Howard mentioned sanitizing fresh water hookups with a bleach/water solution in his post for 9/25, so I thought I'd throw this out there. I've seen it mentioned (RV.NET maybe), and seemingly confirmed elsewhere, that a bleach/water solution for sanitizing fresh water spigots before you hook up needs to be fresh. After 24 hours it loses its sterilizating properties. One of the confirmations came from somebody who it seemed should be in the know - I think it was someone who actually worked for a bleach manufacturer or something like that.

I wish I could remember for sure where I read all this, but it's one of those factoids I filed away in the back of my mind for future reference and took a memory dump on the source. Has anyone else run across this info anywhere?

Tim & Robyn Fansler

 

 

 

I periodically smell it to make sure I smell the bleach and every few months I refresh it, so it does lose the bleach over time.   Another test is to find a spot of mildew or mold and give it a squirt, you will know quickly if there is bleach in the solution.

Hi,

I started poking around on rv.net trying to find the postings about this. Here's what I found in one:

"The Clorox rep said the solution should be mixed every day and an unopened bottle of Clorox will loose 20% of its strength one year after manufacturer."

I'm not a chemist, so another post was over my head, but what they said was that once you mix bleach with water what you smell is not the bleach itself, but the byproducts of the bleach breaking down, which begins to happen quickly after bleach is mixed with water - something about the ph level being changed. They also mentioned that for disinfecting things like counter tops, etc. hospitals, nursing homes, et al replace the solution daily because of this rapid breakdown in water - as it breaks down it loses its ability to disinfect.

Let's see, what else did I find?:... the recommended solution should be mixed at 1/4 cup per gallon of water, and should be left on for two minutes. All of this of course is hearsay - second, third, fourth hand... who knows? Reminds me of that game where there are a bunch of people sitting in a circle in a room and you whisper a story/joke to the person next to you, and see how much it's changed when it gets back to you.

Maybe I'm crying wolf, but I'm also paranoid about computer viruses.

Cheers, Tim & Robyn

 

 

First of all, I don't have a CLUE what I'm talking about.  Made a D in High School Chemistry and thanked God I escaped the class!

That said, I use the cleaner CLOROX Clean-UP with bleach.  I use it all the time, I love the cleaner.  It comes mixed and all you do is spray it.  I have corian and all I do is spray, wait a few seconds (sink minutes not seconds) and wipe off.  It takes care of everything perfectly.  The bottle says it kills 99.9% of all bacteria including (I quote of the back of bottle) escherichia coli 0157:H7; salmonella choleraesuis; staphylococcos aureus; streptococcus pyogenes.  It goes on to say the product contains bleach so not to mix with other products, bla bla.  My point of this is that this product is sold pre-mixed and has shelf life of I don't know how long, but I would think in the months not days of shelf life.  I know it has clorox because I change clothes to use it because I really seems to get into my cleaning stuff and bleached enough of my clothes just cleaning.  So, I have always thought to save money maybe I shoud just buy clorox and mix my own because I can't believe that the biggest ingreadient in this bottle is not water, but they don't break it down on contents so I don't know.

This is just some food for thought.  If they can sell this product and let it sit how come you can't mix up some on your own and let it sit for longer than 24 hrs.  BUT remember that I made a D and hate chemistry.  I still 44 years later don't understand why hot water in an ice tray makes ice freeze faster than cold water, so this is just a post to tell you about the product that I use.  I love the product and I would take it to spray on those faucets if I JUST HAD A MH already!

Dianne

I agree with you, Chlorox Clean Up is fantastic, but you do have to be careful, it will bleech out what ever it gets on. My DH used it to clean the awning on the fifth wheel and it did a great job. He raves about it now. I guess it would work on the water faucet too and be easy to use. I carry it with me when we travel. You never know when you are going to run into dirt and germs.