Plumbing snaffoo

aztrooper · 07-05-2018, 08:20 PM

To start with, let me tell you that we built a steel house in Missouri with a 38' X 48' garage. The whole building is 72' X 48' so the garage takes up a little more than half. We have 16' high walls on the garage side so we could pull the Georgetown in and keep it inside. That way, we are living in it while building the inside of the house portion. I had to go back to Arizona to deliver a car that my grandson had bought from our daughter here in Missouri. Early on Thursday morning, I got a phone call from my wife in Missouri saying the MH floor was all wet (just the linoleum part), it smelled like sewer and there was a lot of the same water on the garage floor. She called some friends who came over and squeegeed the water on the floor out the garage door. She was pretty upset and said she had forgot and left the bathroom sink water running all night. We are connected to city water. Luckily, the toilet seal was bad and so the black water came up thru the toilet, overflowed and then out the door when the black water tank filled. Hate to think what would have happened if the seal had of been good.

I have since replaced the seal. Anyway, I thought the kitchen sink, bathroom sink and shower all went into the grey water tank. Any one else know if their bathroom sink goes into the black water tank? Floor has been sanitized as well as the garage floor.

SeaDog · 07-05-2018, 08:32 PM

It might not be plumbed to the black tank but the gray and black may share the same vent system so when the gray overfilled it backed up in the vent and then into the black tank and overflowed the black tank with the bad seal Something to check

Reverse_snowbird · 07-05-2018, 08:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aztrooper

Anyway, I thought the kitchen sink, bathroom sink and shower all went into the grey water tank. Any one else know if their bathroom sink goes into the black water tank? Floor has been sanitized as well as the garage floor.

Our bathroom sink is plumbed to the black water tank in the REV. Others on this forum have also said that there bathroom sink is plumbed to the black water.

bubbles · 07-06-2018, 05:41 AM

In my 2012 GT 378 the only plumbing to the black tank is the toilet and the black tank cleanout. All other plumbing (drains) is routed to the gray tank. The combined vent theory does not sound plausible because the water should have come out the shower drain before ever getting to a vent. The only thing I can think of is that your shore water was connected to the black tank cleanout port instead of city water input port. If your 2007 GT 378 doesn't have one then the mystery continues.

kenandterry · 07-06-2018, 01:43 PM

aztrooper.....you posed the question asking if anyone else has their bathroom sink go to the black tank. I’ve heard some makes and models do because it’s a shorter run to do it that way than plumbing all the way to the gray. That doesn’t make it right.

Work with me here.....it’s a long story.......

I re-read your posting several times. Let’s assume your wife did leave the sink tap running as she says. Let’s assume the water running into the sink started to flow into the gray tank as it should be. If and when the gray tank overflows, it would back up and flow up into the drain of the shower because it has the p-trap at the lowest point of the gray tank system. Then the water would continue to fill the shower floor, and overflow onto the bathroom floor. Then, as you mention, the toilet seal was bad. This sink overflowing water would start to flow into the black tank by flowing over/under the bad seal and start filling the black tank. This black water (yuk) now continues to mix with the still running sink tap water which is finding whatever way out through the bottom of the RV and onto the garage floor, which your friends then squeegeed out the garage door.

This would in no way indicate there’s a mixup with your bathroom sink being connected to your black tank.....it’s just the path the water could have taken.

Does anyone see this as a possibility?

Whew 🤪

cavie · 07-06-2018, 01:47 PM

Yes, some models do in fact run the sink into the black tank.

Darmo15 · 07-06-2018, 01:59 PM

Why don't you just turn on the sink, and let it run to see which tank fills up first?

Reverse_snowbird · 07-06-2018, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kenandterry

aztrooper.....you posed the question asking if anyone else has their bathroom sink go to the black tank. I’ve heard some makes and models do because it’s a shorter run to do it that way than plumbing all the way to the gray. That doesn’t make it right.

Our sink is routed to the black water tank, but I think it has to do with the macerating toilet. The bathroom sink connection makes filling the black water tank for flushing easier because it's tough to get enough water into the black tank via the toilet. (You'd have sore fingers from pushing those electronic flush buttons.)

I can tell you what happens when you leave the bathroom sink on because we did it, but we'd never used the toilet so we didn't have sewage.

The sink continues to fill until it overflows onto the counter and floor.

bubbles · 07-07-2018, 06:29 AM

Yes, there are units that route drains other than the toilet to the black tank, however; the Georgetown 378 (op's unit) is not one of them, at least not intentionally.

Trickdog · 07-07-2018, 07:14 AM

I have a 2008 GT 373 and the bathroom sink is plumbed to the black water tank. That is the only thing besides the toilet that is plumbed to the black. I always wondered why the black filled up so fast. I thought it was too many midnight burritos at first.

aztrooper · 07-07-2018, 12:09 PM

After thinking about this for a while, I have come to the conclusion that the bathroom sink does go into the black water tank. Here is my reasoning. If it went into the gray water tank, it would have filled it and then the water would have come up into the shower as that is the lowest point (which it has done when we leave the gray water tank valve closed to fill it up prior to emptying the black water tank). It would have overflowed it and then out the door (the bad toilet seal (it's been replaced) is the ball seal and not the floor seal). The water came up thru the bad ball seal and then overflowed the toilet and went out the door onto the garage floor. It was obviously black water but no solids as that could not get past the seal, just the water. Maybe Forest River did that as one other person said because it would be straight down from the sink into the black water tank. We both learned something. Thanks for all the input.

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