Newbie Mistake w/ Holding Tanks.. HELP!

[LETMGROW]

Originally Posted by schad

It's a fair point. My wife's aunt does this in her S&B. And it is unquestionably the best thing you can do if you are interested in keeping your black tank (or sewer pipes) clear.

But it's also fair to say that most of us got these coaches to be, as Entegra put it in one of their welcome letters, "luxury condos on wheels." My in-laws notwithstanding, I can't imagine there are many luxury condos where used TP goes anywhere but down the toilet.

I don't have a "Luxury Coach". I do have a wife who takes pride in the care of what we do have though. In my wildest moment I wouldn't even suggest we start putting our toilet paper in a basket next to the toilet.
With proper care and some patience keeping the waste tanks operating properly on any RV is easy.
Lynn

[T12]

One of the reasons I got on this blog site is that I learned a long time ago that I don't know everything. One person on this site said to check Google earth and look at the park where you are going to avoid be next to a railroad as happened to them. What a great idea! When my wife's eyes are watering and we have to go for a really long walk, I'm sure she wants it all to go in the black tank. If it goes down the drain it will be broken down biologically or go through a waste treatment plant where it could end up as fertilizer. There's enough "stuff" in the landfills already. As for me I think I'll just leave the valves closed and empty them occasionally.

[Gary.Jones]

Smart husband....

Gary

[Motorhead-54]

WalMart...sporting goods section 👌 . When on FHU, we keep valves closed and dump daily. When we pull out, each tank gets a bottle of the WalMart generic version of Pine Sol...about 95 cents per bottle. Never a problem.

Question for all....I simply don’t understand the value of a macerator system attached to the sewer drain. Yes, I do understand how a macerator functions but it seems to me to be adding a lot of needless complexity to dumping the waste tanks on an RV.

[KennyGolub]

Originally Posted by Motorhead-54

WalMart...sporting goods section 👌 . When on FHU, we keep valves closed and dump daily. When we pull out, each tank gets a bottle of the WalMart generic version of Pine Sol...about 95 cents per bottle. Never a problem.

Question for all....I simply don’t understand the value of a macerator system attached to the sewer drain. Yes, I do understand how a macerator functions but it seems to me to be adding a lot of needless complexity to dumping the waste tanks on an RV.

.

[Gary.Jones]

Well, for one thing, you don't have to worry about all those stupid slow gravity flow guizmo bridges that you see the stinky slinky people fooling around with. The Sanicon / macerator system pumps everything up hills, around corners.... just lay the hose on the ground, put the end in the sewer pipe, and get about emptying by pushing a button.

Now that the Sanicon hose can be removed easily from a CAM-LOCK fitting in the back of the integral storage box, it is at least 300% easier to dump tanks than it used to be.... no sections of rain guttering to make the descent gradual along with just the right wood supports, no little accordion steps coming down so that everything is perfect......., no mess and no fuss.... well worth the extra couple a thousand dollars --

Gary

[schad]

Originally Posted by Motorhead-54

Question for all....I simply don’t understand the value of a macerator system attached to the sewer drain. Yes, I do understand how a macerator functions but it seems to me to be adding a lot of needless complexity to dumping the waste tanks on an RV.

You don't have to put the sewer hose on stands or carefully route it around rocks or other obstacles. Just pull out the big hose, stick the end into the sewer drain, and you're done.

It's not a necessity at all. In my experience, it is nice to have in a way that I did not expect before getting this coach, and that I cannot easily explain. The best I can do is say that it goes into the sum total of all the little conveniences that come with our MH. Taken individually, they don't matter much. I could deal with the loss of any of them and not be upset. But collectively, they make a really big difference.

That's all just my opinion, though. This is very much a subjective thing. I know it's silly.

[Motorhead-54]

• You still have to handle a sewer hose correct? I get it that it is smaller but you are still handling a sewer hose.

• You still need to connect that sewer hose at both the RV end AND at the sewer fitting of the camping spot correct?

• You still have to remove the cap from the waste fitting at the campground to install your reduced hose size adapter correct?

• You still have to coil it up and stow it away when finished correct?

• I don’t see this getting you away from wearing rubber gloves and washing hands for sanitary purposes whether it be a macerator hose or a traditional “stinky slinky”

• For those campgrounds with only a sewer dump station…you still end up walking around in the inevitable “wet spots” where the last guy finished up right?

• You still have to purge/drain that hose of any leftover waste when you finish dumping correct? It doesn’t magically self clean

• A macerator reduces what started out as a 3” orifice and necks it down to something on the order of 1” correct?

• I can’t recall staying anywhere that the run from my RV to the waste fitting was more than 10’.

• I am certain I have never seen a campground/RV park that required an uphill run from the RV to the waste fitting

• Pulling a blade valve takes seconds…replacing a blade valve takes $15.00 and 15 minutes

• I have an aluminum accordion type ramp for the waste line…takes seconds to install

Sorry but I still don’t see the “value added”

[schad]

On my coach at least, the macerator hose is closer in size to a regular sewer hose. It's definitely much bigger than 1" diameter. It's like those collapsible garden hoses, but bigger. It balloons up when you turn the macerator on. It's also really flexible in its collapsed state and stores pretty easily. It's always connected on the RV side. I don't need to manually evacuate the hose once I'm done dumping. The end of the hose that goes into the CG sewer pipe has a head on it; it looks exactly like a detachable shower head, but bigger. This "sewer shower head" has a cover that I just screw on tightly. It keeps any residual grey waste inside, but honestly, there hardly ever is any. I do wear gloves because accidents happen, but so far I haven't needed them.

Again, it's not at all a necessity. I wouldn't recommend that anyone buy (or not buy) a coach based on whether it has a macerator dump system. Since I was buying the el cheapo Entegra, I wasn't expecting mine to have one. It was a pleasant surprise to discover that it did -- and I didn't make that discovery until the walkthrough, after I'd bought it.

[Ron & Peri]

You are just looking at all the negatives...
Gary Jones covered it well, another positive is if you pull up to a friends house you can run the hose through the bathroom window and into the toilet and pump it all out....

[J-N-Lham]

Great points.
Purchased ours used actually right at 2 years old. Guess it was never a 300-400K vehicle. Fancy is as fancy was is the key word. It was fancy to us.
But that black stuff runs down hill just fine. I can pretty well tell you what most parts are and how they work. And my rubber gloves keep my hands clean and I have a bottle of soap in the water bay for when finished. Take off my boots and off I go.
Now my glory is not cruising a half million $$$ down the road mine is still in my pocket and have most all I want and can still get the rest except for maybe another 65 yrs. And I say Maybe. This world is coming quite interesting.
Had a boss when I was a young kid with kids, we were talking one day and he told me "you know how all those people that have all that money have it? They Keep it." best advise I ever had. So keep all that fancy stuff and please clean up the area around the water fill and dump station as seems like alot of the fancy ones are sometimes the worst to follow. Hey and that Clorox is get-tn pricey.
In closing Thanks Joe.
Oh and I appreciate that advice about all those people that go down on 38th St.and are never seen again. Second good word of advice.

[Motorhead-54]

Originally Posted by Ron & Peri

You are just looking at all the negatives...
Gary Jones covered it well, another positive is if you pull up to a friends house you can run the hose through the bathroom window and into the toilet and pump it all out....

Yes Sir, you are correct when you said “ALL the negatives”. Some functions simply don’t warrant the added complexity, cost and reliability hit IMHO. This thought came to me this past weekend while I was replacing an 8 year old weeping $15.00 black tank valve. K.I.S.S.

[LETMGROW]

Originally Posted by Ron & Peri

You are just looking at all the negatives...
Gary Jones covered it well, another positive is if you pull up to a friends house you can run the hose through the bathroom window and into the toilet and pump it all out....

Run the hose through a friend's bathroom window? How many Christmas lists have you been eliminated from?
Lynn

[Gary.Jones]

Motorhead

Well, then just be supremely happy that you don't have one of these fancy Sanicons systems... since you see no need. Good for you!

I will be saddled with mine for the time that I own this coach. So far.... I like it a lot! To each his own.

Gary