why separate tanks for grey and black water?
Hi Folks, Let's say I'm building my own RV. Is there a reason I can't use the same tank for grey and black water? -Tom
Forum Discussion
porkslap wrote:
Hi Folks,
Let's say I'm building my own RV. Is there a reason I can't use the same tank for grey and black water?
-Tom
Many times I can camp for a few weeks in one location, and dump my grey tank on the local plants (into a hole about 12" deep that is buried within about 1 hour to prevent flies from discovering the water). Sometimes in a National Park, or other developed campground (where you might have neighbors within 600 feet of you) you can not dump the grey water, and must do things like dump shower water into the black tank to extend your time before going to the dump station.
Also if you ever camped, and had the grey water back up into the shower, you will understand the NEED to not have black water in the grey tank.
Back in the 70's a lot of RV's only had one tank. And they might have backed up into the "Wet bath" when camping, and make a turn or drive down a winding road, and you could splash out a lot of water into the shower pan.
That is why RIVA requires two tanks in most RV's.
My buddy designed his RV and it's storage tanks. His grey water is mounted above the black water tank, and he has the ability to drain his 150 gallon grey tank independent of his 100 gallon black tank, or drain the grey into the black tank, to wash it out better.
So he can drain his black tank, then wash about 50 gallons of grey water into the black tank, and then drain that (removing all the solids) and then rinse again with the remaining grey water. Any time he is dry camping, and grey is say 90% full and black is only 10% full, he can drain some from black to grey and camp another week or so.
I think his fresh water tank is a stainless steel 150 gallon tank. He rarely needs to fill it completely, unless planning 3 weeks of dry camping!
For tanks, try this website. Tank-Depot.com
Good luck with the planning!
Fred.
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