and I had to look it up b/c HS and College chemistry kicked in: Mixing bleach and vinegar creates potentially lethal chlorine gas.

[TheMcLellans]

Just following up. We do all of your recommendations - draining the hose, ensuring it is drinking water safe, connecting the loose ends. The vinegar treatment is very minimal and GD recommended to remove any residual chlorine. We have not tried the commercial product you recommend. That may be next.

[Jlawles2]

Have you tried a different hose? Have you tried moving the filter from the spigot to the side of the camper? I am not experiencing this issue with our 303. I run the https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 hoses and still have the ones bought with the first TT (damaged the male ends after they froze).

I store my hoses in the front compartment when not in use. After Harvey, the hoses sat in the sun for weeks while we were rebuilding the house and never had an issue with smell.

[Country Campers]

When attaching to city water I attach the blue in line filter at the spigot, attach hose to filter and flush out good before attaching to trailer. There is always some stuff that comes out of the in line filter, loose charcoal or what ever is inside them. This also insures that the water in the spigot is flushed, it may have been a while since someone has used this spigot and the water in the line could be stale. When all flushed then I attach to the trailer.

Brian

[Yoda]

So we are on our second trip with a new 2021 303RLS - we have carefully sanitized the tanks and system with chlorine. We then freshen it up with a vinegar rinse. Flushed everything and headed out with 20gal in fresh tank just in case. Attached to camp water with a filter at spigot. Turn everything to city water — The water tastes just like water coming out of a old summer garden rose that has been sitting in the sun. (Leached plasticizers) How can I treat the rig to get rid of this taste? (Verified campground water from spigot tastes great)

Mark Have you tried the baking soda rinse? https://vehq.com/sanitize-rv-fresh-w...ithout-bleach/ They say 2 cups per gallon, but I have used 1 cup per 5 gallons with good results. I use it as a flush after the chlorine sanitizer.

Just something to try

Keith

[NoPeeking]

A question and a couple of other suggestions... what type of water filter are you using? A filter for sediment will not abate taste/odour... activated carbon will. Position filter on trailer end vs. spigot end. If you store your hose with ends capped/sealed, the hose should be sanitized (as you would the rest of the system) a couple of times a season to prevent mildew and other anaerobic nasties from forming.

Inside water system... just using fresh water tank and no city hook-up, mine took about 3 weekend uses for the "new car" smell to leave the system.

Using city water connection... I flush the spigot first, connect the hose, flush the hose then connect to trailer. I store my hoses open-ended hanging in a loose coil in the garage so they get a chance to dry out between uses... works for me.

Mike

[TheMcLellans]

Mark Have you tried the baking soda rinse? https://vehq.com/sanitize-rv-fresh-w...ithout-bleach/ They say 2 cups per gallon, but I have used 1 cup per 5 gallons with good results. I use it as a flush after the chlorine sanitizer.

Just something to try

Keith

Keith - I have not tried baking soda - I like idea and will give it a try. Thank you. Thanks all. Most of your recommendations we have implemented. Thanks.

[Guest]

Since adding water from any campground can leave an unknown on its quality, we use bottled water like many others for consumption. I will sanitize the tank at the beginning of the season and typically haul our own city water, so there is no concern over what we are drinking until I add water. Thought about an RO and other methods such as filtering but gave up on it all in leu of bottled water.

I believe Rob has custom water testers where unfortunately we no longer have those.

Jim

[Guest]

Its also unacceptable that campgrounds have potable water just steps away from the dumping station and black tank flush (non potable) hose. The chance of at least some cross contamination is guaranteed. I owe this phobia to my RN wife.

Jim

[Jlawles2]

OK, contamination is possible from everywhere pretty much. I do run the inline filter https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 just before the https://flowpur.com/products/rv-pro-...table-softener with a couple of soft hoses https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 on each side to assist in hooking and unhooking from the camp spot spigot. I also run https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 at most connections especially the spigot in park and at the camper as I got completey tired of dealing with alignment and twisting of the hose at locations with less than perfect access.

[Guest]

OK, contamination is possible from everywhere pretty much. I do run the inline filter https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 just before the https://flowpur.com/products/rv-pro-...table-softener with a couple of soft hoses https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 on each side to assist in hooking and unhooking from the camp spot spigot. I also run https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 at most connections especially the spigot in park and at the camper as I got completey tired of dealing with alignment and twisting of the hose at locations with less than perfect access.

My daughter and son in law owns and operates a water business where he sells and installs softeners, filters and other water treatment options. I've seen the water test kits and how the softener is set up when we lived in Michigan on a well where it was rather extensive. Curious how this is done for an RV system with varying water quality? Ceramic or carbon filters could filter out a great deal of bad stuff but paper filters are not worth anything other than filtering out silt or sand. The hose protector and carbon filter options look great.

I miss our well and twin tank softener.

Jim

[Jlawles2]

Guest Jim, basically you loose the auto regeneration of the softener. There is a strip test kit that is used to test hardness, once it reaches the set level, drop the pressure in the softener, pour in box of table salt, agitate (shake the poop out of it), let sit for 20 min (don't quote me on this), then with the supplied WYE on the outlet, remove the cap, open the dump (set discharge orifice) and keep tasting the water until salt taste is gone. Regen done.

[Guest]

Jlawles2 Joseph,
Seems like a lot to do to prep but if camping at the same site for a lengthy period of time, it would most likely work out. At one time I was thinking about a high efficiency RO but gave up on that idea.
Since we now use city water, we decided to buy a 2.5gal jug of bottled water and set it along side the sink for coffee. This past trip we hauled a full tank of water and two 6 gallon jugs of additional water. 4 days of dry camping with no concerns about usage.
I finally have been set free from Heart Cancer and watch what we drink and what chemicals we are around. And I do not carry a corporate phone in my shirt pocket anymore which was careless. I use 30% vinegar for weed control in the yard versus Roundup. Not paranoid but 6 months of strong chemo sure got my attention in what we are exposed to.

Jim