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Motorhome - fresh water - The White Vineg

Yahoo Message Number: 99862
After seven winters of Arizona water we noticed impaired flow on both the cold & hot side of the coach water system.  I loaded 24 gal of white vinegar in the fresh water tank and over a two day period ran the vinegar through both sides of the system.

The way I did this was to run a short hose from the water bay hose bib into the fresh tank manual fill port, turned off the park water, opened the hot & cold valves on the bib and ran the water pump for 5 to 10 minutes at a time.  Also ran the vinegar up into all the valves & outlets in the coach.
 
In the evening I turned off the pump and the bib valves, turned the park water back on and flushed out all the inside outlets so we could cook, wash etc.  We repeated this “run the pump 5/10 minutes at a time” routine for 2 days then purged the system and set things back to normal.
 
The vinegar was dumped out via the fresh tank dump valve and it left a large pile of white granules on the ground.  Not only has our water flow come back to normal the efficiency of the Aqua Hot has improved remarkably.  I believe this is due to the mineral buildup on the heat exchanger(s) being removed.

I plan now to do this once a year or so, 50 bucks of white vinegar is cheap maintenance.

 
Jim 07 Allure 31570

Re: Motorhome - fresh water - Re: [Country-Coach-Owners] The White V

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 99863
Why not buy a small portable water softener. Have soft water all the time. We have one, works like a charm. Mine recharges with a lb. of Morton's Salt. Easy to use/recharge.

Lee (leozbrowski@...) President, CCI

2007 Country Coach Intrigue 12153
CAT C-13

Re: Motorhome - fresh water - Re: [Country-Coach-Owners] The White V

Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 99864
We just did the same thing but didn't load it into the tank. After flushing the hot water heater and putting the plug back in I siphoned the vinegar in without using the water heater bypass. After the water heater was full we ran all the hot, then cold faucets, shower heads and toilet until we could smell vinegar out of each. We let ours sit for 18 hours and used bottled water. After flushing the system with park water I re flushed the hot water heater. Lots of calcium crystals. Two weeks later I had to pull all faucet screens and rinse crystals out again but it made a big difference in flow.  I might add that before we flushed the vinegar we heated the water tank then drained hot vinegar out of each faucet.

Re: Motorhome - fresh water - Re: [Country-Coach-Owners] The White V

Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 99866
Vinegar always works great to clean out fresh water systems. But in all the years I've been doing it I've never had to use more than a gallon maybe two? Never have I heard of such a large amount needed. The key is to get it in the lines and let it sit for a couple hours maybe overnight then flush it out making sure all the screens are removed at the faucets. I also follow up with bleach to eliminate the vinegar smell/taste, again only a small amount is needed, like ½ to 1 cup per 50 gallons. We have lots of customers who travel down south and usually this needs to be done at least every other year with aqua hot coaches and about double that time for the coaches without. I recommend it done every year unless they have a softener onboard. Most do it when pressure loss is noticed or heating issues....

Jim

Infinity Coach

Re: The White Vinegar Trick

Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 100030
Did you use full strength vinegar or mix in the coach fresh water tank with however many gallons were already in it?

Re: The White Vinegar Trick

Reply #5 –
Yahoo Message Number: 100031
Did you use vinegar straight or diluted? I was thinking of adding unknown quantity of vinegar to my 160 gallon capacity fresh water tank. Then run through all faucets and let it set overnight. Take faucet screens out and flush fresh water tank with bleach mixture to rid vinegar smell and taste. I know the mixture for bleach to water, but was wondering about initial vinegar to water mixture rate.

Re: The White Vinegar Trick

Reply #7 –
Yahoo Message Number: 100044
Overkill on my part I used it full strength. I flushed the water heater then added vinegar thru the antifreeze full port without using WH bypass. I made sure I had vinegar coming out of all faucets, toilet, shower head then let it sit overnight. I then switched on city water and flushed until water came out of each. I did not put it in my fresh water tank. Our coach is 10 years old and it made a big difference. I did change filters afterwards. I cleaned all faucet screens and had to do it again (the screens) two weeks later. Probably could have got by with a weaker solution but wanted the crud out. I used 15 or 16 gallons. Good luck.
 

Re: The White Vinegar Trick

Reply #8 –
Yahoo Message Number: 100045
I was thinking of doing this for the flush lines for my black and grey water tanks. They are stopped up . Consensus is that the screens at the tanks are stopped up.  What do you think.
Glen Coulter
2003 intrique

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