"Sewer Solution" - anyone?

[shunpiker]

Why complicate things? Especially if you only use it minimally. We empty our tank as usual into a container (pail) that we empty into toilet. Our Roadtek valve is rather low so we use a low pail/ buspan that we then dump into larger pail. You may need to stop and start a few times until emptied. Add a few gallons water, drive around the block and repeat.

[Storysrvwego]

You might want to check local ordinance to see if they allow RV dumping at your place. I am not disagreeing with the idea but communities are sensitive to increased flows into sewer and especially septic systems. Obviously if it is only your Class B; we might assume the flow is not increased if your away from home and no other people are using the waste systems. When you return from a trip, the small amount of waste onboard a Class B is likely way less than the amount that would have been processed if you had stayed home for the same number of days.

Anyway I just think it would be a good idea to sniff around your county or city ordinances which are likely posted online so you can get an idea what you could run into if a neighbor reports you. Or a county/city inspector is passing by, etc. Or the inspector is your neighbor.

I am very fortunate to have a super nice dump station about a mile from my home. On a weekday in the early morning, there is usually no lines/nobody there so its a piece of cake. And it's nice to have real grey and black tanks. I can complete the operation of dumping both tanks, rinsing, stowing and drive away with no muss, smells or fuss in I think under 15 minutes.

[Camoman]

You have a couple options, some simpler than others.

1) you can use your washer drain, but if it goes into your sump that could be smelly.
2) if you can do basic plumbing you can add a fitting with a removable screw in plug that you.can take out and dump into the sewer line.
3) you can call a local porta potty place and see what they would charge you to dump or ask where they dump.
4) if you only urinate in your tank and don't use chemicals you can simply pull into.your grass and dump it, but first dilute with water so you don't kill the grass. Urine is actually great fertilizer and is sterile unless you have a strange disease.
This is the easiest AND the most ecologically friendly, but may be considered "technically illegal", kind of like rolling though a stop sign in the middle of nowhere at 2am.

The macerator is a great addition and they also make totes specifically for dumping and transporting from the waste tanks.
However, technocratic BS aside, you'd be crazy to go through a bunch of trouble to be less earth friendly with urine than just diluting it with water and dumping it in your grass or garden.
At some German beer festivals in Germany they collect the urine and use it to irrigate hops to make.more beer.

[bftownes]

I have used the "Sewer Solution" for years, when necessary. When staying in my inlaws drive, I would hook the hose to a long stretch of PVC and run it to the sewer clean out. Worked great. An excellent, inexpensive, problem free system.

[<<B-Guy>>]

Well, this thread has taken some interesting turns!

We live in quite a built up area surrounded by houses (with not very large lots!) whose owners -including us- are quite proud of keeping the place looking (and smelling!) nice, so I think dumping a load of pee on our lawn isn't going to be an option!

I will already be breaking one bylaw (I hope) in my attempt to park our new van year round in our driveway.

Our bylaw permits it only for 6 months over the summer season, but not over the winter. I did speak the bylaw officer some time back though and was advised that they only engorce the parking bylaw if they get complaints.

I have discussed the arrival of our B van with neighbours and no-one seems to have an issue, so I am hoping I can keep it here year around - we will be away for a month or two in the winters anyway.

But I certainly would not want to do anything to aggravate people and invite issues!

Meanwhile I have continued to investigate the "Sewer Solution" water macerator and everything i read seems reasonably positive for what I would like to do - pump maybe 35 ft with a 2-3 ft rise and dump into a clothes washer standpipe or adjacent powder room
toilet. I have read messages from folks how have done just that with good success.

For the relatively low cost of the gadget I think it worth a try! The ability to do so will make it more likely that we will use the van facilities on local day trips if I know I don't have to find a dump station.

I have found a free dump station about 20 miles away - if it is still open. Many around here seem to be closing up - or charging pretty steep dump fees, so I prefer to do it at home if possible - doesn't sound like a big deal. We shall see!

Brian

[avanti]

Seven posts (including two of my own) deleted as off-topic, excessively political, marginally-objectionable language, and inappropriate tone.

Please back off folks. Several warnings have been issued.

[Boxster1971]

Originally Posted by avanti

Seven posts (including two of my own) deleted as off-topic, excessively political, marginally-objectionable language, and inappropriate tone.

Please back off folks. Several warnings have been issued.

Are you talking about this thread? ... or Camoman's tirades in this thread?

http://www.classbforum.com/forums/f5...-b-8105-4.html

[engnrsrule]

I would not recommend running RV black water into the drain servicing your home's laundry which is gray water. Potential for odors, fouling the line or spillage inside your home is a big risk. Spend the $17 or check for state or national parks with free dump stations, even some highway rest stops have them. County park near me charges for dump station, but it is free to folks with a County address.

I found that my home's sewage line had a clean out buried in the shrubbery withing about 15' of the driveway, and made up a PVC pipe to span the distance. (My Roadtrek is equipped with an emacerating pump.)

[Belzar]

Black tanks, even if only peeing in them recently or add a little bleach, are black tanks and illegal to dump on the ground. Gray tanks are no different than black tanks if they share a hose. Fortunately, most RV'ers are responsible and respect of these laws.

[<<B-Guy>>]

Originally Posted by engnrsrule

I would not recommend running RV black water into the drain servicing your home's laundry which is gray water. Potential for odors, fouling the line or spillage inside your home is a big risk. Spend the $17 or check for state or national parks with free dump stations, even some highway rest stops have them. County park near me charges for dump station, but it is free to folks with a County address.

I found that my home's sewage line had a clean out buried in the shrubbery withing about 15' of the driveway, and made up a PVC pipe to span the distance. (My Roadtrek is equipped with an emacerating pump.)

Point taken re laundry option - my wife feels the same way!

What say you though about using the adjacent powder room toilet? Obviously I will need to take precautions so that the 3/4" hose doesn't flip out - but I don't think there is any likely hood of over-flowing the bowl - I have dumped large volumes from such as a wetdry c=vac in there before and of course at a certain level, it just auto-initiates the siphon and away everything goes! Obviously will finish up with a few flushes to clean up!

I have read elsewhere in forums etc of folks doing this with no issues.

Just seems to me in my situation with no dump facility conveniently close - and the closest one wanting $17 each time to be a good workable alternatve.

Maybe I am missing something? Wouldn't be the first time!


Thx .......... Brian

[Boxster1971]

Originally Posted by engnrsrule

I would not recommend running RV black water into the drain servicing your home's laundry which is gray water. Potential for odors, fouling the line or spillage inside your home is a big risk. Spend the $17 or check for state or national parks with free dump stations, even some highway rest stops have them. County park near me charges for dump station, but it is free to folks with a County address.

I found that my home's sewage line had a clean out buried in the shrubbery withing about 15' of the driveway, and made up a PVC pipe to span the distance. (My Roadtrek is equipped with an emacerating pump.)

I've never heard of home laundries that drain into anything but the same sewer where every other sink and toilet in the house drains. Some areas must allow different drains for laundry based on comments here.

[avanti]

Places that have water issues tend to permit (or even require) grey water recovery for garden watering, etc. In Santa Fe, new construction requires underground tanks to capture rainwater.

[GallenH]

I had to find the cutout for my sewage system when the line got clogged....unrelated to RV activity. Rotorooter ran a camera up the line
and found it. It was buried under some gravel. I've always dumped at home
via this w/o a macerator. And it's slightly uphill. Just connect up the hose, dump the black, walk it up hill to the cutout. Use standard hose washer made for black tanks through the toilet. Walk it up hill. Empty grey. Walk it up hill. Use standard hose to jet water through kitchen sink and bath sink. Walk it up hill. Don't understand the need for a macerator. Must be missing something.

[<<B-Guy>>]

Originally Posted by GallenH

I had to find the cutout for my sewage system when the line got clogged....unrelated to RV activity. Rotorooter ran a camera up the line
and found it. It was buried under some gravel. I've always dumped at home
via this w/o a macerator. And it's slightly uphill. Just connect up the hose, dump the black, walk it up hill to the cutout. Use standard hose washer made for black tanks through the toilet. Walk it up hill. Empty grey. Walk it up hill. Use standard hose to jet water through kitchen sink and bath sink. Walk it up hill. Don't understand the need for a macerator. Must be missing something.

It is because I don't have any simple access to a large diameter dump that I am aware of anywhere around my property, so if I am to dump at home I will need to most likely dump into a toilet. The closest I can get the van to the nearest toilet will likely entail running a hose from the van in the driveway, through our garage / laundry room, then to an adjacent powder room toilet - I estimate maybe 30 ft and a rise of 2 or 3 ft.

For me to do - other than going back and forth with a bucket (!) would seem to be the macerator approach and the water powered one seems like it should work ok for this purpose from what I have been able to learn from other users.

Brian.

[engnrsrule]

Originally Posted by Boxster1971

I've never heard of home laundries that drain into anything but the same sewer where every other sink and toilet in the house drains. Some areas must allow different drains for laundry based on comments here.

Yes it is a single system, in that it all ends up in the same place, but the drains and traps servicing the laundry, sinks and the like are 1 1/4" - 1 1/2" and you would have to push the waste through the trap, while the lines from toilets are 4" and have no trap (other than the toilet). If there was a hair or lintball in the trap you would have a poop geyser in your laundry. I wouldn't recommend it. Better to find a clean out, or find a vent stack and add a clean out.

[engnrsrule]

It would seem to require a coordinated effort - walkie talkies maybe - the black tank is 10 gal, and a toilet bowl might typically hold 2-3 gallons max. Pump a little, flush, repeat until RV tank empty. Finding an outside cleanout would still be my recommendation.

[<<B-Guy>>]

Originally Posted by engnrsrule

It would seem to require a coordinated effort - walkie talkies maybe - the black tank is 10 gal, and a toilet bowl might typically hold 2-3 gallons max. Pump a little, flush, repeat until RV tank empty. Finding an outside cleanout would still be my recommendation.

I am the original poster of this thread! (and an "engnr!)

Since first posting, we have our new van now, and I finally went with a small blue boy tank instead on trying the sewer solutions.

I don't anticipate having to dump the tanks often at home - probably only if we use the van on local day trips rather than camping where a dump site is available and have used the toilet.

Even then I would only bother dumping the toilet at home if things start to get a bit smelly in the van! Otherwise I would just leave it partly full until our next camping trip.

Anyway, what I did was to buy the smallest Blue Boy - 10 gallon size. I installed an easily removable slide valve to go on the 3" outlet and make it easier to dumo teh blue boy into the toilet. I fitted a short 3" hose on the slide valve outlet to best suit it to dumping in the toilet. Guess I could maybe have equally used a 45 or 90 degree fitting.

In the powder room - which is pretty cramped - I set up a stand to hold the blue boy vertical adjacent to the toilet to properly position the blue boy vertically when dumping so i didn't need to hold it up.

I initially tried this arrangement a few times with 3 gallons of plain water and it worked fine - except that the first time I tried it !

I bumped the slide valve when positioning the blue boy near the toilet and accidentally disconnected it.

Most of three gallons of water on the powder room floor! You can be sure I was glad I did my test with water - and so was my wife who was skeptical of the whole idea to begin with!

So now I have adjusted the setup with an easily attached strap that makes it impossible for the slide valve to be rotated and removed accidentally!

It works perfectly - after a few tries with water to perfect my technique I dumped the black tank with no problems at all.

Once the toilet bowl fills to a certain level, it just initiates the siphon so here is no danger of overfilling the toilet

I think this system will do what I want.

Not likely I will ever need to dump a full black tank - but if I did, I would do it in several dumps so as to keep the blue boy easy to handle. Probably limit it to around three gallons per dump!

Brian

[engnrsrule]

You probably have one of these cleanouts on your property, a plumber or rotor rooter can locate it, as it might be buried. Should be along wall toward the street within 6 feet of house. In the pic note the 2 pvc pipes, these fit together and make up the 14 ft to reach the driveway. The road trek has macerator pump, so smaller diameter pipe works ok, and entire run slightly downhill. I made a wrench to loosen the cap.

[<<B-Guy>>]

Originally Posted by engnrsrule

You probably have one of these cleanouts on your property, a plumber or rotor rooter can locate it, as it might be buried. Should be along wall toward the street within 6 feet of house. In the pic note the 2 pvc pipes, these fit together and make up the 14 ft to reach the driveway. The road trek has macerator pump, so smaller diameter pipe works ok, and entire run slightly downhill. I made a wrench to loosen the cap.

Well, If we do have a cleanout somewhere outside the house, it must be buried as you suggest. I took a really good look around the place and found no signs of one.

For now, considering how infrequent it is likely to be that we will nee to dump the tanks at home and how well the simple arrangement I have seems to work, I think I will just stick with it - but if problems develop or if we find the need to use it much more than I anticipate, I'll likely do as you suggest and see if a plumber can locate a cleanout.

Do you know if it is a sure thing that there WILL be a cleanout someplace? Maybe it is governed by local building regs.? We are in Canada if that might make a difference!

Thx ......... Brian.

[booster]

I think it will be a local and "latitude" based thing whether or not you have an outside cleanout.



We live in Minnesota and none of the houses I have lived in had one outside. All of them were right at the foundation wall that went out of the building in the floor of the lowest level.



I would think and outdoor, buried, cleanout in a climate that gets frost 3' deep would really be a bad idea.