De_winterizing

[ubetcha]

Although I have been RV- ing for several years, I always run into the same concern every spring. I have a hard time smelling the bleach sanitizing solution when prepping the water system. I was thinking about adding some red food coloring to the sanitizing water and when I see the redness in the water at faucets, I know that the water solution has made its way through the lines. Has anyone tried such a thing?

[jxnbbl]

If your tank was empty and you fill it adding the proper amount of bleach....by definition the water coming out of the spickets is chlorinated right?

[JRTJH]

If you're having trouble smelling the chlorine and add red dye to the water, how whould you know if what you're seeing is "cholorinated water" or "RV antifreeze" ??? Not that you'd want to drink either, but disposal and cleanup would be significantly different for the two. If you do add a dye to the water, I'd recommend blue or green or yellow, not red for that reason....

But, like posted, if you use city water to flush antifreeze out of the lines, then add a "measured amount of chlorine bleach to the tank and fill with the "best guess volume" to match the tank capacity, then after running each faucet for a "best guess time", you should feel reasonably sure that you've got chlorine in each of the lines. Don't forget to fill the water tank with chlorinated water as well, or you won't be pushing chlorinated water through the hot water side of the faucets.

[ubetcha]

I don't live in a city. I'm a country boy. I flush the system first with fresh water to flush out the anti-freeze, then do my sanitizing. So, the first amount of water coming out is clear fresh water. Adding a red or blue dye would make easier to see the change from fresh to sanitizing. I would think a yellow dye would be a little harder to see, depending on the amount of dye one puts in. Green would probably work also. I use the on- board pump to run the water through the lines with the water tank filled with the solution.

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by ubetcha

I don't live in a city. I'm a country boy. I flush the system first with fresh water to flush out the anti-freeze, then do my sanitizing. So, the first amount of water coming out is clear fresh water. Adding a red or blue dye would make easier to see the change from fresh to sanitizing. I would think a yellow dye would be a little harder to see, depending on the amount of dye one puts in. Green would probably work also. I use the on- board pump to run the water through the lines with the water tank filled with the solution.

Help me understand this. If you flush with fresh water first, then drain the FW tank, then fill the FW tank with bleach and water then open the faucets you will get the bleach water solution in a very short time. You can obviously add food grade dye to the tank but I would test the mixture in a gallon jug first just to ensure the bleach doesn't react with the dye. Naturally, read the info labeling on the dye as well.