RV Water & Air Safety: What Most Campers Get Wrong (And How to Fix It)

In this episode of Inspired Travels with Patti, I sit down with water filtration expert and inventor Keith Bernard to break down the critical safety mistakes RVers make when it comes to water and air quality. From contaminated campground water to poorly maintained tanks and overlooked air filtration, this conversation reveals how small oversights can impact your health on the road.

Keith shares practical, easy-to-follow guidance on choosing the right filtration system, understanding microns and carbon filters, properly sanitizing your RV water system, and improving indoor air quality. Whether you're a weekend camper or full-time RVer, this episode will help you build a safer, cleaner, and more comfortable travel experience.

Key Points

• Why campground water varies—and why you shouldn’t blindly trust it
• The biggest mistake RVers make when choosing water filters
• Why you should care about water quality—even if you don’t drink it
• How to properly sanitize your fresh water tank (and why bleach may not be ideal)
• What “micron rating” actually means—and why it matters
• Carbon block vs. granular carbon filters: what’s the difference?
• Why TDS (total dissolved solids) is often misunderstood
• Why RV air quality matters more than you think
• Understanding MERV ratings for RV air filters
• How better air filtration can reduce dust and improve health inside your RV

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Gearing up for the RV camping season, there are critical safety tips that you may not be aware of. And today my expert guest is going to help clear up some of the critical safety tips you need to be aware of and deal with before you get that RV out on the road. Keith, what is one of the biggest mistakes RVers make when it comes to their water and air quality while traveling in an RV?

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Well, I would say one of the biggest mistakes is that they don't necessarily pick the right product, that they actually go, they see what their neighbors are using or whatever it may be, but they haven't done their own research to understand what is the best product to be able to use for what they're attempting to do.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

I want to welcome everyone to Inspire Travels with Patty. If you are new here, I created this podcast and YouTube channel to inspire you to live life more fully. And that's through adventure, unique experiences, and exploring new places. I want to introduce Keith. He and his wife Barb started RVing in 2016, 10 years ago. They'd already been in the water filtration business for eight years. They were making water pitchers and filters for homes. They used it, they realized after RVing that in the RV, the water quality was just not the same as home, which led to inventing filtration systems and other products to make RVing safer. Welcome, Keith Bernard, to Inspire Travels with Patty.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. I'll be honest with you. Everything you just said, it was like, wow, that's our story.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

There you go.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

It's true. It's true. We came up with that simply because the we couldn't get what we were looking for. And so therefore we had to invent it for ourselves.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

And I think that's where the greatest inventions come from, right? So I want to let my audience know again, this is education. Keith is the inventor of water filters. He's been doing it for almost two decades. And we are here to talk about how to find the right water filters, the right tank cleaner. So you have to have that fresh tank clean so that, you know, whatever product you're using, if the tank's not clean, it doesn't help. And we are also going to talk about air filters for your RV. We are going to talk about some of the products Clear20 offers, but again, this is education so that people can go out, do their own research, and figure out which products work best for them. Now, I'm going to be honest. Here's my authentic, honest truth. I was an RV for over three years, full-time in an old RV. It was a 2002 RV that we picked up from somebody supposedly that took care of it properly. We got in the RV. I just refused to drink the water. So honestly, I was using bottled water, which we're going to talk about just how great that is. And after a little while, just the smell of the water was making me crazy. And I'll be, this is where I'm being transparent. I did not do the research. At that point, my husband and I were traveling together. He was the research guru. He could research and understand things and try to explain them to me. And he found ClairTo to be the products that we used and have used for over five years now. So, but again, we are going to give people the information they need to make their own decisions. Let's just dive in and talk about clean water. So, why can't I go into the campground, hook up my water, and just use that water, or just not even drink it, like refuse to drink the water that comes from the campground and buy bottled water? That's a lot of lugging around. Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

And let's divide that up. Let's divide it. Actually, let's start, let's start at your home, for example. Because basically, what we wanted to do was take our home water on the road with us. And so that's where we started on everything. But in your home, from most people don't know where their water necessarily comes from. What water treatment plant, if they live in a community, what water treatment plant it comes from, how many miles away that actually water treatment comes from, and what it's passing through. When those pipes were installed, which are quite often, depending on what the community is, a lot of them were in the 1950s and 60s. And those those pipes out there are now 50, 60, 70, 80 years old. And then all your clean, fresh water coming to your house is traveling through all of that. And so in doing so, you want to protect yourself. And so they add everything. This is why chlorine's placed into the water to prevent anything from growing in it whatsoever. But when you get to a campground, usually you've shifted over to some even further away from the water treatment plant, or most likely it's well-driven water. And when you're in the well-driven water, it's up to the campground as to what level and degree that they do any filtration. There may be virtually no filtration on that water. It could be spring water, and they think it's relatively good at that point in time. Or it could be very sulfur-tasting, rotten, egg-smelling water, and we come across all of that. Okay. So these are all the things that you're going to run into. And most people, as I said a second ago, they want the water that they have at home and they want to carry it on the road. Whatever they're used to, they want to carry that on the road. But the only way you can control that is if you filter it yourself. So you can buy bottled water. That is the solution, the go-to solution for most people. And I would say that's changed. That's changed over the last few years. We've had more and more and more people, now that they recognize they have some control over their water, that they are leaving the models behind. And I'll be very honest, we we take bottled water, we're a water filtration company, and we take bottles of water with us for convenience. It's very convenient to put it in a refrigerator, have a cold bottle of water, but we don't haul big cases of water, big jugs of water, etc., with us simply because we want to make the coffee with it or whatever it may be. We use everything from our tap. And we're able to do that with our product and our technology overall. But people need to educate themselves on that.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Absolutely. And so even with the bottled water, it's interesting because I do have the picture, your pitcher at home. I moved into this house two years ago now, and the water actually upset my stomach. It made like my acid reflux. I know that might sound crazy, but it was, it just wasn't good. And so I started using the pitcher, which solved that. The filter in that pitcher and the filter that's in the refrigerator, which we'll talk a little bit about, both needed to be replaced at the same time. So that's why I have a bottle of water. But okay, so first I want to go back because I have a lot of thoughts here. Let's go back. What if I get into that campground and I'm using the water, but I am not drinking it, then does it matter? What difference does it make?

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Well, two things. One, you shower in that water, and by far your skin is your biggest organ overall. And so in doing so, you're absorbing all of the things that are coming from that, whether you drink it or not. If you shower in that water, wash your dishes or whatever may be, you're you're being affected by that water. So generally, most people believe better water is going to be a better situation. So you just have to take some control over it and come prepared. You don't know exactly what you're going to run into, so you have to be prepared for what that is. And you can get great water. People believe, well, I'll just never drink the water. But the fact of the matter is you can, and it could be as clean or even better than the bottled water that you maybe even are buying.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

People right now are talking about, you know, camping season. We are gearing up. And I am in Pennsylvania outside Philadelphia, and it went from below 32 degrees a couple days ago, and now it is in the 90s. So getting out in the campground is something I am definitely looking forward to. And I know a lot of people are thinking about it. So before we even want to filter the water, and you're the expert, you correct me, because you are the inventor of all of these products, and that's why I brought you on. So before I even think about filtering the water, what I'm putting the water in our freshwater tank is going to be important. And you uh you talked about that a few minutes ago. So let's talk about that freshwater tank.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Everybody should really understand that there's multiple parts to a water filtration. You just don't turn on the faucet, the water comes out. That has had to flow through things and things that you've set up. So the first and foremost, and we won't talk much about it, but you do need to have a good quality hose. And we always recommend having a pressure regulator on the spigot side, preferable. And the reason why is that's where the highest pressure is. So um the first tip I would give for everyone is make sure always your first step in dealing with your water is flushing the pipe that you're hooking up to. Because quite often in campgrounds, it's been sitting there, it's rusty water, you'll see a lot of brown water come out, and you don't want to put that into your system. So always flush the line before you hook up. Hook up with the pressure regulator, hook up with an FDA approved hose. I've seen a number of people talking now, like, oh, we can use this kind of hose or this kind of hose. But if it's not an FDA-approved hose, it's not approved for water and for drinking water. So you want to make sure that it's approved for drinking water, look on the package, make sure approved for drinking water, FDA approved or stamped on the hose itself. Um, if it's a regular garden hose that you would buy at a Home Depot or whatever it may be, those are not approved for drinking. And so they're going to have vinyl outgassing, and that's going to go into your glass. So just get an FDA approved water hose. We don't sell them, so it's just uh something we're recommending that you it's a part of the entire system. Treat it all um as that you want whatever's gonna come off is you're good for going in your glass. So the next obviously is going either into your tank or into your water system if it's uh direct and you're hooking up um for your plumbing uh pipes, etc. And so one of the things that we had talked about just before we started was the the fact that people usually go forward and they set shut down the previous camping season by pulling in their driveway, locking all the doors, and they walk away with the intention that they're gonna clean everything and do everything, but life happens, and then you move on, and then the next camping season you open the door up and you said, Oh, I didn't drain my tanks, I didn't flush my lines, I didn't do any of these types of things. And so, therefore, you're in an environment of hot plastic products that with water that are moist, and that, as you already know, it can be an environment for disaster for some people, and it at best it's something that you should clean before you use. So we recommend that you sanitize your system on the start of every camping season, and that's easy to do. It's it's just uh uh there's different ways to go about doing it. The most common way is to use household bleach and to pour household bleach in your system, run it through everything, and do it. Now, we don't recommend that, and the reason we don't recommend that is bleach is caustic and it gets in it, it's not good for your pipes, it's not good for your fixtures. You can't run it on your hot water side at all because it because of the the causticness of it, it will actually affect the uh heating elements, etc. So we really don't like people to use bleach, it's the cheapest, it's what the majority of people do. But we recommend that you you really take the time and invest in your system a little bit more.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

And I will say it smells bad, and that it really smells bad, and getting rid of that is difficult.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

I think that's one area that people don't realize until after they've done it that that chlorine bleach smell gets into the actual um pipes that they have, and it takes quite a while for that to actually leave. So everything smells like bleach for quite a while, um, usually.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

So let me ask you, if you're still smelling it, then you're probably still getting it on your skin, ingesting it. Let's, you know, people don't think about that. Again, people think of bleach and they think, well, it's cleaning, it's disinfecting, it's killing germs, but it's also could be harmful. And we won't take too far a deep dive on that one. That's just my personal thing. Smells, I'm very sensitive to smells and taste. So bleach is a problem. Okay, so people aren't using go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

No, just so so, but so what we do, I'm gonna I'm gonna say that we have our tank fresh system. We use an ammonia-based system, and the fact is, is it can actually be put in and then flushed out and only takes an hour. Generally, bleach has to sit in your lines for eight to twelve hours, which is why it soaks in and causes that problem. So whenever we build a product, we always look for what's going on, how are people using it, and can we do it better than that? And sometimes that comes at a higher cost, but it's for a better result. And so we use a system that fully sanitizes and you run it through everything, but it has a pleasant odor and you don't smell that bleach. It's not a bleach-based product, and so that makes things a lot better. But when you're done, whether you use ours or bleach or you use even a competitor's, um, you have a fully sanitized system, and that way you know that there is nothing growing in your tank, there's no mold, there's no mildew, there's no any type of uh um other types of issues that can be going on in your pipes, etc., and you're ready to open the season now. But once you have cleaned everything, the second you get to that campground and put water into that tank, you've now recontaminated it. And so you don't necessarily know what you've done, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:03

Right. So I want to stop you for a second because I do want to mention that the tank cleaner, tank fresh, right? That's what it's called, that we chose. We chose the product again. My husband did all the research. He decided this was a good product, even though we were using the water filters. He was still looking to do the research. He's a research kind of guy. He spoke to you, he questioned you on your product. We called it.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

Extensively.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Extensively. He really questioned you, he cornered you several times. Um he was that kind of person he really wanted to understand. And it was nice because I didn't have to totally understand it. But we then took the product and used it, went through the entire process ourselves to see how long was it going to take for us? Was there going to be a smell or taste? Because again, I am very sensitive to smells and tastes. I could walk into a room and say, What's that smell? And nobody else smells it until it gets worse and worse. So I'm very sensitive. And he knows that. And he knows if he had bleach in the system, I'd be moving out for a couple of days. So this was something that we used. It was as easy as you said it was. I could have done it myself. I'm glad I didn't have to, but I could have done it myself. That's how easy it was. And again, we trust these products. But like we're saying, you're giving the information to educate people. So if they don't choose your product, they have the information. People should go read reviews, which is what I did. Take some of them with a grain of salt. You got to decide why people are saying they like it or don't like it. There are companies out there that come clean your tanks. There are people who suggest putting all kinds of stuff in your tank. So if people go to Facebook, some of the crazy combinations of stuff that people say to put in tanks that may be for the black or gray tank, but people are using in the fresh tank, it gets confusing. And this is why I wanted to bring you on. You are the expert.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

That that's an important point because um there is uh sometimes a a lack of understanding of what kind of tanks that people have and what they're using in their tanks. Please never mix and match what goes in your gray and black water tanks with anything going in your freshwater tank. So they are they are at double ends of the spectrum, meaning that your freshwater tank is for the incoming water and obviously your black water is for the outgoing water, and they should never, never the cleaning products should not be used um between the two. And so that that just is to make sure that you don't have any contamination, or you place the wrong, the wrong type of product in your tank um overall, which we have seen that before as well.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

That would be a big problem. Okay. So now we have our clean tanks. What's next?

SPEAKER_00 17:59

Well, you're gonna put water in, you're gonna use your tank. And but when you put that water in, if it's from a known source, meaning maybe your house or whatever it may be, but once you're out on the road, you're now topping off that tank with whatever campground water that you have. And so you're at the mercy of whatever that campground is providing. Now, we would tell you filter that water before it goes in, but at the same time, there are other ways to do it, and it depends on how you use your tanks to some degree. But you can and we highly recommend putting in what's called a freshener into your tank. And what that does is that now treats the water that you're putting into your tank and holding in your tank and prevents anything from growing in your tank while you're holding that water. So it's uh for ours, it's tasteless and odorless, so you don't even know it's there. Um for others, they are bleach-based, so it's only a small amount of bleach, but you still have that bleach flavor um coming out, chlorine flavor coming into your water. Um, and there are a few on the market, and you can pick and choose. And and just so you know, we always believe that if people do the research, they'll find their way to us because generally we've tried to solve the problems for them. And we, as RVers, solve them for ourselves first, you know. So generally, we're we figure that if people do the research, eventually they'll understand and they'll want to do the right thing and get the right products overall. But treat your water on the road and keep it treated so that nothing grows in it, and that will prevent you from having to sanitize over and over and over again um because that water is being kept clean and nothing's gonna grow in your tank.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

Okay. So we have when we start, I just want to review. That's a teacher and me. We have you get to the campground, first of all, you clean your tanks at the start of every season.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

You only basically need to do it once a year, or so at the start of the season, given the that that let me just speak to that because whenever your audience, we never know if someone is a full-timer or whether or not somebody's a weekender. And if they are out um full-time 24-7, uh, we usually recommend at least twice per year. And that's just a good maintenance thing. For someone who is out for weekends or shorter, shorter periods of time, uh, we recommend just the start of the season. And uh, and and for those that want to, they can close their season with that as well, if that's part of their maintenance, the way they go about their maintenance. But generally, most people don't do the right thing, and we say clean your tank before you get started every year. And uh that's just usually our recommendation.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

Okay, so then when we get to the campground, now I do want to go back and mention this. You said that if you use the water from your house, so let's say you have a small RV, you have a van, you're filling up the water from your home, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's good water. So, like when I started this conversation, I'm in this house for the last two years. The water has a smell, it has a taste, it upsets my stomach. So just filling the water up from your home does not mean it's perfect water.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 21:15

So we have a clean tank, we get to the campground, we're using a water regulator. People could research what the best one is. There are different ones out there, and then they're using an FDA-approved hose. Again, I didn't realize that. I'm sure it was handled by Dan. We are um making sure that the tank gets sanitized and freshener in the tank to keep the water that's sitting in the tank clean. So now, what's next?

SPEAKER_00 21:46

Yeah. So let me let me just before we go into the next piece is because you brought up what happens if your water is not good at your house. So we have a lot of people, and there's a big debate um among uh especially the van life and the and for From the camper van community overall, who does work from their tanks quite often, and they generally filter the water going into their tank. So the key thing is what we always want people to understand is how often do you use your tank? Are you going through that water quickly, or is this just water for the road and you really don't touch that water to net? And you're going to make different decisions based on that. So this is why we ask people to really think about how are you going to use this water so that you make sure that you're using the appropriate things that can help you with that. Chlorine is in our municipal water system and it's there to prevent any growth from occurring, to keep everything um healthy for the most part. Now it doesn't, they don't do it for taste, they do it only for health benefits. And so, in doing so, when you filter your water, quite often you're removing that chlorine because quite often a filter is a carbon filter and it's going to remove the chlorine going through it. So now you have unprotected water inside your tank. And so if you're going to use that and you started out with a clean tank in the first place, then that may be perfectly fine, and you'll use that water, and then you'll continue to put new water in. But if you're going for months at a time without changing that water over, this is why we recommend keeping a freshener in there overall, because you've removed what little protection that water has, you've removed it by filtering it. And people think, well, I'm doing better for that. You are for ingesting it, but not for what could grow in it. So this is why we come back and we we speak about that overall is there's products that will protect you. And so, you know, again, be educated and understand what you're doing. Not every RVR does it the exact same way. So we don't like to give general advice because it just doesn't affect most people overall.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

That is great information that I wasn't quite aware of even after being on the road for over three years. So tell us what's next.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

Yeah, so from there, we like people to think about three levels of filtration or how they can deal with their water coming in. So most people camp in campgrounds, most have hookups overall. That's by far the majority. So even though we have tanks, tanks for on the road, tanks for moondocking or for uh dry camping to be used, um, the majority of people actually go into campgrounds and they have at least a water hookup. And so we've already talked about the hose, we talked about the cleaning of everything. So now it's treating that water that comes in. And we like you to think about three different things. And so everyone can actually approach this in any way they want. It's just a matter of are they accomplishing these three things? And the first thing is pre-filtering your water. And pre-filtering your water gets rid of all the particulates. It's the sticks and the stones and the things that you want to keep out of your system because those are the things that come in and they can be sand, silt, sediment. It's all the things that have settled in the pipes before you actually are using it. And especially if it's on a well-based system, it may be naturally in the water itself and silt is being pulled up into the system. So you want to stop that from even coming into your coach whatsoever. And so that first stage is pre-filtering. We like people to be at least 10 micron and below. And then let me just step back for a second. There's always a discussion between how low of micron you can go and still receive flow rate. And so this is always a balance between the two. You can't have extremely low micron and high pressure. They they go, they they are they one blocks the other. So, or you would need a system that would probably be much more powerful than what comes in your standard RVs.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

Okay, I'm gonna stop you a second. I know you're going down the road. Let's specifically talk about microns because this is something I learned from you. I had to ask you numerous times because it wasn't quite getting through. But um let's talk about microns. And I know you'll talk about that as we talk about choosing the right filter, which is where you were going. So micron is a measurement, right? Of how much sediment and stuff comes in.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

It's a it's a particulate measurement, and that's one thing that people should definitely understand is it is one millionth of a meter. That's exactly what a micron is. And so, if you to give you an example, a human hair is anywhere from 35 to 70 micron. And so that'll give you some idea of what size we're talking about was. So we're talking very microscopic uh level sizes overall, and so it's something that you should be aware of, it's a measurement, and the lower the micron, usually the better the filtration because it blocks more things from coming in. But it's a balancing, and you want to make sure that you're getting very good, but you also would like to have a shower that actually has some pressure behind it. So we can always give you unbelievably clean water, nothing in that water, hardly at all. Um, but you would be dripping out of your shower. So we find that we have to balance these two things to make sure that everybody's happy across the board overall. And generally, if it's 10 micron on the pre-filtering side and 5 micron on the use side, that generally is very good. Now, it's a particulate measurement, it doesn't address, for example, lead removal because lead is in solution, and so hydrogen sulfide, which is the rotten egg smell that you have, is in solution. So a low micron does nothing for those, it doesn't remove them, they're in solution and they pass through any type of blocking filter. Okay, so you have to capture those in the next level, which is actually a carbon-based absorption stage. So that carbon-based absorption is what actually sucks in all of the contaminants that are chemical contaminants, as an example. So it takes both of these together to be able to get good quality water. And then the third level that we talked about is a little bit what we talked about in the somewhat in the first one, uh, but is a low micron for your drinking water. So you're obviously five micron may be perfectly fine for shower water, etc. Um, but generally, if you can, we suggest a lower micron uh down for being able to get to your drinking water level. And that's just to give you the max protection um overall. And it's the last stage. Being as the last stage, it can handle the lowest micron. If you were to put that in the very beginning, obviously it would block um some of the pressure that you have. So putting the low micron at the very end is best. Now, every RV is different, every RVer is different, and they have to determine how are they going to approach this. Um, there are products that can be filtering, use the filter outside on their hose. There's also ones that can be built for their whole coach, and there's also ones that are just in the final what's called point of use, which is under their sink or perhaps in their refrigerator, or for you, it's your water pitcher. All of these things can be part of how they stage their water coming in, and you'll make those decisions based on how you RV. Um, if you are full-time, you may want a full system that gives you pristine water for every area, um, whether you're brushing your teeth or or making your coffee. Others, maybe because they're only weekenders, they really just want to talk about their drinking and cooking uh type of water, and they're okay with some of the lower level water being for the shower, et cetera. So it's a little bit of just understanding what you're attempting to do and building your system based on these three categories. If you just think about that, walk around your RV and how are you filtering your water now? And a lot of people will say, Well, I just throw a filter on the outside. Okay, that's good. What micron is it? And quite often people will find out it's a 20-micron filter, it's only carbon, it is not pre-filtering anything, and I will tell you their quality of water coming through is not going to be that good. So when they say, and I only drink bottled water, we say we understand. And because they can't, with that technology, do everything that we just talked about. They need to stage their system a little bit better, and they also need to improve the quality of product that they're actually buying in the first place, and then they can do all of those. We we don't I don't like um using uh bottled water for coffee, etc. That that's just it's it's uh it doesn't help my back, I can say that. It doesn't help dragging it down and storing it and taking up room. So we from day one always wanted to be able to use our the campground water, clean it, and then I can make my coffee with that uh in the morning. And so that's an important part of my morning when we're out camping is to make the coffee and go sit outside. So, and I wanted the coffee to taste good. I don't want it to taste like rotten eggs.

SPEAKER_01 31:49

So let me just ask with bottled water, and there are so many different kinds. I'm not looking for the name brands. It doesn't say on the bottled water how many microns or anything like that. I know that's on the filter. So if we're buying bottled water, we don't I don't necessarily want it. This could be a deep bag right here that I don't necessarily because you're right, lugging them around, the weight in the coach, you know, having a place to store bottled water became very difficult. For some people, yeah, it's great. It could work. I think having the pitcher in my refrigerator with the filter that is at point five to one micron, I think it is. Okay, got it. Um, you know, that that solves that problem. So bottled water, just real quick, we don't know what necessarily what how well filtered they are, right?

SPEAKER_00 32:43

Yeah, so so it's a great, it's a great uh um comment overall. And the reason I say that is because everyone would believe that the water that they're buying in the store in the bottled water section is heavily, heavily regulated. And the answer is it's not nearly as heavily regulated as what you would imagine. It's there is a lot more of trust that the companies providing that water are following the standards that are out there. And uh the ability for the U.S. government to go track every bottled water company in the entire U.S. is a a difficult thing to do. So trust is really important that it is good. But generally, they quite often are using municipal water as their starting point, and so therefore it's already your tap water that's being used. And then quite often it is going through an RO type of system, a reverse osmosis type of system, and they're stripping out everything in there. So basically, after that process, you only have H2 and O actually in the water itself, okay, which is great, but most of the taste that comes into water that you would enjoy is magnesium and other metals that are in the water itself. So you'll quite often see on the bottles it says minerals re-added for taste. And so you'll see that on water bottles, and that's because they're putting some flavor back into the water bottle because it will taste a little bit flat. Um, if you ever had deionized water as an example, um, there is a whole camp that believes that that's uh good for you, and there's a whole camp that believes that's very bad for you.

SPEAKER_01 34:25

So that is a one of those that could be a deep dive that we're not gonna go into right now. It's you know, I and you know, people can pick and choose with the bottled water. Sometimes it's necessary. It's like you said, my filter wasn't working, so I grabbed the bottle. Um, this isn't a perfect system. And I think the big thing, because there is a lot of information, there's a lot of things to figure out, you know, websites for companies like yours, or if people want to look at other companies, because even just going on and doing the research takes a lot of time and energy. And so that's again why I wanted you on to try and clear stuff up and make it easier for people to make their decision. But if people need to try and figure out what the best system might be for them, they could talk to you guys, they could reach out to you. There are other companies out there I'm not as familiar with them that you know will help navigate like, hey, what are you using it for? How often are you all of these questions that would be important? I know for my RV, we had the three-stage inline filter. Correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a couple of years, and then and it had those three stages, which you talked about the water regulator, the hose, a hose going into the tank, the tank that was cleaned, and then we had a filter inside for drinking water. That's right, I believe, a filter at the sink. So we had it all, and I'll be honest, is it a cost? Yes, it is. Is that one of those costs that are really important to me? Absolutely. And I want to add that in doing the research that I know of, some of those filters that you get in Walmart, and I know sometimes you guys sell your products in Walmart, and I'm not, I'm not, I'm not knocking that, but some of those filters that have a lot of advertising behind them, like those water pitchers, I'm not gonna mention names that come out saying how great they are, I have come to realize that some of those survey statistics, the studies they've done are not true. And I could say that because in looking at, okay, I'm gonna spend this much money or this much money, and looking at some of those common filter pitchers and filter systems, it's you know, it's not necessarily what you have to dive a little deeper. That's all I'm gonna say.

SPEAKER_00 36:53

And do you mind if I debunk a myth um real quick?

SPEAKER_01 36:56

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 36:57

Sure. One of the, I will say, most common questions that we get is in regard to TDS or what some people call um parts per million. And so a number of people use those two different terms. TDS is total dissolved solids and it's a measurement of the particulates in your water. And there has been a lot of lot of lot of marketing that has gone into convincing everyone that TDS is a bad thing. And in fact, TDS is just what is actually in your water. And so the most common total dissolved solid in your water is calcium. So you have calcium in your water and magnesium in your water, and these are some of the things that are added back for taste overall. So, in truth, our filters don't remove any calcium or magnesium, they they flow through our carbon filters, and and almost all carbon filters they flow through. But removing your TDS andor getting a little TDS meter that you've bought on Amazon or it came with the product that you bought, and measuring your water and expecting it to show zero would in truth be deionized water. And so, in doing so, it doesn't actually measure the quality of water that you actually have. And so we always ask people, go Google TDS and get what the definition of TDS really is, and you'll see through that marketing very quickly. Um, measuring your water in that way generally is not a very good uh measurement for cleanliness. It's a measurement, it's just not for cleanliness. Um, so quite often what I'll recommend people to do is to go buy a bottle of mineral water, maybe something expensive. I said go get a very good quality, the best quality you can find mineral water, and measure the TDS in it. You're gonna find that it is huge. Well, does that mean that mineral water is bad or the water quality is bad? No, it just means it has a lot of minerals in it, and that's what you're measuring as minerals generally. And so we we like people to we try to help them understand that because it is a good marketing that goes behind that, and it's caught a lot of people who believe they need to do something different when in truth what they're doing is fine overall.

SPEAKER_01 39:25

So and I just want to be clear the calcium and magnesium are minerals that we need. These are bad.

SPEAKER_00 39:32

Yeah, they're essential minerals.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

Yeah, they're essential minerals, and you know, somebody, anybody could comment. Like we, uh Keith and I both will put our social media and our website, and you can send your comments, you could disagree all you want because the conversation helps people to get educated. Now, I do recall that your filters are different because it is a carbon block. So can you quickly explain the difference? So when people are looking for a filter, they can actually hear, feel, and see a difference in the types of filters.

SPEAKER_00 40:12

So the way we approached this when we first came in RVing, as we talked at the very beginning of our discussion, was that we brought our we were making water pitchers, they were for the kitchen. Um, our brand, Clear2O, was actually rated number one on consumer reports because of just the quality of the technology. And so, and for 10 years, we were number one on consumer reports until they changed the water pitcher testing, and then then we're not that anymore. But during that period of time, it was our carbon block that did that. So generally, water that goes through water filters is going through what's called granular carbon. Granular carbon is carbon that's been broken up and it's in small little granules, and the water flows through those granules, and then it can remove what it can remove. But but what happens with granular is the water flows through quickly, and it water takes time to be able to um give up all its contaminants, it has to absorb it. So you need some time to be able to do that. When you use solid carbon, the water has to penetrate the actual carbon block itself that slows the water down and allows those contaminants to be absorbed, and then that water can then be spun back up. So you really don't lose significant amounts of pressure by doing all of that. It's just the time it takes to go through it. And we're talking microseconds of time here, but there's a huge difference between granular carbon and solid carbon. And our products are all based on solid carbon.

SPEAKER_01 41:55

And that just totally made sense when you said think about water going through, you know, little rocks and things like that. How fast does it go through as a as opposed to sitting on, you know, a block, a carbon block, which totally made sense. I could think about that visually, so that made sense.

SPEAKER_00 42:13

Okay. We have there's another aspect of it. We tell people take your current filter and shake it. If you can hear the the product moving back and forth, it's loose. And what happens is water, you've always heard this uh the statement, the path of least resistance, right? Well, the water goes down the path of least resistance, and if it can tunnel its way or carve out a uh channel through that, it's going to do that. So quite often, some of the water that's going through your filter is actually not touching any carbon. And so, in doing so, you're not getting that absorption that you need, or it just doesn't last very long uh overall. So that's another aspect of it.

SPEAKER_01 42:55

So that was one of the big things I know for Dan and I that made your product stand out. I don't know if there are other companies that do carbon block at the time that we were doing our research. There weren't. And, you know, there was a lot of evidence that it was a better way to filter the water. Because once we took this deep dive of we wanted better tasting, better smelling, and healthier water while living in NRV and plugging into different water systems and campgrounds, it was a deep dive of research. And that's what we're encouraging people, go do your own research. You don't have to believe either of us at all. Right. Go do your research, check out the Google reviews that you guys have. And if you have questions, if you see a review that you have questions, like reach out and get those questions answered. Obviously, information is knowledge, but now we're going to switch gears and we can come back if there's something else. And we're going to talk about a relatively newer product that you came out with, and that is air filters. Right. So we're in these RVs. I I'm gonna let you talk about it because I can only imagine the things that this is going problems that this is going to solve.

SPEAKER_00 44:11

It's always kind of funny because it we're a small company. Um, and what that means is that we can actually change direction and go different ways pretty easily. Um, and a lot of times it's based on our own needs and or the things that we're coming across. So one of the things is we get a lot of feedback from our customers, and they have been asking us for quite some time, what are you doing for my water tank? And we brought out our fresh tank line, um, and we're gonna be expanding that. So there are some more products that are gonna be coming out to fully um make that a much broader line for ourselves. And then we've been asked about air filtration for a long time too. But we're like, no, we don't make any air filtration. But it usually takes us a little while. We try to figure out what we can do and how can we do this a little bit better, a little different, uh, maybe more cost effective. You know, we're always looking for what makes sense for us to be able to go into these areas. But one of the things is seeing the dust that we're seeing on um friends' RVs, and I don't want to throw them under the bus, but seeing what they were going through, and we said, well, that we can do something about that. And so so we um entered into the air filtration in the fall, and uh, so we're we've been actively selling it now for quite some time, and the um and it it's really pretty easy uh uh to actually install it on your own. I'm just gonna use this one, and there's competitive ones, and you'll see, but they are ours is a particular has a taquifier layer. That's that blue layer that you see on top, and that actually is a layer that allows you to be able to um grab more of the fine things that are floating in your air, like dust, etc. And it grabs those. So ours are MERV 5 rating, and let me tell you about that because sometimes you hear people throw out MERV and nobody knows who you're what you're talking about or who you're talking about. But MERV is the minimum efficiency uh rating that a product can have, and it really is to try to help people to understand what level of airflow and what capture rate they're able to do. So if you are looking at a MERV for a hospital, as an example, hospital filtration system, it's going to be very high, but they're gonna have systems that allow you to have those. So you've heard of HEPA filters, which are high efficiency filters. Um, the MERV rating is more of an air conditioning rating, and it's actually established by the Air Conditioning Association to be able to do that. They're the ones who test and establish the standards. But this allows you to understand what kind of airflow you're going to be putting through, what you can expect, and compare different qualities of filters. So if it doesn't have a MERV rating at all, you have to assume that it's not blocking very much. And the same thing goes back with water filters. If they're not willing to talk about what their micron level is, then they don't want you to know what it is. And you can assume that it's probably pretty high. So MERV and micron are working the opposite way. Um, but if it's a a high MERV, it's restricting more. And if it's a low micron, it's restricting more. So you have to know they're they're a bit backwards uh from each other. But you want to make sure in an RV that you're not going too high on your MERV because it's restricting the air and it's going to cause your air conditioner to heat up, and that could cause problems, and it could eventually cause your air conditioner to fail. So you won't always want to have a balance. So we always look that in the the five range is a good balance of flow, but also you're getting very good quality uh compared to that. Now, when you buy your RV, it either came with no filter at all, or it came with a very small, um, quite often black filter. They're usually an eighth inch thick, and um, they are just a piece of foam that are going in there. So, so we do a higher quality filter than that. Again, it's tackified, so it is grabbing and sticking, the dust is sticking to it, and they also have a positive charge put on them, so anything flowing through that's negatively charged automatically sticks as well. And so, and there's ours and there's competitors, and we just suggest that that uh you look around. There are different styles, and what I always recommend people to do is take a picture of your air conditioner because there's a lot of air conditioners that are out there in the different RBs, and they use different styles of filters. So um I'll give you an example. I don't know if this can be seen. Okay, so so this is a very common um filter grid. You can just take this with you, and you want to get a picture of this. There's also a smaller one as well, and you're gonna get a picture of this. Generally, both of these require two filters because they have two inlets that you need to do. There are other ones that are more square and rectangle, um, and you just want to take a picture of it before you go shopping or before you go look online um for various different ones, and look for ones that are cut to fit exactly. Um, that was one thing that we decided that when when it was a shaped filter, we wanted to make sure it would fit exactly into that that space. Um, we quite often saw that uh competitive products would be shaped but not exact, so they had tended to hang out or they they would not fit correctly uh into the unit. So that was one area that we wanted to make sure that we had an exact fit. And so that was a a big one for us because when you're trying to put it in, you want to just put it in and snap it in place and it worked. And you don't want any bypass, you don't want any situation where the error is going around the filter. So it needs to fit and fit well. Um, there are cut to fit, which is perfectly fine, especially if uh you have a system that doesn't maybe have a standard size um overall, and you can cut to fit. We just recommend that you measure well and make sure that you have no bypass. Okay, so so and there's uh multiple products on the market right now um for or at least in styles that you can pick from. So look carefully, find a good manufacturer, find a good uh good one, and when you find one that fits, hopefully ours, but if you find one that fits well, continue to buy it and make that part of your maintenance going forward. It's an easy thing to do. You can do it at the beginning of the season, and uh you can keep a backup. Obviously, they're easy to store, they're small and easy to store. And uh if you happen to drive through um in Arizona or someplace like that, which you may have a lot of particulate or dirt in the air itself from storm, sandstorms, et cetera, that are coming by, all that's gonna get pulled into your RV and it's all gonna get pulled into your system. So uh we always recommend keeping an extra set around because if you drive through an area like that and all of a sudden you notice that the filter is now um full, then you can go ahead and just replace those real easy as you're going on the road.

SPEAKER_01 51:51

So my question is you said there's a lot of these filters out on the market. Why did you decide to create your own? What is it about what you created that you saw? Because you create you're an inventor by nature. You're an inventor. Um, I believe you're an engineer. Am I correct?

SPEAKER_00 52:09

Well, I I worked with the engineering group for a long time. I'm not a degree engineer. Okay. But uh, but I did work in manufacturing and engineering for quite a while and product development. So it's a uh so I've rubbed elbows with a lot, and I probably use a lot of their jargon because I've heard it so many times.

SPEAKER_01 52:28

What is it about the product you developed that you felt like needed to be better than what was already on the market?

SPEAKER_00 52:34

So for our personal RV, and we have a slightly older RV as well, and it has just a black quarter-inch filter that you buy and you put up. And I was noticing that even though over time we were getting dust on there and it did need to be replaced, how much dust was on our fixtures, on our countertop or our table or whatever it may be. And so it didn't take long to understand that I wasn't blocking very much. And so I it was uh just the filter that came with the air conditioner. Um, I hadn't really uh changed, I mean I've changed it out, but I hadn't really looked to improve it. And then we noticed that there were um a lot of air filters that are coming into the HVAC market in for home use, and then these can actually be used as well for RV because it's your home on the road, it's the same type of system. And so we started looking at, well, what's what's wrong with that? There are competitive units that are out there, and we noticed that they were both expensive for what they are, and also that they didn't fit. And so that drove me crazy that you would buy something, pay that money, and it not fit. And so we wanted to make sure, well, we can do that better, and we can make it into a more of a value pack so that you can get to a better product and also a better cost overall. And so we said uh our customers are asking for this. So we wanted to make sure, and we investigated there's a lot of filters in the market, and not all of them are good, as you can guess. Um, so we wanted to make sure that ours had the features that are available, then tried in the HVAC market. We didn't want any experiments um overall, and we wanted to make sure that it was something that would actually flow, as we talked about earlier, that you wouldn't have um an issue with your HVAC system in your RV because we wanted to make sure enough flow went through there. But we want flow, but we want capture. And so that's why we went with a tactified layer, that's why we went with um products that are actually polarized, and so to make sure that they capture everything going through, and you'll get cleaner air. And so we we approach everything with can we make it cleaner? And if the answer is yes, then then we quite often can move forward with that's great.

SPEAKER_01 55:05

And I just wanted to clarify because, like you said, there are so many products in the market. I know you only create products when you can't find them in the market as good a product and for a fair price, a good price. So I wanted to clarify that. I personally have not had the option, the opportunity to use the filters. I know in our RV, being an old system, the filters were constantly being changed out. It was a problem. Uh, so I could imagine the stuff that gets in, like you said, the dust on everything. You could just feel it. You could just feel stuff that was coming in when you turned that air conditioner on. So this sounds like a great product. So we're gonna start wrapping up. Is there anything else we didn't cover that you want to mention?

SPEAKER_00 55:54

Well, I think again, I want to reiterate maybe, uh, which is for um for everyone to understand uh that water filtration is not a um hard subject. It's not something that is uh un not doable by most people. If they just take a moment and they just think their way through what is what is their desired goal? And because different people have different rigs, there's a big huge difference between a pop-up camper and a full large class A. And but they can have clean water, and that was one of the things that um it kind of bothered me when we first got into this market, is the amount of people who just said, No, I can't have clean water. Um, but the answer is you can if you pick your products correctly and you build your system out in these three steps that we talked about. And there's products available through us or through our competitors. Um, and uh we always try to think that we try to approach this from a very cost-effective standpoint um overall, but a one-size fits-all does not work in the water filtration industry. And anyone who just goes and buys and throws that filter on the outside, well, they're going to get certain positive things from it, but there's also certain negative things that come from it as well. And so we just say do your homework, research it, ask questions. Uh, one of the things that we go to, and you're aware that we go to the Tampa show every year, the RB Super Show, and have our booth there, and we're there to answer questions. I'll be honest with you. The uh we love to sell our products, but but we're there to speak to customers, to answer their questions, to to hear their problems and give them direction, which is quite often not a product that we actually even manufacture, and we can say, well, you can bet you're better served if you go buy a competitive product. And we'll make that recommendation if that's the right thing to do. Of course, when I hear the same problem over and over and over and over again, I think, hmm, maybe we should make that product overall. So that does lead us into that sometimes. But but the key point I wanted to make is that just think your way through your current system and what your desired goals are, and then search products that fit that. Don't take um someone else's marketing and says, Oh, this will do everything you need. Um, research it yourself. It's not hard. It's not hard at all.

SPEAKER_01 58:27

There's definitely misinformation out there. It is the reason I wanted to get you on. I wanted people to understand as they're doing their research what to look for. Because if you just go out and research, it's daunting. You don't know what you're looking for, what to believe. At least that's me. I don't have the time or patience to try and figure out, okay, what's this or that? So bringing you on and kind of clearing some of those things up, I'm gonna say again, I've used the ClearTuo products. I love them. Anyone who has listened to my shows over the last year, several years knows that I only promote, recommend products with people I know love and trust, and products that I have used and find they are better for some reason. I will also say that I am an affiliate for ClaireTo. I do make some money if people purchase. I I don't even know what it is, honestly. Um, but that helps the show to continue running. And the best part is anybody who does the research and finds that ClareTo has a product that's right for them. Keith is offering 20% off today. And when it comes to shipping, how do you charge for shipping?

SPEAKER_00 59:45

Uh it's all based on UPS charges. So we use UPS for shipping out everything. Um, it depends on where you're located. Um, we find that uh shipping rates are all over the board um overall. So therefore, that's why we're offering this the 20% off. And um, but generally we're gonna be shipping it ourselves, so it's gonna be coming from us um overall.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:07

There's that. And thank you for offering the 20% off to my listeners. We'll put a code in the show notes, we'll get that figured out, put a code in the show notes. Um, and I want to thank my listeners for supporting the show. And I hope uh this content gave value. We both you and I are looking for people to argue any point, to discuss, to ask questions. Um, and they could find you at clear number two oh.com and that's where they could get to you. They could there's contact information for you. You are on social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:50

If they have a question, uh they can go to support at clear20.com and give us a question and and give us a couple of days. We can't always just do it right then, but uh we watch for that uh to come in and if there's any questions and we can answer those or provide some guidance or whatever it may be, we're happy to do so. Just give us a few days to to get back to you.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:14

Right. And people could reach out to me if they feel like, hey, this is good information. We need more of this. If it's not good information, tell me what you think. I'm I'm willing to hear it. And I'm at Inspire Travels with Patty on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. If you have a question, let me know. I will definitely get it to Keith because that's what we are trying to do is get people educated. Because with education, you can make better choices. As I said in the beginning of the show, these become safety issues. The water you're drinking, the air you're breathing. We're talking about safety and we want the best, safest, you know, travels that you could possibly have. So I want to thank you, Keith, for taking the time to be on and sharing all of your knowledge.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:02

Absolutely. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:05

And I just want to remind people that living life fully is about adventure, and that is having new experiences, exploring new incredible places, and just enjoying life.