We have a sewer cleanout next to our house, about 40 feet from the trailer's black water valve. The cleanout is essentially level with the trailer -- maybe a little downhill from the trailer, but not much. Several years ago, we tried the Sewer Solution -- it exploded due to back pressure. Not pretty. (Turns out that the hose run was just a little bit too long for the components . . . )Since then, we have been pumping at RV parks on the way home from each trip. Ten bucks each time -- no big deal -- but I would like to be able to empty the tanks at home without using my blue boy tank, especially when we use the trailer as a low-rent guest house on occasion.After our Sewer Solution fiasco, I am wary of trying anything similar, but the reviews on the Flojet are good. So naturally a few questions:I assume that you have to have a dedicated hose for emptying the sewer -- that's fine. But how does one clean out the hose after pumping is finished? Isn't there some backwash or back-flow when it is disconnected?Is it difficult to clean up the Flojet itself?Do you usually carry the Flojet with you, or do you leave it home?Is this product solidly built and reliable?If you have had occasion to call their customer service folks, have they been available and helpful?Sorry for the "survey style" questions. But I no longer trust the Amazon reviews -- there are too many robot-generated five star reviews, even though Amazon is trying to weed out the fakes.Thanks in advance for your advice!!

I have a flojet.To answer your questions:If you dump the black water first and then the grey water, you have essentially "cleaned" the hose. When I remove the flojet from the RV (I have the portable version), I have a small bucket that sits underneath the connection to catch any drips - I did this with a regular stinky slinky also.Not difficult at all. Again, draining the grey tank last helps do a lot of the clean up. Then I just rinse with water. The flojet has a connector for a rinse hose, so you can also use that.I leave it at home. I have it at home because it is a long stretch to my clean out with two right turns. When out, I just use a stinky slinky at a dump station as it is an easy dump.I haven't had any problems with it. So, I will assume it is solidly built and reliable. As such I have not needed customer service.

I have a sewer connection slightly up hill from my pole barn. I wanted to be able to use the trailer with it parked inside the barn, so I bought the pump, 3/4" hose, a light weight 1/2" hose and all the cables to attach. All that junk fills a very large storage bin so it stays at home. I can't imagine using it at a campground unless there is absolutely no other way.The supply water hose can flush the waste hose and the parts self rinse clean. I put down a disposable bed pad before disconnecting to keep my garage floor clean.Be sure to use heavy wire as stated in the owners manual.

Been using a FloJet Waste Macerator for years and wouldn't ever not service any travel trailer waste tanks any other way. It works so well I installed an intake stack to the house main sewer stack which I feed with a 50' length of 3/4" hose from Home Depot. When I'm done I usually run fresh water supplied by a garden hose through this output hose. Pics start here.

I have a flojet and a sewer solution.I prefer the stinky Slinky over both. Nevertheless, both the SS and FJ are nice options to have.They provide versatility and options that the standard Stinky Slinky cannot.If your connection is uphill or far away the FJ will get the job done.

Lynnmor wrote:I can't imagine using it at a campground unless there is absolutely no other way.FloJet lives in the front storage compartment and although the need to off load contents of the black tank isn't often it's always there "just in case". Rather than an expensive, heavy, hard to store wheeled tote tank I instead have a set of 7 gal Aquatainers labeled for waste water use. I can control the FloJet from the waste tank location OR from the tongue area because I wired power to the FJ through a switch on the tongue. That allows me to monitor the Aquatainers sitting in the back of the truck as they fill. Works like a charm, wouldn't do it any other way. :B

Questions and doubts about Flojet | Good Sam Community

wa8yxm
Explorer III
Mar 04, 2019
shum02 wrote:
Gdetrailer wrote:

I personally would never wish to have to "fix" a broken pump filled with black water matter when it breaks..

I would have to say based on experience and being on this forum for a while that this event would be extremely rare. Getting a hole in your slinky or pulling off your sewer cap with a quantity of fluid hiding behind due to a leaky remote valve is a LOT more frequent. The Flojet's are an extremely reliable piece of kit.

Like 1000 to one more common yes. You nailed that fact.
SoundGuy
Explorer
Mar 04, 2019
profdant139 wrote:
SoundGuy, I way overthink EVERYTHING connected with RVing -- it beats the heck out of thinking about the other things I really should be thinking about! ;)

Touché ! :p
profdant139
Explorer II
Mar 04, 2019
SoundGuy, I way overthink EVERYTHING connected with RVing -- it beats the heck out of thinking about the other things I really should be thinking about! ;)
Bobbo
Explorer II
Mar 04, 2019
Gdetrailer wrote:
Close valves (don't disconnect yet), LIFT the slinky up walk your way towards the cleanout to clear the liquids from the slinky.

I would leave one of the valves open. You need air venting into the hose so the "stuff" will flow down the hose.
SoundGuy
Explorer
Mar 04, 2019
profdant139 wrote:
Rice, the hose run had a little uphill portion -- a few inches -- and forty feet of hose. Apparently, the cumulative weight of the water in the line created back-pressure on the fixture that attached to the tank valve. The Sewer Solution fixture failed catastrophically.

So that is why I am hesitant about Flojet -- will it do the same thing?

You're WAY overthinking this - buy the FloJet and be done with it. It will work for your purpose just fine. :B
Big_Katuna
Explorer II
Mar 03, 2019
The first time my macerator jammed from a visitors female product and the gallon or so of waste I took it apart to find a broken impeller and the rest cracked. This is around year three.

After I put in a new impeller, I took it apart for pm every two years.

Never had another problem.
shum02
Explorer
Mar 03, 2019
Gdetrailer wrote:

I personally would never wish to have to "fix" a broken pump filled with black water matter when it breaks..

I would have to say based on experience and being on this forum for a while that this event would be extremely rare. Getting a hole in your slinky or pulling off your sewer cap with a quantity of fluid hiding behind due to a leaky remote valve is a LOT more frequent. The Flojet's are an extremely reliable piece of kit.
Gdetrailer
Explorer III
Mar 03, 2019
profdant139 wrote:
We tried just using the Slinky -- did not work. Our setup is too close to flat level, with a slight uphill bump at one point.

I even looked into installing a sewer cleanout on my driveway downhill from the back end of the trailer. It would have cost thousands of dollars -- not feasible.

But your suggestion prompted me to add another line to my list of "You might be a serious RVer" items:

"You might be a serious RVer, if your idea of sheer luxury is a gravity-assisted sewer cleanout on your own property!"

Wow, don't I wish!! ;)

We make use of our mobile facilities while traveling, so yes, it IS a "luxury" to allow gravity to flush our problems down the drain at home :B

Like I mentioned, you can park your rig on some blocking, even 6" of height above your cleanout will do it for your distance. Gravity doesn't work well when things are level so there IS a reason as to why it did not work for you when you tried it. Heck my TT sits real low, often the campsite drains are only 1"-2" below my drain and it still works for me.

Cleaning all that extra slinky is no worse than dealing with a pump and garden hose full of the black stuff..

Slinky bayonet connectors make life easy.

Start with black tank, when black tank is done open the grey tank, rinse black tank with fresh water and add some dish soap to grey and refill then repeat black first then grey.

When done your slinky will have lots of soap bubbles..

Close valves (don't disconnect yet), LIFT the slinky up walk your way towards the cleanout to clear the liquids from the slinky.

Once you have most of the liquids out of the slinky (at this point it is soapy water from your grey tank), disconnect from RV, use your water hose to spray water into the slinky (holding the disconnected end up a couple of feet). Then repeat the walk towards the cleanout.

Once you get to your second hose, disconnect trailer hose from the second hose and repeat the water spray then walk towards to cleanout.

When you reach the cleanout BOTH hoses will be sparkling clean.

I do lay out my hoses where they can dry out for a couple of days then pick them up and pack back into the boxes they came from..

The key IS the bayonet connectors, would not want to wrangle full 60ft of slinky in my case.. You can buy them in male/female set..

Camco 39543 is the part number for the set.

I personally would never wish to have to "fix" a broken pump filled with black water matter when it breaks..
toedtoes
Explorer III
Mar 03, 2019
The flojet is very easy to use. Hook it on, screw on the hose end, drop the other hose end in the clean out pipe, attach the power, open the drain valve and push a button. A couple minutes and it's emptied.

In contrast when I used the stinky slinky, gravity required having to lift the slinky and "walk" the contents the 21 or so feet because it would stop flowing halfway. Each of those connections was a potential leak. The distance needed could not be met exactly with the available slinky lengths so there was always several feet of excess that sank with the contents.

With the flojet, it doesn't matter if I have extra length of hose, the pump pushes it through easily. I keep the hose on a reel and pull out just what I need. Easy to setup and use and store.
profdant139
Explorer II
Mar 03, 2019
We tried just using the Slinky -- did not work. Our setup is too close to flat level, with a slight uphill bump at one point.

I even looked into installing a sewer cleanout on my driveway downhill from the back end of the trailer. It would have cost thousands of dollars -- not feasible.

But your suggestion prompted me to add another line to my list of "You might be a serious RVer" items:

"You might be a serious RVer, if your idea of sheer luxury is a gravity-assisted sewer cleanout on your own property!"

Wow, don't I wish!! ;)