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Old 10-12-2018, 06:18 PM   #1
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Managing a leak..

This week while at the campground, I accidentally let the grey water tank reach the full level..(That is another story but it did).. Once full the shower, bathroom and kitchen sink wouldn't drain.. Before I drained the grey tank, I wanted to see where the water was leaking as it was not a large amount and was coming from under the kitchen counter. I thought would be easy to access and view. WRONG ASSUMPTION ABOUT ACCESS.. The leak was coming from where the slide out kitchen sink drain flex hose attached to what appears to be a large black plastic fitting. I could see water slowly coming out of the top of the union between the two.. (arrow on picture).. If this were in an accessable location I would just attempt to re-glue the conjnection BUT is is far back under the built in counter framing and out of reach.. I don't want to dismantle the entire trailer to do it.. besides it only leaks when the grey tank is full and backs up standing water into the flex hose.. I took this picture with a selphie stick as it was way back under the counter.. As a precaution would spraying something like Flex seal on the joint be of any value? BOTTOM LINE IS, DON'T LET GREY WATER TANK GET THAT FULL...as there is no leak when there is no pressure (backed up water) in the kitchen drain flex hose.. I verified this as once the Grey Tank was empty, I ran water in the kitchen sink for 15 minutes or so with no leak.. Also nice to see the great job that the builder of the trailer did in routing wires, hoses and cleanup of trash during construction????...
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Old 10-12-2018, 07:08 PM   #2
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If you could aim the flex seal on that particular spot I don’t think it would hurt anything. However, like you said it’s not really leaking just wasn’t designed to handle overflow of the tank.
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Old 10-14-2018, 01:53 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Adony View Post
This week while at the campground, I accidentally let the grey water tank reach the full level..(That is another story but it did).. Once full the shower, bathroom and kitchen sink wouldn't drain.. Before I drained the grey tank, I wanted to see where the water was leaking as it was not a large amount and was coming from under the kitchen counter. I thought would be easy to access and view. WRONG ASSUMPTION ABOUT ACCESS.. The leak was coming from where the slide out kitchen sink drain flex hose attached to what appears to be a large black plastic fitting. I could see water slowly coming out of the top of the union between the two.. (arrow on picture).. If this were in an accessable location I would just attempt to re-glue the conjnection BUT is is far back under the built in counter framing and out of reach.. I don't want to dismantle the entire trailer to do it.. besides it only leaks when the grey tank is full and backs up standing water into the flex hose.. I took this picture with a selphie stick as it was way back under the counter.. As a precaution would spraying something like Flex seal on the joint be of any value? BOTTOM LINE IS, DON'T LET GREY WATER TANK GET THAT FULL...as there is no leak when there is no pressure (backed up water) in the kitchen drain flex hose.. I verified this as once the Grey Tank was empty, I ran water in the kitchen sink for 15 minutes or so with no leak.. Also nice to see the great job that the builder of the trailer did in routing wires, hoses and cleanup of trash during construction????...
It appears PVC glue was used, or at least purple primer, but if they didn't twist the pipe before the glue set it will usually leak. Some plumbers don't bother on waste lines since they dont normally see pressure.
About RV construction in general... I still can't get used to all the electrical and water lines being installed so close to each other. A leak can cause a catastrophic system failure in most cases.
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Old 10-14-2018, 03:39 AM   #4
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The problem is piss poor construction from Forrest River. You cannot glue a ribbed vinyl hose into a PVC coupling. It will be just fine as long as you don't overflow the gray water again. $12.00 for some Flex seal is a bit much unless you have a use for a hole can. It will be fine as there is no pressure on it.
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Old 10-14-2018, 07:13 AM   #5
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The problem is piss poor construction from Forrest River. You cannot glue a ribbed vinyl hose into a PVC coupling. It will be just fine as long as you don't overflow the gray water again. $12.00 for some Flex seal is a bit much unless you have a use for a hole can. It will be fine as there is no pressure on it.
Cavie,

While I don’t disagree about the ofttimes poor construction and plumbing found in RVs, gluing flexible PVC tubing, like the PVC shown in the picture, is how it is done. You use the same glues and cleaners that you would use for any other PVC job. However, flexible PVC is not something you would use in a normal DWV installation — it is most often used in situations where some internal pressure will be applied, such as whirlpool tubs, swimming pool pump systems and some effluent (and other) pump situations, so the fittings used are usually different from the DWV fittings. PVC pressure fittings are usually used which have a much deeper socket and less play than a DWV fitting, but flexible PVC will work just fine if you prepare and join the pipe/tubing and fittings properly. For normal PVC/DWV installations I use a heavy-bodied PVC glue, which can also be used for flexible PVC pipe/tubing, but I almost always use a “hot’” and thinner-bodied glue for the flexible pipe/tubing because it creates a much more cohesive joint and is also ready for testing and use within just a few minutes, which makes it useful in repair jobs so I can just fix it, test it and leave without telling a customer to wait a few hours and test it themselves.

Flexible PVC is good stuff when it is used for its proper application and installed properly. In the OP’s picture it appears that a pressure fitting with the deep socket was used, so the problem is probably that the installer didn’t use enough glue, or didn’t twist the pipe into the socket, or the joint was moved before the glue had time to weld.

Bruce
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