Do you drink the water in your freshwater tank?

[Kenny Strong]

If my water comes from home source We drink it out of the tank. We have a filter to go on the hose to refill gallon bottles or fill the tank, or trailer incoming outlet. ( We carry a couple of gallon bottles for quick use; coffee etc; or water for dog. ) The high volume water pump is too slow. I fill up the tank before we leave home, not knowing what access we will have. "They" ( Consumer reports ) say bottled water just comes out of the local water line where it is bottled, even if it says spring water. I put a new Tee shirt right on when purchased, my wife MUST wash hers first. Wash the tank out, they could do that for you when you pick it up, ask if it was done after trailer was completed.

[rick in arvada]

Yes - I drink the water in my tank. However I use a PUR water pitcher filter. It has worked for years. Once a year I do the Clorox tank clean out.

[tua]

While it is acceptable to drink the tank water, we use a Hydroblu Jerrycan Water Filter for all our cooking and drinking water.

[Tony D]

We drink from the tank and do the bleach thing at the start if the season and mid way through. We do use just under a half a cup. The taste does linger.

As far as cleaning out the tank on a new camper before using it, I think all you need to do is fill and empty it using all the water lines especially the sink. I don’t think the water system gets wet before delivery. They get pressure checked with air.

[Jann Todd]

Originally Posted by sunnyone

We will be picking up our new Scamp 13 at the factory in a few days, and I’ve been obsessively reading everything relevant on the forum.
One thing I’ve noticed is that some folks do not drink the onboard water in their freshwater tank, they bring along separate drinking water.
Do you drink the water in your freshwater tank? Why or why not?
Also, do we need to wash out the new tank before using it for drinking water?

Yes we drink out of our tank. We also use a Brita filter pitcher for our drinking water and taste it to make sure there wasn't to much chlorine in it before making tea. We always use a filter to fill the tank and when we are hooked to a faucet. We try to not fill up to many places or in questionable places. I don't want to use waster for washing or brushing teeth if it is not safe to drink. I learned that in Mexico once when I brushed my teeth, did not swallow any water and took a shower with the water. Yep I got the Montezuma's Revenge and I never want that again. We sterilize our tank before our first trip every year. And yes you should sterilize your tank before you use it as there could be contaminants in it when new.

[David B.]

Originally Posted by sunnyone

We will be picking up our new Scamp 13 at the factory in a few days, and I’ve been obsessively reading everything relevant on the forum.
One thing I’ve noticed is that some folks do not drink the onboard water in their freshwater tank, they bring along separate drinking water.
Do you drink the water in your freshwater tank? Why or why not?
Also, do we need to wash out the new tank before using it for drinking water?

we do drink the water but we filter it before putting it in the tank and we have a Dr. mercola under sink filter system for drinking water. We do sanitize the tank at least once a year. We have been using the system for years, and have never had any problems. We usually travel 10,000 miles a year camping.
Dave & Paula

[sunnyone]

Thank you to everyone who shared their thoughts. Quite a range of opinions, but that’s to be expected. It gives me a lot to think about, and come up with a system that fits our camping style and comfort level.

[floyd]

There's a whole aisle at the supermarket for bottled water.
Many folks don't drink tap water at home, which is the same as not drinking tap water in your Scamp.
We use a filter on our shore water, primarily to keep particulate contamination out of the trailer's system.
My wife drinks bottled water, then I refill them with tap water and freeze them for ice in my Dr Pepper.
We have a portable ice maker which I use when camping and I use the ice in soft drinks.
Where I live we have really good water, but occasionally when traveling we run into sulfur water or some other foul water which is undrinkable, even foul enough to make a shower unpleasant.... we don't drink that stuff.

[CHICO DAN]

Your freshwater tank is NOT considered POTABLE WATER for drinking.
Think about it...
The freshwater tank is full of different levels of water for long periods.
Fresh water is Fresh...as in not stored for long periods.
All tap water grows toxins eventually from just being exposed to air.
Your freshwater tank is designed for washing dishes and bathing safely.
I drain and sanitize my freshwater tank yearly.
Just carry freshwater in a separate container and fill a 2ga skinny sink dispenser.

[CHICO DAN]

Freshwater Tank is NOT CONSIDERED POTABLE WATER !
Please excuse the Typo...

[steve dunham]

Originally Posted by CHICO DAN

Your freshwater tank is NOT considered POTABLE WATER for drinking.
Think about it...
The freshwater tank is full of different levels of water for long periods.
Fresh water is Fresh...as in not stored for long periods.
All tap water grows toxins eventually from just being exposed to air.
Your freshwater tank is designed for washing dishes and bathing safely.
I drain and sanitize my freshwater tank yearly.
Just carry freshwater in a separate container and fill a 2ga skinny sink dispenser.

We fill our fresh water tank with fresh potable water when we leave on an outing
During our trip we replenish our fresh water tank with more fresh potable water
When we return home we completely drain our fresh water tank
By your definition the water in every small town water tower is non potable

If your on board tank is not designed for potable water then why do trailer manufacturers install fresh water tanks that are NSF certified for potable water ?

[alan H]

Now I’m totally confused
Like others have said
Why have a water tank ( some do have funky taste)
But I’ve never ever heard that that water is no drinkable
Can someone post documentation of that

[ZachO]

Dan will need to reference where his info comes from. There are all sorts of logical problems with that reasoning. It's not something I've ever heard. Everything I've ever heard is that the fresh water system in a trailer IS considered potable water.

I personally don't drink mine but I feel it's at least as safe as your tap water (which, of course, is probably where your trailer water comes from anyway). Old house pipes often have lead or other contamination. Your water system is most likely very new PEX water lines. I don't love plastic but there's no way to avoid it these days.

Personally I think the worst possible option is disposable bottled water. Complete waste. Buy a reusable water jug and refill it. That's what I do. In my home area, there are multiple fresh water springs, and I fill my drinking water jugs there. My camper water gets filled from local taps. Like I said as a general rule I don't drink it, because even when I'm in a house, I still fill my jugs at a spring and drink that, but if I were out camping and somehow ran out of my spring water, I wouldn't hesitate to drink my camper water.

[CarlD]

We use the on board tank for everything except drinking. We make coffee with it because its boiled before use. I sterilize the system each year and add a bit of sterilizer with each refill. Our drinking water comes from 1 gallon plastic jugs which we refill at potable watering sources and for long trips with significant boondocking we carry a 7 gallon tank which I also sterilize before use.

[CHICO DAN]

Thank you CarlD for your sensible reply.
That is what I was attempting convey.
Fill a drinking water container at your campground.
Keep a smaller container close to your Galley.
My travels takes me to the Parker Strip on the Colorado River for 5-6 months out of the year and the tap water RV connections available anywhere are Not Drinkable no matter how much you filter it.
Full of all kinds of different alkali salts.
RO water is available at dispensers to fill your drinking water container...$$
I fill my tank for bathing..flushing and dishes.
The rest of the year I am in Southern and Central Oregon Cascades.
The water there is spring quality.
But.... my tank is full of all kinds of water from all over by that time and definitely Not Drinkable.
This is a personal choice...I just prefer not to drink the water from my RV tank.

[Bonnie RB]

I don't drink water from the camper, whether from the fresh water tank or from the hookup in the camp site, but that's a matter of taste, not biological impurity.
I drink water from the R.O. system at home, and buy gallon jugs of distilled water to drink as water when camping. Coffee, tea, toothbrushing, other non-boiled water use where there's some other flavor? Then tap or tank is fine.
And what's with the "..minerals added for taste." on some bottled waters?
Jon MB, the grumpy quaffer

[RogerDat]

The water in the fresh water tank is as clean and "safe" as the tank itself and the water put into it. Not really any difference between filling a 12 gallon on board tank and a couple of 6 gallon water cans. Or 6 one gallon jugs. If the container is clean and the water put in is potable then it is drinking water.

There are additives one can use and I seem to recall a drop or few drops per gallon of straight chlorine bleach is a good water disinfectant for post disaster water treatment. Don't recall the specifics of amount to use. Should look that up again.

If you don't rinse out the tank and drain it periodically and use some sort of cleaning agent it could become a source of contamination of good water added to the tank. Also important to flush your lines before a trip. Water could have been sitting in there since last trip. Not sure how many weeks it takes to get really funky but I would go with like one week of sitting in the lines would be some dubious quality water.

We use a 6 gallon water cooler, you know big and orange, as seen on the back of road crew vehicles everywhere. We generally only fill it with ice. The ice melts and we have nice clean cold drinking water. To refill the reusable water bottle from. Or make coffee or open lid and scoop out some ice for a cold beverage.

I tent camped for a lot of years as well as RV camped so some of my habits are rooted in doing what I did for tenting when I am in the Scamp. I don't use much water. Having to haul that stuff makes one learn conservation :-) and as water hauling was one of my camping chores as a kid I have been learning not to waste water for over 50 years.

I also use plastic pitchers for ice in the cooler, I can fill them with bag ice cubes and they don't leak water all over inside the cooler. That is another source of drinking water as it melts. When replacing the ice the water gets dumped in the drinking cooler IF the pitchers have been cleaned somewhat recently. Otherwise the dog gets a drink and it gets tossed.

[sunnyone]

Thanks, RogerDat, for those specifics about how to efficiently provide fresh safe drinking water.

[Darrell in Al]

I have drank water from my water tank, but bed ok I do I make sure I have sanitized it. To the point of overkill with bleach, then rinsed out a few times. I do have a filter in sink faucet. The water where I live has been a problem in past to the point of not for drinking. A bottle water order for over a year, contaminated with God knows, many people got ill one I know of died probably due to it. I filter about all of my water. Where I work supplies bottled water due to contaminated water works, I only know of one location the water has and is tested. But after the water I've drank in military I've had "potable" water that tastes like bird poop in Canada, sulfur in IL. Who knows what in Middle East. So what is in the water tank in my Scamp depends on it's supply at that time. If I don't trust the supply it's not going in to it. Heck I've filtered water out of creeks and rivers then drank it.

[CHICO DAN]

Some bottled water is NOT SPRINGWATER but just RO from a Factory.
RO water is as pure as you can get and the minerals naturally occurring in tap water have been removed in the process.
Minerals are added to balance PH and taste back to what customers are used to.
Many Breweries use RO water and also add minerals back to match their brewing needs.