When camped at camp grounds do you

[blue_trawler]

Leave your gray or black water valve open? I always leave black tank closed and grey water open until we are going to leave. Meaning a day or two in the grey water tank to flush out after draining black water tank.

Thanks

Bruce

[drillking]

We leave both closed until dump time. Open the black, drain, open the gray, drain, run the back flush system, done!

[camper19709]

Bull Rider wrote:
Both closed until ready to dump, and slinky stowed until ready to dump. Just the way we've always done it.

X2

[Don___Carolyn]

Closed...we keep the three tanks closed until we need to empty them. We think the flushing action of full tanks will help carry away any food particles that may have settled to the bottom of the galley tank.

[FiverBob]

If you like to leave the grey valve open, always put a trap in the hose. This is just like the trap in your drains in your home - - it prevents sewer gases from entering your home. Try hitting the road for a trip of 6 months and see whap your house smells like when you get home - - your traps have dried out. You must cover them before going. Likewise, put a couple short boards under the hose about 3' from the drain - - creates your own trap and prevents gases entering your tank under slight pressure and exhausting into your rig and the campground from your roof vent.

Bob

[Ohiojude]

Never hookup dump hose until, we leave or tanks are full if, we are doing an extended stay somewhere.

[tahoemc]

Sport45 wrote:
I don't think I'll ever leave the grey valve open. At least not after reading the thread below from the 'General' section.

Sewage in Camper

:E Wow, I learned something today. We usually dry camp, but when we do hookup in the future, the valves are staying closed until we are ready or need to drain.

[ol_Bombero-JC]

blue trawler wrote:
Leave your gray or black water valve open? I always leave black tank closed and grey water open until we are going to leave. Meaning a day or two in the grey water tank to flush out after draining black water tank.

Thanks

Bruce

Same-O, has worked fine for me since 1971.

~

[jnharley]

Anybody read the post about the RV that was flooded with sewage after leaving their gray tank open? Not sure it was on this forum or IRV2. We have some experience with this. We have property in a small Midwestern town and the sewer/storm water pipes are the same. Constant rain caused the storm water to overwhelm the system and if we had our gray valves open, it would have backed up into our RV. We could not figure out why our sewer hose was all twisted and off its support. It was because the city sewer system backed up into the sewer hose. We never leave our gray tank valves open.

[rockhillmanor]

blue trawler wrote:
Another thing I do, is fill the black tank full ( 50 gallons) with water after dumping and then drain again! May be over kill but who knows! Bruce

X2.
I have been doing the same thing for 6 years now. Dump the black, fill to top with water and dump again right before before I leave. IMHO that IS why my sensors work ALL the time.

[SandSOrrell]

All three closed until ready to dump. We have one of those whirly-gig thingies in the black tank. Black gets dumped first. Run the black flush whirly while dumping and leave it run until water runs clear. Then close the black and dump the grays, doesn't matter which goes first - sometimes both at same time. As others have said, that cleans out the sewer slinky. Then close the grays and go relax. We usually dump every couple of days when staying for a longer time. Use same procedure every time we dump. I know several folks who leave the grays open and close them the day before leaving to use after dumping the black. I don't do that for a couple of reasons. 1) I would forget to close them the day before. 2) I don't like the idea of leaving the grays open to the sewer system. Never had a problem but anything is possible I suppose.

[Helmsey]

When we first started camping I would leave the black closed, and grey open as others have mentioned. Now in a 5er with larger tanks unless we are somewhere for a week or longer I generally don't hook the sewer hose up until we leave, so all 5 of our valves stay closed until then. Even if we are somewhere for an extended stay I don't hook the hoses up until we need to dump the first tank.

[Shadow_Grey]

rhagfo wrote:
Well I have three, Black, Galley, and Grey. All stay closed until I need to drain, that way I have plenty of clean water to rinse the black water leavings.

This!

[Sport45]

I don't think I'll ever leave the grey valve open. At least not after reading the thread below from the 'General' section.

Sewage in Camper

[rseymour21]

I keep all three closed! When I'm ready to dump, Black first. Then when its empty, I start the flush. I then pull the kitchen and let it drain. When its empty, I close it. Then I close the black, so it will fill the tank some and reopen the valve. I probably do this a couple times and shut off the flush. Then while the black valve is still open, I pull the gray valve for a couple seconds. The water goes into the black and brings out more stuff. Works just like a back flush, works best when the gray is completely full. I do this a couple times or so then close the black. Then drain the gray.