Bleeding greywater into black tank

[BearScream]

Second the method of several posters to catch sink water for ultimate black tank disposal.
I wondered why this was not designed in by using an inline catch tank under the sink(s) to flush the toilet instead of fresh water. When this tank fills, the excess goes to gray as usual. That way the gray water can serve the flush purpose, doing double duty, so to speak, also the double purpose, saving fresh water, and modulating the fill of the black tank. Just a newbie wondering...

[Wingeezer]

We seldom camp without full hookups, but I have prepared for the eventuality in a couple of ways - never yet have had to use them ........

(1) We do have two plastic "tubs" that happen be a perfect "drop-in" fit into our galley sinks, so we could trap dish washing water and dump into the toilet.

(2) I have a cap on the sewer drain outlet that has a screw on garden hose connection on it.

I carry a short length of hose, and also a 5 gal collapsible water container reserved for the purpose, so that if we needed to, we could ferry 5 gallons of gray water to a dump station as often as we needed.

(3) Of course I wouldn't do this .......... or would I? The short length of hose mentioned above is long enough to reach around to some hidden point under the trailer ...... Hmmmm.


So far we haven't had to use any of these methods, but surprisingly find that if we must have showers in the trailer at a site without full hookups, even though we try our damndest to use minimal water (navy shower style), we cannot go more than about three days before the shower drain starts to back up!

That has always surprised me as I think the gray tank is supposed to be about 37 gallons. It almost makes me wonder if something screwy is going on with our plumbing (in the trailer I mean!)

Anyone else experience this?


Brian

[Foiled Again]

Originally Posted by Wingeezer

We seldom camp without full hookups, but I have prepared for the eventuality in a couple of ways - never yet have had to use them ........

(1) We do have two plastic "tubs" that happen be a perfect "drop-in" fit into our galley sinks, so we could trap dish washing water and dump into the toilet.

(2) I have a cap on the sewer drain outlet that has a screw on garden hose connection on it.

I carry a short length of hose, and also a 5 gal collapsible water container reserved for the purpose, so that if we needed to, we could ferry 5 gallons of gray water to a dump station as often as we needed.

(3) Of course I wouldn't do this .......... or would I? The short length of hose mentioned above is long enough to reach around to some hidden point under the trailer ...... Hmmmm.


So far we haven't had to use any of these methods, but surprisingly find that if we must have showers in the trailer at a site without full hookups, even though we try our damndest to use minimal water (navy shower style), we cannot go more than about three days before the shower drain starts to back up!

That has always surprised me as I think the gray tank is supposed to be about 37 gallons. It almost makes me wonder if something screwy is going on with our plumbing (in the trailer I mean!)

Anyone else experience this?


Brian

Brian... Don't forget the first gallon in the pipes is COLD. Get a bucket, turn the shower on as hot as it will go, hold your hand in the water until it does get hot. That's probably a gallon. THAT is how much goes down the drain before you climb IN the shower.

But if you stick with the bucket, and add a second gallon or a bit more, the bucket water should be about the right temperature to shower in. NOW G.I. shower with the water in the bucket. THAT will save water. Use an empty disposable water the bottle as your shower head. Wet your hair, washcloth, and body, then add soap to the washcloth, scrub wherever needed, and start pouring water from the bottle out to rinse yourself off - that way you don't get soapy water back in the bucket. (using the bottle let's me keep my hair dry when I'm not shampooing it too. Pouring direct from the bucket, too much water too poorly aimed.)

Do this one time with the plug in the drain. Then mark where water line is in the shower. Compare that mark to one from your regular G.I. shower - bet you saved at least a gallon. (I suppose if you're really anal you could line the shower in plastic and weigh the water from each method.)

Oh, and if you really want to save water - keep the plug in, bail the water into a jug, and when you use the John, flush with the jug of gray water.

[Al and Missy]

Really like the shower suggestions to equalize black/gray fill and when conservation is required! We have an insert for the galley sink and use that for dish washing.

Al

[AnnArborBob]

Done properly and with a good shower head (such as the famous Oxygenics) and a water cut off valve (similar to the one in the link below,) a proper navy shower can be accomplished with about 2 gallons of water (unless your hair is waist length .) So my wife and I only put about 4 to 5 gallons of water or less per day into our 39 gallon grey tank as a result of showering.


http://www.amazon.com/K1140B-Shower-...+cut+off+vavle

[Jack46]

A slow grey water drip in certain campground situations or even while moving is not usually noticed. Use a outlet cap that has a hose connector.

[Ted S.]

Some good suggestions here, it would make sense if you could select which tank the sinks and shower drain into. Then you could optimize tank capacities. Obviously the toilet would always go into the black tank. That would be a hard mod however, it would need a pretty robust valve, then I am not sure how it would affect the trap.

FYI, we are a family of six and are very active, I try to gt everyone out biking, hiking, climbing, etc. whenever we are out. So we need showers, we can get them down to 3-4 gallons of water per shower, I don't think 2.

[kb7our]

Another interesting thread since we never intend to use the black tank on a "new" trailer and therefore would like an effective method of combining tanks. Ideally, we only require a grey tank and would like that to be as large as possible. I'm ok with a plumbing mod that can be reversed so we never have to transfer/bail water between tanks. Not liking options I've read so far. There must be a better DIY plumbing solution unless perhaps AS can do something for us within the initial order (ideal). Composting toilet already waiting.

[AnnArborBob]

Originally Posted by kb7our

Another interesting thread since we never intend to use the black tank on a "new" trailer and therefore would like an effective method of combining tanks. Ideally, we only require a grey tank and would like that to be as large as possible. I'm ok with a plumbing mod that can be reversed so we never have to transfer/bail water between tanks. Not liking options I've read so far. There must be a better DIY plumbing solution unless perhaps AS can do something for us within the initial order (ideal). Composting toilet already waiting.

You could probably drop the belly pan to access the two waste water tanks from below and find a way to connect the two together with a plastic pipe to give you what you want. This could be undone in the future if you or a future owner wanted to go back to a conventional grey/black setup.

[Wingeezer]

Originally Posted by Foiled Again

Brian... Don't forget the first gallon in the pipes is COLD. Get a bucket, turn the shower on as hot as it will go, hold your hand in the water until it does get hot. That's probably a gallon. THAT is how much goes down the drain before you climb IN the shower.

But if you stick with the bucket, and add a second gallon or a bit more, the bucket water should be about the right temperature to shower in. NOW G.I. shower with the water in the bucket. THAT will save water. Use an empty disposable water the bottle as your shower head. Wet your hair, washcloth, and body, then add soap to the washcloth, scrub wherever needed, and start pouring water from the bottle out to rinse yourself off - that way you don't get soapy water back in the bucket. (using the bottle let's me keep my hair dry when I'm not shampooing it too. Pouring direct from the bucket, too much water too poorly aimed.)

Do this one time with the plug in the drain. Then mark where water line is in the shower. Compare that mark to one from your regular G.I. shower - bet you saved at least a gallon. (I suppose if you're really anal you could line the shower in plastic and weigh the water from each method.)

Oh, and if you really want to save water - keep the plug in, bail the water into a jug, and when you use the John, flush with the jug of gray water.

Good point about the initial shower water running cold for quite a while. I don't doubt younger right, could be about a gallon or so.


It reminds me that one thing I forgot to mention in my earlier post is another thing I recently started doing to save space in the gray tank.

I found that that the hose to our shower head is long enough to reach across the aisle to the john, so while it is running cold, I just let it the cold water run into the toilet directly, then start my shower once it is running hot!

I guess your way is better still since you wind up using the cold water!

Brian.

[Slats]

Originally Posted by Foiled Again

Get a plastic milk jug (1 gallon size), cut the top off, but leave the handle intact.

Great idea. And, if you are into whitewater canoeing, you can use it as a bailer when you swamp and pull over to the bank after running the rapids.

[Foiled Again]

Originally Posted by Slats

Great idea. And, if you are into whitewater canoeing, you can use it as a bailer when you swamp and pull over to the bank after running the rapids.

Yep, you've already paid for it once so REUSE is even better than RECYCLE. And with it's soft sides it won't mar the shower or the inside of a canoe. You'd probably want a half gallon size though for the canoe though.

Paula

[Al and Missy]

Quote:
Originally Posted by kb7our
Another interesting thread since we never intend to use the black tank on a "new" trailer and therefore would like an effective method of combining tanks. Ideally, we only require a grey tank and would like that to be as large as possible. I'm ok with a plumbing mod that can be reversed so we never have to transfer/bail water between tanks. Not liking options I've read so far. There must be a better DIY plumbing solution unless perhaps AS can do something for us within the initial order (ideal). Composting toilet already waiting.

Originally Posted by AnnArborBob

You could probably drop the belly pan to access the two waste water tanks from below and find a way to connect the two together with a plastic pipe to give you what you want. This could be undone in the future if you or a future owner wanted to go back to a conventional grey/black setup.

On my trailer, all I would have to do is leave the gray tank and black tank valves open and use the outlet valve to control dumping. If you like the idea of having two valves in series for reliability, simply open both the gray and black valves occasionally to equalize the levels. If you don't have the dump outlet valve you could probably have one added.

Al

[hmsteader]

I agree with with Overlander63 as this ideas works very well. It also minimizes water usage.
Personally I wouldn't want to risk any of the mixed black water backing up in the drains of the sinks or shower stall. Not healthy.

[kb7our]

Originally Posted by Al and Missy

Quote:
Originally Posted by kb7our
Another interesting thread since we never intend to use the black tank on a "new" trailer and therefore would like an effective method of combining tanks. Ideally, we only require a grey tank and would like that to be as large as possible. I'm ok with a plumbing mod that can be reversed so we never have to transfer/bail water between tanks. Not liking options I've read so far. There must be a better DIY plumbing solution unless perhaps AS can do something for us within the initial order (ideal). Composting toilet already waiting.




On my trailer, all I would have to do is leave the gray tank and black tank valves open and use the outlet valve to control dumping. If you like the idea of having two valves in series for reliability, simply open both the gray and black valves occasionally to equalize the levels. If you don't have the dump outlet valve you could probably have one added.

Al

Hmmm....have to learn more about this "outlet valve" setup. I have ZERO issue sharing tanks if the black was never used and is as new. May as well be a grey tank then. Factory toilet to be removed and also never used. Thanks!

[Ted S.]

Originally Posted by kb7our

Hmmm....have to learn more about this "outlet valve" setup. I have ZERO issue sharing tanks if the black was never used and is as new. May as well be a grey tank then. Factory toilet to be removed and also never used. Thanks!

This may help you:

http://www.gonewiththewynns.com/combine-rv-black-grey-tank

The guy bought a composting toilet and now it appears he is using black and grey tanks for just greywater.

[Al and Missy]

Originally Posted by kb7our

Hmmm....have to learn more about this "outlet valve" setup. I have ZERO issue sharing tanks if the black was never used and is as new. May as well be a grey tank then. Factory toilet to be removed and also never used. Thanks!

The configuration of my dump system (which apparently has been modified to add the third valve) is with a handle for the black tank dump on the left, the dump outlet in the center, and the gray tank valve on the right. If you download the manual for a 2001 Safari it has a picture of the sewer plumbing configuration in it.

The output of those two valves feed a "sewer Tee" fitting which goes through a third valve to the dump outlet. The third valve looks like this, but may not be this exact valve or this size:



It is mounted rotated 90 degrees so that the handle points to the left. Pull toward the front of the trailer to dump, push to the rear to close.

If you don't have this valve, it would seem to be fairly simple to add one, assuming room to operate the handle. Maybe JC could do it if you are ordering a trailer.

Al

[AnnArborBob]

The "third valve" would seem to offer a practical way to use both tanks as a grey tank provided you are using a composting toilet as the OP is planning to do. It would certainly be simpler than dropping the belly pan to access both tanks and install a connection between the two.

Our trailer does not have the third valve. I don't think they ship from the factory with the third valve so these must be after market additions.

[MissingLink5]

That is a great idea and one that we should have all thought of. Our shower has a riser that is six inches above the bottom of the shower so the water can't get out unless we nearly take a bath. The milk jug idea is simple and easy, since our stool is directly in front of the shower. Thanks for the idea and milk jugs are cheap!!

[MissingLink5]

I don't think I would ever combine the black and grey water. We have had instances where our shower drain has water coming out of it, into the bottom of the shower, because that is the lowest drain in the trailer and the grey tank is full. Can you imagine black water coming into the bottom of the shower?? It may have never happened to you but it will at some time, believe me!!
Happy camping!!