Remove the Stress of Sanitizing Your Water Storage Tank

Need a Solution to Your Tainted Water Tank Problems? Look No Further

Those of you who missed out on our report about how an unreliable winterizing solution can produce a Sandals Beach Resort for waterborne bacteria may be noticing a penetrating odor originating from your galley tap. Regardless of the cause of your water woes, our preferred chemist-sailor Drew Frye has spent the majority of the winter developing some simple steps to ensuring you get fresh-tasting water as good as any bottled variety on board this spring. Here he provides a detailed guide to sanitizing that foul-smelling tank.

With cautious monitoring and pre-filtering of dockside water and upkeep of tank water, this specific procedure should only be required when contamination is suspected, or to start off fresh with a clean tank. Regular evaluations, filtration at the dock, and routine maintenance doses of chlorine or treatment tablets (which we will compare in Part II of this series) whenever needed will definitely protect against future problems. Utilizing a proper blend of glycol if you winterize will prevent one of the common causes of contamination.

Initially the storage tank needs to be clean. Look inside with a flashlight; is there any type of sediment on the bottom or perhaps residue on the walls? Feel the walls; are they slick, evidence of healthy bacterial growth? Everything needs to go. Hopefully there is practical access, for there is no substitute for a good hand scrubbing and rinse-down along with a high powered hose. There is a basic sterilizing procedure for recreational vehicles (ANSI A119.2 section 10.8) that works just as effectively for boats. We've included a few details, but the bones of it come straight from the code and have actually been reviewed and approved by the U.S. Public Health Service.

Turn off the hot water heater until finished.

Get rid of any type of carbon canisters or micron rated filters. Remove any faucet aerator screens. Wire mesh pump protection strainers ought to stay in place. The plumbing will most likely slough off a layer of bacteria throughout later flushing steps.

Clean and eliminate the vent screen and flush the vent hose.

Make use of either following methods in order to identify the volume of common household bleach needed to sanitize the tank.

Multiply gallons of tank capacity by 0.13; the result is the ounces of bleach needed to sanitize the tank. This is 1/8 cup of plain bleach (absolutely no fragrance) per 10 gallons.

Multiply liters of tank capacity by 1.0; the outcome is the milliliters of bleach needed to sanitize the tank.

Mix the proper amount of bleach inside a 1-gallon canister of water. This will certainly offer better mixing and reduce spot corrosion of aluminum tanks.

Dump the solution (water/bleach) into the storage tank and fill up the tank with drinkable water.
Preferably, allow some solution to escape though the air vent. (If the vent is exterior, prevent any type of spillage into local waters.) This will certainly disinfect the vent line.

Open all faucets (hot and cold) allowing the water to run until all of the air is removed and the distinct odor of chlorine is detected. Leave the pressure pump on.

The basic solution must have four hours of contact time in order to sanitize completely. Doubling the solution concentration reduces the contact time to one hour.

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