Washer sewer drain

[Ronnelly]

Our washer hookup drains into the Gray tank. Was wondering if you have to leave the sewer valve open, or can you use the washer with the sewer valve closed and dump when tank is full.

[Parrothead]

We leave it open. Depends on what kind of washer you have. We figure we can do one load without opening the tank but do not want to take a chance on overflow so we open it up.
Happy trails......................

[stiles watson]

Our 2003 unit had the washer piped into the gray tank. We kept the gray tank open when washing. Once having a geyser in the shower and lavatory was enough to learn that lesson. On the 2008 unit, the washer is piped into the main drain, so it doesn't go into any tank.

On edit: We made a sign to put on the washer reading, "OPEN DRAIN".

[boylanag]

We leave it open, too. I left the valve closed a couple of weeks ago to get water in the grey tank to use to clean the sewer hose after dumping the black tank and forget to open it again - water all over the floor around washer and running out of front from near pin box.

[Emmel]

Ronnelly, you see by our experiences that we now leave the valve open when we run the washer. Not fun opening the shower door and finding it half full of water. We've been lucky enough to catch it before the floor flooded, but pretty close!
If you can remember to open it, don't ever go over one load with the valve closed. I'm short on memory, so we open it to prevent future floods. Don't rely on your gages to tell you that you are "close" to being full.

[Waynem]

Open here. There is no reason to even close the gray tank off on the newer models. The old school of thought is that the gray water will flush out the system (hoses) after the black water is dumped. Now, with the sewer back flush, you get the same effect just using the sewer flush to rinse everything down. Let the DW shower to her hearts content with the gray open all the time.

[sreigle]

Ron and Nelly, I can tell you from experience of the bad kind it's not a real good idea to leave the dump valve closed in your situation. Our 2003 3295RK was plumbed like yours. Our particular washer could put about 2 1/2 loads into the gray tank before it backed up into and overflowed the shower, flooding the upstairs floor, running down into the basement at the various drain lines and other openings, thoroughly drenching everything in the basement including the carpet. And it excites the neighbors who run over and shut off your water, thinking you have a leak. Silly people. This happened to us not once but twice. No, I didn't intentionally leave the valve closed. I just got out of my routine and forgot. Twice.

How many loads you can get into the gray tank depends on how much water your washer uses and what water level you have set on the washer controls. Just be very, very careful.

If you add an additional valve at the dump cap, close that one and open both gray tank valves you could probably do four or five loads before overflowing, depending again on the washer and its settings.