Drinking house (camper) water

[Freebird]

When going camping my practice is to carry drinking/cooking water along and reserve the "house water"/tank water for dishes, washing up, showers, and yes, dog BOWL water. Lol.
I open the petcock on the rear of my Alaskan Camper so on the way home the tank water drains on the uphill grades (no HW tank). The water does not sit in the lines/tank in a significant amount, then, but likely there is some areas that stay wet. Things that stay wet grow green slime, even without light, and I am not ambitious enough to time/run a very dilute bleach/water solution through the tank/system before each trip (the rig sits an embarrassing amount between trips).
Everyone will do, and can do, whatever they prefer, but drinking water straight out of a house water system/tank appears to me (based on science) to be assuming un-necessary health/sickness risk. Maybe low risk, but risk, nonetheless, unless one is inclined to jump through a few hoops regularly to eliminate that risk.
We all have different tolerance for risk, and we all have different GI tracks, and individual immune systems.
If you drink your casually maintained house water regularly, your GI track will get used to the green slime in your water system, and do fine (likely). I wouldn't drink out of someone else's house water system, tho, since their water system green slime is likely of a different makeup than yours.

What you survive does make you stronger, but avoiding unnecessary "challenges" seems easier to me....

Edit.
Please move to Truck Camper topics....
Thanks.

 

[rotti]

I guess put me in the green slime category.

On my old Grandby I did the bleach purge thing exactly once when it was new. I did/do drain the water after every trip though.
On my new Hawk I have adopted the same approach.
Love my Rocky Mountain tap water.

On reflection maybe some of my "issues" weren't related to cheap beer and whiskey?

 

[Cayuse]

Another in the green slime category though I've yet to see anything in the tubing under the sink (touch wood). I think there is probably enough chlorine in most tapwater to keep things clean. If it says potable I'll fill my tank with it and have no issues drinking it.

 

[PaulT]

I did the chlorine shock treatment on my Hawk when I got it new and am doing it again today in preparation for camping after some time of disuse with the tank drained. There are several sites that explain what is needed but here are several.

RVBasics Sanidumps
RVSurvey ehow

Note that while all vary in some details, there is a common theme among them.

Paul

 

[Beach]

I don't drain my tank unless we get freezing weather. I always drain it and refill with fresh before we head out though. I figure the water that's left in the tank is chlorinated so there is less chance of mold or slime than an empty tank with some residual water. I flush the tank each spring with a mild bleach solution and flush it with fresh afterwards. We drink the water and use it for drink mixes and have never had an issue with illness.

 

[lqhikers]

do a little research and you will find that many brands of bottled water do not past the clean/safe test.

guilty of just draining water tank after each trip,once in a great while add a little bleach if i remember.
fill up about any where there is a water tap when traveling, also we do not use a filter.

the only time we were careful was on trips to Baja,then we would fill up at one of the agua stores.

also one of those weird couples that have never bought any store bottled water!

as some one said once "there is a sucker born every day"

refuse to pay gas prices for water.

just my thoughts yours may differ.

Les,lqhikers

 

[billharr]

Another green slime guy here.

I fill and drain every trip. I do chlorine treatment start of each year. Use the tank water for everything.

 

[Smokecreek1]

I pretend I'm a green Slime guy (drain and fill each time, use bleach now and then ), but never drink it, just use it for dish water, washing and the like. I sort of figure that if I need to use it-as I have (for coffee, boil something up etc.,) I will not die !

Smoke

 

[jha6av8r]

I do the diluted bleach treatment once a year, but I think it depends on the primary water source you fill your tank. If I'm not mistaken, city water has diluted bleach in it. This is my primary source and I run the water through a 5 micron filter before going into the tank. I don't see any reason not to drink it if I needed to. Having said that we carry water just for drinking.

 

[craig333]

Green slime guy. I do treat my system on occasion. Generally flush and refill each trip. Have filter on the tap. Dog thinks the water is just fine but a dog will drink almost anything.

 

[100acrehuphalump]

I have a good clean back filtered well water system. I'll be looking green in the very near future. Having an upper GI test tomorrow. Funny you mention that...

 

[brianjwilson]

I always used a 3 gallons reliance jug for cooking or drinking with my other camper. The water always "felt" slimey to me in the camper, even new. I only had 10 gallons of fresh water and never used it, but I would sure like to maintain a cleaner system in my FWC.

It's kind of tough if you're filling up on the go, never knowing the quality of the water. Maybe a good filter on the fill side....

 

[Freebird]

If your doing "most" things right, and have a robust immune system, likely you'll be fine. You especially don't want to do several things wrong.
I bring this up especially for us old retired guys/gals who's immune system isn't what it once was due to age. There are also younger folks who have compromised immune systems and don't know it. There are many things that suppress ones immune response. Stress suppresses a persons immune response. Especially life changeling events like divorce, death of a loved one, change of job, moving, retirement, etc.
Kinda good when that type of event is happening to not add to the misery with illness.
Diet, good vs bad, plays a significant role at all ages.
Any Illness (or vaccination) ramps up ones immune system towards a specific microbe/pathogen, at the same time lowering the response to a newly introduced different microbe that might not otherwise have a chance to get a foothold.
A few microbes introduced might not cause a problem, but a lot of "less than wonderful" bacteria/microbes that are not thought of normally as pathogens can have an adverse impact to health at times. This load can come from biofilm microbes/slime/green slime harbored in a water source.
Smoking/tobacco suppresses immune response, too, but smokers typically are in denial about the harm.

You can look up biofilm(s), but it is such a broad complex subject that science is just now beginning to understand what it is and how it, in its many varied forms, can adversely affect our health. Suffice it to say it is real, and it is good to take simple reasonable steps to avoid it.

Regarding bottled water. Buy only from a source you trust. Yes, some of it is not ideal, but that is true with some public water supplies, too.

A lot of times people have adverse GI tract events, and there is no known "source". No known exposure to illness, and the other people who ate the food are fine. At that point it is a mystery, but water is a common vector of illness the world around, including in the first world.

Something to be aware of. Don't shoot me, I'm only the messenger.


Knowledge weighs nothing. Carry as much as possible.

 

[MarkBC]

I think the fact that folks (on this thread) aren't reporting problems while drinking from the tank speaks for itself: the risk is small and problems are rare. No doubt there's some risk of some adverse event lurking in the water tank, but the risk is acceptably-small for me. (If I required a risk-free life I'd never drive anywhere because the drive down the road is the biggest danger when going camping.)

I've consumed untreated water from my camper tank after it's been in there for weeks (maybe months) -- no illness, no GI upset. Last time I treated it with chlorine was 2 years ago. If my tank is seething with "green slime" I've yet to notice it.

 

[N'kwala]

I always thought green slime was very nutritious. Ten years with a VW camper, never added chlorine or anything. Probably spent 3 months minimum out of each year travelling in it. Drank water whenever. A little cautious at fill-ups, as some of the water in some BC communities can be a bit iffy, but never had anything like a problem. Now spent a year with my nifty ATC hybrid--honest, never occurred to me to worry about water in the tank. I'm not young and have lots of stress. I do put some whisky in the water now and then--maybe that's the disinfectant?

 

[idahoron]

I can't drink our city water it is too heavily chlorinated. I fill the tank for cleaning and things but I carry drinking water, and yes I buy bottled water to put in my fridge.

 

[camelracer]

I've never had a problem drinking the tank water. If I refill in baja I'll stop drinking it and do a chlorine flush when I get home.

 

[Freebird]

Yep. Life is risky. So it makes good sense to reduce risk as much as reasonably possible. Risk of driving?
When I drive, I drive a reasonable speed, stop at red lights, and follow the other rules of the road to reduce risk.
I expect most of us do, since it makes good sense. The results of doing otherwise are dramatic and the cause is obvious.
My thought here is there are a lot of results in life that are typically not big time dramatic, nor immediately obvious without a lot of analysis that very typically doesn't happen.
The objective here is to share information to those receptive, NOT deride, NOR argue with those who are skeptical.
I just believe in the old saying that an ounce of prevention is worth (more than) a pound of cure, and believe sharing information is good.

I'm in SoCal right now snow birding. A very common sight on the freeways is someone zooming along considerably faster than traffic, yet
I haven't yet seen the carnage than can result. Does that mean it is safe?
Guys on motorcycles "lane spitting" (it is legal) way faster that the rolling traffic. Same thing. No carnage yet on this trip, and I have been on the freeways a LOT.
No crash (observed by me this trip) doesn't mean safe behavior. Not proof.
No sickness on WTW attributed to water tank water. Proof that it is safe? You decide.

There are are bunch of great guys on WTW. A LOT of them are VERY smart, and very savvy about what they have been exposed to in life.
I am merely exposing the readers to information that life may not have presented to them yet. Hopefully a few are willing to consider the presented information.

I know guys who take excellent care of their pride and joy vehicles. Best of everything-gas, lubs, wax, mods, etc. TLC all around.
Yet the ONLY body they have, or will ever have, they treat as if it is disposable.
New and/or more vehicles can be purchased.
Not your body. One and done.

Carry on.

 

[JJ1]

Very good thoughts and presentation, Freebird. Here's how I look at things:

Risk = probability x consequences

The probability that I'll get into a car crash on any given day is exceeding small, but the consequences could be devastating...so I wear a seatbelt every time, carry insurance, etc. In that light, "risk" of driving may not be "low" just because the probability is so low. But I can lower risk by decreasing the probability (driving defensively) and by trying to lessen the consequences if an accident does happen (wearing a seatbelt, buying a car with airbags, lowering the deductible on my insurance).

Even notionally, such calculations depend on accurate assessments of both probability and consequences. You were simply pointing out that the probability may be higher than some folks had considered, and they could use this to make a more accurate risk calculation. Everybody is probably already familiar with the consequences of drinking bad water.

Then the next step is each person's risk tolerance. Even with accurate assessments, people will be willing to accept different levels of risk. Personally, I drink untreated water in the backcountry fairly often. People tell me I'll die from it, but I can recall only one time where I got sick, 28 years ago, that *may* have been caused from drinking out of a bad water source. I do things to decrease the probability of getting sick from drinking untreated water (like choosing sources carefully), but I understand that I might get sick anyway. I'm willing to take that risk.

So I took your point to be that while the probability of getting sick from drinking camper water is low, it may not be as low as some people believe. And since the consequences may be very high, some people may want to reconsider their overall risk calculation. Then people get to decide on their own (more accurately) whether they want to assume the risk. Sounds reasonable.

Your post doesn't make me change my behavior, but I like the way you think.

 

[MarkBC]

It would be helpful to know what percentage of people who drink water from their RV tank get sick, and what percentage of the time they get sick.
That would be information that I could use in deciding whether it's a bad idea for me.
The thing about talking about risk is that you really need a number, a probability of the thing occurring -- even an approximate range -- in order to decide if the risk outweighs the benefits.
(In car accidents, for example, there's lots of statistics and probabilities available -- lots of quantitative evidence that it's dangerous)

Since I don't have any other quantitative information about water-tank risk I'll use my own database -- my own experience and the experience of those I know. And that experience shows low risk -- zero risk is my best estimate. I'll update that risk estimate when I get more rate-of-occurrence information.