I figure the friction of the moving water and the chloramine (or chlorine, depending) takes care of any bacterial growth that might have occurred between uses. I just run water through it for a couple of minutes. No problems yet......
Have one hose that I used for 4 years. It just got way grundgy,so I took red paint and marked it for my flusher hose and have been using it for another three years.I still have the new hoses I got with my new Wilderness,6 years ago and the ones I got with the Cougar two years ago,unused.I did ,however buy one of those spiral hoses and it works great,but it doesn't have enuff volumne 'cuz it's not as large a diameter,so it's relagated to backup.. I do flush my primary hose with straight vinegar and then soda water once a month,or so.. A 1/2 gallon of vinegar is dumped in and the ends capped off and run back and forth several times and then sits for a bit.I then flush it and pour a gallon of water and soda in to freshen it..
I also do that to the onboard water tank every once in awhile...
GO COUGARS
2001 Ford 7.3L PSD Excursion
Ride Rite air bags
AFE Stage1 air-inlet
4"MBRP exhaust
Hellwig rear sway bar 2005 Keystone COUGAR 304BHS
Tekonsha Prodigy
1200 Equalizer hitch
2008 Thomas w/Mercedes-Benz 78 pass. school bus
My fresh water hoses are over 5 years old, and still no leaks, so I hope to keep them another 5-10 years.
I always drain out as much water as possible before putting it into storage compartments, and let the water run a few seconds before filling my tank or connecting it to the RV.
If you want to sanitise the fresh water system, mix about 1 ounce of 5% clorine unscented bleach with about a quart of water, and the put that into the fresh water hose with a funnel. Then allow it to circulate in the hose for a little bit (very short time will kill all the bacteria) by putting the ends together and twist a little bit. Then connect to a fauscet, then put that clorine mixture into your fresh water tank, and continue to fill it full.
This will give you a mixture of about 15 PPM clorine in the fresh water tank, enough to kill off any bacteria in it without leaving a stron clorine odor. Run some through the pump lines, and then I would drain my water heater. Then run some through the water heater (with it off) until I get a clorine smell in the hot water lines. Leave it sit for a couple of hours, then run through some more water to increase the clorine levels again. (As clorine encounters bacteria, it will lower the clorine level a little bit. At 15 PPM, the clorine can be consumed by neturalizing bacteria in about 15 minutes sitting in the fresh water lines. But as you change the water in the lines, you will start to smell the clorine as it comes out bacteria free)
I let the clorine solution sit overnight, then drained the fresh water tank, refilled with clean water, then pumped that into the cold water lines. Removed the drain plug from the water heater (it still has 5 or 6 gallons of strong clorine water in it) and the let the pump run about 1 minute with the drian plug removed. This ensures that the strong clorine water is out of the hot water heater. Put on new teflon tape and re-install the hot water heater drian plug, then refill with clear water. Run the hot water lines until they don't smell of strong clorine any more.
You will usually want to dump out the water into dishpans and outside the RV to avoid filling the RV gray tank with water or anti-freeze removed when de-winterizing.
Run the fresh water and hot water lines after about 4 hours to get rid of any remaining clorinated water. Remember that city water clorine levels are around 1 PPM when it leaves the water plant, so 15 PPM is much stronger and should not be consumed, but will be safe to shower in after the lines have been rinsed out for a little while. If you smell a strong clorine smell, I would not shower in that water!
Fred.
Money can't buy happiness but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche or Country Coach!
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