Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeInMichigan
While nowhere near your stay length, we routinely do 4 days with zero issues with black and grey water tanks. The Jayco Kiwi is little on the outside but big on the inside AND underside. The tanks (B&G) are 23 gallons each.
You got me checking out macerators. Wow! Lots of varying opinions on the (former?) benchmark FloJet. Now that our season is over until late April / early May, I have plenty of time to continue my research before purchasing.
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FWIW,
With a 4.3 out of 5 rating on a device like this, it's hard to do better. Every so often, one will be bad. Mine does not get hot...just a little warm. By the time I get to the end of the dump, I'm using the black tank flush...which is right above the macerator. I use hose quick connects to the black tank flush connection, and they leak a little - dribbling water onto the pump. That helps cool it, and since it's sealed and handles "water", the drips don't hurt it.
A phenomenon that happens with any dump...macerator or gravity...is that solids in the black tank dam up the output of the tank. Often there may be 3 to 5 gallons of dammed up effluent in the black tank that simply won't dump without "help" from the black tank flush or a bucket of water down the toilet (good when boondocking and there is a lake or stream nearby. I sometimes add 12 gallons of water down the toilet in three 4 gallon buckets-full.)
So, to that end, I have added
one of these clear fittings on the end of the black tank dump...or the macerator...either way. The key is to monitor the output of the tank and stop the pump when effluent stops. "Liquid" from the tank passing through the pump cools the pump. If the pump runs dry, it will get warmer. The clear fitting allows you to see when flow stops and to take steps to move things along...bucket or black tank flush...or both.
The clear adapter allows you to manage the pump properly and keep it from running dry...and prevent the pump from getting too hot. There's no harm whatsoever in turning the pump on and off as needed. Definitely don't leave it running dry while you scramble to break the dam.
FINALLY, what's the worst that would happen if the macerator pump failed? On its face, it sounds ugly. In reality, all you do is close the black tank dump gate valve, then put a "dirty" bucket under the connection and out comes roughly 1 quart of waste into the bucket and the mouth of the pump. Catch that waste in the bucket, and dump it back down the toilet or into your black tank tote. Next, there is waste water in the 3/4" garden hose. Once you have cleared the waste from the dump pipe and mouth of the pump, raise the pump end of the garden hose higher than the fill point on the tote and the waste drains into the tote. This is a step I do every time anyway...typically after running some relatively "clean" grey water through the pump and hose to flush it out. All said and done, disaster averted.
__________________
Jim Moore
SW Colorado - 4-Corners Area
2020 Jayco X213 Rear Slide
2006 RAM 1500 with Firestone Airbags No WDH
400 watts of solar on the roof & 200 watt of suitcase 2 x GC2 batteries
Starlink Gen-3 running from a 500 watt pure sinewave inverter
Boondock almost exclusively on the shores of
Lake Vallecito