How to tell the gray tank is full!!

I leave all my valves closed when parked at a CG with hookups. Takes all of 1 minute to go out and open and close the valve to the gray tank if needed.

Leaving the gray open just allows sewer gas to go into your gray tank and any food particles going down the sink drain to dry out and stick to the bottom of the tank.

Our gray tank will fill in less than 24 hours so we leave the valve open until the last night. Works fine for us. Last day dump the black, open up the gray again and we are ready to go.

mabynack wrote:

lbrjet wrote:

rockhillmanor wrote:

Turtle n Peeps wrote:
I push a little button on my gauge board and then the gauge tells me. :h

X2

10 years and counting and ALL my gauges, black and gray, all WORK.

If you take the time to clean the tanks thoroughly and don't pour grease and food stuffs down the drain your gauges WILL work.

Bottle of lemon cleaner every week and/or a bottle of sensor cleaners periodically is all that is needed. I even read in my RV manual that even types of well water can make them not function. Manual suggests sensor cleaners periodically which I follow and have not problem.

I just find it very hard to listen to RV'ers that just write off their gauges to poor coach workmanship. :R

It's keeping the tanks CLEAN so the guages CAN work is all that is needed.

Your's work, that's great and you are one of the lucky ones. Mine never worked correctly from day 1 of having the brand new trailer. I haven't even looked at them in the last five years. Don't need them anyway.

Ditto. I took my coach back to the dealer after my first trip and the sensors were on my punch list. They cleaned them, but within days they quit working again. I don't dump grease down my sink and I use deodorizers with sensor cleaner in it. Sometimes the sensors work for a few days after that, but nothing seems to fix the problem.

I've bought 2 used MH's in my day and on both the gauges didn't work.

It takes about a few hours of your time, a water hose, and a six pack.

Fill up the tanks and drain, fill up the tanks and drain. Add cleaners and fill up and drain. That is what it takes to UNDO what previous owners did not do to get all the 'stuff' off the walss and sensors.

Prevention: When I am RV'ing: EVERY SINGLE TIME I dump I fill up both tanks again with just water and dump to make sure all the stuff that might have stuck to the sensors are all washed clean. I think this practice IS what keeps them working.

Real simple to do. Run kitchen sink to fill gray and run bathroom sink to fill black. Takes all of about a couple of minutes. IMHO, JMHO this practice makes a big difference if your sensors will work all the time or not. And I use a black tank chemical 'labeled for breaking down waste'. This breaks down the waste and paper so there is less chance of stuff sticking to the walls and sensors.

Yup it's just a holding tank but putting forth an effort to keep it free from stuff adhering to walls/sensors and keeping odors to a minimum when dumping IMHO, JMHO is well worth the little extra effort. :C

lbrjet wrote:

rockhillmanor wrote:

Turtle n Peeps wrote:
I push a little button on my gauge board and then the gauge tells me. :h

X2

10 years and counting and ALL my gauges, black and gray, all WORK.

If you take the time to clean the tanks thoroughly and don't pour grease and food stuffs down the drain your gauges WILL work.

Bottle of lemon cleaner every week and/or a bottle of sensor cleaners periodically is all that is needed. I even read in my RV manual that even types of well water can make them not function. Manual suggests sensor cleaners periodically which I follow and have not problem.

I just find it very hard to listen to RV'ers that just write off their gauges to poor coach workmanship. :R

It's keeping the tanks CLEAN so the guages CAN work is all that is needed.

Your's work, that's great and you are one of the lucky ones. Mine never worked correctly from day 1 of having the brand new trailer. I haven't even looked at them in the last five years. Don't need them anyway.

Ditto. I took my coach back to the dealer after my first trip and the sensors were on my punch list. They cleaned them, but within days they quit working again. I don't dump grease down my sink and I use deodorizers with sensor cleaner in it. Sometimes the sensors work for a few days after that, but nothing seems to fix the problem.

My gauges don't work. The gray water always reads 3/4s full and the blackwater always reads completely full. I've used cleaners that are supposed to clean the sensors and sometimes it gets the sensors working for a few days, but ultimately they quit working again.

I just dump mine every four or five days.

We've done the same thing. The bathtub is certainly more accurate than the gauges in our TT

Just as an aside, we seldom get our gray tank anywhere near full. We usually camp with electric only, so when our fresh tank is down we know it is about time to dump the gray and black water.

Also, we rarely stay in one spot more than a few days so we dump as we go.

This trip we have been staying at electric and water sights with separate dump stations for several days at a time. Sure enough, we got a bit lazy about water usage when it is not from our fresh tank and on day seven we spilled over into the tub.

It is not that our black and gray water meters are inaccurate, it is just that they read what they want. :S I have tried the various cleaning method but the results were short term.

You can bet we will be better tank stuwards from now on.

BB_TX wrote:

Nvr2loud wrote:

BB_TX wrote:
I just leave my grey tank valve open unless I am getting near ready to drain the black tank. Then I will close the grey tank valve for a day to accumulate some water to flush the hose after draining the black tank. Works for me and never find myself standing in a shower a few inches deep in water.

Just to clarify.... Are you on a sewage hook-up or are you just dumping grey water on the ground?

I would assume you are on a sewer hook-up.

Only with sewer hookup. Would never dump on the ground, black or grey.

Could you even imagine dumping black water on the ground... I'm sure it happens, but yuck!

We are permitted to dump grey water on the ground here, but it happens very rarely from what I have seen. I've had to use totes before to collect grey water and then dump at the nearest outhouse when I'm really full on grey but the black is still good to go.

Nvr2loud wrote:

BB_TX wrote:
I just leave my grey tank valve open unless I am getting near ready to drain the black tank. Then I will close the grey tank valve for a day to accumulate some water to flush the hose after draining the black tank. Works for me and never find myself standing in a shower a few inches deep in water.

Just to clarify.... Are you on a sewage hook-up or are you just dumping grey water on the ground?

I would assume you are on a sewer hook-up.

Only with sewer hookup. Would never dump on the ground, black or grey.

lbrjet wrote:

rockhillmanor wrote:

Turtle n Peeps wrote:
I push a little button on my gauge board and then the gauge tells me. :h

X2

10 years and counting and ALL my gauges, black and gray, all WORK.

If you take the time to clean the tanks thoroughly and don't pour grease and food stuffs down the drain your gauges WILL work.

Bottle of lemon cleaner every week and/or a bottle of sensor cleaners periodically is all that is needed. I even read in my RV manual that even types of well water can make them not function. Manual suggests sensor cleaners periodically which I follow and have not problem.

I just find it very hard to listen to RV'ers that just write off their gauges to poor coach workmanship. :R

It's keeping the tanks CLEAN so the guages CAN work is all that is needed.

Your's work, that's great and you are one of the lucky ones... Mine never worked correctly from day 1 of having the brand new trailer. I haven't even looked at them in the last five years. Don't need them anyway.

I think you should have raised that issue with the dealer at the time of purchase, but the point is that WORKING sensors will continue to work if they are properly cleaned. We have used the Geo Method two or three times a season since the trailer was new and after eight years our sensors still work perfectly. Luck has nothing to do with it.