Water and sanitary in same compartment, not good

[cj7]

Am I the only one that thinks putting the sewage hoses and the water connections in the same compartment is poor design?  It makes sense from a plumbing perspective but not from a sanitary point of view.  I get nervous everytime I have to pull the end of my water hose through the same opening that the sewer hose gets dragged through.  I am a civil engineer and when I design a water main, I have to keep it 10 feet away from parallel buried sanitary and storm sewers and I need to keep 18" of vertical clearance when I cross the two types of lines underground in order to maintain standards set by ten states in the Great Lakes area.  When my field inspectors take water samples from new watermains, they have to be very careful not to even touch the lip of the sample bottle with their finger or the bacti samples will come back from the health department positive for contamination.  I would like to see some accommodation for keeping the two hoses away from each other.  And I would like to know: how well separated is the black water tank from the black tank flushing connection where we hook up our potable water hose to flush that nasty tank.  I see a lot of parks that don't even have a vacuum break at the hose bib to keep from sucking bad water back into the main if there is a break and the park loses water pressure.

How careful are you folks when handling your water hose?  Do you flush it before hooking it up, do you ever sterilize the threads with a water/chlorine solution?  Now that I am thinking about it, I may just put a spray bottle of water/chlorine in the water compartment.

[DonTom]

How careful are you folks when handling your water hose? 

Are you talking about the RV end of the drinking water hose being close to the sewer outlet?  I never saw such.  Mine is on the opposite of the RV from the sewage.

But if you mean the other end of the hose . . .

Do you use an anti-siphon valve on your green (not white) hose?

-Don- Reno, NV

[ruthandken CDN]

Funny that you mention that.  I have noticed that myself on alot of the newer rigs and wondered WHY??  Doesn't make any sense to me to have it all in one compartment and they list this in the description of the rigs as a benefit ??!!!!!!!   I think it's downright unsanitary and for the life of me can't see why they would put the sewer in the same compartment as the city water line.  WHAT WERE THEY THINKING???

[DonTom]

Funny that you mention that.  I have noticed that myself on alot of the newer rigs and wondered WHY?? 

So that was what he meant!   I didn't think I would find any RV that way!  What year did they start doing that?

I want to know which years to avoid if I ever buy another RV!

-Don- Reno, NV

[COMer]

My sewer connections are isolated from the fresh connections but I am supposed to use the fresh water hose for rinsing the black tank with the power flushing system.  I was told that there is a one-way valve in the line and it is perfectly safe.  Still not comfortable.  I suppose it is pretty hard for nasties to go up the hose against the flow of water coming out, but it's just the idea.

[sheltie]

My sewer connections are isolated from the fresh connections but I am supposed to use the fresh water hose for rinsing the black tank with the power flushing system.  I was told that there is a one-way valve in the line and it is perfectly safe.  Still not comfortable.  I suppose it is pretty hard for nasties to go up the hose against the flow of water coming out, but it's just the idea.

Mine are all in the same compartment and I have no problem with it at all.  Must be all the time I spent in the Army has made me much less sqeamish about such things.  I just keep the compartment clean and keep going forward.

[Wizard46]

Agree totally with Sheltie, however I do use a different green hose for black tank flushing, never the white drinking water hose. Winnebago made the water compartment out of some type of plastic and that makes it very easy to clean. I also put a nozzle on the end of the green hose when breaking down and use this to wash the sewer hose inside and out before storing and wash out the compartment before closing. Also a little bleach in a spray bottle for the hose ends and bibs don't hurt anything. I store the sewer hose in a separate compartment that has no access to the coach interior.

[tennsmith]

Lots of folks keep a spray bottle of bleach/water handy.  Good for what you mentioned as well as spraying the threads on the faucet to which you are going to connect for fresh water....you know....faucet....fire hydrant....dogs.   

[Dave Stringham]

My Monaco has a wet compartment, all water in and out.  Never bothered me a bit.  I know what outlet is incoming and what is outgoing, dosent bother me that two hoses might run next to each other, I would be willing to bet that most of the interior plumbing in just about everyones rv has some both dark and clear plumbing lines running next to each other.  The chance of the two mixing and getting to a human is just about nil unless the human offer its help.

[cj7]

I agree that to my knowledge, I have never had a problem, nor have I heard of one, but good design dictates that you try to avoid problems.  You know the addage, if something can go wrong, it eventually will?  My RV manual says to sanitize the water tank and plumbing on occasion.  How many RV'ers never get around to doing that?  How many suffer an occasional bout of cramps, (etc) not realizing it can come from their own contaminated water supply?

I would just like to raise the height of awareness of a potential problem.

Being careful with your water supply is like wearing a seat belt, you will probably never need it, but 3 of my family members are with me today because they wore them in separate accidents over the years, but that is a separate story.

[RV Roamer]

Most Class A motorhomes have both fresh and waste water connections in the same compartment. Some C's and trailers do too. I've thought a bout it, but it doesn't bother me. Haven't ever noticed parks full of Rvers too ill to move.    I do, however, keep a spray bottle of bleach solution in the wet bay and give a squirt to fittings and inlets as I put things away after use. And I do use a different hose for flushing and such - my potable water hoses are for connections to the fresh inlet only.

I do think, however, that RV builders could easily do a better job and the RVIA should include some standards for separation of potable and waste water connections in the Rv construction standards.

[John From Detroit]

Are you the only one who feels that way:  NO.. I agree fully

IS that the way my coach is built: YES.. However I just, and I mean JUST came up with an idea.

I think I'm going to install a "Wall" between the two.. IT will still be the same compartment,, Still be the same door. but there will be some kind of divider between teh two sections soon as I can figure out how to build it.

Here is how

Two pieces of thing plywood, (or you could use sheet plastic) cut one to fit the top and the other the bottom. just big enough to overlap.

If using wood. paint with good waterproofing paint (use a sealing primer first)

[Jack Nichols]

The "Yuck" factor is there, no doubt, when you look at it the first time.  I have a friend that states it would drive him crazy (he has a Class C with the fresh water ten feet from the sewer stuff) but he is sort of up tight about a lot of stuff. 

My fresh water input is in a very inconvenient place, behind a separate door in the "wet" compartment, and since it was so tough to get at it, it was hard to get tight enough to stop leaks. I busted my knuckles on it for a few months, then permanently installed a 12-14"  "extension" hose.  It is now easy to manage.

That same concept can be used to extend the fresh water inlet somewhere else at a persons comfort level.  No bulkheads, extensive building projects or whatever.  A good quality, metal reinforced hose would raise my comfort level a bit.

My idea is worth what you paid for it, but I think I will make that same modification.

[rhmahoney]

My rig had the fresh water inlet in front of and at a lower level than the sewer outlet and only 6 inches apart!

I replumbed the fresh water to a point above and a bit around the corner from the sewer.

I found a flat sewer hose that I can leave attached and never have to rinse out. It just rolls up behind the sewer outlet.

10 yrs and no tourista episodes.

[LindaH]

Am I the only one that thinks putting the sewage hoses and the water connections in the same compartment is poor design?

Our sewer hose is in a tube underneath the RV.  All the paraphernalia for the sewer hose (connections, hose for rinsing) is in a plastic tub in one of the compartments.  Next to that tub is another tub with all the fresh water paraphernalia (drinking hose, pressure reducers, etc.).  While all this paraphernalia may be in the same "compartment," they are in separate plastic tubs and don't intermix.

[melvonnar]

Our sewer hose is in a tube underneath the RV.  All the paraphernalia for the sewer hose (connections, hose for rinsing) is in a plastic tub in one of the compartments.  Next to that tub is another tub with all the fresh water paraphernalia (drinking hose, pressure reducers, etc.).  While all this paraphernalia may be in the same "compartment," they are in separate plastic tubs and don't intermix.

I carry a 10 gallon cooler for drinking and cooking; problem solved.