Dumping tanks at home?

[Javin]

Not sure what the proper way to flush out your black water tank at home would be or if any one does this. I thought about running my slinky to a down spout drain at the front of my house, is this ok to do this? Any ideas would be great.

[JFlightRisk]

No, the downspout drains more than likely are a drywell system, and that would plug it up, probably will smell afterwards, and cause you to have it dug up to get it draining again. Here in NY, it's a violation to have the downspouts, or even sump pumps, connected to the storm drain system, which is completely separate from the sanitary sewer system.

If you can't tie in to the sewer, or septic (if you have that), and there's no place that offers dumping, you can (very carefully) place a 5 gallon bucket under the discharge, and flush the tank for a couple of minutes while someone watches the bucket. At about 2/3 full, shut the valve, and dump the bucket into a house toilet. You'll need to do this a few times, until the tank runs clear.

[Siamese]

There's a device available that consists of a gizmo that attaches to the out-spout on you rv, and has a garden hose running into it, and another hose running out of it (at least as far as I recall). As the tank drains, the incoming water blasts the solids (ewwwwww), and the resulting thin slurry exits out the other hose and runs to you home sewer system. Typically, the cleanout for your sewer system.

I don't remember the name of the device.....

Not horribly expensive, but unless you're going to be dumping at home a lot, probably not worth the expense and trouble.

Cover of darkness, neighbor's lawn?

[RAurand]

Here is what I do after getting home from boondocking. My black and grey tanks are almost full.

I hook up a clear connector to the to my black/grey tank dump valve. Then, I attach a Flowjet 18555000A 18555-000A Portable RV Waste Pump to that. Then run a 75 foot x 3/4 hose from my flowjet to my sewer cleanout and insert the hose about 4 feet down so it dont come out.

Then, We open the black tank valve and turn on the flow jet. Once the black tank is empty, i will fill it up partially thru the black tank flush on the back of my trailer, will do this 2-3 times and my tank is clean with nothing but clear water coming out. Oh, I need to state this...... While the black tank is filling up, TURN OFF THE FLOWJET SO IT DONT GET HOT.

Close the black tank flush valve then open the grey tank flush valve and turn on the macerator again. When grey tank is empty, I am done. Put macerator away, roll up garden hose and put it away. Put cap back on sewer cleanout pipe. DONE!

[Siamese]

Originally Posted by raurand

here is what i do after getting home from boondocking. My black and grey tanks are almost full.

I hook up a clear connector to the to my black/grey tank dump valve. Then, i attach a flowjet 18555000a 18555-000a portable rv waste pump to that. Then run a 75 foot x 3/4 hose from my flowjet to my sewer cleanout and insert the hose about 4 feet down so it dont come out.

Then, we open the black tank valve and turn on the flow jet. Once the black tank is empty, i will fill it up partially thru the black tank flush on the back of my trailer, will do this 2-3 times and my tank is clean with nothing but clear water coming out. Oh, i need to state this...... While the black tank is filling up, turn off the flowjet so it dont get hot.

Close the black tank flush valve then open the grey tank flush valve and turn on the macerator again. When grey tank is empty, i am done. Put macerator away, roll up garden hose and put it away. Put cap back on sewer cleanout pipe. Done!

that's it!!!

[Murff]

Originally Posted by Siamese

that's it!!!

With this pump, or a macerator pump, you could also pump directly to your home toilet. Just take precautions, of course!!

Murff

[Marcm157]

Originally Posted by RAurand

Here is what I do after getting home from boondocking. My black and grey tanks are almost full.

I hook up a clear connector to the to my black/grey tank dump valve. Then, I attach a Flowjet 18555000A 18555-000A Portable RV Waste Pump to that. Then run a 75 foot x 3/4 hose from my flowjet to my sewer cleanout and insert the hose about 4 feet down so it dont come out.

Then, We open the black tank valve and turn on the flow jet. Once the black tank is empty, i will fill it up partially thru the black tank flush on the back of my trailer, will do this 2-3 times and my tank is clean with nothing but clear water coming out. Oh, I need to state this...... While the black tank is filling up, TURN OFF THE FLOWJET SO IT DONT GET HOT.

Close the black tank flush valve then open the grey tank flush valve and turn on the macerator again. When grey tank is empty, I am done. Put macerator away, roll up garden hose and put it away. Put cap back on sewer cleanout pipe. DONE!

Exactly how I do it at my house.

[Javin]

Thanks for all the info and ideas. Just to clarify I only want to flush my black water tank at home. At this point I’m always able to dump my black tank at a dumping station. However flushing the tank takes time and is not always possible with a line up of RV’s behind me.
The flowjet attachment looks good although it’s around $300. Is it necessary to have one of these just to flush your tank out only? I thought connecting my slinky to the down spout drain in front of my house would be fine. Am I wrong?

[Sundancer330]

If the down spout is tied to anything it would be the storm sewer for rain water not the sanitary sewer. Your city wouldn't be to happy about dumping there. Depending on building codes in your area you may have a sewer clean out with a cap that could be removed and dump there. Our area if the sewer is over 100 feet it requires a cleanout, otherwise there isn't one. If you can locate a cleanout and its downhill from where the trailer would be dumping gravity would take care of it no pump needed.

[RetiredOne]

Originally Posted by Javin

I thought connecting my slinky to the down spout drain in front of my house would be fine. Am I wrong?

Absolutely wrong, because your downspouts are NOT connected to the sanitary sewer, but run off to underground drywell or possible water retention ditches.

Is your house on city sewers? If so, there's probably a clean out plug out in front, near the street. If you can find the sewer clean out cap, that would be the place to put your slinky.

[JFlightRisk]

Only if you know for absolutely sure that downspout goes into the sanitary sewer system. I can't believe it does, since that would overload the treatment plant every time it rained. If that downspout goes into the ground, it soaks into a quantity of coarse stone, and then into the ground. It's called a drywell here. That will plug, and become a real problem.

[stateboy]

I normally use the dump station but if I can't, I'll run a 5 gallon pail back and forth to the toilet in the house from the driveway till the 30 gallon black tank is empty. Then I attach the garden hose to the power rinse feature and rinse till clear, which is usually 3-5 more trips to the toilet with the 5 gallon pail.

[Lake Huron]

Our storm sewers and sanitary USED to be connected together. Too many times with hard rainfall the sewage treatment plant would overload and they would have to open the dump valves that went direct into the big river. It started about 17 years ago a sewer separation project separating the storm from sanitary.
My house was built in 02 and the storm and sanitary were already seperate when the road was put in. My house is about 60' from the sanitary sewer and I have a cleanout close to the house. I cut the cap off and glued on a threaded fitting for a threaded cap when not in use and it also works for the threaded adapter for my rv sewer connector. Black tank has a pretty bad smell. My grey tanks dont smell at all and I just dump them out on my lawn. As far as I know, around here anyway, it is NOT illegal to dump grey water out on the surface.

[Javin]

My house is on city sewers. If there is a clean out plug located on the front of my property how does one find it?
I know there is a sewer close to my house with large grate openings but I don’t think my neighbours would appreciate me dumping in there and I’m not sure if that is even legal. I’m guessing it’s a storm sewer drain.

[JFlightRisk]

I can't help on the cleanout question, as ours is in our basement.

If you see an open grate in the street, that's not a sewer line. It's only for rain runoff. You're right, you do not want to dump into that at all.

[Marcm157]

Originally Posted by Javin

My house is on city sewers. If there is a clean out plug located on the front of my property how does one find it?
I know there is a sewer close to my house with large grate openings but I don’t think my neighbours would appreciate me dumping in there and I’m not sure if that is even legal. I’m guessing it’s a storm sewer drain.

That "sewer grate" is the runoff catch basin and not the same as a sanitary sewer connection. Dumping into it would be the same as using the downspout drains you initially asked about.

If you have a clean out it will likely be a 4 inch pvc pipe with a cap similar to the connection at a campground. It may actually be buried just below the surface but they are usually just above grade.

[EA37TS]

On the current house the clean out is above ground about 3 inches away from the foundation of the house. On our prior house we had 2 clean outs which were on the front and rear wall of the house. The prior house would have been hard to dump into because the cleanup was about 18 inches above ground level.

[Lake Huron]

Originally Posted by Javin

My house is on city sewers. If there is a clean out plug located on the front of my property how does one find it?
I know there is a sewer close to my house with large grate openings but I don’t think my neighbours would appreciate me dumping in there and I’m not sure if that is even legal. I’m guessing it’s a storm sewer drain.

You could call MISSDIG and put in a ticket that you need the front of your property marked out . ITS FREE. They will send out all the utilities and have them located. Power, phone, cable tv, water, sewer, gas, everything.
OR, call your local DPW and have them come out and locate the main sewer line and they should also be able to help you find where your house sewer line is tapped into the main and mark out the line going back to your house. If they are nice enough they may help out finding your sewer cleanout, if you have one. Some houses don't have them.

[RetiredOne]

Originally Posted by Javin

My house is on city sewers. If there is a clean out plug located on the front of my property how does one find it?

Go out in the street in front of your house and look for a metal cover about 6" in diameter marked "sewer", many towns have them installed so they can snake the lines. If you find it, draw a straight line from it to where your sewer line exits your house. If you have a clean out on your property, there should be a 4" clean out cover along that line. Like said above, sometimes they get covered up by grass, landscaping, etc.

Or, call Mike Rowe...

[bankr63]

If you are in Pickering ON, your cleanout will probably not be outside the foundation walls. I've never seen an outside cleanout in Ontario, probably not to code due to the extreme snow and cold. I do have one on the floor of my garage as that is the last indoor space before the sewer leaves the premises. I also have one further inside the basement where the vertical stack meets the horizontal run back to the street.

Our home is on a heavily sloped lot, so I can't dump directly thanks to gravity, but I can use the portable poop tote to dump into the cleanout located in the garage. And if you are in Pickering ON, then yes, it is illegal to dump septic water into the storm system. If there is an open grate, it is always storm water; septic wastewater is a sealed system and does not vent to atmosphere.