Earlier, on my 2010 390bh, I asked others about their experience with their waste tanks. I had to purchase a clear coupling to find that my black tank had a grey handle and my grey tank had a black handle. Thats all well and good but I ran into another odd situation. While parked at Disneyworld I opened the gray tank so I could do some wash loads and take some showers. The black tank valve was closed. Later that evening while showering, the water stopped draining! I went outside and opened the black tank valve and the shower drained! This made no sense. Does the shower drain into the black tank? The water that pooled in the shower didn't smell like black water. Any similar experiences?
Will
No ... the toilet does not drain into the grey water. The water backing up into you shower is grey water. This is the water coming from you sinks, shower and washing machine. This water can sometime be quite gross and stinky depending on what you put down your kitchen sink ... and how often it is flushed.
A good habit to get into is to limit the amount of food material going down the kitchen sink.
At the end of a stay, I always use the spay nozzle to add water to the black tank (thru toilet) to increase head pressure and provide a better drain of the black tank.
I then add some dish soap to the kitchen sink and run the tap on hot. I continue to flush with hot water while draining grey water tank.
At the end of the season, I put about a coup of bleach in the toilet with about a gallon of water. I then put a small amount of TSP into each sink and flush with a good helping of hot water. I then take the MH for a short drive to allow the water in each tank to swish around and clean tank. Drain tanks for season and winterize.
This will keep each tank from smelling over the winter storage season.
My Berk is also installed with a tank flush nozzle which helps to flush particulates. Not sure if it is necessary, but I always carry a separate hose for flushing to eliminate the chance of cross contamination.
Note
Your black tank should be the one that drains with a larger diameter pipe
Tim
Thats the irony. I had my grey tank valve open at the time. The clear coupling I purchased helped me determine my grey from black.
Will
A lot of campers have the shower drain into the black tank due to the locations. The black tank is usually mounted directly below the toilet and it saves a lot of pipe, etc to also drain the bathroom shower & lavatory straight down also. All 9 of our trailers have had the same type plumbing system. I can't believe motorhomes would be any different.
We never leave the gray or black valves open and always have 3/4 or more full when we empty the tanks, that way we get a good flow out of the tank. Our shower drains into the gray tank.
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2011: 54 days, 2012: 218 days, 2013: 175 days, 2014: 196 days
2015: 188 days, 2016: 72 days, 2017: 185 days: 2018 182 days
2019: 156 days (2009 Berkshire, 390QS, and toad)
I am amazed to hear that any manufacture would ever pipe the shower into the black water tank. Not only would this fill your black tank (usually the smaller tank) much faster than normal ... but there is a very high risk of raw sewage backing up into the unit.
If this is actually the case, I would seriously look at either changing the piping or dumping the unit. The last thing I want to see when taking a shower is a turd floating between my feet.
I am amazed to hear that any manufacture would ever pipe the shower into the black water tank. Not only would this fill your black tank (usually the smaller tank) much faster than normal ... but there is a very high risk of raw sewage backing up into the unit.
If this is actually the case, I would seriously look at either changing the piping or dumping the unit. The last thing I want to see when taking a shower is a turd floating between my feet.
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