Water quality problem

[awellis3]

Camped this past weekend at a Va. state park with elec./water hook ups. Noticed the water at the kitchen sink had a chemical taste. Since this park is 60 mi. from the nearest town, I figured we were on well water.

Checked the water at the hose bib - tasted great. Unscrewed my hose and tasted at the end - yuck! Drained the trailer's water lines then turned on the pump to use water from home - tasted OK.

So question: The hose is 5 yrs. old. Do I have a defective hose or do they eventually go bad and need replacing? It is a white drinking water hose purchased from a reputable RV dealer.

Teach

[Tweety]

We had bad water one time and it turned out to be our filter had gotten old. We threw out the filter, learned the lesson to never save it over the winter, and disinfected the hose with a little bleach solution. You could try the bleach solution in your hose and see if that helps. I've not heard of a hose going bad, but at least replacing a hose is a relatively cheap fix.

[Gene]

I have never had a hose go bad but sometimes the water sitting in it for a long time gets "strange". I tend to flush the hose often and do the bleach in the hose at the start of the season. I always connect the ends together to keep little things from crawling into it.

[JohnB]

Hi Teach

The hoses themselves do not go bad, but bacteria can and does grow in them. As Gene stated, I sanitize the hose along with the camper. I also insure the hose is drained after each use well. Capillary action will hold water in the hose even after you 1st drain it. If you come back a day or so later and drain again, more will come out. It may only be 1 or 2 ounces but that is enough if the water has a problem. If that water had some issues with it, any chlorine that was left has long evaporated off and the bacteria starts growing. Even faster in higher heat times of the year.

Another “always” thing I do is when I hook up the hose to fill the camper, I flush to the ground very well before ever putting any fresh in my tank. Even if I’m using this off my home water. That helps flush out anything that may have been an issue.

A chlorine shock treatment like what is used in sanitizing the camper will clean out the hose but you will have to let it sit for a long enough time to let it kill and you have to coat the entire inside of the hose and the length of it. If you are really questioning the hose, get a new one, sanitize it and then keep after the hose.

If you had bad tasting water in through the camper system from that hose, it would be a good thing to re-sanitize the camper.

Hope this helps

John

[Sunline Fan]

My parents have had major hose bacteria issues for a while now. They leave the hose out all the time, but shut the water off before they leave. We had been replacing the hose like every two years because it got so smelly, like sulfur. Sometimes they pull the hose inside when gone, but they at least got in the habit of draining it before they leave and that seems to make it better because the stagnant water doesn't sit in the hose and bake in the sun. It still gets nasty now from time to time, especially if we forget to drain it just one time. The only solution so far is to drain the hose, fill it with some bleach, hook it back up, and also put some bleach in the bottom of the filter canister. That seems to fix the issue for a couple months assuming we don't forget to drain it.

My dad just did this process this past Saturday morning. He didn't just put a little bleach in the filter canister, he put a few cups. I took a shower and smelled like I had been in a pool all day...

[awellis3]

Originally Posted by Gene

I always connect the ends together to keep little things from crawling into it.

I do, too. I was wondering if that didn't contribute to my problem. I drain the hose after each trip and store it on board with the ends connected.

The taste I'm getting is ... how shall I put this ... "inorganic." It tastes more like plastic (acidic and bitter) than mold or something biological. Last weekend, after disconnecting the hose from the trailer, I flushed it with the camp's water for a good minute and the taste went away. I'm leaning toward getting a new hose and keeping this one to flush my holding tanks.

Teach

[Gene]

A lot could depend on the water you have at home. I should have mentioned that my town never used to clorinate the water but after several episodes of bad water and failed tests the town now uses a hefty dose of clorine. After the "spring cleaning" I can leave some town water in the hose for a couple of weeks (but no longer) and as John mentioned, flush the hose to the ground before leaving and at the campground too.

Maybe at this point a new hose is the best thing. Flush well before using.

[JohnB]

Hi Folks

I do not know if this is what you are up against but I will throw it out in case it helps the cause. Things that do grow in water systems generally have a smell to them. If you can sniff and “yuk” is the 1st scent you smell, this is a good indicator a form of bacteria is growing. And the smells are not all moldy like. Mold does smell like mold/musty but there are other forms that smell still badly just not moldy per say. Teache’s description of acidic and bitter could be bacteria based. Plastic has it’s own smell but acidic is not usually one of the traits but bacteria can be. I know there is nothing for sure in this case what Teach found, what I was stating is more general observations for future.

And then there is, “how does one store the hose”? Good question and I’m sure there are compelling reasons for different situations. The thought of something crawling in and hiding out is for sure a reality. I too once practiced the hose ends screwed together, however now I do not. So what was the reasoning on why I switched?

How I came to this in my mind was the moisture trapped inside with oxygen. If the hose was 100% dry, then no problem. Without the moisture, normal potable water living organisms will not live long and die. However draining the hose will not let a coiled up 25 or 50 foot hose be 100% dry after a normal draining. There is still moisture in the coils.

The water left in the hose may have had chlorine in it from potable water sources. That chlorine will keep the water potable until it evaporates off or is consumed by killing off bacteria. In this hose situation what ever chlorine was in there will be gone in short order. If open to a lot of air, it could be gone in minutes to hours. In the closed up drained hose situation there is a lot of air in relation to the water. I speculate after 4 hours to a day the chlorine is gone. The water drips will stay clean until something starts growing in it.

So now we have a hose coiled up and the ends screwed together. Moisture trapped inside and what ever chlorine was in there is gone in a day or less. Now 5 to 14 days later if mold or other organisms where in there, they can and will start growing if the temps are warm like in the summer time. Higher heat they grow faster.

So with that thought what is the worse of the 2 evils? Drain the hose and leave it open or drain it and close I up? There is no easy perfect solution. I came to the conclusion that leaving the ends open allows for continued evaporation of the moisture to keep going was the better evil. While 100% of the water in the center coils may take a real long time to evaporate off, many feet and coils towards the open ends did dry out. And for organisms normally found in potable water they need moisture, oxygen and food to live. Take away any one of them and they will die. Temperature also affects how fast they grow. In cold temps they do not reproduce very much if any. In warmer temps, 60 deg F and up they grow faster. And up in the 100 to 150F they really can grow. So I reduced the odds of things growing by having longer sections of hose dry sooner. By leaving the ends screwed together, nothing crawls in but the entire hose is wet and will not dry out. In my mind that was worse then risking something was going to crawl in. I store the hose up high in the shed, reducing the odds of something getting in. Not eliminating them, just reducing them.

So I follow the, drain it, let it air out as much as it can and then flush well when you use it again. And chlorine sanitize at least once a year. It is not 100% fool proof but it greatly reduces the odds of something growing out of control “if” the hose was infected. Now thinking on this, adding hose washers with the screens inside is a thought to help the critters crawling in problem.

Jon’s camper hose story with water left in it is a good reason why standing water in high heat for long periods is not a good thing for potable water. Nature finds a way to survive. High heat from hose laying in the sun, moisture, oxygen in the water and a few organisms in the water to start with no circulation or sanitizer (chlorine etc) left, they start multiplying beyond potable limits. And yuk’y water soon comes.

Hope this helps

John