RV Fresh Water Connection :
When you are parked somewhere wonderful with your RV for any time period longer than 2-3 days, you’ll want to be connected to a source of fresh water.
While it is true that the RV can usually carry fresh water in the fresh water tank, that tank won’t last you very long unless all you do is wash dishes and drink water using that tank. If you are driving with your fresh water tank full – you should remember that water weighs EIGHT ( 8 ) pounds per gallon. That weight adds up in a hurry.
The RV fresh water connection uses the same type of connector as a regular garden hose. I’ve seen it plastered all over the internet that you should only use special medical grade or drinking water grade hose for the fresh water. Honestly I don’t know what the truth is. I’ll tell you a secret – Sheri and I use ordinary garden hoses. But we do filter our water. I’m sure whatever the bad chemical is in the hoses will get through the filter, but so far we have not died. It just seems like one more of those recommendations that gets passed around that soon seems to be “gospel” when no one has actually ever checked. You be the judge.
I also see lots of recommendations to have a water pressure limiter on your incoming water. I DO think that is a good idea, particularly in a new park where you don’t know exactly what kind of pressure the park has. Sheri and I do put on a limiter and if the pressure is too weak, we take it off. I will tell you that of all the issues we have had with our RV, water leaks seem to be the biggest problem. Not necessarily because of pressure, but maybe because of turning pressure on, then off, then traveling with vibration, then turning pressure on again. I can’t prove it, but that is my hunch. So you should probably have a limiter on your system. You could put it at the fresh water connection here or you could probably put it at the RV park valves connector.
We did try an inline filter from Walmart and you can get the same thing from Amazon. We finally decided that the inline filter knocked down water pressure too much, cost too much, and using it to filter water for showers seemed a bit wasteful. We now use a Pur filter pitcher for water that we place in our refrigerator. You can order Pur pitcher filter refills here too. We have been VERY happy with this pitcher and the water tastes great. We are thinking about a reverse osmosis system instead though.
Here is a picture of the fresh water connection in your fifth wheel :
