RV Black Water Tank Overview
RV Lifestyle & Repair EditorsDescription
It is important to understand how to properly empty your RV waste tank system, including knowing the difference between the two tanks and compiling the hoses and tools that make your visits to the dump station easier. In this free lesson, RV expert Dave Solberg conducts a quick overview of the RV waste tank system on his demo basement model vehicle, explaining the proper technique for safe dumping at any campground or city facility and introducing any tools you might need throughout the process.
RV Waste Tank Basics
RV wastewater tanks are classified as black water and gray water systems. The black water tank valve can typically be identified as the larger valve, usually 3 inches in diameter, while the gray water tank valve is smaller, usually 1.5 inches in diameter.
Toilets on an RV are always connected to the black water system, which contains sewage from personal waste. Other water drains onboard are connected to the gray water waste tank, which holds less hazardous water from such sources as sinks and showers. However, depending on the layout, some manufacturers will have the system set up in such a way that the sinks dump into the black tank, but in most vehicles the black water tank will be filled with primarily sewage from the toilet.
Even though the gray RV waste tank holds cleaner waste than the black water tank, you still do not want to dump this tank into the open. Both tanks should be properly emptied at designated dump stations, using equipment that allows for safe and clean dumping.
How to Dump an RV Waste Tank
Before emptying the black RV waste tank on your vehicle you should be sure to put on rubberized gloves to protect yourself against any pathogens. Because it can get messy at the dump station, some people also choose to wear masks to help avoid experiencing the unpleasant smells. Prior to attaching the waste hose to and dumping your black water tank, Dave recommends making sure both valves are closed so you don’t get an unsanitary surprise when taking off the sewer dump cap. Trust us, you don’t want to skip this step!
Next, Dave shows you how to attach the (clean!) dump hose to the bayonet dump valve and empty the black water tank first, followed by the gray one. Emptying the black water and then the gray tank will help flush the hose of the black water sewage with the cleaner of the two water tanks, making it easier to perform the final cleaning with fresh water from the dump station. Additionally, this whole process can be simplified and further sanitized by affixing an extendable hose with an aftermarket funnel. This way, you can run the hose straight through your tank compartment and just drive right over the dump tank.
To make emptying an RV waste tank a breeze, there are several other aftermarket products available such as a clear dump valve connection to see when clean water is coming through the dump valves, and dump hose adapter ends to make an even more secure connection at the dump station. Invest a bit of money, and you’ll never have to worry about a messy cleanup!
The sewage system in your RV consists of a black and a gray water tank. Now typically the toilet is gonna be hooked directly to the black water tank. And you can see that underneath here, some of them will actually do a black and a gray. This one happens to be a little on the lighter color, the black water tank, so that's the one back here and the gray water tank is gonna have about an inch and a half to two inch. So you get the larger one on the gray water.
Again, this is just the toilet. Some manufacturers will dump some sinks in there. So every floor plans a little different, kinda depends on the layout of the floor plan. How easy it is to get from one place to other. Now the gray water tank is typically just gonna be the shower, your kitchen sinks, your other sink.
So it's a little cleaner water. Now. I don't recommend dumping either one out in the open. You definitely wanna put them in a treated area, but the way they do it, as we got a compartment down here, this one happens to be on a basement model that does have some heat that's dumped into here. A lotta times they'll be just stuck underneath there.
So you 're gonna need to protect them in the wintertime, but if you hook a hose up, now if you're gonna be camping at a campground for a long period of time, I would recommend, I'm gonna take this out here. In fact, before I do that, I'm gonna make sure I wear rubberized gloves. I don't want any of the pathogens or anything in there. So we're gonna do that. Some people don't like the smell.
It will get a little messy at times. I have seen people that will literally wear a mask in there to cover the smell, so they don't get erpy, but you take your dump hose like this. Now this one actually has an aftermarket piece apparatus put on the end and this is designed to lift up at a dump station, pop it in the flange, holds it in place a lot better than just sticking this down in and kinking the hose. But with this, I can't put it down here. It's too big to fit in this hose here.
Now little tip before I take this off here, this hose did have some stuff in it beforehand. So make sure you check and see if anything's in here before you put this up, make sure your valves are shut inside and you won't get an unexpected surprise. But so we're gonna just take this off, twist it off here, I'm gonna lay that in there. Like that, so. If I'm gonna be camping for an extended period of time, I can just put that down through the bottom like that and then keep it closed.
You wanna keep your valves closed all the time. Because if I have my valves open, when I'm camping at the campground, I'm gonna get that smell from underneath coming up into the top. So basically the system works. If you wanna dump your black water first, that's gonna be your dirtier water and then dump your gray water after that. And the gray water, like I said before, it's cleaner water, it's shower and stuff from the sinks, that's gonna help clean your hose out and make it a lot easier to clean.
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