[busterbrown]

I think its widely accepted as normal to winterize and drain lines (including HWH) for the traditional winter season, which could be 4 to 8 months long. After dewinterizing, as long as you provide an adequate bleach treatment to the fresh water system, there should be no other maintenance during the active camping season. We use our coach at least monthly (from April to October) and have have clean water at each and every camping trip. We only drain the HWH at the end of the season.

If we had no plans to use the coach for more than 3 months, I would be inclined to empty the water heater. Re-sanitizing is a very simple process.

Also, we always use bottle water for drinking and cooking as we do in our sticks and bricks home. So,there is never a threat of tummy aches from bad water.