Try not to make this mistake! I only drain the black tank (the main sewer tank) about once a week. When I do this I close the gray water valves. One gray water valve goes to the kitchen sink and the other goes to the bathroom sink and shower stall. I close these drains because if I don’t the smell from the black tank filters up through the gray lines and into the coach. Not pleasant!When I had finished dumping the black water tank, I closed the black water tank valve and went back inside and washed up. OK, so what’s the problem? Well, I forgot to re-open the gray water tanks so that they would continuously drain.
We took showers and my wife did several loads of laundry. Luckily I opened the shower for something and found that the shower gray water tank was completely full and had backed up into the shower to the point that it was about to overflow.
This would have been quite a mess – all because I forgot to re-open the gray water valves. Fortunately for me I avoided a night in the doghouse because I caught it in time.
I wanted to show you this shower basin so you can see how it is constructed. You see the lip around the edge? This lip raised about one inch above the crown of the shower basin. The wall of the shower comes down over this lip and water run-off is prevented from seeping behind the shower wall. My RV tech told me that no caulking should be used between this lip and the shower wall. The reason is to allow air to circulate behind the shower wall and aid in preventing the buildup of moisture.
So, you can see that if your gray water tank backs up it will overflow your shower stall and make a huge mess. Here is an idea that I am going to try in order to remind myself to re-open the grey water valves. 
I am going to put a ball chord bungee on my wrist when I open the valves and won’t take it off until they are re-opened, then I will wrap the bungee around the valve handle. Hopefully this new procedure will do the trick. Jim
6 comments:
Jim
Great idea with the bungee cord on the wrist.
I have tried leaving doors open, laying my keys in a certain place, droping something in my favorite chair. all in an effort to remind me, but your idea is the most "foolproof" that I have heard. Good work.
Jim
IIIIIFFFFFFF you can remember the bungee cord!
Tom
I was sooooo glad to hear that you leave your gray water open! My husband thinks the world will come to an end - at the very least - if he leaves the gray water open. He believes we will end up with sediment in the tank if he leaves it open. Ahhh, men. . . can't live with 'em and can't live without 'em.
Obviously Anonymous
I will look into this issue further by asking some subject matter experts at the Quartzsite RV show. My first impression is that grey water sedement is more likely to occure if you allow the tank to fill and sit. This would cause the particulate matter suspended in solution to settle, whereas a continuous flow would allow the particulate matter to remain in solution as it washes down the sewer pipe. Just a thought. Jim
Your story brought back some very unpleasent memories regarding gray water valves. I had just dumped both the gary and black tanks and used the internal water nozzel to clean the black water tank then thinking I would take a little extra time and clean the gray tank as well, (something I don't normaly do) well to make a long story a little shorter while loading up the gary tank I closed every thing up and went shopping. Guess what...I forgot to open the gray water valve. Had it not been for a neighbor who turned off the water it would have been very bad. As it was I had water in the coach and had to rent a carpet cleaner to soak up the water out of the carpet. I will never live that down.
I don't like to leave the gray water (or black water, for that matter) valves open, because then soap scum, lint, bits of food from the sink, etc. end up lining my sewer hoses because of the typical low volumes and flow rates seen during most water usage tasks (drain a sink of dish water, take a low water usage shower, etc.). This buildup of soap scum, hair, and food particles is especially bad at sites where we are attaching small diameter gray water "garden" hoses to the gray water connection on our sewer cap, so that we can drain water out behind our rig in locations where this is the only option. I have found this hose COMPLETELY clogged with such materials once or twice when I forgot to close the gray water valves after emptying the tank. So I leave them closed, so all the water in my gray water tank will rush out with a good strong stream (except the very tail end obviously). There's not much material left in the last dribbles, compared to a week or more of continuous use with open gray water valves where the majority of the flow is at a relatively lower flow rate than that experienced when dumping.
Also, having full gray water tank allows me to flush my sewer hoses with gray water after dumping the black water tank, so I don't have use so much clean water to rinse the hoses (don't actually have to rinse with more than gray water at all, though I always have).
I'm thinking about the bungee on the wrist idea ... but in reverse. Put it on when I open sewer valves, and only take it off when I've remembered to close them again.
Allen
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