Picked up new Prism, still so confused on holding tanks

[Byron in TX]

Hi All:

Brand new to the lifestyle and picked up our new Prism 2250LE on Saturday.

Great PDI experience....forwarded the recommended checklist from this forum and the dealer was more than ready for us and we drove it home.

Even though the Tech explained the holding tanks and I've been searching and re-searching the forums, I'm still confused.

I've been fiddling with the entire RV systems in my driveway to get comfortable with them to include running the fresh water tank dry to prevent any unnecessary bacterial buildup.

That means, though, that gray water is filling up (black water is empty as we haven't even used it yet).

So I'm still wondering.....why 2 gray water dump handles? The first one is located further to the rear of the coach, the second is located nearer the black water handle and the actual dump valve.

What happens if I pull the first gray handle and do nothing else? What happens if I pull the second gray water handle after pulling the first? And what would happen if I pulled the second gray water handle BEFORE pulling the first?

I know better than to pull the black water handle but I also don't want to experiment with gray water handles in my driveway, either.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks again for both this and all of the other advice I received before this initial purchase.

[Duckogram]

The first issue you may want to rethink is how you are "draining" your fresh water tank. There is a drain valve for that purpose. If you are pumping your FW into your gray tank you are making work for yourself.
The second issue, dual gray holding tanks, is model specific however the logic is to split the shower from the sink(s).
So, if your gray tanks only have fresh water in them and they are new than you may be able to just dump them on the ground.
As for the handle issue, unless you have 2 dumps it does not matter. I would suggest only doing one at a time. When you actually use your new baby, you should always dump the black first then the grays to flush the pipes, clear the valve(s) and flush the stinky slinky (hose).
Hope you find this usefull.

[TURBS]

And only dump when full or near full when using full hookups, don't leave valves open.


2015 Columbus 320RS
2008 2500HD Duramax
2015 nights camped "34"

[CaptnJohn]

Most likely ~~ you have 2 gray water tanks. Both are usually the same size. One for the shower and bathroom sink and the other for the kitchen sink. Units with 2 bathrooms often have 2 gray tanks also.

[rlocicero]

Our Flagstaff has two grey water tanks and two valves, one for the galley and one for the bathroom. you probably have that also.

[Byron in TX]

Originally Posted by Duckogram

The first issue you may want to rethink is how you are "draining" your fresh water tank. There is a drain valve for that purpose. If you are pumping your FW into your gray tank you are making work for yourself.
The second issue, dual gray holding tanks, is model specific however the logic is to split the shower from the sink(s).
So, if your gray tanks only have fresh water in them and they are new than you may be able to just dump them on the ground.
As for the handle issue, unless you have 2 dumps it does not matter. I would suggest only doing one at a time. When you actually use your new baby, you should always dump the black first then the grays to flush the pipes, clear the valve(s) and flush the stinky slinky (hose).
Hope you find this usefull.

Thanks for that. Actually, I did use the 'low point drain' FW petcock and let it run completely out.

However, there was still residual water in all taps so I turned the pump on to run them out as well. To prevent bacteria buildup, but probably not necessary, huh?

I guess that accounts for filling up the gray plus there's no telling how much the dealer ran into them as part of the PDI prep.

Since it's actually clean water, I got an adaptor from Amazon to plug the termination port and I'll purchase a task specific length of hose to just run it into the yard (figure that attracts less attention than a big dump, even if it's just clean water.

Plus, Texas allows gray water dumping anyway. Who knew?

[Bluepill]

A suggestion for split grey water systems: If you let food particles, etc. go down the kitchen sink drain, don't just dump it on the ground unless you want to attract various critters.

Soapy water from the shower shouldn't be a problem, unless you prepare food while showering (Think Kramer from Seinfeld)

[Tom48]

However, there was still residual water in all taps so I turned the pump on to run them out as well. To prevent bacteria buildup, but probably not necessary, huh?

I guess that accounts for filling up the gray plus there's no telling how much the dealer ran into them as part of the PDI prep.

Since it's actually clean water, I got an adaptor from Amazon to plug the termination port and I'll purchase a task specific length of hose to just run it into the yard (figure that attracts less attention than a big dump, even if it's just clean water.

Plus, Texas allows gray water dumping anyway. Who knew?[/QUOTE]

Not sure but I would bet that an empty or near empty tank will grow more germs than one filled with nice chlorinated city water. WONDERING, did they sanitize the full FW system during PDI? Every NEW fresh water vessel I have ever owned warned to wash, flush or otherwise sanitize before use. Guess we will learn what our dealer does when we take delivery of our new, yet to be built, special ordered FR Sandstorm, next month.

For my peace of mind, unless I KNOW that the system has had a chlorine flush, the first thing I will do is a full system chlorine flush.