(suspenseful music)
-Babe!
We need water.
(suspenseful music)
(intense music)
-Guys... it's not that bad.
Come on, let's make it easy for ya. Let's do it.
Hey, long time no see. -Hey, there you are.
-Did you miss me? -I did.
Did you ever get the water turned on?
Welcome to HappilyEverHanks.
We're gonna talk about water today.
This is very specific to a Grand Design RV water tutorial video but...
this will apply to anybody who has an RV, that wants to know how the water system works.
-Yeah. We're actually really excited to talk about this topic with you guys because...
sometimes the water can be confusing in itself.
And we just want to make it really simple.
-It was confusing for us when we first started out. -No doubt.
I think one of the first things we should talk about right off the get-go is...
the supplies you actually need, before getting out here on the road, with an RV.
-Okay, anything we're about to talk about guys...
we will have a link to that product in the description.
Just in case you want to you know, get the same cool stuff that we have.
-That'd be super convenient. -Were you going for a high five? -I think so. -Okay.
The first thing you're gonna need...
here we go...
is water.
-Goodness, help us.
Oh, piece of candy.
First one is this water hose.
-Wow careful with that. -What!
The Zero-G water hose is really nice. It is so flexible.
-Look at that.
You want to make sure you are getting a hose that is rated for drinking water.
Some really nice dealerships will include the hose, like with a starter kit.
-That's true. -But sometimes they don't.
So that gives you the flexibility to go out and get your own, like the kind you want.
-Yeah, like the Zero-G. Next topic.
-Whoa!
What is this crazy thing you're thinking?
-A water pressure regulator.
This is also another need, that you're gonna absolutely have to have, on the road.
The reason we say that is because you never know what the water pressure is gonna be at...
any place you visit. -Yes.
-Your pipes within your RV...
are only able to sustain a certain amount of PSI.
-You don't want to blow out your water lines.
-It's super easy. You hook it up to the spigot and then on top of here, you have a flat head screwdriver...
that you open or close, depending on if you want to increase or decrease the water pressure.
-We had this break on us. -Yes.
-And we almost bought a new one but...
luckily in time, we were able to cancel our Amazon order because we figured out...
why this wasn't working. -Uh, yeah. -But we'll get into that later.
Let's talk about our next item.
-How about this one? Water filter, water filter, water filter.
Do you know why? Because there's a lot of contaminants out there and also a lot of sediment.
Some of the water that is located at different RV parks...
isn't always the most fresh and cleanest water.
So this will help decrease any of those sediment products going within your tanks.
-Doesn't always come with this fancy little bendy hose thing.
So I would say, make sure you get one that has this little fancy bendy hose thing.
Because it's really nice when you're in like, tight situations with the hose.
-Oh! One more, one more, one more. -Okay.
-All right, now this one isn't absolutely a necessity to have but...
we try not to steer you in the wrong direction either.
When you actually go to hook it up into your RV...
this will give you that 90-degree elbow bracket...
to help decrease some of that wear and tear that goes on, hooking up that hose.
It just kind of gives you a nice flush look.
And keeps things simplified.
That way, you're not having to have 40 hoses sticking out the side of your RV.
-Unless you really want 40 hoses sticking outside, we're not judging.
-Whatever, it's two bucks.
What?
-There goes our two bucks.
So when you're looking at hooking up your hose to your RV, to get water, you have a couple options.
When you see the term city water...
that basically means whatever's coming right out of the spigot, from the hose, into your RV...
goes right into the fixtures.
Now make sure when you hook it up and you're thinking, I want city water, that you turn your knobs accordingly.
Each model is different. We have the P1 Nautilus System on our Solitude Grand Design RV. -Yeah.
-So we turn all the knobs, so it is set to city water. -Correct. -Okay?
-Just go according to however your RV's laid out.
All right, let's talk about the freshwater fill now.
It can kind of be a little confusing to think...
Okay, city water is coming from an outside source but freshwater...
that's not from an outside... like it's super confusing.
Fresh water is from your holding tank within your RV.
-So the fresh tank feature on your RV is just a matter of...
filling outside source water into your RV, so you could take it with you.
And then have water when you're not hooked up to city water.
-Totally. And with the Grand Design Solitude...
they actually have it to where you switch those P1 Nautilus System knobs accordingly.
It'll bypass everything and fill up that water tank.
-There is a over-fill vent tube.
But what you need to make sure that you do not make a habit out of, overfilling your tank.
That can cause some issues. It can pressurize your tank.
Whether you're using city water or you're filling up your fresh tank...
make sure you use your water filter because this is where we went wrong.
-Oh yeah, for sure.
-Let's touch on this really quick, before we move on because...
-Okay. -The way you get water into your fixtures from your tank is a 12 volt water pump.
And there is a screen inlet filter that is on your water pump.
And over time that's gonna get clogged with like debris and sediment and all that fun stuff.
-And that's exactly what happened to us. It got clogged.
And then we noticed a huge decrease in water pressure and we're like...
what gives? I don't get it. -Yeah.
-So what we had to do is we had to go find the water pump, within the RV.
Take out that inlet filter and then we realized, wow, this is really clogged up with all sorts of junk.
-So a lot of people are curious if they're new to this...
or you might already know this, but where does the water go...
whether you're on your fresh water tank or city water?
-Oh, that's a good point. Well, actually you have other tanks within your RV...
that are called grey tanks. Basically, that's just like...
dirty water. And that is collected from all the sinks within your RV.
So your kitchen sink and your bathroom sink... they all empty into a grey tank.
And if you're looking for more information on breaking down...
grey tanks, tanks, black tanks... everything you need to know about tanks...
-The dumping process.
-Bam. Check out a video, we'll throw a link up above. Check it out. It goes into great detail.
Let's talk about drinking water, because...
that was a huge concern, when we got on the road. We're like, well can we drink all this water?
-Yeah. -What do we do when we're stuck down in the middle of nowhere without running water? -Yeah.
-What are you drinking? -Yeah! -Yeah!
-Okay guys, the drinking water situation is basically a personal preference. -Yeah.
-We used to lug around a lot of bottled water.
And we just don't do that as much anymore because it's expensive and it's also bad for the environment.
So we invested in a little Brita Filter and whenever we are hooked to city water...
you know, where it just goes from the spigot right into your fixtures...
we filter our water in the RV. And we fill up all of our, you know...
-Nalgene bottles, Hydro flasks, everything, so...
-Now, if we are dry camping and we do not have that city water...
that continuous water, we do not drink water from the freshwater holding tank.
It doesn't matter if we just sanitized our tanks. It doesn't matter how new the RV is.
We don't like to drink water that has been stagnant in our tanks for even just a couple minutes.
-And even though we don't rely on the bottled water per se.
We do keep a couple on hand, just in case we get stuck in a weird scenario, where we just need water.
-It is very important to sanitize your water lines and your water tank every so often.
-Oh yeah. -We will not go into super detail about that right now because, guess what?
We already made a video about that. And we'll put the link above and you can check that out.
-Not bad at all. But you know what's also not bad is some Thanks Hanks Tips.
-Oh, that's so sweet.
-A first, really big tip, we want to bring to you is...
don't plan on dragging all of that fresh water with you, between destinations.
Plan it out accordingly, so you're not wasting extra gas.
And you're not carrying around extra weight.
Each gallon of water is like 8.8 pounds.
-That's a lot. -That's a lot.
So our next Thanks Hanks Tip is actually related to city water.
Now when you're at an RV park, and you have that continuous flow of the city water coming in.
We still take the extra precaution and fill our fresh water holding tank up, just a little bit.
-Why? I'll tell you why!
We've been at some places, you know on our travel assignments, where we were like...
we don't need the fresh water tank. We're here for like three months.
And then guess what? A water line goes out, or they decide to shut off the water without warning.-Yeah.
-So they can do work.
-Now granted, most places will give you a forewarning, but hey...
it's always nice to be prepared for emergency situations.
-Just keep, like you said, a little bit of water in there. -Just a smidge.
-So you can flush your toilets. So you can cook and do all that stuff.
Or if your pipes freeze.
(chuckles)
Did we ever do that?
-No!
-Our third Thanks Hanks Tip has to do with troubleshooting...
this water pressure regulator, if it stops working on you because that happened to us.
Why don't you tell them, what was not working on this.
-Okay, so the problem was with this initially when we hooked it up to the spigot...
I was noticing as soon as I turned on the water source...
there would just be no fluctuation of the pressure gauge here.
And the water hose would just like, get really stiff and back up.
And there would be like no water pressure, I'm like, what is going on?
-This gauge was actually clogged with like minerals and calcium and all that.
I took this apart and I just looked at it and...
they're supposed to be a tiny little hole, so this can read the pressure.
So instead of buying a whole new one, and spending the extra money,
I just took a needle and just kind of cleaned it out.
And what do you know, there was now another small opening to the gauge...
and it was reading... just like that.
-Lives to see another day. -Yay! -I love it.
And a huge thing, if you guys are looking for
more information that you absolutely need to know, before getting out here on the road.
Give these videos a look over.
We'll catch you next week. It's HappilyEverHanks checking out.
-Bye. -Love you guys!