Introduction To RV Water

My name is Jim Worden and I own a small business called Cove Systems, Inc. in Sevierville Tennessee. We manufacture and sell water filtration systems for recreational vehicles, marine, aviation and home use. This little business grew out of our camping experiences over the past 25 years. My wife and I are avid RV owners and spend as much time as we can in our motor home, enjoying the vagabond lifestyle. We started camping as a way to have quality time with our kids when they were young. Although our children are grown and gone now, RVing is still a big part of our life.

Along the way, I became interested in the subject of good, clean water. There were times that the water available at various parks and campgrounds was not very good. We handled the problem by purchasing and using bottled water. Then I found out that bottled water was maybe not as good as we had assumed. This created a dilemma and set me on the path to find a way of processing our own water. After many years of research and finally getting a better understanding of what I was facing, we developed a system that really works. The same technology was then incorporated in systems for marine, aviation and home use. The following articles were written with a view toward recreational vehicles but they also apply to our other systems because we use the same filter media for all of our filters.

I will be posting a series of articles on fresh water issues on this blog. My hope is that you will find these articles interesting and helpful. The series will consist of four articles.

Article 1. What is water and why is it important?
Article 2. Bottled water. What’s all the hype?
Article 3. Water contaminants – brief discussion and overview.
Article 4. Different methods and suggestions for cleaning water.
Let’s start out with “Who The Heck Is Jim Worden and what makes him Think he is so smart”. Thank You; Thank You…That’s a good question. I have been studying water issues for several years now, primarily for my own purposes. I love to tinker with things and am always looking for a better mousetrap. Our first full-size motor home was a Winnebago we bought in 1983. Up until then we tent camped or used our conversion van. I didn’t have a clue about the problems and dangers of careless management of the fresh water system. We relied on bottled water until the Winnebago came along. When we started using the on-board tank water, our headaches began. Algae, bacteria, iron and other contaminants turned us back to bottled water. Since then I have learned a lot. Today, the water in our RV is excellent, thanks to our filtration system and a small amount of water system maintenance using procedures we developed.

My mind has a natural tendency to drift to the technical side of about any problem I encounter. I have a technical background so I like to look at the “nuts and bolts” of how things work. I originally thought the process to remove harmful contaminants and keep the RV water supply system clean had to be simple. Boy, was I ever wrong! As I found out the hard way, keeping the RV water system clean and safe does require a certain level of care. I also came to realize that as we traveled around the country the quality of available water we encountered varied a lot. There is an amazing amount of science and technology available that directly relates to this subject. Unfortunately, not much of it has found its way into the RV field. My goal is to educate those that have an interest and concern for clean, safe water.

Over the years I have had the good fortune to meet some very smart people. Many of them are scientists in such fields as microbiology and chemistry. I have never hesitated in picking their brain on fresh water issues. From this has come a fairly significant knowledge base for addressing the very real issues you and I face every day in our RV’s.

So, over the course of the next few articles we are going to talk about water, your RV and how to keep you safe. Keep in mind that the information presented is based on my own experience, research and views. There may be other and possibly better ways to do things. What I present to you comes from many years of study and trial and error. The first article will examine water, what it is, where it comes from and the current condition of our water here in the United States. From there we will discuss in the following articles what contaminants you might encounter and various methods to remove or control these contaminants. We will also post methods and procedures for cleaning and maintaining the fresh water system found on most RV’s.

The postings to follow are going to be brief and to the point. I invite you to submit comments or questions as we proceed. I can be contacted at rvwater@aol.com. I always enjoy hearing from fellow RVers. You may want to cruise through our website, located at http://www.covesystemsinc.com/.