Every RV needs at least one hose and you should have two.
For fresh water hookups in many parks and campgrounds you will need less than 10 feet of hose to reach the water faucet. But
if you travel much you will eventually stay in places where you will need a longer length.
We carry a four, ten and twenty-five foot hose. Using these
hoses in different combinations makes the right length for most any situation. Having just the right length means no extra
hose to coil or have snaking all over the place. The 4ft hose also serves as the RV fresh water tank fill hose at most water
fill stations.
Our fresh water hoses are ONLY used for connecting the rig
to the park faucet or filling the fresh water tank. We carry a fifty foot utility hose for all other needs such as washing
the rig, watering the yard, and flushing the black tank and sewer hose. Yes, we've watched folks disconnect the fresh water
hose from the RV and stick it down the end of the sewer hose to rinse it out. This is not healthy and, it's gross!
When storing our hoses we connect the ends together. This
keeps dirt and creepy crawlers out and any water that didn't get drained out from soaking the storage compartment.
The fresh water connection on our 5th wheel is inside a
small compartment. Trying to thread the hose coupling and tightened enough to get a leak free connection was a hassle. A quick
connect adaptor was the solution. It's easy to change the hose end of the quick connect to whatever length hose I need.
To protect our plumbing and supply hose from possible high
pressure conditions we use a pressure regulator at the faucet.
Some RV manufacturers build regulators into the plumbing.
If this is the case with your rig then you won't need to add another. Then again, having the regulator at the faucet takes
some strain off the hose.
We assume and are confident that in the U.S and Canada a
park's water is safe to drink. But safe doesn't mean that it will taste good. When we started RVing we had a water filter
on the incoming water supply but for the last couple of year we've just filtered our drinking water. However, we've recently
stayed at a couple of park's where the water smelled bad and tasted worse. We're reconsidering carrying one of those disposable
filters for such times.
Keep in mind that filters will remove contaminates such
as sand and rust and will improve taste and odor but a filter is not a purifier and will not kill bacteria and other microorganisms.
We have a Y connector for times when it's necessary to connect
to a shared faucet. Also, the Y connector allows us to use our utility hose without disconnecting the fresh-water service
hose.
Many RV parks have anti-syphon valves on their faucets but
many more do not so we have our own. We also use an anti-syphon valve on the utility hose side of the Y connector.
I like hoses with metal fittings and accessories made of
metal parts because in the past I've had less trouble with them leaking but the last set of hoses leaked around the fittings!
I cut the ends off and replaced them with plastic ones... they didn't leak... go figure.
One last accessory is a pair of pliers. Too often we find
the faucet handle is broken or the faucet leaks. Having a pair of pliers stored with our hoses make repairs quick and easy.
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