Dumping waste tanks

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
I have a pair of heavy rubber gloves I use. I also have a small plastic clear tote that I store sewer fittings & the gloves. I rinse the gloves last thing and store. I have another larger, but same height tote that I store fresh water hoses, fittings and filter-pressure regulator-Y adapter in. It stores behind the sewer tote. Both totes have latching covers. I store all water hoses with them coiled and with the ends connected to keep stuff out.
 
It seems a lot of people store gloves. Why? It seems so much easier and less work to use dispisable gloves. Why deal with trying to keep contaminated gloves separate from other items? It can’t be to save money because they are dirt cheap,
 
My gloves are comfortable, easy to put on and don’t contribute waste. They also well above my wrist. As you noted, sometimes there is no place to dispose single use gloves. After rinsing, they are clean enough. There is nothing coming out of the tanks that a little soap & water can’t fix and besides, the step before rinsing stuff off before stowing is running soapy weather through it all.
 
Ah, yes it is good to carry a small bucket to put under the cap when you take it off to catch anything that drips, or at least it is until you catch your wife using said bucket as a mop bucket while mopping out the floor in the RV.
 
I have never washed a sewer hose. What would the purpose be?

Dump the black, dump the gray, get the hell out of the way.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RRR
Rinsing out the dump hose of bacteria, solid waste and anything else in waste tanks is always a good idea. The gray water can be awfully foul and I would never rely on a gray dump to flush the dump hose clean. A rinse with fresh water is the best approach inside and out as the dump hose has been sitting on the ground where previous waste is sure to be.

I usually spray the area down with the fresh water hose before I begin to hook things up if things look ugly. What tracks into the motorhome on my feet is a big concern of mine. I will usually rinse my shoes off thoroughly before entering the motorhome or use a second pair of foot wear that stays out of the living space and washes off easily.

I keep hand cleaner in the water bay and will use it as needed. I stopped using gloves many years ago but will occasionally throw some on in a dirty dump site environment. I keep a disposable glove supply in the water bay.

My hose stores in the water bay so I always keep it nice and clean. If it's got an odor to it, there are ways that the odor can make its way into the living space in my motorhome. I am not a biologist but common sense tells me that a foul smelling odor in the dump hose will probably have a negative effect on the hose material so I keep it clean and always give it a good fresh water rinse inside and out.
 
I re-use my gloves, they aren't the disposable kind. You have to store the pipes, fittings and a spare cleanup hose somewhere, just put the gloves with all that. I bolted a toolbox onto the bumper and it all stores together.

Do not use your freshwater hose to clean up after a dump! If you cross contaminate to your fresh water system you and your whole family could be sick for your entire next trip. Get a separate hose for dump cleanup, use the water supplied at the dump station and get a "backflow preventer". I don't use my onboard fresh water to clean up - ever!

You do wash your hands after you take the gloves off right?
 
In my experience it is "city folk" who tend to go to the most extreme measures dealing with tank dumping.
 
What is this "winterizing" I hear so much about - LOL...

I had a hose get loose at a $10 dump station. Luckily there were two of us and my son stood on the end fitting. There was a hose and the hole was flush to the ground so I washed it up as best I could.

I also use kitchen gloves. They cover most of the forearm and I just chuck them in the locker with my other goodies. My outdoor shower is located in the plumbing bay so I usually will give the whole bay a rinse when I'm done.
 
I have never worn shoes in my motorhome. I have a pair I keep at the driver's seat entrance and another pair on the inside step by my side door. I take shoes off before going inside, so no problems with tracking anything, including sand and small gravel.
 
In my experience it is "city folk" who tend to go to the most extreme measures dealing with tank dumping.
That might be true.

Strangely, I have delivered calves, gutted maybe thousands of small animals, mucked stalls, expressed dog anal glans, and changed countless diapers with little concern. That does not make me any more comfortable or careless with cross contamination with fecal matter.

It does not require obsession, or ”extreme measures”, just efficiency and common safety.
 
Last edited:
Things don't make sense. The OP said he has NEVER dumped his waste tanks. Has he been using the RV at all? If he has used it with the valves open, there will be a lot of gunk laying in the tanks. Filling the tanks and driving to the dump station may dislodge most of the stuff.
As far as cleaning the hose. Dump the tanks, connect the hose together and then flush it out when he gets home.
 
Things don't make sense. The OP said he has NEVER dumped his waste tanks. Has he been using the RV at all? If he has used it with the valves open, there will be a lot of gunk laying in the tanks. Filling the tanks and driving to the dump station may dislodge most of the stuff.
As far as cleaning the hose. Dump the tanks, connect the hose together and then flush it out when he gets home.
The OP spent months remodeling/rebuilding his RV and this was his first trip with it. I think we can cut him a little slack as a newbie...
 
After I pull the trailer end of the slinky, I rinse (utility hose connected to the other side of the Y) the trailer output, put on the cap, rinse the end of the slinky, run some water down it, pull the sewer end , rinse that, rinse the adapter, remove adapter, rinse again, put the lid on the sewer. Put away the slinky, rinse my gloves (while wearing), put the gloves away, rinse hands, stow the hose, close doors, go inside and wash hands.
 
Rinsing out the dump hose of bacteria, solid waste and anything else in waste tanks is always a good idea.
Rinsing out the sewer hose is an exercise in futility. Nothing you do is going to have any meaningful effect on bacteria; even paper and particle solids will cling inside. Do what you think is best, but don't kid yourself about it being clean. I suggest you bag or box it if you don't have a suitable storage place.
 
I
Rinsing out the sewer hose is an exercise in futility. Nothing you do is going to have any meaningful effect on bacteria; even paper and particle solids will cling inside. Do what you think is best, but don't kid yourself about it being clean. I suggest you bag or box it if you don't have a suitable storage place.
It stows in the rear bumper so I am satisfied with that Gary.
 
How common is it that there would be tank contents that leaked behind the cap.
Common for a leaking slide valve... Short term maybe just keep a plastic tray or bowl you put under the cap to catch the drippage before you hook up your drain hose.

I had that issue when I first got my RV. Tried various remedies like mineral oil, exercising the valve, a generous spray around the seal to dislodge any bits, nothing helped. Finally concluded the valve was bad so set about to replace it. That's when things got interesting. Upon removal I discovered the valve slide was encrusted with what looked like mortar, or extreme water scale. The outlet of the black tank was also encrusted with it. At first I thought just what the hell did those folks eat? Or was this industrial strength toothpaste abrasive? The accretion on the slide actually abraded away the seal which is what caused the leak. The gray tank side was perfectly clean and the valve was OK, but since it was apart I replaced both. I learned the crust is called struvite which is a mineral formed by a chemical reaction with waste and some types of tank treatments. There are a few informative videos on utoob that describe this. I literally used a large screwdriver to chisel out what I could upstream of the valve a bit and it left of pile of slag in my wet bay. You haven't lived until you've had your arm up the business end of your black tank. So the lesson here is careful what treatments you put in your black tank. I have yet to have an issue with dumping or odors using just plain water, a squirt of Dawn and a shake of borax so it escapes me why the PO would've had a need to add chemicals and cause the struvite issue. At the end of the day though if your gray or black tank valves drip there's probably not many options short of replacing the valves. Not a horrible job in general, I've seen worse working on plumbing in my S&B.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
131,670
Posts
1,382,735
Members
137,455
Latest member
MtnRV
Back
Top Bottom