Do you drink the water from your RV?  For the last five years, we have always used the water from our RV just like we do at home.  We do take a couple of extra precautions when hooking up our RV to a campground water system. I will tell you about that in a moment.

In our first camper, a T@B 320 Clamshell, we almost exclusively hooked up using the city connection to the system.  This uses the pressure from the city connection to pump water throughout your RV.  In our second camper, a T@B 400 I have primarily been using my holding tank.

The steps I take when hooking up water are:

• I check the spigot and turn the water on before hooking anything to it.  It’s a simple test to make sure there is water and it looks OK.  Then turn it off.

• I attach an in-line water filter to the spigot and then my city water hose.  Usually, the city water hose is white, but not always.

• I attach the water pressure reducer to the far end of the hose.

• I turn the spigot on again to clear any stale water from my hose, and to fill the hose with water.  Once water is coming out of the hose I turn it off again.  Filling the hose with water helps to keep the RV water lines from having a lot of air passed into them.

• Hook the reducer side of the hose connection to the RV.

• Turn the spigot on.

I try to listen as the water pressure builds in the line to make sure one of the sinks inside is not open and allowing water in the camper.  If I am in a location where I cannot hear it I might pop my head into the camper and listen just to make sure.  

The reason I do this is to prevent water from filling my grey tank.  It’s also the reason I have started using my onboard tank with my new camper.  I have heard stories where owners have walked away from their campsite and unknowingly left water dripping into a sink.  I usually camp without a sewer connection so this could fill my tank pretty quickly.

To use my on-board water tank, I first sanitized the tank.  For my little 30-gallon tank I used a half a cup of the household bleach and filled the tank with water.  I let it sit overnight before emptying and rinsing.  There are a few more steps but this is the short version.

When I fill the tank, I follow the same procedure above skipping the reducer.  I then have this adapter to attach to the hose end that will go straight into my tank opening. I love that this adapter has a water shut off at your fingertips.  I still check inside to make sure I don’t have a sink dripping.

When using the on-board tank, you must turn your water pump on to get water.  As a matter of preference, I turn mine off when I leave the camper.  For me, this is one more little habit to help prevent a water leak in my camper.  

Mark Polk goes more in-depth about water filtration.  Check out his posting to learn about the different types of filers.