Help, please! Water is fizzy and smells!

[GRHooper]

Can anyone shed any light on why the water from the outdoor faucet at our site is fine but when it comes out of the interior faucets (all) it fizzes, foams and smells? I've attached and unhooked the water filter, dumped and flushed and cannot figure out what I need to do to get the water right.

THanks in advance for your help!

[racerjoe]

sounds like you need to bleach your water system. I believe a cup of bleach to a tank of water, run it thru all the faucets,until you smell bleach and let it sit for a couple hours.drain,flush, and flush again and it should be good to go. The water for a better word gets "skanky" when it sits in the lines, for an extended period or in warm weather. make sure you get it in all the lines, you get dead spots in the drain lines which start to smell.

[GRHooper]

Thanks. Do I add it directly to the tank? If so, can you help with that? I've never done that before.

[racerjoe]

Put it into your fresh water tank, use a funnel and fill the tank with water. you will smell the bleach when you run your faucets. remember to drain your hot water tank so you can get bleach into it also.Don't leave it on.

[GRHooper]

We've only had our RV for a couple of months. . . does this seem normal to you?

[Trailer Trash 2]

Mine will smell that way and look carbinated with a slight oder, I will run the water in all outlets bath room toilet kitchen and wait intill it is clear and no carbination bubbles.
My reason is I think it is the water sitting in the lines too long and it goes bad. I know my water tank is clean so it is not that, I never had that happen to me on any of my trailers or Moterhomes in the last 35 years just with this rv. I will blame the clear plastic plumbing water lines. all my other RVs had black plastic water supply lines. but this is my opinion.

[KTManiac]

Since I don't have(or want) a washing machine in my 3605RL, I disconnected the lines going to the cabinet in the bedroom at the front of the 5er. They dead-end there and the water in them doesn't circulate and gets funky. I unhooked them behind the basement wall and capped off the Tee's there with PEX fitting caps.

One less thing to do come winterization time too.

Either that, or hook up a hose to the W/D faucets and let them run occasionally.

[washley1]

GRHOOPER, My take on this is your Monty is a 2009. Did you buy it new? If so, take it to the dealer and get them to do this. If it is new but out of warranty, talk to them anyway. It can't hurt.

[racerjoe]

It could be normal if water sat in it for a while. If ours sits more than a month in the warm weather without use it has done that when I leave water in the lines

[jimcol]

I have had the same issue since we bought our rig new in 06. I always wondered but never ask the question. Just did what TrailerTrash did. Let it run until it clears up then seems good to go until the next time it comes out of storage. Following up on Racerjoe's suggestion I Bookmarked the following website, http://rvbasics.com/techtips/sanitiz...er-system.html ,as a reference for sanitizing the water system. Jim

[firetrucker]

Water doesn't go bad by just sitting unless it has something in it. Check this by putting some water directly from the outdoor faucet and indoor faucet in a container and letting it sit. See if they both react the same.

It sounds like there's something in your water system that's reacting with some component of the water.

Does it happen to the cold water line as well as the hot water line?

Does anyone else in the park have the same problem?

If you drain some water directly from the fresh water tank, does it have the same problem?

If there's a university extension service office nearby, take a sealed sample of the water to them for evaluation. See what utility supplies the water to the park and take a sample to them.

After you take samples, I'd run the bleach through the system and flush it several times. You could have something left in the tank from the manufacturing process. A plumber with a fiber optic viewer or video camera could even look in the tank if necessary.

Bob

[deadeye]

The owner's manual isn't good for much only that I think it does discuss the water tank. It says to not leave the water set in the tank for any length of time while not in use. I just flushed mine with bleach. Do a search on this site for BLEACH and you will get the instructions. I put mine in the tank and left it set overnight. Then rinsed all of the lines and drained the water heater. Refilled with clean fresh water making sure they have clean fresh water in them and the tank. I drain my water tank if its sets about 10 days or more without use. The foaming action could be caused by not having all of the RV antifreeze cleaned out. I have found that to be the case in my own situation.... JB

[ols1932]

We use a product called Purogene in our fresh water tank. Only takes 1 oz. per 30 gallons of water. In our almost 10 years of full timing, we have had times when we didn't use water from the fresh water tank for over a year and have never had a taste or odor problem. I attribute this to the Purogene. You can get it on-line here. You can read about it here.

Orv

[TLightning]

As stated above, look under "Plumbing System" in the owner's manual. It gives detailed instructions on how to sanitize the water system.

[racerjoe]

bottom line GRHOOPER is you need to clean and flush the system. If you do not full time,like us, that is what happens to the water after an extended period of non use. If you just purchased this unit and it was used,this is probably what has happened. Not hard to do once you do it the first time.

[grampachet]

Is it kinda pink in color? It sounds very much like it could be antifreeze that was not thoroughly purged from the system.

[Rondo]

Jerry when you say that the water smells-- what does it smell like?

It could be nearly any of the suggestions made already! If there was still winterizer(the pink stuff) in the lines yet it will smell and foam or fizz. If it is stagnant water that has been in the lines and tank for any length of time, it will smell and fizz and they should all be sanitized as mentioned above.

I leave my sanitizer in the lines for about 12 hours and the same with the fresh water tank. As mentioned, never pour straight clorox or bleach into the fresh water tank dillute it down before adding it to the tank. I use the pump to circulate the super sanatizing water through the lines which will clear the pump and valves also. I always drain the hot water heater and use the bypass valve to winterize each year also. When I go and de-winterize I purge the lines with shore water and then fill the freshwater tanks with chorox(bleach solution) and H2O and then fill the lines as mentioned above. I also fill the heater with chlorinated water and let it sit for a while then empty it(Not turning on the electric or gas to heat the water up). I then rinse everything out several times with shore water, opening each faucet(hot and cold), shower valves and stool. Don't forget the outside shower faucets if you have one on your rig also. I also purge(empty) the fresh water tank and rinse it out again just to get the stronger clorox residue out. I don't fill it totally when I travel and leave just enough in it to use on the road till we reach our first campground then fill it IF I don't have shore water. I also filter the shore water coming into the unit from any hookup. Hope you get the problem solved. Let us know what you do and how it turns out! Have a great camping season!

[GRHooper]

Thank you all! Turns out that I (newbie that I am) didn't know to use a WHITE, drinking-water, hose. I was using a GREEN, garden hose. The guy in the RV next door spotted that and let me know to change it out. Voila, water is brand new!

Thanks again!

[grampachet]

That does make a difference, a huge difference. About 45 years ago an old girlfriend was going to make me some soup for lunch in their RV from a brand new green garden hose laying in the sun. I tried to be nice but just couldn't eat that "garden" soup.

[GRHooper]

Thanks for all your thoughts. My neighbor here at Waters Edge suggested that I use a white drinking water hose for the fresh water supply instead of the green garden hose I was using. We made the switch and it's fine. DUH!!!