Is this a good idea?

[OldHiker]

I have a hose bib in my water compartment. I saw that another rv'er had hooked up a hose splitter to it and then ran two short hoses to each of the built in tank sprayers. Looked like a great idea where I would not have to hook up a hose to each and then flush each tank. All I would have to due is turn on the spigot. Looked and sounded great. Then I tried this and here is the problem.

It worked as planned except......when I shut off the spigot, water back flowed into the hose and out the back flow valve that is hooked up to the hose bib. Of course this appeared to be clean water but it ran all into the water compartment floor. Can I safely remove the backflow valve?

Suggestions?

[paz]

By back flow valve, I assume you mean you had a vacuum breaker in the line with the hose that is attached to the tank rinse. The vacuum breaker worked as designed - water pressure keeps it closed. If there is a loss in pressure (either because of a pipe break or if you turn off the hose bib, it opens up to relieve the downstream pressure.

If you take out the vacuum breaker and there is a pressure drop anywhere upstream, then the water from the tank rinse could flow back into the RV water system instead of out the vacuum breaker and onto the compartment floor. I would not take the chance of contamination.

How about adding a length of hose between the rinse connector and the vacuum breaker and another length between the vacuum breaker and the hose bib. The extra lengths of hose would be long to let the vacuum breaker hang outside the wet bay while you rinse. That way, when you turn off the hose bib, the water will dump out of the vacuum breaker onto the ground. You can leave the extra hose attached and just tuck it into the compartment for travel after it drains.

[OldHiker]

What if I replaced it with a check valve that is mounted before my whole house filter? Difference seems to be that the other allows water to escape while the check valve prevents back flow.