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Date:         Tue, 18 Jul 1995 09:02:40 CST6CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Dan Houg" <fairwind@northernnet.com>
Subject:      water tank sanitizers

this is work related so i'll indulge myself with another post.

there are 3 common sanitizers in the food industry that would also be applicable to sanitizing our water holding tanks. the first and fore-most point is that none of these will work unless the tank is clean, meaning free of sludge, sediment, guck, pump labels (oh yes, mine came off in a big way) and other assorted biofilms. clean means removing the cover and scrubbing the tank with a mild, non-abrasive cleanser and pad combo. i would reccomend the 3M dish washing pads that have a pink sponge on one side and a *white* scrubby pad on the other. you do not want to scratch the plastic in cleaning as this would give a nice home for bacteria to hide in. get the tank clean and white, period.

THEN you think about sanitizing it.

1. chlorine compounds. best on to use is bleach as its cheap and available. yes it is corrosive and will do nasty things to pump parts and water level guages if used indiscriminantly. BUT it is safe, cheap and works. you want to achieve an effective concentration of 50 parts per million chlorine for sanitizing. this works out to about 1 tablespoon bleach per gallon. let it sit in the tank half an hour and dump it out. rinse it out a little with fresh water and you're on your way.

2. Quaternary Ammonium products. there are a variety of products available in food service catalogs that utilize this active ingrediant for sanitizing. it also works and has the advantage of being non-corrosive BUT it is hard to get, expensive and has a really long chemical name that would scare most cockroaches. mix to an effective concentration of 200 ppm.

3. iodine compounds. again, non-corrosive and to use you want to reach an effective concentration of 12.5 ppm. this means you mix it up with water to the color of Dos Equis beer. it will turn polyethylene brown. if you spill it on your Westy cabinets it will leave a rude brown stain. it will stain your fingers a rude brown. and it ain't so cheap.

here's my personal recommendation, soley my opinion. clean your tank well, you should need to do this only once. then sanitize with bleach at a tablespoon per gallon. i don't worry about corrosion at these concentrations and contact time. after your trip, take the water tank lid off and put a piece of cloth over the hole secured with a rubber band. this will let the tank dry out and nasties won't grow. next time you use it you may not even need to sanitize.

chemical test papers that show the effective concentration of these sanitizers are available from restaurant supply houses, but you really don't need them.

-dan

Daniel Houg Minnesota Department of Health Internet Address: fairwind@northernnet.com Fax #: 218/755-3823


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