Dump Valves when hooked up

[C.Martin]

TJ…when I get caught up a little, I’ll see if I can do one of my barely understandable pieces of art work…detailing the wiring.

[ThomB]

Originally Posted by Dutch Star Don

Second, I found the hose end for the SaniCon to be useless. You have to disconnect the hose from the end and screw it into the sewer, then reconnect the hose to use it. So......I made my own connection that stays permanently attached and has a 3" and 4" threaded cap as part of it. The below takes about 45 minutes to make and all the pieces were bought from Home Depot. It stays attached to my SaniCon hose and threads right onto the sewer drain without removing the hose. The 3" and 4" threaded black caps, spin freely on the pvc drain pipe. The end piece is threaded and allows me to attach a spare hose, by just threading them together. See photo below...

Hi Don,
Can you elaborate a bit on how these spin? The biggest issue that I have with the Sanicon is that I have to always remove the end to get it out of the wet bay and what you have looks much easier to deal with.

[Dutch Star Don]

I make them with 1" pvc pipe and joints. The black pieces are a 3" and 4" threaded caps from Home Depot. The pvc thread caps are drilled just big enough that they spin on the pvc pipe. They don't need to seal against the pipe, as the threaded caps are just there to hold the unit in the drain. The flow is coming out further down the pipe and there is no pressure on the cap fittings. Even if the sewer were to back up, there would be minimal leakage around the caps.

All fittings are 1"

-Take a pvc 90 and glue on about 6" of pvc pipe.

-Drill both threaded caps to just allow the pvc pipe to slide through. I used a wood paddle bit.

-Slide the 4" cap on over the pvc pipe.

- You'll need to do some measuring here....cut the pipe, after the 4" cap, leaving enough so you can install a pvc union. The union locks it in place. It should allow the cap to spin freely. Usually, leaving 5/8" of pipe will accept a union, leaving an 1/8" gap. Measure the depth of your unions to the center point.

- Take the pvc pipe you cut off and glue it into the union right after the 4" cap.

- Slide the 3" cap onto the pvc pipe and add a union, just like you did before, locking the 3" cap in place, but still allowing it to spin.

- Glue in another short length of pvc pipe and then glue on a male threaded end.

- Using a threaded end cap, I add a piece of rubber inside the cap, so when you screw it on the end of the unit, it seals.

- On the other end of the 90, add 3"-4" of pvc pipe and a union. The OD of the union is the same size as the ID of the SaniCon hose.

- Connect your SaniCon hose with a hose clamp.
I've been using this style for about 7-8 years with no issue. You might want to keep some Channelocks or a wrench in the wet bay, as the caps can get stuck when you screw them onto the sewer drain, after they sit for a while. Being anal, I made a wrench for loosening and tighten those square head drain caps.

[MSHappyCampers]

Originally Posted by hohenwald48

I always put a "dip" in my sewer hose to act as a trap. Mostly to keep the stink of the whole park from venting thru my roof but it keeps most critters from finding a way up the inside of the hose too.

X2! Same here!

[ThomB]

Thanks for the detailed write-up Don!!!
Saved, printed and might just be my weekend project. The wife likes that I wouldn't need to mess with attach/detach every time. I may look at a way to keep the end cap attached to the handle so we don't keep losing that. (maybe a cable of some sort with an eyelet installed in the end of the cap)

[Langeloro]

I’m with you! I always keep mine closed until I dump. I also always dump black then gray - it keeps my chems working in the tanks and the gray washes my sewer hose out.

I have at times left my gray tank open, but then I need to close it, take a shower or two so I have enough gray water to wash down after dumping my black tank.

I also put Chen’s down my shower to break anything (food particles from my kitchen sink, etc.) in the gray tank. I ONLY use Happy Camper Chem’s, I find they do the best job breaking down the to & other stuff in my black tank.

Just my humble opinions after Motorhome/5th wheeling for the past 30 years.

[ClintH]

Originally Posted by NewmarDave

Ive heard a bunch of opinions on this subject and I leave mine closed even though Im hooked up. Then when the tanks are full, I dump. Some say with the macerator toilets now, they will leave the black open and pull the grey when needed. I ordered my new LA with a conduit to the mid bath so i can install electric dump valves if I want to later. Thoughts?

If you want the smells of the entire camps sewer in your RV, leave it open.

[jeskibuff]

I keep both tanks closed until I get past 66% on the grey. Then I first open the black and wait until it slows to a trickle (or is it "tinkle"?). Then I open the grey, enough to get a good flow going, then close it again. Usually that produces a suction that gets the black tank flowing again. I'll repeat the process until it looks like the black has been sucked dry. Next I'll do the black tank flush and watch the (clear) elbow until the water looks almost drinkable (just kidding, in case you just gagged). Then I'll cut the flush off, open the grey and let the relatively clean water wash away anything nasty that might be lingering in the sewer hose. When all done I'll close the grey valve again. I think by keeping the grey open all the time you might not get to use that flush action which not only gets the black tank good and empty but also keeps the sewer hose clean(er).

While the dip in the hose idea sounds like a good way to make a trap, I'm pretty sure it impedes the flow as well and prevents thorough drainage. I helped a guy out where he couldn't figure out why his black tank wasn't emptying. There was a slight dip in the hose where it came off the concrete pad then went back up a little to the pad where the drain was. I just lifted the hose up to prevent that dip and his black tank started to drain again.

[nehog]

Many answers, and honestly it depends...

If you have macerator toilets, you can leave both open all the time. With a macerator there is only a slurry with minimal solids, and it all comes out just fine with the flush. If you have a gravity dump into the tank--I'd let it build up until 3/4 full then dump black followed by gray to wash things out.

[tremor2014]

I do the same. Leaving it droop makes like a trap to stop any smells. I laugh to myself when I see people with the bridgework holding there sewer hose perfectly straight. No need for that. Water will drain even if there is a sagin the hose . When you are ready to unhook just lift the hose to completely drain.

[Stannman]

If you Google (I use Bing and DuckDuckGo) ‘Black water tank best practices’ the various websites all agree, keep your black water valve closed. If you’ve ever had a Pooh dam it’s because you have no liquid in your tank, so it “piles up”. You then have to bring a water hose (or a big water pitcher in an emergency) to knock it down. Yucky! I keep my grey water valve closed, then open to flush the hoses after a black dump. One time my shower floor started to flood. I guess I wasn’t watching my monitor. I threw some shorts on and opened her up, then continued my shower. In an RV you never stop learning!

Do a Lot of reading then use the information as you see fit.


PS: I never thought about bugs and critters when it comes to sewers.

[66lima]

Originally Posted by NewmarDave

Ive heard a bunch of opinions on this subject and I leave mine closed even though Im hooked up. Then when the tanks are full, I dump. Some say with the macerator toilets now, they will leave the black open and pull the grey when needed. I ordered my new LA with a conduit to the mid bath so i can install electric dump valves if I want to later. Thoughts?

I imagine Mike Rowe would say,"Unless you want a colossal
"pyramid of POO" in your black tank, keep the valve shut until you dump."

I never dump until I have driven down the road the last leg to break up everything as much as possible.
Black tank first then the gray tank to wash everything out of the hose.

[LETMGROW]

Originally Posted by tremor2014

I do the same. Leaving it droop makes like a trap to stop any smells. I laugh to myself when I see people with the bridgework holding there sewer hose perfectly straight. No need for that. Water will drain even if there is a sagin the hose . When you are ready to unhook just lift the hose to completely drain.

You can laugh all you want but I'm one of those who does support my hose on the "bridgework". When I dump my tanks the flow isn't interrupted by some goofy drop in the hose or a loop or anything else. The flow is fast and steady and the hose gets cleaned out quickly. No need to lift a hose. It's already lifted for you.
Don't be creative. Close the valves until they need to be opened.

[flywithcoop]

Originally Posted by NewmarDave

Ive heard a bunch of opinions on this subject and I leave mine closed even though Im hooked up. Then when the tanks are full, I dump. Some say with the macerator toilets now, they will leave the black open and pull the grey when needed. I ordered my new LA with a conduit to the mid bath so i can install electric dump valves if I want to later. Thoughts?

I'm assuming you ordered a 36LA from Tiffin. If so, Welcome to Tiffin Owners Club. We absolutely LOVE our 36LA. It has a macerator toilet and a bomb site toilet.
In all my years RVing I have never left the drain valves open. I wait until the holding tanks are full, dump them and do a long flush to clean them out and get ride of any sewer smell.
I can just see a huge pile of crap in the black tank if it's drain valve is left open. No one can pee enough to flush out the crap!
I've seen lots of posts concerning the sewer smell. I wonder if those are the folks who leave their dump tank valves open