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limbery's avatar
limbery
Explorer
May 28, 2013

Letting the grey water out a bit to extend it's use?

I was talking to a camper at the next site the other day and he said he got lots more use out of his grey tank by leaving the valve open a bit so it slowly would continuously drain...and then when he left a site, if they didn't have a dump station, he left the valve slightly open so it would drip out while driving and he'd get home with an empty tank...

Aside from the ethical implications of this, I was thinking that the tank might get sludged up from not having a good quick flush when dumping the regular way?...

Anyone else admit to doing this? (now if you do it with your black water...I don't even want to hear about it!)
  • It would behoove anyone to know and follow the local/state regulations before attempting this.
  • downtheroad wrote:
    limbery wrote:

    Illegal yes, but not likely noticed if it was open just a bit, and you could always claim ignorance in that you forgot to close it tight or it just seemed to slip open?

    Ya, good advice here...Just go ahead a break the law and claim ignorance..

    Heck, laws and courtesy are for someone else, not ME.


    To be clear here....I'm not condoning any of this....just discussing and seeing what everyone thinks....I've never done this myself and was kind of taken aback when I heard about it...
  • limbery wrote:

    Illegal yes, but not likely noticed if it was open just a bit, and you could always claim ignorance in that you forgot to close it tight or it just seemed to slip open?

    Ya, good advice here...Just go ahead a break the law and claim ignorance..

    Heck, laws and courtesy are for someone else, not ME.
  • I don't know how many times you would drive down the road with liquid coming out of the drain line before you would get pulled over. Too many people with cell phones.

    If he's draining the grey water out on the way home what does he do with the black tank? So he gets home with an empty grey tank but the black is still full? Then once you drain the black tank you have nothing to rinse the hose out with. I'll pass.
  • camp-n-family wrote:
    Not to mention the fact that it is illegal to dump on the roads, clean or not, and not sanitary anywhere else for that matter, I imagine it could also cause sludge buildup like you say.


    Illegal yes, but not likely noticed if it was open just a bit, and you could always claim ignorance in that you forgot to close it tight or it just seemed to slip open?
  • We camp a lot in Oregon State Parks. They have sink water drains in all the loops.

    On occasion I have drained GRAY water into a 5 gallon bucket and walk it over to one of the nearby drains.

  • Not to mention the fact that it is illegal to dump on the roads, clean or not, and not sanitary anywhere else for that matter, I imagine it could also cause sludge buildup like you say.
  • limbery wrote:
    Well...to be a bit more fair....He was telling me that he only did it where he was camping in an open field situation rather than a groomed campground site.........But still!.....


    When he gets enough sludge in the bottom of the tank to clog the tank's outflow opening, he'll start looking for dump stations. ;)
  • Well...to be a bit more fair....He was telling me that he only did it where he was camping in an open field situation rather than a groomed campground site.........But still!.....
  • I won't admit to that because I don't do it, and especially not at my site!

    Now, I have been known to stealth dump in out of the way places where nobody goes. And yes, trickle draining, over time, will clog stuff up.