One of the most common questions we got when we visited Baja Mexico was, “Is the water safe to drink” and the short answer is NOPE!
In the accompanying video on this subject, we talk about how we treated the water in Mexico to make it safe to drink.
To be honest, the way we treated the water in Mexico is the exact same way we treat the water everywhere else we’ve traveled in North America!
There are a couple of different ways to make sure you have safe drinking water in your RV, it’s super easy, even for newbie RVers and we will address both of them.
What Is The Easiest Way To Have Safe Drinking Water In Your RV?
The easiest way to have safe drinking water in your RV is to buy bottled water.
This is not our preferred method because you either have to deal with disposing of plastic bottles, which aren’t good for the environment, or you have to deal with refilling a large 5 gallon jug. Refilling a 5 gallon jug means figuring out how to get it into smaller containers so you can pour it easier.
The 5 gallon jug worked for us for a while, but was a pain sometimes especially if we got into areas where refills were not sold or you were not able to refill the bottle you had.
Our Preferred Method To Have Safe Drinking Water In Your RV
We prefer to use the water from our fresh water tank.
We don’t recommend drinking it straight out of the fresh water tank, so let’s talk about preparing it for drinking.
As a safety measure, you want to make sure you always use the same hose for connecting your RV fresh water tank to a water outlet.
You should avoid combining a hose that you use to rinse your black tank and your RV water supply hose as cross contamination could occur.
Always make sure you use a water pressure regulator between an RV parks water outlet and your RVs water system. We keep ours set at approximately 50lbs, but you should check with your RV manufacturer to see what they recommend as a safe pressure.
We have seen RV parks with pressure as high as 70lbs, which could damage your RVs internal water components and cause water damage inside your RV!
Once your water pressure regulator is hooked to the RV park’s water outlet, you can add a water filter. We prefer the blue Camco filter, but you can use any water filter you prefer that will work inline with a standard water hose.
We hook our Camco water filter directly to our pressure regulator and then our water hose between the water filter and the RV.
That simple setup should provide water that is good for showering, washing dishes or brushing your teeth. We do not use the water directly from our tank for any consumable water. We go one step further to make sure that water is safe to drink in our RV.
Our last defense in making our RV drinking water safe is the Travel Berkey water filter system.
The Berkey water filtration system works off of gravity with no need for electricity, making it perfect for camping or any kind of travel. We have even taken it into hotel rooms.
You simply pour water in the top compartment and when it passes through the filters into the bottom compartment, it is ready to drink, for cooking, or consume in whatever manner you’d like.
The Berkey has two different filters available, the standard Black Berkey filters, which work so good they can be classified as purifiers and the additional Berkey White flouride filters.
The Black Berkey filters take water filtration to a whole new level and are some of the most efficient filters that you’ll find anywhere.
After using the Black Berkey filters, you will not find any pathogens found in your water or even be detected! Because of this any system containing the Black Berkey filters, can be classified as purifiers. The Berkey purifier elements are so good that they can remove food coloring from water without removing any of the beneficial minerals your body needs.
The food color test is how we check to make sure the filters are still working. We pour a few drops of food coloring in the top of the Berkey and if it doesn’t make it out, we know we’re still good to go!
Each Berkey filter element has a life of 3,000 gallons, so with a two filter system you’re looking at 6,000 gallons. That’s equivalent to 48,000 (2,000 cases of 24) 16oz plastic bottles or 1,200 5 gallon containers.
That’s saved my back a lot of heavy lifting over the past couple of years!!
Even with the upfront cost of the Berkey system and filters that’s still less than 6 cents per gallon of water (give or take a few cents). The goes down to around 3 cents per gallon when buying just the Black Berkey replacement filters.
The Black Berkey filter elements’ can be cleaned up to 100 times using a 3M Scotch-Brite pad.
Final Thoughts: Making Your RV Water Safe To Drink
If you have a newer RV with a reverse osmosis system in it, the only thing you need to do is pre-filter the water coming into your RV and you’re good to go!
The initial cost of the Berkey can be a tough pill to swallow, but the long term benefits far outweigh the cost!
The savings don’t stop at the cost of the water. Driving to get the water uses fuel and is an added expense, storing and handling a heavy 5 gallon container takes up space and can take a toll on your back and the amount of plastic that you’re no longer using is a huge step in helping make the planet heatlthier!
If you would like to purchase your own Travel Berkey or Berkey filter system you can CLICK HERE and you will be taken to our Amazon page. If you want the fluoride filters as well you’ll want to CLICK HERE.
We get a small commission on any purchases you make, which helps support our channel and we appreciate very much!
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All of the items below are mentioned in accompanying article and are all you need to turn the fresh water in your RV into refreshing, safe drinking water.
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