Blowing air through waterlines

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Stamper5498

Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2015
Posts
19
Where are you hooking the air to? Are you blowing through the toilet, the sink,the shower or what.
I can?t get my black tank empty and any advice is appreciated.
 
This is only for blowing down your fresh water lines. The drains do not get blown down but the traps do need to get winterized.  Hook up the air hose right at the connection for your water hose.  Get one of these:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Camco-36143-Blow-Out-Plug-for-RV-Winterizing/29764314?wmlspartner=wlpa&adid=22222222227021475530&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=40838463032&wl4=aud-566049426705:pla-78651722432&wl5=1015214&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=online&wl12=29764314&wl13=&veh=sem&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4d2ziL2B3wIVTrnACh3SCAbsEAQYAiABEgJeufD_BwE

Why do you say your black tank won't empty. Don't go by the tank level indicators. They are notorious for not reading correctly. The way to make sure your tank is not plugged up, open the drain valve and dump 5 gallons of water down the toilet. If it's plugged, water will not come out of your sewer drain pipe.
 
As for 'can't get my black tank empty', are you depending upon the indicator lights to determine if empty? If so, those are notorious for lying to you. Crud (paper residue, etc.) often covers the sensors giving a false indication. You need to clean your black tank well to clear that. Often that is easier said than done, but there are several products to aid in that process.


However, getting an 'empty' reading is not necessary for winterizing. If you drain the tanks using the normal process, that will be adequate for winterizing. Once drained, I like to pour about about a gallon of RV antifreeze into both tanks to ensure the valves are protected and don't go dry.
 
Thanks for replying, I am using a combination I guess. There always seems to be water in the black tank hose. I tried to lift the hose but some always runs back I.  This unit also has a macerator  on it and is supposed to actually pump the black as well as the grey water out. Either I?m doing something wrong or it doesn?t pump very well
 
Stamper5498 said:
Thanks for replying, I am using a combination I guess. There always seems to be water in the black tank hose. I tried to lift the hose but some always runs back I.  This unit also has a macerator  on it and is supposed to actually pump the black as well as the grey water out. Either I?m doing something wrong or it doesn?t pump very well
Yes, mine has a macerator, as well. One of the things I've noted on mine is the grey water takes forever to drain out of the tank. The line running from the tank to the valve has little slant to it. You may have something similar. I have learned to stop the macerator for a while to let the water drain more, then run it some more until I get the tell-tale sound change from the macerator. Even after that, I can get quite a bit of water from the hose if I can get it lower than the macerator to let it drain. I have a very flexible and long hose (will stretch out about 12') and unless I "walk it" out well, there will be some residual water. At that point, I close the valve(s) and anything left in the hose will not cause damage if it freezes.


Now, since you have a macerator and if you want to be thorough, dump about a gallon of antifreeze in your grey and black tanks, open both valves and run the macerator until some antifreeze comes out of the hose. Be quick on the trigger as it won't take long. Then shut off the macerator and close the valves. This will trap antifreeze in the macerator and reduce the risk of it freezing up.


If your indicator lights show the black tank full or partially full at this stage, I would assume it to be empty and blocked sensors are giving you an erroneous reading.
 
As soon as I figure out how to resize photos I want to send a couple of pictures for identification purposes
Been trying for bout 30 minutes to get them to load.  Thanks for the response
 

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