Has anyone ever done or heard of installing a garbage disposal (namely in a travel trailer)? If it's plausible, where would you route the waste, black or grey tank?
Has anyone ever done or heard of installing a garbage disposal (namely in a travel trailer)? If it's plausible, where would you route the waste, black or grey tank?
Brock
Brock-
Why? Sounds like a lot of trouble to me. What would the advantages be? The less I fill my tanks the longer I can stay camping. Wouldn't it be easier to emty the garbage than empty your tanks? You would have to go into the black tank, the few states left that allow grey water on the ground would probably have a fit with the disposal dump.
__________________ J. Rick Cipot Sandi Gould NEUNew England Unit Airstream Life Magazine WBCCI #3411 AIR #17099
I'm ground-up renovating for fulltime and a garbage disposal is something I'll really miss on the road. I figured if I am dumping the tanks anyway, it would be worth it, however I don't know exactly how one would set it up to work. Just curious to see if it's been done and how.
You cannot do it for the following reason: Garbage disposals use a lot of water to grind and flush the waste. You don't have nearly enough capacity in the black water tank to accomodate all the extra water required. If you were permanently parked with a sewer hookup and fresh water supply, you might get away with it.
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"Not all who are lost are wondering" say Bill & Heidi
'78 Excella 500,"The Silver Pullit". vacuum over hydraulic disc brakes, center bath, rear twin. '67 Travelall 1200 B 4X4 WBCCI 3737
I am not sure I would do this either -- you are looking at fats, oils, grease, fibrous waste from vegetables, waste break-down and rot, and probably other stuff I am not thinking about, and I don't think your tank (I would not even CONSIDER the grey tank for this) was designed for that stuff. Imagine fats and oils congealing inside your tank, on the sensors and fittings, etc., then consider what you would have to do to clean it! Bleah. I doubt those bacterial add-ins would be able to handle it, but I don't know that with certainty.
I just catch food waste in the sink and strainer and dump the trash often!
Susan
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1984 310 Limited Motor Home "The Rockin' A"
1974 31' Excella (soon-to-be carhauler)
1974 20' Argosy Motor Home
Another problem would be connecting the garbage disposer to the sink drain. RV sinks have a much smaller drain than residential sinks.
Bill
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Bill Kerfoot, WBCCI/VAC/CAC/El Camino Real Unit #5223
Just my personal opinion
1973 Dodge W200 PowerWagon, 1977 Lincoln Continental
1979 23' Safari, and 1954 29' Double Door Liner Orange, CA
Misery is caused by putting things down the drain, thinking you are rid of them forever, then discovering that they are not truly gone.
Please rethink putting anything down the drains that is either not completely liquid, or that has not passed through you first. Unless it is designed for your tank, such as the appropriate chemical, or tp designed for rv use.
Misery is caused by putting things down the drain, thinking you are rid of them forever, then discovering that they are not truly gone.
Please rethink putting anything down the drains that is either not completely liquid, or that has not passed through you first. Unless it is designed for your tank, such as the appropriate chemical, or tp designed for rv use.
Pat
"Disposal" is a Madison Ave. term for what the Navy calls a GARBAGE GRINDER. It doesn't ultimately dispose of anything. Everything you put into a black tank, you're going to see (and smell) again and believe me as the niece of two plumbers, ground garbage can be worse than sh**. (Think of food as just raw unprocessed sh**.)
It can and does congeal into lard-like globs and it literally can take weeks to pass from your home drains to the city sanitation center. Your black tank has an almost flat bottom. It would develop a 2 inch thick layer of this stuff and you'd probably have to flush it with many, many gallons of near-boiling water to dissolve it sufficiently for most of it to drain. You sure wouldn't want to try dran-o to move that crud out of your black tank.
I'm fulltiming and I moved out of a house with a garbage grinder. In a week or two, you'll adapt and never miss the disposal.
I'm in the habit of taking a tall kitchen plastic bag and hanging it over the edge of the cabinet drawer in front of the sink when I'm doing major food prep like peeling potatoes. I use a screen over the drain and a collander, dumping it into the bag as I work. When I'm done, I put any other trash I have in the bag and leave the whole house trash/garbage free. My stream is small enough that I don't want trash accumulating for more than 2 days max - so if I have to take the trash out almost every day, what does it matter if it also contains lettuce leaves, or leftover chili?
Happy trails to you...
Paula
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It is recommend you "do not" have a garbage disposal installed in homes with a septic tank.
Don't know about installing one in the AS but if you do let us know how it works out.
"Disposal" is a Madison Ave. term for what the Navy calls a GARBAGE GRINDER. It doesn't ultimately dispose of anything. Everything you put into a black tank, you're going to see (and smell) again and believe me as the niece of two plumbers, ground garbage can be worse than sh**. (Think of food as just raw unprocessed sh**.)
It can and does congeal into lard-like globs and it literally can take weeks to pass from your home drains to the city sanitation center. Your black tank has an almost flat bottom. It would develop a 2 inch thick layer of this stuff and you'd probably have to flush it with many, many gallons of near-boiling water to dissolve it sufficiently for most of it to drain. You sure wouldn't want to try dran-o to move that crud out of your black tank.
<snip> Paula
If we ever meet at a campground, the beer is on me! That was the most poetic post I've read in a long, long time...
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Bob Fowler
Some people are like Slinkies. They're really good for nothing, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs.
Another reason NOT to do it would be the buildup of the "heavy" garbage at the bottom of the tank (along as mentioned above with lard, oils etc.) Unless of course, you're willing to disconnect the black tank and clean it out?
As Paula stated, you're just asking for problems down the road.
Safari-Rick
Retired Navy ship fitter.
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