What We Drink on the Road (And Why I Stopped Trusting the Tank)
If you’ve ever stood at a campground and looked around with discerning eyes, you may have had some of the same thoughts as I have had. Rows of RV’s of all shapes and sizes - some places there’s more rows than others, but at most campgrounds, each unit no matter how big or small, as long as there are water hookups, each and every one has a hose that is hooked up to a water spigot. And, if luck provides, there are also have sewer hookups - so then, you have the hose stretched from your camper to the spigot as well as the black water hose stretched right next to it and hooked to the connection that is most often right next to the water spigot……Curious moment number one…..
Then you start to wonder what the inside of your fresh water tank looks like, and the pipes that lead the way to and from the fresh water tank. Curious moment after curious moment and a question started nagging at me that I couldn’t shake: What are we actually drinking out here?
Our RV’s holding tank gets sanitized. It is done it properly by following the steps, We don’t cut corners. And still — I just couldn’t fully trust it. Maybe it’s the combination of plastic hoses, sitting water, and the general unpredictability of hookups at various campgrounds. Whatever the reason, something in me said: this isn’t it.
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The Gallon Jug Era
For a while, my solution was simple: buy bottled water. Gallon jugs, five-gallon jugs, stacked in every available corner of the RV. Simon and Prudence definitely used some of that floor space as a personal obstacle course, but it worked. Sort of.
It was expensive. It was heavy. It created a lot of plastic waste. And on longer trips, I was constantly running out or scrambling to find a store to get more water. There had to be a better way.
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Enter the Distiller
Before our last trip, I started researching ways to sanitize water and decided that a home water distiller was the way to go. I ended up purchasing a VEVOR countertop distiller — and honestly, it’s changed everything.
Here’s the basic idea: distillation boils water into steam, which rises and gets collected, leaving behind contaminants, minerals, heavy metals, and whatever else might be lurking. What comes out the other side is about as pure as water gets.
The process takes a few hours per batch, so I run it the night before we leave and throughout the week as needed. It hums along quietly on the counter, and by morning I’ve got fresh distilled water ready to go into our storage jug.
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The Mineral Add-Back
Here’s the one thing worth knowing about distilled water: it’s too pure, in a way. Your body actually needs trace minerals — magnesium, potassium, calcium — for proper hydration and absorption. Distilled water on its own can actually pull minerals out of your body if you drink it exclusively.
The fix is simple. I add a few drops of ConcenTrace Trace Mineral Drops to each jug — it’s an ionic mineral concentrate that remineralizes the water and makes it actually hydrating again. A small bottle lasts a long time, and it travels easily.
And yes — Simon and Prudence drink this water too. That matters to me just as much as anything else. Dogs don’t exactly have the option of telling you when something tastes off or makes them feel weird, so knowing their water bowl is filled with something clean and properly mineralized? That’s not a small thing.
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The Setup in Practice
On the counter before a trip, it looks a little like a science experiment — the distiller running, the collection jug filling up, the little bottle of minerals standing by. But the routine has become second nature now, and the peace of mind is worth every bit of it.
If you’ve ever stood at a campground spigot and thought hmm — you know the feeling I’m talking about. This is just my answer to it. Maybe you have another solution or advice for us newbies to the RV lifestyle. If you have your own system for clean water on the road, I’d genuinely love to hear about it and share with fellow RV’ers. There’s nothing more important than what we put in our bodies for nourishment, hydration, spirit and enrichment and water is at the forefront.
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Stay hydrated out there — you and your whole crew. 🐾
