Sani Flush

This is our 5th day (totally new to this lifestyle) in our new 3400RL and things are working great. We had a few little things, but our first camping experience is next to our dealership so they came right over and fixed these. In reading the Heartland Owner's manual, there are conflicting statements concerning the sani-flush system. One part says for best results leave the black value closed. In another part the manual says to leave the black value gate open. Since I'm dumping my tanks today, I'm a little confused. Don't want to screw up now!

Leave the valve closed and turn on the flush system ( this is assuming the tank is not completely full), when the tank is nearly full or I make sure at least 3/4 full, open the valve and let drain. Then let the flush run for a while, I then fill the tank partially back up and dump again. After the water runs clear, close the valve and put some water in via the flush, I usually let the water run for 1 minute after closing. That should do it. Every other flush I use a wand down the toilet to help clear any solids left.

Important thing about using the flush and why they say to leave the valve open, is if you get busy doing something else UH OH! I came close one time so stay at the tank while doing so if you have valve closed!

Note: This is MY preferred method

kimn610,
In no way should you close the black valve while you have the sani-flush running. You should open the black valve and let it empty and then turn the water on to flush.

Ken

kimn610,

I agree with and do it the same as Pulltab. The reason is that I want to get some water in that tank to provide some volume and head pressure to move stuff out and through the pipes and hose.

It's my guess that for liability reasons, the manual states to never run the San-T-Flush with the gate valve closed.

As a beginner, always best to follow the manual to the letter. Then fine-tune your own methods as you get better at it all.

Congrats on your first camping and have fun!

Jim

I fully agree with Ken Washington. I open the black tank valve and empty the tank, then turn on the flush. I run the flush until it runs clear, which may take up to 10 minutes. Then close the valve and fill the tank for about 2 minutes, open the valve to check that it is still clear, turn off the water, close the valve and it good to go until the next dump. This has worked well for me for ten years with no problems.

John

Thank You All

Thank you for your responses.

We flushed out all our holding tanks and all went well.

We appreciate your help.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

What ever you do..... DO NOT OPEN THE VALVE.... Before you have attached to a sewer or a dump station... all hoses in Place... No Better way to "Make Your Day" than to find the valve was open... before you Un-Capped to connect the sewer hose... Oh Yuck...

SmokeyBare said:

What ever you do..... DO NOT OPEN THE VALVE.... Before you have attached to a sewer or a dump station... all hoses in Place... No Better way to "Make Your Day" than to find the valve was open... before you Un-Capped to connect the sewer hose... Oh Yuck...

Click to expand...

That's why I got the Valterra Twist On valve. It attaches at the end of the pipe. After you get everything hooked up, pull the valve. Anything that was left in the pipe will go safely down the hose.
As far as black tank dumping and the San-T-Flush, I just finished dumping my tank a few minutes ago. Here's the procedure I use.
1. Close gray tank valves.
2. Attach black hose and start water running through San-T-Flush.
3. Open black tank valve.
4. When water is 'relatively' clear (as seen through clear elbow), close black tank valve.
5. Let San-T-Flush run for 10 minutes, then open valve again. Your time may vary based on tank size. Best to experiment with one person monitoring toilet inside to get the best time.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 once more.
7. Close black tank valve, turn off and disconnect San-T-Flush, reopen gray tank valves.

We've been fulltiming in our rig since April 06 and the monitor still shows the black as empty after we dump and flush. Wish we could say the same about the gray tanks.

Good point about closing the grey tank valves. I always do that but forgot to mention it. Last thing you want is sewage backing up into the grey under pressure to get out.

After dumping our tanks, all our tanks registered empty on the monitor, we filled the grey #1 with 15 gal of water and no other tanks were filled. We checked the monitor and the grey # 1 showed 1/3 full, but so did the fresh water tank show 1/3 full. We are connected to city water, is this a normal reading?