Can you use Household bleach to clean the tanks?

[Rob99]

Can you use a bit of household bleach in your grey water tank (or even the fresh water).
diluted say 1:20 with water and given a good rinse out afterwards?
or do i need to buy fancy products?

We never drink the tank water - its just for washing etc.

 

[CazPaul]

I would never ever use it in the fresh tank.

 

[Two of usI]

When we are on our way home and for a while. prior to leaving our last stop, I empty the tank, put in half a bottle of bleach, put in a few gallons of water and drive........ by the time we get home, I sit over a drain and empty..... all is clean and then left for our next adventure !!!

 

[Stealaway]

Not bleach.
A toilet disinfectant like toilet duck is my choice and all It needs.
I have never felt the need to sterilise the water tank. I keep filling it with fresh chlorine treated water

 

[Two of usI]

Yes...... please justify the NO

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[dunnah01]

No problem in the grey but a bit of mild peril if the fresh isn't flushed through properly so not for me.
Dishwasher tabs work best in the grey though

 

[Two of usI]

Not heard of the dishwasher tabs...... may have to try them !!!

 

[ctc]

Soda crystals down the drains, dissolved in hot water.

 

[dunnah01]

Not heard of the dishwasher tabs...... may have to try them !!!

Full of strong degreaser so ideal for all that fatty gloop that seems to end up down there despite best efforts

 

[Wabs]

I always put two dishwasher tabs ( dissolved in a jug of hot water) before I leave for home,,all the sloshing about gives it a good clean,and no whiffy grey water tank or pipes, for the fresh tank, I use a dose of Elsil, every few trips,,

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[jollyrodger]

Dissolve a couple of calgon tabs into small bucket of water and as above let it slosh about and further grey waste helps empty mine at about 1/2 full its sloshed enough by then
Works for me

 

[Stealaway]

Yes...... please justify the NO

I think bleach is just too strong and over kill.
I worry what will do the pipework, joints and the drain tap even if it is stainless.

 

[PP Bear]

Definitely don’t use bleach, there are great alternatives.

Try citric acid but food grade, as it’s brilliant at cleaning the fresh tank, pipes, pump etc.

Refilling water system after winter drain down

Hi everyone We wondered when the general consensus was as to the 'safest' time to do this would be? We are planning to be away on our first trip of this year next month and also, as the motorhome is new to us we are still running through everything to familiarise ourselves/note differences to...

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

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[Jamesh]

For fresh try Milton tablets.

Good enough for babies bottles.... Good enough for us!!

 

[Stealaway]

For fresh try Milton tablets.

Good enough for babies bottles.... Good enough for us!!

If you really must Aquaclean is the correct cleaner and probably cheaper.
I worry about Milton effect on the hot water boilers.

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[gpat]

Can you use a bit of household bleach in your grey water tank (or even the fresh water).
diluted say 1:20 with water and given a good rinse out afterwards?
or do i need to buy fancy products?

We never drink the tank water - its just for washing etc.

I'd say diluted 1000:1 more like. And only thin bleach, not these think bleaches which contain detergents and smelly stuff.

10 MLS of Milton in 100 litres. 1 hour. Empty out. No need to rinse. Job done. Tank disinfected.

 

[gpat]

If you really must Aquaclean is the correct cleaner and probably cheaper.
I worry about Milton effect on the hot water boilers.

Milton won't effect the hot water boilers if sufficiently diluted and not left to stand for two long. Milton is pure sodium hypochlorite at 1% chlorine concentration. It's dead cheap and very effective. You drink the same stuff every day in your tap water and have been doing all your life.

 

[PaulOH]

Soda crystals down the drains, dissolved in hot water.

Am with ctc on this one and shall be trying this. I think ordinary powder bicarb mixed into a solution would be good too - recently I have been stunned by seriously impressive degreasant properties of such a solution on things like 'graseras' - little stainless steel pots people here put reuseable cooking oil in - and an oven door handle and glass that I thought was simply discoloured but turned out to be removeable grease! I'm sorry I didn't take a picture to show you but I seriously wasn't expecting such a radical result.

A solution of that stuff sloshing round the tank for a while will take care of a lot of muck and in a very clean fashion - much better than bleach!

 

[Stealaway]

Milton won't effect the hot water boilers if sufficiently diluted and not left to stand for two long. Milton is pure sodium hypochlorite at 1% chlorine concentration. It's dead cheap and very effective. You drink the same stuff every day in your tap water and have been doing all your life.

How do you know what is sufficiently diluted?
Why bother when the tank is already full of chlorinated water?

 

[Reallyretired]

I have used bleach in the waste tank and found it made it smell worse after a while. I suspect it had killed off most of the bacteria leaving only the anaerobic that cause the bad smell. Best deodorant for waste tanks is fresh air, leave drain open in storage.

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[gpat]

How do you know what is sufficiently diluted?
Why bother when the tank is already full of chlorinated water?

Its sufficiently diluted if you follow the instructions I gave you.
The water in our taps contains about about 0.1 to 0.3 mg/l. That's enough to keep it safe but not to disinfect a tank. Therefore you need to boost it up to something like 1mg/l.
You have to believe me. I do it for a living

 

[Shrimp]

The only Bleach I use in the van is maybe the stained tea mugs and/or the white nylon chopping board!
Bleach doesn’t go into any of the tanks.
Dishwasher cleaner (liquid) in the grey tank and only water in the fresh tank!
We did use a cleaner in our first vans fresh water tank and it took ages and a lot of flushing to get rid of it!

 

[Stealaway]

Its sufficiently diluted if you follow the instructions I gave you.
The water in our taps contains about about 0.1 to 0.3 mg/l. That's enough to keep it safe but not to disinfect a tank. Therefore you need to boost it up to something like 1mg/l.
You have to believe me. I do it for a living

I still don't understand why you would want to disinfect a perfectly clean tank.
I've not had a problem with tank water on boats or motoorhomes in over 20 years.
It used to be a common practice on narrow boats to simply paint a steel water tank
with bitchumen ---- and I survived

 

[gpat]

I have used bleach in the waste tank and found it made it smell worse after a while. I suspect it had killed off most of the bacteria leaving only the anaerobic that cause the bad smell. Best deodorant for waste tanks is fresh air, leave drain open in storage.

The only Bleach I use in the van is maybe the stained tea mugs and/or the white nylon chopping board!
Bleach doesn’t go into any of the tanks.
Dishwasher cleaner (liquid) in the grey tank and only water in the fresh tank!
We did use a cleaner in our first vans fresh water tank and it took ages and a lot of flushing to get rid of it!

Yes these are good points. I was only talking about the clean water tank. The grey tank is a different challenge. A good tip is to wipe off food (especially fats and greases) and dispose dry rather than allowing these down the sink. Once they are in they are almost impossible to shift and harbour smelly anaerobic feeding bacteria.

 

[gpat]

I still don't understand why you would want to disinfect a perfectly clean tank.
I've not had a problem with tank water on boats or motoorhomes in over 20 years.
It used to be a common practice on narrow boats to simply paint a steel water tank
with bitchumen ---- and I survived

I never said I did. I was merely advising the OP. I have never disinfected either of my tanks.

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[Beemobile]

If dish washer tablets dissolve all grease etc then why do manufacturers a different tablet or solution to clean the machine !? I use various in the clean water tank, Milton is good, and I've never had a doubt by using soda crystals, and also when I think about it I've bought the recommended stuff, living in a hard water area I've always used soda in my washing machine as Calvin and the like are silly money, which is why I feel it's ok for my tank. No need for bleach.

 

[Beemobile]

Predicted text is busy today, I would never put Calvin in the washing machine as he'd get stuck or in the tank either

 

[BouncyBoatFolk]

Definitely don’t use bleach, there are great alternatives.

Try citric acid but food grade, as it’s brilliant at cleaning the fresh tank, pipes, pump etc.

Refilling water system after winter drain down

Hi everyone We wondered when the general consensus was as to the 'safest' time to do this would be? We are planning to be away on our first trip of this year next month and also, as the motorhome is new to us we are still running through everything to familiarise ourselves/note differences to...

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

<Broken link removed>

Agreed, grey water and fresh water tank. My only caveat would be, when rinsing through the fresh water system afterwards, be generous on the pipe and taps flushing through. I had the bathroom tap stick in the "open" position due to the sticky nature of the dissolved crystals in the water. It took a good hour of gentle persuasion to get it moving again!! Apart from that "own goal" it's brilliant stuff though, tea pots, cups sinks ect, all get a dose now and then. Another climb on the learning curve conquered.

 

[CamperJack]

I use bleach in my grey tank, not going to do any harm because I'm not going to drink from it. I've never cleaned out my fresh tank with anything. But my "tanks" are plastic jerry cans. When not using the van I leave the can upside down in the sink so it dries out completely. When I come to use it again I flush the submersible pump / pipe / tap by running a full 25L jerry can of fresh water through it.

I did wonder once about using beer line cleaner to clean the line in the van when I was doing line cleaning at work. Never tried it though, but seems ideal in my head. No idea if its a good idea or not in reality and like I said never really felt the need.

I still have a load of the food grade pipe I used so I might replace it at some point...

 

[CamperJack]

Thinking about it, I wouldn't want to use line cleaner if I couldn't see the tank was totally drained. So probably not possible in a motorhome or a conversion with a fixed tank.

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