Water Usage

DutchmenSport wrote:
As I've shared on these forums many times, we use our camper(s) almost full time all year round. If not camping at a park, we are still in the camper at home in the driveway.

I run water exclusively off the fresh tank and water pump. At home, and unless on full hook-up sites, dump our tanks via a 32 gallon blue tote (at home, directly into the septic tank).

After we purchased our current 5er, we started washing dishes in the kitchen all the time. The previous TT had an outside small kitchen with sink, and we almost always dumped dish water on the ground or a fire pit. We really never knew how much water we were actually using that way. Especially just rinsing with hose.

Not so with the 5er. No outside kitchen.

So, that means all dishes are washed inside and the 2nd grey tank gets use all the time now. After a year of owning this camper, I've been able to monitor our water use, mostly because of the blue tote, so as not to overfill it. And here is how our water usage breaks down.

66 gallon fresh water tank
39 gallon black tank
39 gallon grey Kitchen
39 gallon grey Bathroom

I'm dumping into a 32 gallon blue tote on a regular basis. Here's the observation:

17% of water usage is the toilet (black tank)
33% of water usage is shower and bathroom sink (grey #1 tank) (2 people)
50% of water usage is the kitchen sink (grey #2 tank)

That translates to one tank of fresh water:

11 gallons for black (toilet)
22 gallons for shower and bathroom sink (Navy showers, almost always)
33 gallons for dishwashing

With my tote, I always dump black and grey (shower) at the same time. Timing it right, it never overspills.
Grey (kitchen) is always dumped by itself, as it usually almost always fill the tote (but does not spill over.)

Once dumped, I fill the fresh water again.

I suppose there is no real point to this post, except to say, I've pretty much validated our highest water usage is for washing dishes. And to think, most folks think it's the shower! (well, maybe for some it is).

Excellent post and good job figuring out what you can do. We can do two full fresh water tanks before we have to worry about dumping, and we have 75 gal fresh. Our black is around 68 gals, the same as our bathroom grey. The kitchen tank is 38 gallons, and we don't fill it very fast. We did start in truck campers though, so we haven't really gotten past the water conservation mode. We can usually go nearly 10 days on one fresh tank.

I have tried to get my best friend to figure their 5er out, but they get scared and start using the campground toilets and showers. They do not boondock or dry camp nearly as much as we do, so it works for them. I want to know what we are able to do.

By the way, we never use water hookups either. I want to know how our waste tanks are doing without looking at a monitor that might or might not work.