Full hookups question
- Thread starter btbaillie
- Start date
danemayer
Well-known member
Hi btballie,
Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum. There's lots of useful information here along with a great group of friendly and helpful people.
You can leave the sewer hose connected all the time in temps above freezing. The most important thing is to NOT leave the blank tank valve open. You need to have water in the black tank or the solids will make draining the tank a real problem. I leave our gray valves open most of the time. Some people don't leave them open because sewer vapors can travel back up from the sewer system when other people are dumping their tanks. I've not experienced this myself, so I mostly leave the grays open.
A day or two before leaving a campground, if I'm going to dump the black tank before leaving, I'll close the gray valves. Then after dumping the black tank, there's enough water in the grays to flush out the sewer hose before putting it away.
Again, the black tank needs lots of water. After dumping it, add about 5 gallons of fresh water. Use a lot of water when flushing. Wait until the tank is pretty full before dumping. Don't bother with the gauges - they're always wrong, especially with the black tank. The toilet will "burp" when you flush into an almost full tank. Many people wait for that to happen. I usually dump the tank once a week.
Finally, get yourself a see-through extension for the sewer outlet, along with a gate valve for the outlet. Here's the Camco version. Valterra also sells them and you can buy the gate valve and see-through extension separately if you care to. The see through lets you see what's coming out of the black tank so you know when you're done. The gate valve keeps messes from coming out on you when hooking up. First connect the sewer line, then open the outside gate valve.
Fortunately, we don't usually have to spend too much time on this part of the camping experience.
Enjoy your travels.
Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum. There's lots of useful information here along with a great group of friendly and helpful people.
You can leave the sewer hose connected all the time in temps above freezing. The most important thing is to NOT leave the blank tank valve open. You need to have water in the black tank or the solids will make draining the tank a real problem. I leave our gray valves open most of the time. Some people don't leave them open because sewer vapors can travel back up from the sewer system when other people are dumping their tanks. I've not experienced this myself, so I mostly leave the grays open.
A day or two before leaving a campground, if I'm going to dump the black tank before leaving, I'll close the gray valves. Then after dumping the black tank, there's enough water in the grays to flush out the sewer hose before putting it away.
Again, the black tank needs lots of water. After dumping it, add about 5 gallons of fresh water. Use a lot of water when flushing. Wait until the tank is pretty full before dumping. Don't bother with the gauges - they're always wrong, especially with the black tank. The toilet will "burp" when you flush into an almost full tank. Many people wait for that to happen. I usually dump the tank once a week.
Finally, get yourself a see-through extension for the sewer outlet, along with a gate valve for the outlet. Here's the Camco version. Valterra also sells them and you can buy the gate valve and see-through extension separately if you care to. The see through lets you see what's coming out of the black tank so you know when you're done. The gate valve keeps messes from coming out on you when hooking up. First connect the sewer line, then open the outside gate valve.
Fortunately, we don't usually have to spend too much time on this part of the camping experience.
Enjoy your travels.
Hi btbaillie: Pretty certain you could find near-endless entries on the forum on running your black and grey water tanks. danemayer provides a good simple explaination of running proceedure for the tanks. Adding to his comments, I typically run my grey water tanks and black water tank with a closed valve while RVing. As well, after emptying tanks, I add calgon water softener and dawn dish soap to the black water tank. While living in the RV, after 3 to 5 days (depending on use level) I start dumping the black water tank with the black tank flush hooked up and spraying. After that tank is empty (10 minutes or so) with the black tank flush still running, I open each of the 2 grey water tanks to flush the discharge line a bit more. After they are empty, I close the valve on all 3 tanks; and run the black tank flush line for about 5 minutes, adding that 5 gallons of fresh water that danemayer referred to. After shutting the black tank flush line off, I add the calgon and the dawn soap once again to the black water tank.
Now, the bottom line is that I have had no odor since I started using this method. Is this a waste of calgon and dawn soap?....... Maybe; but I have zero tank odor..... And,,,,, on occasion, my tank sensors work. I might add that the sensors don't work very often, but I feel that, when they do, it reinforces my method of tank operation and drainage I use.
Before departure from the RV site, I typically empty the tanks using the previously stated method, and add the calgon and dawn to the black tank, and a little bit of dawn to the grey water tanks to clean some of the buildup that accumulates during its use. The agitation while traveling on to the next site, I feel, cleans some of the phosphate buildup from normal use. As you will see often mentioned, the tank level indicators are near useless and certainly unreliable.
I'm not doing anything new. I've simply taken ideas from people on this forum. Some members use nothing in their tanks. I use my method to eliminate odor that the black tank did have before I started using this softener/soap addition system. Calgon and dawn soap are cheap investments and can be obtained from about any grocery type store. Happy Travels. gebills.
Now, the bottom line is that I have had no odor since I started using this method. Is this a waste of calgon and dawn soap?....... Maybe; but I have zero tank odor..... And,,,,, on occasion, my tank sensors work. I might add that the sensors don't work very often, but I feel that, when they do, it reinforces my method of tank operation and drainage I use.
Before departure from the RV site, I typically empty the tanks using the previously stated method, and add the calgon and dawn to the black tank, and a little bit of dawn to the grey water tanks to clean some of the buildup that accumulates during its use. The agitation while traveling on to the next site, I feel, cleans some of the phosphate buildup from normal use. As you will see often mentioned, the tank level indicators are near useless and certainly unreliable.
I'm not doing anything new. I've simply taken ideas from people on this forum. Some members use nothing in their tanks. I use my method to eliminate odor that the black tank did have before I started using this softener/soap addition system. Calgon and dawn soap are cheap investments and can be obtained from about any grocery type store. Happy Travels. gebills.
JohnDar
Prolifically Gabby Member
Yep, it works but you still have to be generous with the water when you flush.
rick_debbie_gallant
Well-known member
We do all of the above also. The only thing we do different is with the clear waste valve at the end of the dump manifold. I run a separate hose from a gated wye hose connector at the hose bib (the other end of the wye connects to hose going to to my potable water supply). There is also a gated wye on the end of the hose that feeds the the clear gate valve one end connected to flush on gate valve the other to a hose feeding the black tank flush in the UDC.
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rick_debbie_gallant
Well-known member
Not to worry here. When I get one of those "roundtoits" I will be marking the sewer hose as a sewer Jose. Besides with my set up the hose for the potable water coils up and goes in the filter tote.
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