Valves open or Valves closed?

[Art-n-Marge]

This is not a poll, but I am curious what us members do when we are fully hooked up when it comes to the Grey Tank valves.

I have two grey tanks - one for the galley and one for the shower/lavatory. I keep the valves closed until the indicator shows full so that the rush of gray water cleans the sewage hoses when released. I have been lucky that they are typically full when I flush and clean the black tank so the last flush of the drain hoses is grey water followed by some fresh water.

I hear about others that just leave the valves open so they don't have to worry about having to drain them while showering or washing dishes, etc.

What do others of you do?

[LonnieB]

I do the same as you.

If the galley and black tank valves are left open, the solids tend to build up in the tanks.

[exav8tr]

I do same as you Art. Letting the tanks fill provides plenty of liquid so no clumping of anything, plus, as you mention, draining the gray last helps clean the sewer hose. The only difference is I do not rely on the indicators. Actually can't remember the last time I even looked at them. When toilet burps when flushing - time to dump. When water backs up in shower - time to dump, when water backs up in kitchen sink - you guessed it - time to dump. Before departing - time to dump.....

[Parrothead]

Since we have a washer/dryer we leave the gray tank open most of the time. Then we close it and either do showers or a couple of loads of clothes before we dump the black. Our bathroom sink drains into the black so there is not much in the gray to "settle". We saw a demonstration at an RV show once that showed the tanks and what happens when you do a "power flush" (fill the bowl up) or empty a kitchen sink that is full of water. The on rush or water stirs the tank. However, when you run the shower or faucet there is not the same on rush of water.
JMHO no need to reply with a negative comment.
Happy Trails............................
Happy trails.........................

[akf15e]

What Phil said...exactly how I do it.

[Art-n-Marge]

Thanks for the quick responses, but there will be others to reply, for sure. I was just curious how prevalent leaving the grey valves open would be but there are still 1000s that need to respond.

I have never heard of a lavatory emptying into a black tank... I don't know if I would like that. I suppose you'd never blow out the lavatory to winterize it or it might stink up the trailer. But leaving some antifreeze in the lavatory might do it, but isn't that illegal since it would eventually dump into the sewers? At least the toilet has a pretty good seal to keep out smells.

When I picked up our Monty, the guy giving us the walk through said, "Just leave the grey valves open (NEVER the BLACK) and let the grey run out" to save the hassle of checking. When I brought up about using full grey tanks for flushing and keeping solid matter from forming, he actually told me he was never gonna tell people to leave them open again and thanked me for changing his mind. He did finally admit he'd been doing that for years and would occasionally have trouble with his tanks building up stuff but attributed it to bad luck. Ya think?

Keep those thoughts coming.

[Waynem]

I'm in an SOB and my plumbing is a little different. My bathroom sink is hooked to the galley tank. The washer is hooked to the gray tank. Black is black! The gray is only open when washing, although I could leave it closed as the washer only uses about 2-1/2 gallons of water. What efficiency (yeh!)
I close the Gray after the wash cycle and let it build. I have to dump the galley tank more frequently because of the plumbing mentioned above. The gray is left closed until the black is drained. My lights work, so I monitor them. When leaving a CG, everything is dumped; black, galley, gray, in that order.

As mentioned, power dumps by filling the bowl, or sink, and then letting it all rush down will show you, with a clear valve on, more crud coming out. DW does that when I stick my head in the door and holler at her.

I then add a capful of Calgon to all tanks.

If the gray is left open, residue from your shower/bath will settle and after a long period of time you will have a pyramid buildup of soap scum, crud, and other items washed off. Keeping a bed of water in the gray helps prevent that. Calgon just slicks everything up and keeps it from sticking, in my opinion.

[hookman]

We leave the shower, washer and bathroom sink tank open and the galley tank closed. The shower tank is the smallest and with the washer using the same tank it fills very fast as we learned the hard way.

[noneck]

Yup, same as you...keep them closed 90% of the time. On occasion will leave the bathroom open when planning on showering that night but then close it in AM as I could forget and dump black into grey as they are plumbed back to back.

[Exnavydiver]

Our 08 Big Sky has three dumpable tanks, black, grey, and galley, all are exactly the same size. All remain closed till full. The washer drain comes out down line from the tanks so it doesn't come into the equation. When they are full I dump them. When they aren't full I leave them closed... Dave

[stiles watson]

All tanks closed until dump time. Washer is piped directly into the discharge line and does not go into a tank.

[BB_TX]

I keep the black and galley tanks closed. But I keep the grey tank open as it tends to fill quickly due to the washer and long showers. And I have found myself standing in a couple inches of water in the shower on more than one occasion.
When the black tank starts to fill, I close the grey tank to build it up in preparation for draining the black and galley tanks.

[rames14]

Black and grey closed always. Dump black first and then dump the grey to clean out the lines. Had our 3400 for five years and nary a problem.

[Fire5er]

We are weekenders, no more than 5 days at a time, so we keep the valves closed and flush when full.

[RickW]

Since we are vacationers/weekenders we are never in one spot too long. So keep the valves closed until we break camp. If I know we are hitting the road first thing in the morning I sometimes will open the valves the night before and leave them open all night. I always dump before we hit the road. Black then Gray then Galley.

[clutch]

I always wait until fairly full. Then it is black, grey from kitchen, last grey from shower.

[Glenn and Lorraine]

Closed until time to dump.

[ols1932]

Have been keeping mine closed until dump time. However, this past weekend with them closed, when I raised the front end of the rig to hook up (I had dumped) I observed a great deal of grey water leak from the bottom of the rig. Must have a leak in the grey water tank. So right now I have the grey water valve open until I can get to some RV service place.

Orv

[azleflyer]

All three tanks closed until ready to dump. Black first, then the gray and galley tanks.

[indy roadrunner]

Steve Reigle showed me a little trick at the Goshen rally. I bought a T valve at CW that attached to the dump pipe like a hose. I open both Grey tank valves and leave the T valve closed. That allows both grey tanks to equalize as usually we don't have as much galley water as we do shower so this gives us extra showers before we have to dump. When both tanks are full we close the gray tanks, and dump the black and then follow up with the gray to help clean pipe and hose.