RV Drinking Water Safe Hose Connections

Have a universal docking station and wondering how to connect your RV water hose? Here’s our approach for the best RV drinking water safe hose connections.

RV Drinking Water Connection Issue

Getting a new camper with a universal docking station led to an attempt to find the best RV drinking water safe hose connections for a fast camp setup.

For your convenience, I have added links to some of the RV hose connection components on Amazon throughout this post. If you choose to purchase from them there is no additional cost to you, but we earn a commission that helps enable us to continue sharing helpful information.

With the RV universal docking station, water and cable lines come through a port in the floor of the storage compartment. One nice part about this system is that you can fill your fresh water tanks from there rather than having to use a separate RV fresh water inlet. There is still a separate water fill inlet for the fresh water tank but you can just fill the tank from here by changing the switch to Fresh Tank Fill. However, we ran into some challenges getting used to this style of freshwater connection.

Our first attempt at hooking up the water connection was just to run the a standard white RV water hose through the port and connect it. Unfortunately, once its is run through the port, it is hard to turn the hose and make a tight seal. We ended up with a dripping leak. When camping, I placed a red solo cup and rags under the hose connection to catch the drips and also to block anything from coming through the port.

I decided to upgrade our camper hose and freshwater connection components. To the extent possible, I wanted to avoid potential health harms like lead, BPA and phthalates. A good rule of thumb is to avoid garden hoses or other products intended for use in the yard.

Here are the components I found and tested in our RV. Note that I’ve added Amazon links for your convenience in case you are interesting in upgrading your RV freshwater connection components. These are affiliate links. If you choose to purchase from them there is no additional cost to you, but we earn a commission that helps enable us to continue sharing helpful information.

RV Drinking Water Hose

I mentioned our leaking hose issue to an RV tech. He mentioned that not all hoses are equal. Many have lightweight aluminum ends that can dent or bend easily. Even a small dent in the coupling could prevent a tight seal. He suggested I check the rubber washer and also upgrade to an RV fresh water hose hose with heavier duty machined hose couplings. I found this Camco EvoFlex RV drinking water hose to try. Note that it has nickel-plated machined fittings couplings that are reinforced with and additional spring-like strain relief system. While a regular white Camco TastePure RV hose is good enough, we think the Camco EvoFlex is the best RV water hose.

The tech also recommended getting an elbow and permanently securing it to the camper. I considered gettingn a 45 or 90 degree elbow. If I could get that secured in place, it might be easier to attach the hose to the elbow rather than to the water intake connection. However, when I started researching them, most are made of brass. Even elbows labeled as drinking water safe had warnings on the packaging indicating the potential threat of cancer or birth defects.

RV Drinking Water Inside Components

After some brainstorming with another camping couple, we decided to try a flexible coupling instead. Fortunately, these come packaged with the Camco RV water filters that we use.

You can also buy the flexible coupling separately. Since the coupling comes packaged as part of a drinking water filter package, it should be drinking water safe.

The last part I am trying for my RV water hookup is a stainless steel quick connect. I looked at the brass ones marketing for use in RVs but they all had the same lead warning as the elbows. The best option I could find was the Duda Diesel Stainless Steel Quick Connect. The quick connect should be considered optional. It could make your water connection easier. However, connecting the hose to the flexible coupling also works well.

With the new hose connection components in place, our updated camper freshwater hose system looks like this.

Once the hose is through the port, there was still one problem. The port is a big open hole to the outdoors. I was concerned that it might be an entry point for unwanted pests to enter the camper. After doing some research and asking for advice, I tried a few potential solutions. The one that worked best for our camper is to fit a sponge into the opening. I used a large dense sponge, the kind you would use if you were installing tile. I cut the sponge into a circle to fit the opening and then cut a slit to allow the hose to pass through it. This seems to make a fairly good seal around the hose.

RV Drinking Water Outside Components

Since I was upgrading to better RV drinking water safe hose connections, I also upgraded the RV water pressure regulator to a stainless steel version; the Camco Stainless Steel RV Water Pressure Regulator. A water pressure regulator is a key part of your RV freshwater hose system. Without it, you may encounter water pressure that is too high which can cause significant issues.

We put the RV water pressure regulator at the water connection as the first item in the series of componenets. Next comes a flexible hose coupling, which can help you connect when there is limited space.

That connects into a 2 way Y hose connector which lets us add a second hose that can be used for things like the black tank flush system. We use a Visator hose splitter with zinc alloy connectors and a rubber protective coating. It has shut off valves for each hose and it works well. It would be great to find a 2 way Y hose connector that is certified as drinking water safe but I haven’t yet been able to find one.

The next items in the sequence is the Camco water filter. That attaches to the RV drinking water hose.

Connect Your RV Water and Electric Video

How to connect your RV to Water & Electric. We provide an easy description of all the steps you need to get set up at a water and electric campsite. Our Grand Design Transcend has a universal docking station. Whether yours has that or not, this video will guide you to a fast camp setup. We cover connecting a freshwater hose, 50-amp power and cable TV in our Connect Your RV to Water & Electric YouTube video.

Summary

We tested this configuration on a long State Park camping weekend. It was easy to setup and was leak free. The only issue encountered was when disconnecting the hoses, some water did spill from the hose coupling and quick connect. You may want to put a rag down before disconnecting.

Getting the right RV drinking water safe hose connections is just the first step. Remember to regularly sanitize your water lines and replace components that may break down with long-term exposure to the elements such as the drinking water hose.

A good freshwater hose setup is important. To see the rest of the things you’ll need for RV camping, check out our post RV Essentials for Outfitting A Camper.

RV Drinking Water Connection Parts List

Here are all of the components used for this attempt at finding a safe and easy drinking water connection setup for our camper.

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