Cleaning gray tanks?

[Phil P]

Hi

We have had numerous threads here about how to keep your black tank clean. However there has been little about gray tanks.

Well I got a little education about gray tanks last week.

We had dumped and cleaned our tanks at the Pilot across the street from the restaurant where we joined the MOC group for lunch in Haines City Florida.

I forgot to close one of our gray tank valves, the galley tank. I did install the cap on the sewer outlet for travel.

When I got home I found the one by the driver’s side rear trailer tire the galley gray tank valve open.

Seeing as how it is just gray water and I am sure the horses we have had over the years had dumped worse than that on the ground in the back pasture so I took the trailer out back of the place and closed the open valve and the removed the screw on water hose cap that is located in the larger cap.

What came out was a mix of food stuff apparently left from washing dishes in the galley sink.

I just never thought of having to do anything to take care of any solids that might make their way down the galley drains.

Now I wonder if it would be a good idea to put a wash system in the gray tanks like the one in the black tank!

Phil P

[richfaa]

Oh yes. The galley tank can be just as nasty as the black tank . No matter how we try to keep" stuff" from going down the galley tank, screens, etc. it gets down there. The galley tank can have a nasty smell .We treat our galley tank pretty much the same as we treat the black tank that is we keep the valve closed and flush well when the tank is full. we can't do that now as we have a leaking galley tanks and must leave the valve open. I would hate to see what it looks like in there.
I have mentioned a flush system in the galley/ gray tanks at the fall rallies.

[DQDick]

We use Happy Camper in the gray tanks as well as the black and use screens on the gray tank drains.

[rmthelen]

The Flush King also works well for flushing any of the tanks.

[davidaf]

I use the flush king as well though not as diligently as I do with the black tank.

[Phil P]

Hi

In the 37 years I have been married to this woman we have always had an RV. The only one that didn’t have waste tanks was the first “pop up” we had.

I have not had any problems with either the black or gray tanks on our RV’s.

The Montana is the first one with a black tank rinse system. The other 2 we had didn’t have one and we never had odor or drain problems except for one time when I let a friend stay a couple of days in our HyLo in the garage under the house and he poured coffee grounds down the bathroom sink. It took me some real work to unplug the “P” trap.

I just never thought about the stuff that goes down the galley drain until now.

When the wash system in the black tank finally quits working I will consider putting a system in all the tanks.

Phil P

[richfaa]

We did have 4 other Rv's before this one and the last two a Coachman and a Terry had one gray tank that held both galley and bath water. We learned early on from more experience campers to treat those gray tanks like the black tank as we had some bad smells. we also had a Hi low and do not recall a problem with it but it had small tanks and we did not use it much or keep it long. As long as the galley tank does not leak you will not get a nasty smell. A couple of times we had the galley tank back up into the kitchen sink because we forget to dump it.. Give that a try and take a deep breath.

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

Seeing that Tana has no garbage disposal, we are extremely careful what goes in the kitchen sink for washing. Very little food debris or grease ends up in ours. And, that said, it can be pretty snarky in that ole gray tank. And, if you leave that tank open, it WILL form a nice concrete layer in the bottom. Ya, that is snarky.



And, nope, we do NOT want a garbage disposal, that just seems like the perfect recipe for major trouble.

[kdeiss]

I give our Gray tanks a good flush like 4 times a year by filling with clen water and draining

[bigskyjimmy]

I just leave my valve closed then add black tank treatment that is safe for grey tanks ,I am sure there is lots of food particles in there from washing the dishes but by the time I dump it when it is full those food particles are pretty much dissolved and I have never had a problem

[richfaa]

You do it right bigskyjimmy. That is how we have treated our galley tanks on both of our Montana's with no smell issues.

[Flymutt]

quote:Originally posted by Phil P


I let a friend stay a couple of days in our HyLo in the garage under the house and he poured coffee grounds down the bathroom sink. It took me some real work to unplug the “P” trap.

I'm gonna guess that was the last time you let him stay in one of your rigs?