Mystery valve on Solaire 269BHDSK

[purduepete97]

Need help. Two gray tanks and a black tank, each with a valve that I can find and know how to use. Today while snooping around under the TT looking for a good place to install my 5x5 fence post covers, I found another smaller, different style of valve up higher under the skirt. It is in the same area as the grey and black tank valves. Smaller handle, and the working end disappears up into the under belly insulation.
Didn't see it during PDI and tech didn't say anything about it. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Brian

[campingguy]

My Solaire has the same thing. It's simply an additional valve for my one gray tank.

[purduepete97]

Ah, I see. So that probably means I haven't been draining that tank when dumping. I usually dump black and then both grays at the same time so I didn't even notice I was only emptying one tank.
Do you use both valves or just the big main valve?
Thanks.

[Glendale 290]

We have a 2013 269BHDSK trailer and our gray and black tank controls are such:

The large black valve that you easily see from the side of the trailer is actually the main exit for two valves that are up behind the sidewall skirt. The one farthest to the left is a silver handle that actually dumps the second gray tank that comes from your kitchen island sink. The black handle is to dump your black tank. The large black valve (seen from side of trailer) should be open to drain the black tank first and then close it when finished. Step two is to open the silver handle and drain the gray tank so that it washes out any other black tank debris. When the gray is done, close it and then the large black valve so you can then move on to the other gray tank valve that you can easily see from the side which drains your outside kitchen sink, bathroom sink and finally your bathtub. I hope this all makes sense. Our PDI did not cover this as the tech did not know about the second valve for the kitchen island sink.....we had to figure it our for ourselves. The owners manual is too generic to cover this point too. On a side note, when we are in a campground we leave our tanks closed until they require dumping. This solaire model has three different roof vents for the plumbing and we find that if left open the smell from the campgrounds sewer system comes up through the valves that are open.

Good Luck and Happy Camping!

Lou

[purduepete97]

Thanks. I got what you're saying, I think. Let me list steps to make sure.
1. Main black tank valve open to empty black
2. Close main black and open gray tank - if I follow correctly this will let gray water into black tank to help flush it out. Is that correct?
3. Close gray valve and reopen black valve.
4. Repeat 2 and 3 for other gray tank.
Did I totally mess this up or an I on the right track?
Thanks for the clarification. We are new to this whole dumping thing and boy oh boy we don't want a scene from RV (the movie) if you know what I mean. . .

[rana]

I could be wrong, but I think in step 2, Lou might have meant that the gray would flush out any black debris out of your dump lines, but doesn't actually drain into the Black tank itself.

[Glendale 290]

The Main Black is to be open only when dumping the Black tank (small black tank handle under skirt to empty black tank) then close this small black valve and open the small silver one to the left to drain the kitchen island gray tank. When done this close main black and proceed to the Gray handle to the right of this main black valve to do your other gray tank. I know .....it seems confusing but I am sure you will get the hang of it and avoid any scenes for the movie RV.....

Have Fun!

Lou

[pappagrif]

I have the same camper. And the previous is correct. I avoid the black and empty the black first. Then the grey water to clean the line...similar to our last RV. Then I dump the kitchen island grey. I figure the sink normally only has soapy water or straight water. I do the dishes outside to avoid food in the sink area.


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[BuzzinHornet]

Originally Posted by Glendale 290

We have a 2013 269BHDSK trailer and our gray and black tank controls are such:

The large black valve that you easily see from the side of the trailer is actually the main exit for two valves that are up behind the sidewall skirt. The one farthest to the left is a silver handle that actually dumps the second gray tank that comes from your kitchen island sink. The black handle is to dump your black tank. The large black valve (seen from side of trailer) should be open to drain the black tank first and then close it when finished. Step two is to open the silver handle and drain the gray tank so that it washes out any other black tank debris. When the gray is done, close it and then the large black valve so you can then move on to the other gray tank valve that you can easily see from the side which drains your outside kitchen sink, bathroom sink and finally your bathtub. I hope this all makes sense. Our PDI did not cover this as the tech did not know about the second valve for the kitchen island sink.....we had to figure it our for ourselves. The owners manual is too generic to cover this point too. On a side note, when we are in a campground we leave our tanks closed until they require dumping. This solaire model has three different roof vents for the plumbing and we find that if left open the smell from the campgrounds sewer system comes up through the valves that are open.

Good Luck and Happy Camping!

Lou

Have the same trailer. Agree with above. My dealer didn't seem to know about the actual number of tanks. Once I figured it out it works great and our dump hose is nice and clean after the two grey dumps along with a black tank flush in between.