City Water Hookups

Using city water hookups is pretty easy and adds a lot of convenience when camping in a campground with hookups.  Just connect your potable water hose between the faucet and the connection on the side of your RV.   Do not use an ordinary garden hose.  Potable water  hoses are made with compounds that won't leach chemicals or taste into the water.  They are also usually reinforced to stand up to constant pressure between the faucet and the RV's water system.  To protect both your hose and your RV's plumbing, use a pressure regulator between the faucet and the hose.  The connection on the RV will be an external female hose connector on the outside (usually on the left side) of your RV and should be clearly labeled.  It may be recessed or flush mounted so it sticks out.  It should have a plastic cover over it when not in use.  Some RVs have similar connections for flushing the holding tanks and those should also be clearly labeled.   If they are not labeled, look underneath to try to see where the lines go.  The city water connection will usually be about midway up the side of the wall.  The flush connections are usually lower, near the bottom of the wall near the holding tanks, and you can probably see where the hoses run underneath to the holding tanks. Connecting your fresh water hose to the sewer flush connectors could contaminate your hose and thus your water supply.  One-way valves in the flushing system normally prevent any sewage from leaking from the connectors but having used the your sewer rinse hose on them previously after the hose was used to clean the large sewer dump hose or handling by less than clean hands may have contaminated the connection.  Though the pollution level may be very low, I for one, don't relish the thought of adding any sewer residue to my fresh water!

The city water connection on your RV should contain a check valve and possibly a restrictor to reduce pressure to protect your plumbing.  Without the check valve water will spurt out the city water connection when you turn on your water pump.  Check valves can get stuck and I've even seen them removed from some RVs.  Screwing a male hose plug into the female connector is an easy, inexpensive, and fairly easy way to temporarily solve the problem until you can replace the connector.  Why would anyone remove the check valve you ask.  They may have been trying to get better flow or pressure from a city water source into their RV and, if they never used the onboard water tank and pump it wouldn't matter.  But I would think they would need to use the pump once in a while at least, like when stopping at a freeway rest area.

Another potential and fairly common problem with city water hookups is water pressure.  You never know what the pressure will be unless you test it.  Low pressure is inconvenient, high pressure can damage your RV plumbing.   To be safe, always use an in-line pressure regulator right at the faucet so it protects both the hose and the RV water system from excess pressure.  Regulators are fairly inexpensive (under $10) and can avoid costly repairs.  For better control and allegedly better flow, adapt an adjustable residential pressure regulator.  Make sure your water line lies flat on the ground so it doesn't become a trip hazard. I also like to use an 90° elbow right at the RV connection so the hose hangs straight down instead of getting kinked where it connects to the RV.   These special elbows have a male hose connector on one end to connect to the RV and a female connection on the other end to accept the male end of your potable water hose.  If you know or suspect the water may have a high mineral content or other particulates, use an in-line filter to clean the water before it gets into your RV system.   In-line filters are usually around $20 each and last a few months.  Place the filter near the faucet so its weight doesn't stress the connection on the side of your RV.   Your RV might have a built-in filter for the whole water system.   If so, all you need to do is make sure the cartridge is changed periodically.  The cartridges usually last longer than in-line filters before they have to be changed.  If your RV doesn't have an on-board filter, you may be able to purchase one at a home center and install it yourself or have one installed by a qualified RV technician.  Having a permanent filter adds convenience and usually reduces cost.  I'm told that adapting a residential filter is usually less expensive than installing one marketed specifically for RVs but just as effective.

Before you connect your hose to the RV, run a little water through it to rinse out any or dust or bugs that might have gotten into it during storage and to get rid of any stale water that may have been left over from the last time you used it.   Be careful where the water goes so you don't muddy pathways or flood someone's site (including yours!).  To keep stuff out while in storage, use hose end caps or simply screw the two ends of the hose together.   Be sure you dump all the water out first. Otherwise, the trapped water could develop biological contamination (algae, mold, mildew) from naturally occurring micro-organisms in many water sources.   Flushing the hose after you've hooked it up to the faucet but before you connect it to your RV or start filling your RV or jugs ensures most contaminants are washed away.  If, when you flush your hose, the output is unacceptably dirty or foul smelling, you may want to purify the hose with vinegar or a 10% bleach solution then thoroughly rinse it before using it.

It is not a good idea to connect to faucets at dump stations to fill your fresh water tanks, let alone use it for a city water connection.  The chances of the connections having become contaminated is too great.  It is unlikely that any sewage has been flushed back into the water system, but the connections themselves often are dirtied by unclean rinse hoses or even dirty hands/gloves.  When in a campground, always connect only to the faucet assigned to your designated camping space or get permission from the designated user to share it.  NEVER tie up a nearby public faucet for your personal use or use the faucet from someone else's camp site without permission.

Monitor your water system so you can detect any leaks before they cause serious damage to your RV.  Listen for water flowing or hissing when all the fixtures are shut off.   Watch for damp spots where there shouldn't be any.   If you think you have a leak, turn off the water at the faucet and only use it as needed instead of leaving it connected all the time.

Always use a pressure regulator attached to the faucet to protect both your hose and your RV plumbing.  Another handy accessory is an elbow so the hose hangs straight down from the side of your RV instead of kinking where is screws into the fitting.

Sunlight can heat the water in your city water hose quite a bit during summer months.  One enterprising RVer solved this problem by buying an inexpensive soft-sided cooler at Walmart and coiling the extra hose in it and putting it under his RV out of direct sunlight and minimizing the amount of hose left in the sun.  When it came time to pack up he just rolled the rest of the hose together with the pressure regulator inside the cooler and zipped it up.  In camp it keeps the hose cooler.  On the road it keeps the hose clean and contained and captures any residual water that drips out of the hose so it doesn't wet other items in the storage compartment.  I either use end caps on my fresh water hose or hook the two ends together to prevent left over water from draining into my storage compartment and to keep bugs and debris from getting into the hose.  Leave one end of the hose at ground level while coiling up the hose to drain out as much water as feasible before storing the hose.  I like to pull the hose over my shoulder when rolling it up to get out as much water as possible.

City water hookups need special attention during freezing weather.   If you do any camping in freezing weather, you will have to protect your hose and the faucet using heat tape or they will freeze and split.  A frozen hose in inconvenient and you'll spend a least $25 replacing it.  If you leave your hose connected to a campground faucet without protecting it with heat tape, the pipes may freeze and you'll probably be liable for the cost of repairs.  Digging up a frost-free faucet and replacing it is not a trivial nor inexpensive task.  The frost-free faucets used in cold weather campgrounds are designed so that the water drains out below the freezing level when the faucet is shut off and the hose disconnected.  Leaving the faucet on or leaving the hose connected leaves water in the pipe.  Don't be surprised if you get assessed $100 or more for repairs if you leave your hose connected and cause the campground's pipes to freeze.  Those frost-free faucets are not cheap and it takes a lot of work to dig them up and replace them, especially when the ground is frozen!  You can wrap your existing potable water hose with heat tape or purchase a heated hose.  The heated hose will be more convenient to use but they are fairly expensive -- and you'll  still need heat tape for the faucet if you leave your hose connected in freezing weather.  Leaving the hose connected defeats the frost-free design by trapping water in the exposed parts of the faucet and plumbing.

Drink up!