I'm staying at a friend's house in Georgia. I needed to refill my water tank, but couldn't reach his water faucet with my hose. He suggested his garden hose. HORROR!

Well, I used it anyway, I put the RV water filter between his hose and my hose, but I'm still thinking....... he could have run all kinds of crap through that garden hose and my filter won't stop it.

I think I need to purchase a new water hose and sanitize my tank, what do you all think?

JJ

If you thought he could've run all kinds of 'stuff' through his garden hose, well, he DID!
Get a new water hose and sanitize your fresh water system, at least twice!
On second thought, you might want to do it a 3rd time......... .

I remember when I was a kid drinking water from the outside hose & water spigot... have the times changed....

Mike

Other than water what would a person run through a garden hose? We all should use a potable water hose because others may have plasticizers (some with heavy metals) that can leach into water. There is really not much risk of contaminating a system with water flowing through a hose at a good rate, unless the hose was used for pumping manure or something.

If you are worried about it, by all means sanitize the system. If you have already had a drink from it I would not worry about it. I, too, remember drinking from the hose in the summertime.

I assume this thread is serious and not tongue-in-cheek, possibly a dangerous assumption.

I just think that this to-do about hoses has been a little overdone. Yes, it's better not to drink water that has been standing in a hose for a while. But if you flush the hose and then use water that has only passed through it from the tap, it's hard for me to grasp how that water can pick up any materially harmful quantity of chemicals that quickly. Let's be serious--there is all kinds of stuff floating around in the atmosphere, starting with the effluent from coal-fired power plants for example. While it's not good, I don't see folks dropping like flies. It takes lots of exposure to add up to something to worry about. Whatever the hose adds to what we're getting already, I just don't see it as being enough to get obsessive about.

JMHO

I second this assumption.
We too had to press a regular yard watering hose into service for a while this summer, as my 'white' hose decided to leak profusely at the house connection. Now I COULD trust my family that said garden hose had NOT been used as a fertilizer conduit, or to siphon abandoned cisterns, etc. (Yikes)

Regardless of hose: I bleach clean the connections, (habit) before connecting it to a restrictor and in-line (blue) filter. We generally don't drink tap water anymore (RV parks have just too many variables). But it IS used to wash the dishes, shower and such, so common sense is critical.

If in doubt, sanitize your tank. It doesn't take much to sanitize a hose either.
(Just don't flush bleach water onto the grass or plants!)

As some city's are treating there sewage and putting it back into the fresh water system what is using a garden hose if it has not been used for chemicals or something.Why not just ask your friend if it had been used for any thing but water.Any way throw a little bleach in it and may be dump and refill when you can.We have a small destiller that we use for drinking water and you would be supprized at what the in side looks like some time after using it.You would not drink water from any where.

We don't drink the water from our RV fresh water tank ever. Use it for washing dishes and showers, etc. Our RV was purchased new 4 years ago and always had good water (to our knowledge) refilled but we just prefer to carry gallons of spring water for drinking and making coffee, etc. If I can't see that tank I don't want to drink out of it.

Almost all city and well water systems are full of Dihydrogen Monoxide. Deadly stuff, inhale enough into your lungs, and it will quickly lead to a painful, agonizing death. the odds are great that that garden hose has been exposed to Dihydrogen Monoxide, be very very careful.

I can recount many times pulling into a campground during July or Aug after my TT was sitting in my driveway for 3 to 4 weeks from previous trip... I'd turn on the water and I would get that rotten egg smell, which I would just run open all the facets till the odor would go away...problem solved.

As mentioned earlier on this thread....continuous exposure from chemicals or an unhealthy life style are the things people need to worry about... just my two cents!

Mike

Aren't you clever!! I also hear that it is frequently added to food and that it is capable of causing severe burns.

Love to take credit, but it belongs to Penn and Teller. They actually did a cable special where they had a city council in California take up declaring Dihydrogen Monoxide a health hazard and requiring spills be cleaned by Hazmat Teams. I truly do believe garden hoses are dangerous, I drank from them all the time when I was younger and now I am getting closer to death every day. Must be a connection.

I generally store water from wherever I'm staying as a backup to the city water I use at the site. With all the filters I have and the regular maintenance of sanitizing the fresh water tank, I would have no problem drinking water from my tank. If I didn't trust it initially, I wouldn't put it in there. With all the stuff introduced into our bodies throughout the years, if I haven't gotten sick from it at my age, it ain't gonna happen. I've tried enough things to ruin my perfect body and health but I'm still here and kickin. I think people worry about too many things needlessly. I won't fall into that trap.

I found Dihydrogen Monoxide to be a very good drink in summer months to cool me off. Mix it with ice and you have a double header. I should be gone soon due to this problem. My days are short now.

Just to make sure you're safe, I suggest adding a little bourbon to your Dihydrogen Monoxide. You're still going to die, but you don't really care all that much.....

Tequila - it kills worms.

You could also run the Tequila through your hose and and drink it as it comes out. That way you kill the germs in your hose and also have a good time doing it.

And riding a bicycle without a helmet, swimming in lakes and rivers, playing outside all day long with friends without bottled water. I'm amazed we even survived.

Ok, I WAS SERIOUS when I posed this question, but now I see the thread has gone downhill. I did ask my friend again, and he thinks only water has been run through the garden hose (but I SWEAR he told me he had run other things, but now he doesn't remember saying that......)

It appears people are split 50/50 on this, similar to whether or not one should run their propane tank while driving, and whether or not one should put wheel covers on their RV tires.

When I am using water from the freshwater tank, I always run it through a Brita pitcher before I drink it. So it's been double filtered, once through the inline, and once through the Brita. On the other hand, my cat gets bottled water, the same brand. Cat has a sensitive stomach, don't want to upset him.

Once when sanitizing my tank, I used the "bleach water" to wash my RV. Didn't hurt the paint at all. Hey, didn't want to waste the water........

When I get to my camp hosting job, I think I will sanitize my tank to be sure.

The worst thing I remember doing is running and playing in the street behind the DDT foggers. Not only was the chemical bad for us, we could have been hit by a car that couldn't see us. I obviously survived, but breathing that stuff may be the reason my mind is sometimes like Swiss cheese.

This thread is not only serious, but dead serious.
Decades ago when most of us were kids, and drank hose water, like most kids, spray attachments were not put on hoses that dispensed chemicals.

A man sprays commercial weed killer with an arsenic compound in it on his lawn. After he finishes, he disconnects the applicator. It's a hot day, so he takes a refreshing drink of water from the hose. A short time later, he ends up in the hospital, or worse, with arsenic poisoning.
WHAT HAPPENED?

At some time while he was spraying the weed-killer, the water pressure dropped, which resulted in the poison being sucked back (backsiphonage) into the hose. Later, when he drank from the hose, the poison inside was released with the water. Result; he unknowingly poisoned himself.

Many spray attachments do have a backflow prevention device and still, those that do, they sometimes fail.
Besides weed-killer, fertilizers and bug-killers are also dispensed through spray attachments connected to hoses. I know what I've put through my own hoses, you know what you've put through your own hoses, D-Mac knows what he has put through his hoses. But none of us REALLY know what others put through their hoses.
D-Mac is wise to sanitize his tank!

I was one of the contributors to the downhill slide. Sorry, JJ. So now I will say seriously that if you feel uncomfortable about it, then by all means sanitize your tank for your peace of mind. Odds are nothing will come of your using a garden hose, but the possibility it had contaminants does exist, so take the precautions that make you feel better and safer.

I suppose anything is possible, but modern weed killer does not contain arsenic, even commercial blends. Modern sprayers do not create back pressure, because they use siphon system. Modern municipal water systems do not backflow unless there is a catostrophic failure, and if that happens, what is sucked into the garden hose would be the least of the worries. The odds of getting sick from your relatives hose is much less than your risk of getting food poisoning from their cooking.

Except in that case sanitizing (chlorine treatment) would not help with getting rid of the insecticide or lawn treatment chemicals, especially if heavy metals are present. Regular sanitizing with chlorine will kill disease organisms but will not typically destroy organic pesticides/algicides, etc or get rid of heavy metals. I would not make a regular habit of it, but if I had to use the hose I would run water through it for 10 minutes or so and then add what I needed to the tank. If what was being sprayed is soluble enough to work in the sprayer and somehow some backflowed into the hose, flushing the hose would get rid of it, IMHO.

Siphon systems fail. And more then weed killer goes thru many people's hoses (ie: 'Ortho-Klor' bug killer). Water pressure deviates, even in modern munincipal water systems.
I disagree that the odds are small from getting sick from your relatives hose, but I do agree they might be higher from your relatives' cooking.

Hi JJ,

I'm glad you have arrived safe and sound.

You won't need to sanitize if he is on a municipal water supply--but the water may taste bad.

Modern plastic hoses do make water unpalatable. DAMHIK If another fill is needed run the water for ten minutes first to flush out the garden hose.

I hope you change the brita filter often. My understanding is that bacteria can grow inside them once the silver iodide is depleted.

Oh that's ok. The thing that BKidd said is what concerned me. As for flushing, I usually "flush" all water faucets before connecting, but not for 10 minutes as KCMoeDoe suggested. I have found water faucets usually have "deposits" and I flush out those "deposits" before connecting.

JJ

Hi,

I'd only do ten minutes when using a garden hose. Other than that a few seconds is not a bad idea.

We we always flush out a campground's water faucet, but we also keep a container of Clorox wipes handy to wipe off the spigot. Some spigots are very low to the ground, and there are some very tall dogs around--if you get my drift.

Some people, even drink it straight, I prefer to use a little scotch for sanitation.

Seems like ya'll been doing a lot of choppin, but I don't see no chips a flyin !

I have never, ah say I have never put water in my fresh water tank unless its gone thru my two stage filtering system. And even though i'm in a class B, I carry two hoses and the filter system everywhere. Yes, I could have other problems once the clean water is in there, but no worries about giardia or heavy metal stuff.

Having experienced giardia from backpacking once, I've decided all the belly-aching and six weeks worth of being a water jet is something to be avoided.

Now, I have close friends that swear city water and State Parks water is safe to use, but they always remind me of Paul Rever's ride...... a little light in the belfey. But, each to his/her own.

If you do not want to invest in a new hose, there are usually ones you can use to fill up on water at the dump stations---No don't try this! If there is any doubt I'd flush the tank.

I don't drink the park water either- some use city, some well, some river etc. For example, I asked the park ranger at the state park I just left about the water, and he said "it won't hurt you, but I sure wouldn't drink it or try to use it in coffee- it's very hard". I've had parks with rust coming out when the water is turned on, so like to check first. I'm sure much of the RV park water is good, but it's a small luxury to buy Spring water and know my drinking water tastes good.

I had the "rotten egg" water tank problem a couple years ago. I now add a small amount of chlorine bleach to the tank on a regular basis, and have not had further problems.

To answer the original question, there is no problem filling a fresh water tank with a garden hose, assuming the fresh water supply is itself good. And in the US, the water is going to be fine just about everywhere. Municipal water systems will warn you if the water is unsafe to drink due to contamination, flooding, etc.

The problem with garden hoses comes in when the water is sitting in them under the hot sun for long periods of time. You can eliminate this as a factor by running fresh water through the hose for a minute. Then, taste it. Does it smell fine? Taste fine? Go ahead and fill the tank and don't worry about it.

BTW, I want to make clear that I am talking about a GARDEN hose, not the poopster-cleaner-outer hose. That NEVER touches any part of the fresh water system.

What you don't want to do is use a garden hose to hook up directly to your water supply. The things will leach chemicals when water stands in them under pressure for any extended period.

I know a lot of people will not drink city water under any circumstances, but it is a conviction I do not share and that fact hasn't caused me any misfortune during my first 60 years. I just guess I'm lucky.