260 DA, 2007 Fresh Water Holding Tank Questions

Nick E Carmichael

New Member
May 26, 2018
19
St. Paul MN, Mississippi River
Boat Info
2007 Sundancer 260
Engines
Merc
I filled up my freshwater tank for the first time of the year (new boat for me, first time for me). When I taste the water out of the faucet it tastes sweet. Do I need to run the first tank of water through the faucets to get the winterizing solution run through the lines before the water will taste normal? Please let me know.
 
Yes.... and unless you know the previous owner took care of the tank I would just use the water for washing dishes and toilet...... and use bottle water to drink.

I've been meaning to sanitize my water tank with a bleach solution to just give me piece of mind that the water is good to go.
 
yeah.. we dont drink the tank water.. fill up and add just a little chlorine every couple fills (we use her every weekend and use a lot of water rinsing off from swimming)
 
Every spring I flush my tank and faucets a couple of times... while we don't drink from it, we do brush our teeth with it, and do dishes and showers.
 
I’m pretty fanatical,about keeping my fresh water tank clean and fresh and we still don’t drink the water from it.
 
I stopped using RV antifreeze in my water lines. I drain the tank then disconnect them after the pump and blow them out using compressed air. The only place I use some AF is in the water tank to ensure there's no water in the bottom or the line between the tank and the pump. In the spring I flush that out before connected up the distribution lines.

Then I run some bleach water through the system, let it sit, flush, refill and treat with Aquabon at each fill. This keeps my tank fresh all season. With this regimen I don't have any qualms about drinking the water occasionally. But my wife has a different opinion. I also am the original owner of the boat and know the full maintenance history.
 
Geeze...I wonder if I'm the only one that drinks from the tank!!!

I leave my tank full for winter storage and empty it completely in the spring, refill just a little, empty again and then fill for use. 90% of the time we need drinking water I'm hooked up to dockside water but we don't hesitate to use the tank water when out and about.

I've never used antifreeze products in the tank nor have prior owners from what I can tell. The water tastes good and fresh...
 
Geeze...I wonder if I'm the only one that drinks from the tank!!!

I leave my tank full for winter storage and empty it completely in the spring, refill just a little, empty again and then fill for use.

How do you accomplish this with your Michigan location? Even in southern New York (Long Island) that would be recipe for major freeze-induced damage. We saw lots of of sub-zero temps last winter.
 
We are hooked up to dock water and use it when hooked up. However, we do not hesitate to drink the tank water when not at the dock. Never have done anything special and tastes the same....

Bennett
 
The key is constant recycling of the water. We use 20-30 gallons every weekend so I am constantly refilling. If you let water sit in the tank for weeks on end, it will begin to go bad.

I could drink water from mine, but I choose to bring drinking water from home out of my triple osmosis filter system.
 
How do you accomplish this with your Michigan location? Even in southern New York (Long Island) that would be recipe for major freeze-induced damage. We saw lots of of sub-zero temps last winter.

I've only ever done inside heated storage. I suppose I should have mentioned that :)
 
Last edited:
I've always used my potable water for everything on board including drinking and making ice - for over 25yrs now. As already stated, running existing water often and replacing it with fresh water is an obvious must. Also, run the hose for a minute or so overboard before filling your water supply (hoses sitting in the sun filled with water leach vinyl). I never use antifreeze since blowing out the lines with compressed air is a no cost, no flavour alternative plus the beginning of each season I bleach the lines. This is best done with the water tank run empty, shut off the pump, put a cup of bleach in the tank, then top off the bleach with a gallon or so of fresh water. Then turn the pump back on and open each tap until you smell bleach in the water. I also flush the head and take the top layer of ice from the ice maker. Leave the boat for 24hrs. Upon return, fill the tank with fresh water from the hose while running all of the taps, flush the toilet, empty the ice. Once the tank gets to 3/4 full, your done. My municipal water supply has a fair bit of chlorine in it too, so with each fill up of the tank it gets a little sanitizing as well.

I do heated storage now, but stored my last boat outside for 8yrs without freezing issues. Air doesn't expand when frozen.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
112,943
Messages
1,422,708
Members
60,927
Latest member
Jaguar65
Back
Top