How many days to fill gray and black holding tanks???

[bowler1]

Based on your experience how many days can you go without needing to empty your holding tanks, and how reliable are your tanks guages? And of course how big are your tanks and how man people are camping with you?

I know this is relative but i am trying to get an idea.

I have 32 gallon black and gray. I am solo camping now and finishing today after 4 nights. I have used the shower sparingly. My guages show that i now have full black and gray tanks. Seems that would not be the case this quick with one person.

Thanks

Matt

[ktmrfs]

bowler1 wrote:
Based on your experience how many days can you go without needing to empty your holding tanks, and how reliable are your tanks guages? And of course how big are your tanks and how man people are camping with you?

I know this is relative but i am trying to get an idea.

I have 32 gallon black and gray. I am solo camping now and finishing today after 4 nights. I have used the shower sparingly. My guages show that i now have full black and gray tanks. Seems that would not be the case this quick with one person.

Thanks

Matt

our trailer has two 32 gallon grey and one 32 gallon black tank. DW and I can go two weeks and still have some room in the tanks. quick shower every other day, carefull with dishwashing, get a big load, use paper plates/cups etc for quick meals. Makes good firestarting material anyway. On the occasions where it is just me, I don't even fill one grey tank in a week and the black is only 1/3 full.

With us, two grandkids, daughter and SIL, we can go 5-6 days before I need to do something with grey water. Even in this case black isn't full, but close.

In general, meals that work well in paper get paper stuff, if it doesn't we use regular dinner ware. Probably a 50/50 split on average.

Everyone has ONE drinking glass they need to use ALL day, no grab one, drink, toss in sink grab another etc.

We use the oxygenetics shower head with the push button shutoff, probably can shower with a gallon of water that way,

It's all careful water conservation. And in all the cases above we haven't needed to use (a) campground toilet facilities or (b) the campground dishwashing disposal dumps for any water either.

[dave17352]

We just got back from a eleven day trip all over the canyon area and I did a little experimenting with my holding tanks. We camped 8 nights without hookups and several of those with no water either! We have a 46 gallon fresh water and 22 grey and 26 black tank. We were able to go 4 days no problem with both of us taking navy showers each night. The biggest waste of water is washing dishes. I say use disposable everything except what you cook in. Literally do the dishes once every couple days. There isn't to much to wash if you use paper plates paper bowls and plastic utensils. Also I bought several rolls of paper towels, they work great for sandwiches and for dish rags. On this trip I bought six big rolls of bounty and think we used 3.

I also did the old equalizing the grey and black tanks by leaving the cap on and opening first the grey and then the black valve. Works great. When I dump I just remove the small hose cap on the end cap and let that go down the hose first and then hook up and dump as usual. I know some people think this is gross but that is silly. In fact two of my fishing buddies are Master plumbers and they both see absolutely no problem in doing this.

I am not sure if it was in this thread, but somebody mentioned lots of times they make the holding tanks capable of holding the volume of fresh water you can take on board. In my case this is the true.

Any this is all JMHO.

PS I still can't get myself to throw out all the plastic forks, knives and spoons there just so easy to wash with the pots and pans!

[xteacher]

We just bought a small TT with tiny tanks (15 gray, 9 black). We also bought a 15 gallon overflow tank, since we know we'll be needing it at non-full hook up campgrounds - probably daily for grey water.

To maximize the length of use between emptying the tanks, we have done the following, as necessary:

*use campground facilities during the day to help the black tank last longer, and we also only do #1, never #2 unless it's an emergency, in the camper toilet (sorry if TMI).

*strictly limit the amount of toilet paper used, which helps both with making the tank last longer, as well as keeping the sensors from gumming up as quickly. *flush the black water tank (some campers have one built in when emptying the tank for last time; we have a simple wand sprayer that we attach to a hose and stick down the toilet - NOT the drinking hose!!). This has worked pretty well in every camper we've had so far in keeping the sensors relatively accurate (as well as the bathroom habits listed above).

*don't empty the black tank unless full or nearly full. Add water, if necessary, if you need to empty before it's full.

*take Navy showers to limit water going into grey tank. We use the campground showers if they're clean and have a/c in the summer. With kids, I'd definitely do this!

*wash dishes outside like tenters do, if necessary. If you have an outside shower, this is very easy. Set up a small folding table and use 2 dish tubs on it - one for soapy water (only an inch or two is plenty) and one for draining dishes with an rv size dish drainer in it; use the sprayer to rinse dishes into the soapy water tub. If you don't have an outdoor shower, attach a second hose to your water connection with a Y connector. Good for rinsing dirty/sandy feet off, too.

When we had a larger TT with 30 gal. tanks, the black tank lasted a week using the above methods, and the gray lasted about 3 days. There were only 2 of us, so that makes a big difference, compared to having a family/kids.

[tenbear]

Fresh water - 35G
Grey water - 21G
Black water - 25G
Water heater - 6G
People - 2
Bathroom sink plumbed into the black tank.

With FHU sites I dump about every 2-3 days, but without hookups, when we go into full water conservation mode, we have gone 5 days before dumping. I don't trust my gauges but I can see my fresh water tank and I figure if there is still water in the fresh water tank, the other tanks are not full yet.

[dodge_guy]

I have 38 gallon tanks. the black tank I can stretch to 6 days which is pretty good considering it gets used quite well! the grey can go anywhere from 1 day to 3 days max. depends on how vigilant we are with not running the water too long.

[PAThwacker]

I go to state parks with a 25 gallon gray tank, macerator pump, and 7 gallon aquatainer. I pump the gray into the back of our sub, and dump it via the camper's slinky at the dump station. I have 40ft of transparent 1 1/2 inch hose. Its a ***** to drain that water out of the hose, and do not dump black via the macerator while camping. At home I use a 50ft 3/4 hose for black dumping into my septic.

My camper is 25ft long, and the 40ft is perfect. The problem occurs once you kill the flojet, you have 40ft of stinky water stuck in the hose. Remove hose from flojet, elevate and try to get that water into the gray tank.

[PAThwacker]

36/30/30 tanks and a family of 4. One day drain of fw/fill of gray water is very common.

[myredracer]

With the black tank it will depend also on how much water you put in before you use the tank (4-5 gal. recommended) and how generous you are with water when flushing #2 down. We don't skimp on water anymore and it really makes getting the tank clean after dumping easy and we don't dry camp so dumping more often doesn't matter. For us (party of two), how long it lasts is less important to us than cleaning it.

The grey and galley tank just get dumped when the black is full. The grey tank (bathroom) is only a problem if we take too many or too long showers. The galley tank always lasts the longest.

[wmoses]

2chiefsRus wrote:
Lots of folks concentrate on showers when trying to conserve water but washing dishes takes more water than you may think.

Not the way I do it. 😉

I have no more than 2 - 3" inches of soapy water in the wash sink and nothing initially in the rinse sink. Then I rinse with a trickle over the rinse sink until the water gets to about 2" then rinse with that water. Witth that approach I can even do dinner dishes.

[Opie431]

Our senssors were accurate until a year ago. Now I just look on them as habitual liars.

[BubbaChris]

We only have 27gal tanks for fresh, gray, and black. And we're going on our second-ever dry camping trip this weekend. So it's fun and useful to read this whole thread to get ideas from more experienced campers.

On our last (dry camping) trip, we saved our breakfast and lunch prep tools until after dinner for cleaning. And for minor things, we used wet wipes to clean our hands instead of using the sinks.

We're also in the mode of trying to divert as much gray water as possible to the black tank (shower warm-up water, kitchen rinse water, etc.)

[PAAK]

The gray tank will last 4-5 days with me, wife, and son. The black doesnt usually get to half during that time, and the galley will get to 2/3, we only wash pans and normal cleaning, as we use plastic ware and paper plates while camping.

[Lantley]

Wife and 2 kids we can go a weekend with no conservation methods. 40 gallons tanks Longer stays we use Barker tote for grey tank and can last indefinetly

[Drew_K]

It's just the wife and me, and our TT has a 30 gallon black tank and 60 gallon grey tank. We don't use the campground facilities, so all of our water is used in the TT.

Our black tank usually gets to around 2/3 full in 4 days, although we flush with plenty of water to help the tank flush properly when we dump. I think we could easily go 6+ days if we cut back on the flush water, although I'd flush the black tank well when dumping.

The grey water tank will last 4-6 days, showering using Navy method. We also adjust our usage habits based on how long we're going to stay somewhere. If we're only staying somewhere for 2 nights, we tend to use more water when showering, washing dishes, etc.

Couple of tips to save water:
* Navy method for showering (huge savings here)

* Minimize washing dishes (huge savings here also) by using paper plates and plastic cups. I'll wash dishes outside if we're staying somewhere 5+ days.

* Buy a small 1 gallon bucket and use that to hold water for certain tasks, then throw it outside. For example, when first turning on the shower to get hot water, I run the water into that bucket until the water is hot, then the bucket gets drained outside after the shower. In my TT, that saves around 1/3 gallon each shower.