Is It Dangerous to Clean Your Motorhome Tank with Vinegar?
Yes, using vinegar to clean the water tank in your motorhome is safe and effective. But there’s a catch – the vinegar needs to be heated to at least 130 degrees Fahrenheit to kill all bacteria. While unheated vinegar will clean and cleanse your freshwater system reasonably well, it may not be effective against the mentioned bacteria.
And this means you’ll need to find a way to pump hot vinegar into your motorhome’s freshwater system. Now you’re probably thinking – how do you pump hot vinegar into your vehicle’s freshwater system? Well, the answer is simple. Keep reading to find out how.
You can use your motorhome’s water heater to heat the vinegar to 55 degrees Celsius. And the best part is it kills two birds with one stone. Hot vinegar not only cleans and sanitises your freshwater system but is also effective at removing mineral deposits like calcium or lime that may have accumulated in your hot water tank and on its anode rod. The acid content of vinegar is high enough to disinfect and dissolve these mineral deposits while still being largely safe for human consumption.
How to Clean Your RV Freshwater System with Vinegar
Below is a step-by-step guide to cleansing your motorhome’s freshwater system safely and efficiently with hot vinegar.
- First, ensure your water heater is off and set the temperature to over 55 degrees Celsius (130F).
- Drain all the water from your vehicle’s freshwater system and hot water tank.
- Fill your freshwater tank with at least 60 litres of a 50/50 solution of water and white vinegar.
- Prepare a 50/50 solution of water and white vinegar and fill your freshwater tank with at least 60 litres of the solution.
- Open your kitchen faucet and run your water pump until the vinegar-water solution comes out.
- Turn the water off and turn on the water heater. The solution may take about 20-30 minutes to reach 55 degrees Celsius.
- In the meantime, attach a thread adapter to the kitchen faucet. Then, attach a garden hose to the adapter and run it to the freshwater tank intake outside your motorhome.
- Once the solution is heated, turn your water pump on and run hot water through the hot side of the kitchen faucet to fill the freshwater tank.
- Once the hot vinegar solution is in the freshwater tank, you will run each fixture, one at a time, until you smell vinegar, then turn it off and open the other. Keep in mind that you will open the cold side of the kitchen faucet last.
- And don’t forget to run the solution through your ice maker and drinking water dispenser in the fridge door.
- Once you have run the hot solution through every hot and cold line in your motorhome, disconnect the garden hose and let it in your vehicle’s freshwater system overnight.
- The next day, remove the anode rod from the water heater and then drain and rinse out the heater. You may see quite a bit of sediment from the water heater. Place the anode rod back and set the water heater to its default temperature (50 degrees).
- Hook up to a freshwater supply and run fresh water through both the hot and cold sides of your fixtures until the vinegar smell is gone.
Conclusion
It goes against traditional knowledge to clean your motorhome water tank and system without bleach. But a hot vinegar solution is excellent if you want to go green and be ecologically friendly. Remember to clean your vehicle’s freshwater system as frequently as possible, especially if you notice a stale odour or haven’t used your motorhome in a while.
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