Visit our Popular Forums

robwok · 09-09-2014, 01:25 PM

Ah, mine plumbs to the gray tanks

PharmGeek · 09-09-2014, 02:00 PM

I am not sure if this is true...but I was told it was a bad idea to leave even fresh water in the tank if hot summer heat present for extended period...I hope someone can tell me this is wrong so I dont bother wasting fresh water I have in that tank when I get home? I just sanitized my freshwater system entirely and drained the FW tank for the time being until I learn otherwise.

Foiled Again · 09-09-2014, 02:22 PM

The view from HOT HUMID eastern Virginia here. Every time you flush there is a displacement. Gravity takes what's in the bowl and plops it to the bottom of the black tank, and a little puff of air is displaced upward and outward as fast as the stuff fell into the tank. If your fantastic fans or your bathroom vent fan are running, air will be sucked down the vent stack and through the Airstream to the fans.

Most chemicals will help break down human waste and over TIME render it into an almost odorless "manure tea" which is good fertilizer. In most cases this takes at least 3 months, cooler climates it's longer.

I'd have to say that 3 weeks is as long as I have ever gone without dumping the black tank - and the climate here makes it bad to go longer. I agree that a porta potty or a drywall bucket and some sawdust or kitty litter is a good way to go if you've got a project with an indefinite finish date.

There's really no problem with going more than 30 days with a half a tank of waste - as long as it doesn't make you gag to be there. Worst case if you walk in one day and go "holy cow that brings tears to my eyes" and it's not because the Airstream is so pretty... well you have to run out and buy a blueboy, then find a cleanout to dump it in. With a porta potty or "bucket with sawdust" you find a compost pile or dumpster at your convenience.

Happy renovating, hope you don't find too many ugly surprises.

Paula

Skater · 09-09-2014, 02:31 PM

I wouldn't let it go 30 days. We let ours go one work week (camping without a sewer hookup/dump station one weekend, then at a site with one the next weekend) and the smell was powerful. And that was with four of those Eco-Smart toss-ins treating the tank (we intended to use two, twice our normal dose, but my wife and I both thought the other hadn't done it, so we got four). I had run a lot of extra water into the black tank during that first weekend so it wouldn't dry out between the trips. But the smell...

Len n Jeanne · 09-09-2014, 02:45 PM

One solution we've used to good effect and can vouch for, is to line your AS toilet boil with 2 new (so no pinholes) trash bags-- big enough so that they fit over the toilet bowl rim. Put in a few garden-trowels full of ordinary garden peat moss. It is very light weight and highly absorbent. Cover anything unsightly with more peat moss for multiple uses. At the end of your day, remove the inner garbage bag (outer, too, if the inner one leaked) and dispose of properly. This is no more unsanitary than disposing of used baby diapers.

Our Bambi has a very small waste-water tank, so we hit on this solution after one wretched waste-water back-up in Death Valley.

Or just go to your local camping store that caters to auto and tent campers, and look for a Luggable Loo-- basically a plastic bucket with a toilet seat on it. Proceed as above with the liners. Much easier and more pleasant to use then the flushable style of porta-potty.

For more effort, you could get one of those mobile plastic waste storage tanks that you can hook onto your AS sewer pipe. These come in all sizes at Camping World. Empty them out as needed at your nearby sani-dump.

Minno · 09-09-2014, 03:52 PM

Pharmgeek, we drain our fresh water after every trip including pulling the low point drains, and leave it empty until we're going to use the trailer again. I sanitize once every spring. We have done this for the 20+ years we have owned trailers, and never gotten sick from the water (and yes we drink our fresh water). Even sanitized systems will eventually grow bacteria. There is always a little bit of water left in the tank after you drain due to the way these tanks are plumbed. We make sure we open the drain as we start to fill the tank to flush out the water left before new water goes in. After a couple of minutes, we close the main drain and fill the rest of the way with fresh water.
Some people like to keep water in their systems in the event of a sudden need for exodus (like hurricanes). That's fine, too, I think as long as you drain and fill with fresh water every couple of weeks.
Some also add a little bleach to their fresh tank to keep it fresh for longer, and that also works.
Hope this helps your questions.

Kay

BoldAdventure · 09-09-2014, 04:21 PM

3 pages and no one made a joke about that subject title.

I was expecting someone to say "When ya need to go, ya need to go"

Larry C · 09-09-2014, 04:26 PM

Good grief, dump the thing when it's full and don't give it another thought!

TBRich · 09-09-2014, 04:51 PM

Pharmgeek ... You don't need to empty your fresh water tank and waste all that good water if you use your rig reasonably often. We keep our relatively small tank full, including between our frequent trips. In our arid climate I do not want anything to dry out completely. And, because it has a small capacity, we go through a full tank fairly quickly. We do add a little bleach or fresh water treatment solution (which you can find at Camping World, etc) from time to time, just to make sure the water stays fresh, especially if the water we add is from a non-city (as in non-chlorinated) source. We cook with and drink water from our fresh water tank and have never had an issue.

Often — just to keep the water fresh and "recycled" — even when we have a water hookup available at a campsite, we will use the water from the fresh water tank by using the water pump. Then fill it when it gets low from the campsite's water source. This keeps the on-board supply fresh.

TBRich · 09-09-2014, 05:01 PM

We typically don't use our toilet between trips. When we do the last black tank dump at the end of a trip, we put a chemical packet in and add some water, so it never dries out completely ... and it's ready to roll for the next trip.

That said, I would not be afraid to use the toilet while in storage if we needed to ... as long as there is enough liquid and chemicals working to break down contents it should not be a problem.