Black Water Tank

[gridiron]

That is a good question and maybe someone will send in the answer. I like the idea you had about timing the filling of the tank.

[lwg]

We fulltime and I dump the black tank about every 4-5 days. I usually dump the gray tanks about every other day, but we have a dishwasher and washer/dryer. Typically the black tank is between 2/3-full when we dump or just starting to light up the full light.

Hope this helps.

BTW, the Black Tank is 45 gallons

[0nTheRoad]

In answer to the issue of having to dump more often with you and your wive vs 2 men...not picking on women but they do use more TP then men do simply because they use it for all necessities whereas men only use it for, well you get the picture. So naturally the BW tank will fill more frequently with a man and woman then with 2 men.

As to size of the black tank, as far as I know all RW's have the same size tanks, the FW tank is 104 gallons, all the black and grey tanks are 45 gallons so you have 45 gallons for black and 90 gallons for grey. How often they need to be dumped will depend on how much waste water you generate. washers will increase your usage dramatically. not sure whether dishwashers will or not I tend to run the water wile washing/rinsing dishes so I perhaps use more water than a dishwasher does.

Dumping...some use their sensors exclusively, I never use them. For grey I wait until I see water in either the kitchen or bath sinks, then I know the tanks are full and need dumping. For black water I listen, after being in our coach for a year and a half I can tell when the tank id getting full, then I dump. After dumping the BW tank I flush it, I run the cleaning sprinkler for five minutes with the BW valve closed, turn the sprinkler off and dump, repeat the same process again. At this point I can see I am flushing clear water. I then run the sprinkler again for 30 seconds to make sure there is water in the clean tank. About every 5th or 6th dump I add the water softener and detergent [GEO method] to make sure all stays well.

Then I sit and have an adult beverage!!!

[lwg]

Good advice OTR. I find for the black tank I can also tell when it's getting full. And more than once my wife has commented that we need to dump the gray tanks as the sink won't drain!

[0nTheRoad]

Funny story... Ruth drinks a lot of water, mostly bottled water. About a month ago she told me, "the sink won't drain" so I go out and dump the grey tank...all is well. About 2 hours later she asks if I dumped the grey, the sink won't drain again??? I tell her, no way, I just drained the tank... i go look and sure nuff the sink has standing water in it, so I look down the drain...
The cap of one of her water bottles was upside down in the drain, apparently just the right size to block the drain!!!!! Glad she was a nurse and still has hemostats, made the task pretty simple.

[rcflame]

We drain our tanks about once a week with two people (1 male & 1 female) using them. We have been full timing for 12 years, and in the Redwood for 2. We find that a week between dumps is about right. If we notice the black tank is getting fuller than usual (can tell by difference in flushing toilet) we will dump than. Everybody has to figure out their own schedule. Don't really trust the sensors.

[40KB LIMITED]

This is great advice. I didn't mean to make it a male/female thing but I suppose it does make a difference lol. I have the RV parked at my job site, the truck came today to clean out the black tank, I explained to him the problem I am having when he hooked up the hose to remove waste he said there was no way that was 50 gallons.

I also noticed the water backing up In the sink after 3days so I have learned that one!

We do not use the dishwasher and we do not have a washer/dryer. I was wondering would that water go to the black or gray tank, I know I should know this, but it is my first RV that I has a galley pull and a gray pull- what is the difference?

[Rick and Mindy]

Originally Posted by 40KB LIMITED

This is great advice. I didn't mean to make it a male/female thing but I suppose it does make a difference lol. I have the RV parked at my job site, the truck came today to clean out the black tank, I explained to him the problem I am having when he hooked up the hose to remove waste he said there was no way that was 50 gallons.

I also noticed the water backing up In the sink after 3days so I have learned that one!

We do not use the dishwasher and we do not have a washer/dryer. I was wondering would that water go to the black or gray tank, I know I should know this, but it is my first RV that I has a galley pull and a gray pull- what is the difference?

The dishwasher and the washer should go to a gray tank. Which one, galley or gray may be debatable. I can only speak for my 31SL. I recently picked it up from the Service Center after having warranty issues resolved. One of the issues I had with the 31SL was that my kitchen sink and the shower go into the same gray tank and only the bathroom vanity drains into the other gray tank. Needless to say, the gray tank with the Kitchen sink and shower fill up very fast and the bathroom sink only gray tank never gets close. I was told that this is the way they are supposed to be hooked up. This is the way the engineers designed it and it's really not known why, so to the Service Center it really is not a warranty issue. I also brought this up during a recent tour of the factory, explaining that this is an issue being discussed on the forum. I don't think they really made a note of that but we'll see in the future. The solution to get a total of 90 gallons gray storage is to buy the adapter slide valve for your sewer drain line and keep it closed while opening the 2 gray valves allowing the waste to equalize in each gray tank. The only reason that I could figure the engineers would have designed the 31SL that way is if the optional washer/dryer drains into the same tank as the bathroom vanity. I will never add a washer/dryer to my unit so I never got that far with questioning.

[40KB LIMITED]

I think mine is the same way. Hardy anything comes out of the one and all the water comes out of the other. I'm going to do a test right now and see what comes out of what.

[40KB LIMITED]

Well the kitchen sink and dish washer go into the galley tank. And the bathroom sink , shower and both vanity sinks go to the gray tank. I had no way of seeing were the washer water went to.

[Rick and Mindy]

Originally Posted by 40KB LIMITED

Well the kitchen sink and dish washer go into the galley tank. And the bathroom sink , shower and both vanity sinks go to the gray tank. I had no way of seeing were the washer water went to.

Well that makes sense. I think that is the way they should all be plumbed!

[johnboytoo]

40kb....
Isn't yours a 'special' build ?!?

So maybe it is like a prototype and doesn't match ANY of ours...

Which is a good and not so good thing --- good in that it is unique and yours, not so good because it is unique

[0nTheRoad]

On my FB the drawing shows that the bathroom sink and washer go to the rear GW tank, the shower and kitchen sink go to the front GW tank.
I really believe the washer, bathroom sink and shower go to the rear tank and the kitchen sink goes to the front [galley] tank.

[NW Snowbirds]

Originally Posted by Rick and Mindy

The dishwasher and the washer should go to a gray tank. Which one, galley or gray may be debatable. I can only speak for my 31SL. I recently picked it up from the Service Center after having warranty issues resolved. One of the issues I had with the 31SL was that my kitchen sink and the shower go into the same gray tank and only the bathroom vanity drains into the other gray tank. Needless to say, the gray tank with the Kitchen sink and shower fill up very fast and the bathroom sink only gray tank never gets close. I was told that this is the way they are supposed to be hooked up. This is the way the engineers designed it and it's really not known why, so to the Service Center it really is not a warranty issue. I also brought this up during a recent tour of the factory, explaining that this is an issue being discussed on the forum. I don't think they really made a note of that but we'll see in the future. The solution to get a total of 90 gallons gray storage is to buy the adapter slide valve for your sewer drain line and keep it closed while opening the 2 gray valves allowing the waste to equalize in each gray tank. The only reason that I could figure the engineers would have designed the 31SL that way is if the optional washer/dryer drains into the same tank as the bathroom vanity. I will never add a washer/dryer to my unit so I never got that far with questioning.

Per the Redwood tank drawing for the 31SL, the shower, bathroom sink and optional washer are plumbed to one gray tank. The kitchen sink is plumbed to the other gray tank. No dish washer plumbing is shown but it's logical to believe that it would be tied into the kitchen sink drain.

http://www.redwoodrvowners .com/redwo...num=1402426784

[0nTheRoad]

Thats a good assumption...

[rcflame]

On our 36RL, the bathroom all goes to the grey tank, and the kitchen goes to the galley. You could check how yours is set up by draining all tanks, close all valves, run water in one tank, open you valves one at a time, and see which one water comes out.

[Oriana]

On the 36 FL's all grey water goes into 1 tank except the washer/dryer.

[Rick and Mindy]

Originally Posted by NW Snowbirds

Per the Redwood tank drawing for the 31SL, the shower, bathroom sink and optional washer are plumbed to one gray tank. The kitchen sink is plumbed to the other gray tank. No dish washer plumbing is shown but it's logical to believe that it would be tied into the kitchen sink drain.

http://www.redwoodrvowners .com/redwo...num=1402426784

Thanks for that info. Those drawings may come in handy someday. It's kind of weird that I was just told by the Service Center that mine is plumbed correctly when the diagram shows clearly that it is not. Not a big issue for me but it would be nice if every one was done the same way. We were told at our recent factory tour that when the workers get 6 done they can leave for the day. That may be why mistakes are made and quality control is not that great. My thought is quality will take second to speed if it means I get to go home early!

[0nTheRoad]

Many owners have added a Gate Valve at the drain, then open both grey tank valves [make sure you keep the black tank valve closed]. This will allow you to fill the one tank, then the excess will spill over into the other grey tank so in effect you will have 90 gallons of grey before dumping.

[40KB LIMITED]

Originally Posted by rcflame

On our 36RL, the bathroom all goes to the grey tank, and the kitchen goes to the galley. You could check how yours is set up by draining all tanks, close all valves, run water in one tank, open you valves one at a time, and see which one water comes out.

Yes. That's what I did last night.