One of the joys of being in the RV is purging the tanks. There is a grey water tank for all sinks and shower and a black water tank from the toilet. There is a control panel on the inside of the RV that tells you how full each is (empty, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, full). As we do not have permanent hook up, any time we need to dump the tanks, I hold the end of the hose in the dump pipe hook up in the ground and Len controls the valves. You dump the black tank, then the grey, the grey water acts as a hose rinse.
Some full time hook ups are pretty sweet, this is not ours.
Well we dumped the tanks on Tuesday and the black tank didn't seem to drop much in level on the control panel but not much was coming out. So you read a little bit more and realize we might have a blockage. It is not recommended to snake the lines in RVs. One suggestion if you get 'build up of solids" is you put ice cubes and salt in the tank and drive the rig around. I assume on the bumpiest road you can find so that the ice moves around in the tank and loosens everything. So we decided to try a few other things before having to pack up the rig and drive it around.
There is a rinse option, where you connect the water hose to a different connection on the outside of the RV and it rinses out the black water tank. So we tried that and also filled the tank with water (just running the toilet) and kept dumping it. That worked after a few times. Avoided moving the rig again, wahooo!
Here's a picture of our setup. Len holding the hose and the kids working the control valves. Brave man.
Some full time hook ups are pretty sweet, this is not ours.
Well we dumped the tanks on Tuesday and the black tank didn't seem to drop much in level on the control panel but not much was coming out. So you read a little bit more and realize we might have a blockage. It is not recommended to snake the lines in RVs. One suggestion if you get 'build up of solids" is you put ice cubes and salt in the tank and drive the rig around. I assume on the bumpiest road you can find so that the ice moves around in the tank and loosens everything. So we decided to try a few other things before having to pack up the rig and drive it around.
There is a rinse option, where you connect the water hose to a different connection on the outside of the RV and it rinses out the black water tank. So we tried that and also filled the tank with water (just running the toilet) and kept dumping it. That worked after a few times. Avoided moving the rig again, wahooo!
Here's a picture of our setup. Len holding the hose and the kids working the control valves. Brave man.
bahahaha OH WHAT I WOULD HAVE DONE............
ReplyDeleteEven hooked up for weeks at a time in a park it is not recommended to leave the dump valves open. So I watch the monitor and when we get to the high 80% mark I go outside and dump the tanks. If you leave the valves open all the time, especially the black tank, "bad" things happen that I won't discuss here. ;) It is certainly one of the less glamorous parts of full-time RV living.
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