Flushing our water tank

[PITPOP27]

WOWOWOWOW :yikes:  :eyecrazy: FUNGAL OVERLOAD!  Awesome answers!  Yup I read the guidelines, but they do not have an amount of time, because they are for maintenance rather than the presence of fungus - so I take this information away:

1.  5 cups bleach to 20 gallons of water

2.  Wait at least 20 minutes before flushing through  both hot and cold running systems, shower, sink, outside shower.

3.  I think a repeat would be in order (I mean it wasn't THAT much fungus but a little green is enough for me)


4.  Rinse system with water.

5.  Do vinegar rinse.

6.  rinse

7,  Rinse again.

And enjoy.  Sound about right?

[tlhdoc]

I wouldn't use that much bleach, but I agree with the rest.  Using less bleach and letting it sit for an hour or two will work and you will not have to dispose of such a strong bleach solution.  That is a lot of bleach water to get rid of, you don't want to just dump it on the ground.  It will kill anything living in the ground.  

[ForestCreature]

I'd also reccomend after the bleach soultion is in, hitch up and take the PU for a 20 min spin around town. That'll slosh it around and get the whole tank bleached and possibly dislodge any algae stuck to the tank walls.

[wavery]

I manage a 40 unit apt building. When tenants move out we sometimes find mold on the shower tiles.

When there is no mold present, the procedure that the cleaning people use is to wash the tiles down with a household cleaner like 409 or tube & tile cleaner (we'll call that "Standard maintenance"). If there is ANY mold present. The entire bathroom gets washed down with a solution of 1 quart bleach to 1 gallon water. They leave it sit for 20 minutes then wash it down again with the same solution.

This is not my idea. This is the SOP of the professional cleaning crew and a requirement of the management company that I work for. They manage over 5000 apartments and are fully aware of the risks of the presence of the smallest amount of mold. They are also aware of the risks of working with bleach and are careful to follow the guidelines of the health dept.

I am talking about bathroom walls here. I would take my water tank much more seriously. Mold is not something to be taken lightly and as was described in a previous post by batsignal2, may offer a significant health risk.

Just as a side note:
In warmer climates (like SoCal) you are much better off to store your PU with the water tank full with a small amount of bleach added to the tank. Dump the tank then rinse it before filling for an outing. Leaving the tank with a small amount of water in the bottom is asking for mold invasion. Always replace the plug in the tank immediately after draining to avoid the invasion of mold spores.

[Kelly]

after reading all the posts on this thread I just have to say ....

I knew there was a reason I never used the onboard water tank in either PU I've owned!  :J

(said with tongue firmly in cheek and knowing full well that it doesn't matter how you camp ~ as long as you camp!! )[/FONT]

[dthurk]

I manage a 40 unit apt building. When tenants move out we sometimes find mold on the shower tiles.

When there is no mold present, the procedure that the cleaning people use is to wash the tiles down with a household cleaner like 409 or tube & tile cleaner (we'll call that "Standard maintenance"). If there is ANY mold present. The entire bathroom gets washed down with a solution of 1 quart bleach to 1 gallon water. They leave it sit for 20 minutes then wash it down again with the same solution.

This is not my idea. This is the SOP of the professional cleaning crew and a requirement of the management company that I work for. They manage over 5000 apartments and are fully aware of the risks of the presence of the smallest amount of mold. They are also aware of the risks of working with bleach and are careful to follow the guidelines of the health dept.

I am talking about bathroom walls here. I would take my water tank much more seriously. Mold is not something to be taken lightly and as was described in a previous post by batsignal2, may offer a significant health risk.

We own a motel.  The NYS Health Dept. has no requirement for cleaning and disinfecting motel rooms and bathrooms on room turnover between guests.  I would think motel turnover would be looked at more carefully than apartment turnover.  NYS and CA will have different standards, of course, and I have no experience with CA Health Dept.  We do use disinfectants, obviously, but no standard exists here.  The Health Dept. looks for mold and mildew during inspections quite rigorously.  Don't know what would happen if they found any.  That hasn't happened to us.  However, the requirements for water service and food service are precise and intense.  

A 20% concentration of bleach in water is VERY heavy.  That will most definitely kill anything!  Very small amounts of chlorine are all that's necessary to keep public water supplies safe.  I've also killed off mildew with very small concentrations of bleach.  I would suspect 20% is overkill (is that a pun?).  It probably won't hurt anything, though, particularly in bathroom situations.  

As far as camper water supply, I do disinfect our system, usually several times a season.  We generally use the on board system for cleaning and applications that would use heated water.  I don't depend on our disinfection to keep the family safe, although I would think it to be safe.  We carry 2.5 gallon jugs of bottled water from the local grocery store for drinking and cold use and buy more as needed where we might be camping.  It's worked for us so far.

[wavery]

We own a motel.  The NYS Health Dept. has no requirement for cleaning and disinfecting motel rooms and bathrooms on room turnover between guests.  I would think motel turnover would be looked at more carefully than apartment turnover.  NYS and CA will have different standards, of course, and I have no experience with CA Health Dept.  We do use disinfectants, obviously, but no standard exists here.  The Health Dept. looks for mold and mildew during inspections quite rigorously.  Don't know what would happen if they found any.  That hasn't happened to us.  However, the requirements for water service and food service are precise and intense.  

A 20% concentration of bleach in water is VERY heavy.  That will most definitely kill anything!  Very small amounts of chlorine are all that's necessary to keep public water supplies safe.  I've also killed off mildew with very small concentrations of bleach.  I would suspect 20% is overkill (is that a pun?).  It probably won't hurt anything, though, particularly in bathroom situations.  

As far as camper water supply, I do disinfect our system, usually several times a season.  We generally use the on board system for cleaning and applications that would use heated water.  I don't depend on our disinfection to keep the family safe, although I would think it to be safe.  We carry 2.5 gallon jugs of bottled water from the local grocery store for drinking and cold use and buy more as needed where we might be camping.  It's worked for us so far.

This is a little off topic but.....
I think you got me wrong. There are no HD requirements on cleaning and disinfecting apartments. The requirements are our own company policy. The reason being, that the penalty for mold intrusion is quite severe. We spent $12,000 on professional mold removal from one apartment. It must be done by a  Mold Removal Specialist. They treat the apartment like it has been contaminated with a viral agent. The tenant must be moved out. They build a full containment room and must wear special hazardous material suits with outside breathing apparatus. Like you saw when the old poison letters went through some of the post offices.

They remove all of the drywall and scrape all of the surfaces with wire brushes and grinders and 100% bleach until all signs of mold are gone. Then they have to spray it all down with a neutralizer (like vinegar) to keep the nails from corroding away. All debris had to be removed it hazardous waste containers and transported for incineration via a specially marked vehicle. The workers had to be sprayed down with a special chemical before leaving the containment area. Then a chemist had to come in and take lab samples (another $800). If the samples come back negative, the containment area must be kept up with special air purifying machines for 10 more days. If they come back positive, the entire process starts over.

With a motel/hotel, you are assured of a regular cleaning. With apartments, it's a lot different. I have had tenants live here for 10 years or more. The average tenant stays 40 months. In a motel/hotel, your average tenant stays 2 days. then the place gets a professional cleaning. Some apartment dwellers NEVER clean the tiles in the bathrooms and we don't find out that there is mold in there until they move out. It's usually not a big deal but it does have to be treated aggressively so that the next tenant is not effected.

[dthurk]

You're right, I misunderstood you.  I went back and read your post, and found this paragraph...

This is not my idea. This is the SOP of the professional cleaning crew and a requirement of the management company that I work for. They manage over 5000 apartments and are fully aware of the risks of the presence of the smallest amount of mold. They are also aware of the risks of working with bleach and are careful to follow the guidelines of the health dept....

It's the health dept. reference at the end of the paragraph that I focused in on.  Sorry to have misunderstood you.

[AustinBoston]

WOWOWOWOW :yikes:  :eyecrazy: FUNGAL OVERLOAD!  Awesome answers!  Yup I read the guidelines, but they do not have an amount of time, because they are for maintenance rather than the presence of fungus - so I take this information away:

1.  5 cups bleach to 20 gallons of water

Don't use any less than 5 cups.

2.  Wait at least 20 minutes before flushing through  both hot and cold running systems, shower, sink, outside shower.

I agree with what others have said - drag it down a bumpy road, with a few modest starts, stops, and turns to slosh it around.

3.  I think a repeat would be in order (I mean it wasn't THAT much fungus but a little green is enough for me)

You might look at things after a rinse.  If there is absolutely no trace visible from the outside it's probably fine.  If you miss a bit of stuff stuck to the tank, it's dead anyway.  OTOH, if there is still algae/mold/mildew residue, then go ahead and repeat the cleaning.

4.  Rinse system with water.

5.  Do vinegar rinse.

6.  rinse

7,  Rinse again.

And enjoy.  Sound about right?

Yep.  Especially the enjoy.  You might consider putting a bit of the sanitation mix in your supply hose as well.

Austin

[PITPOP27]

Thanks guys, (have I mentioned how much bleach and me don't get along?) But we have to drain it slowly anyways, because of taking it through the systems, and then placing grey water tanks on sons skateboard down a VERY long driveway to the gutter  :p it shall be great!

[wavery]

Thanks guys, (have I mentioned how much bleach and me don't get along?) But we have to drain it slowly anyways, because of taking it through the systems, and then placing grey water tanks on sons skateboard down a VERY long driveway to the gutter  :p it shall be great!

Why not just attach a long garden hose from the drain on the PU and run it down to the gutter? You could even connect a couple of hoses together, if need be. Then flush that thing until your heart's content.

[PITPOP27]

DH though of that, but are you talking about from the side drains?  We don't have one yet....hmmmm may be a purchase before tomorrow morning, have to go get vinegar anyway.

[wavery]

DH though of that, but are you talking about from the side drains?  We don't have one yet....hmmmm may be a purchase before tomorrow morning, have to go get vinegar anyway.

How does your sink drain to the outside?
Our Coleman has a fitting that a garden hose hooks to. We run a short piece of hose to our gray water tank, which we stick under the trailer.

[PITPOP27]

Ar ( always feel like saying that back to you when you post heehee)  That's what I mean!  We have a drain on the side there on the left:
that drains the sink, one on the opposite side for the shower, and the tank underneath.  Of course the most easy way would be fill her up and let the tank drain, but we've got to run the bleach through everything, thus it'll be coming out the grey water tanks my hubby has put together....if the pup was in the street, I'd just attach the fitting for hookups and let her go, but it's not our driveway or our grass at the end heehee!

[wavery]

You know....ARRRRRRR!!!!

I just thought of something that might work well and does not contain bleach. In fact, it's pretty harmless. Basically, it kills mold by super oxygenating it. Check it out:
http://www.ascleanedontv.com/oxiclean-tips.html