Water in the transom shower - Problems with it becoming stale?

[Stan M]

I finally gave the go-ahead to my marine repair place to winterize and shrink-wrap the boat. During that conversation, he mentioned that most never use the transom shower and just bring water aboard they intend to use, as water that sits in the tank becomes stale fairly quickly. Just curious if others have experienced this and what can be done (i.e., additives to the tank, etc.). Seems to me it's simply a matter of discharging the water and re-filling periodically, but was curious as to others' experience and handling of this issue. Thanks in advance.

 

[Sbrown]

The use of additives is quite common in RV fresh water tanks. I would recommend using the same stuff. Usually just a tablet to add to the tank to keep the water fresh, IIRC.

 

[Ronnie]

We use it as a shower / when we want to cool down without getting in the water or to rinse off after getting out of the water, never to drink.

Previously I put additive in the tank prior to long term storage but it’s kind of a pain to do so, now I just empty the tank and hose before I put the boat away for the Winter. 10 gallons of water from my garden hose is a lot less expensive than the additive to preserve the water, although you can treat a lot of water with the additive.

 

[PeterB]

We use our transom shower all the time - and ran a second sprayer up to the anchor locker for rinsing the anchor and bow when we pull mud up. I generally add some bleach to avoid bacteria as my well water has no chlorine in it. At the marina (boat is in a slip) we hook up the hose and let it flush the tank periodically- that water is chlorinated so I don’t add additional bleach when I fill there. For winter I blow the water out with compressed air.
The fill point has a check valve so adding anything is a PITA but as I said, we use the wash down a lot so worth the trouble.
Note that we only use it for wash down not drinking.

 

[zipper]

No shower on our Yamaha. However we have a pressurized hot and cold water system in the Bene. We fill our water tanks with water from the cities' water supply on the dock. We do add a few drops of bleach to each tank during the fill, thru the threaded access cap. We do not drink this water, for washing only. We refill approx. every two weeks. For Winter, the tanks are drained and an alcohol based antifreeze is poured in each tank and pumped thru the system tubing to each faucet/shower. For drinking, we keep a small "office type" water cooler for potable drinking water, plugged into the shore power, next to the sink in the head.