Community Forums

LuckyDucks · 07-23-2018, 08:23 PM

Does anyone know if the the grey tank overflows, does it drain into black tank (or visa-versa)?

Today we received a call that a neighbor walked by our RV and saw water pouring out. They turned off the water and told the office who called us. We left our cart at Home Depot and rushed back to find water all over the floor in the main cabin and bathroom.

The tub was filled to the brim and there were some nasty poo �� floaters in the tub. The toilet was also filled and the water was clear. We had checked both tanks before we left and they both read half-full. When we got back, both were reading full. We didn’t leave any faucets running when we left, so we don’t know why they filled and overflowed?!

The first thing hubby did was drain both black and grey tanks and he noticed mostly clear water came out of black tank except near the end when it turned brown. This makes him think there is some connection between the two holding tanks? After both tanks were drained, he turned the water back on to see where the running water was coming from. There was no water running, so we still don’t know why both tanks overflowed.

Note that we have a macerator connected to our drain and both valves were closed. Hubby did have the backflush hose connected, but valve was closed on splitter.

We are totally bumfuzzled. Any ideas?

Ray,IN · 07-23-2018, 08:32 PM

Do you have a black tank flush connection? Do you have a hose attached? My cousin bought a new MH, first trip out he connected up fresh water hose and black tank flush hose. When they returned to the MH water was pouring out the bottom and all carpeting was soaked.
It's easy for a troublemaker to turn on a water spigot. My cousin was not a friendly guy, so I wasn't surprised.

LuckyDucks · 07-24-2018, 12:42 AM

Ray - thanks for the reply! We did have a hose connected to the backflush connection and suspect this was the source of our problem. We have a splitter on the water connection, one hose going to the fresh water and the other hose for the backflush. Since we have eliminated the problem being a water valve left running inside the coach, the backflush is the only plausible culprit. We have just purchased our lot here in the Lost Lake RV Resort and haven’t had time to make any enemies! 😉 Perhaps someone came by and saw water on the ground from A/C condensation and decided to turn our water off to “help” but instead they may have opened the valve on the splitter, allowing water to run to the backflush hose instead. Someone else perhaps came along and did see water pouring out the coach (like your cousin) and turned off the main water valve. This all seems like a plausible explanation.

What really has us curious is how the gray tank ended up overflowing if the water was going into the black tank - and how did feces from the black tank end up in the bathtub? There should be no cross-connection between these two holding tanks, right?? Fortunately there was sufficient clean water going in such that the water that flooded the cabin floor was “mostly” clean. We spent the evening with a shop vac cleaning up the water and then got down on hands & knees to wash & disinfect the floor (we have vinyl flooring) and cleaned the carpet by the captains chair. Nothing was damaged and now we just have to disinfect a few things that were on the floor and wash the laundry that was in our hamper in the bathtub. Not how we wanted to spend the ending, but nothing a shot of Dickle couldn’t fix! Thanks again!

Houdoxi71 · 07-24-2018, 12:49 AM

Not usually. B class probably yes.

Fleetwood Southwind...... Tank overflow.

z3406 · 07-24-2018, 06:09 AM

I suspect that the two systems black and grey may share one of the roof top vents. As the pressurized water in the black tank travels up the roof vent it then flows down the vent to the grey system.
May I suggest that you color code the water fittings in the wet bay that way even in the dark it's virtually impossible to connect the fresh water to the wrong connection.

PbdBlue · 07-24-2018, 07:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by z3406

I suspect that the two systems black and grey may share one of the roof top vents.

+1. Both tank vents are connected together about 2/3rds of the way up to the roof. At least that's the way the 32VS is plumbed according to the drawings.

LuckyDucks · 07-24-2018, 07:37 PM

Thank you! That must be the answer to the mystery of how black Water got into the gray tank. I’ve heard of “poop-splosions” from the roof vent when others have left backflush hose running. In our case, by flowing back down into the grey water vent, it caused grey tank to overflow and back up into bathtub and sinks. Our flooding water came from the bathtub.

We still don’t know why the backflush water was turned on, or by who, but that has to be the cause. We were gone about 4 hours and when we left late Mon morning to run errands, the tanks were only half-full on Mon, after being drained on Fri. Even if there was a trickle of water running because of the faucet our backflush hose was connected to not being fully closed, it wouldn’t have gone from half-full to flooding in 4-5 hours.

We just bought into this community and hope it was an innocent mistake and not malicious. Perhaps they saw condensation from the A/C unit dripping and thought it was a water leak so they went to close the splitter valve but instead opened the other side. Thankfully someone else came along and saw Water pouring out of the coach and turned off the entire faucet.

Thanks for your response!