Drinking Water Tank Sanitizing Guidelines

FAQ: How do you sanitize flexible drinking water tanks?

Question: Customer was looking for sanitizing guidelines for flexible drinking water tanks and wondered if a chlorine agent could be used and if so, what strength was allowed? In addition, they also wondered if the flexible tanks were prepared on arrival for the safe storage of drinking water, or if they would need to be first be cleaned and sanitized prior to storage.

Answer: Thank you for contacting us! Cleaning our flexible tanks is not an uncommon question and can certainly be done using either chlorine or a suitable cleaning solution.

Flexible Tank Sterilizing Agents

The common recommendations for this type of cleaning application include the following:

• Chlorine Sanitizing Agent: A chlorine sanitizing agent can be used for cleaning the
  interior of a flexible storage tank. It is typically recommended that the chlorine solution be no higher than 5% solution to ensure safety with use on your tank.
• Sterilizing Agent: In addition to a chlorine solution, another cleaning option you could consider is using a sanitizing agent. Industry approved sterilizing agents can be found in many different locations to help clean and sterilize your tank.

Flexible Tanks Initial Cleaning Options

When a flexible tank arrives to your location, the tank fabrics will be clean but not necessarily sanitized. If you are planning on using this tank for drinking water applications, the interior will be built with a clean FDA and NSF 61 approved inner material that will allow for safe drinking water storage.

While these interior fabrics are not sanitized, they are clean. We have had many customers use these tanks straight from the shipping cart and have not heard of any problems. However, if you are concerned about sanitizing your tank, you can certainly use one of the methods above to sanitize your tank prior to use.