Grey Tank indicator misread

Hello everyone!

I most recently purchased and moved into my very first RV which is an Elkridge 38 FLIK 2020 on 3/19. I have 2 grey tanks and they seem to be filling up too fast. The grey tank that is connected to the kitchen sink fills up extremely fast every two days the sink water doesn't drain. In addition the grey #1 indicator on my control panel is reading that my grey #1 is full. every time I open my grey tanks I let them completely run dry before I close the valves again. Any ideas?

Hi Kaisers_Island,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum.

We have a great group of friendly and helpful people here, so I expect you'll hear some ideas from them shortly.

When I arrived at a new camp sight I would keep the gray water valve open until day before leaving. The water accumulated would help flush the lines after emptying the black tank.

Obviously you're using too much water.

Don't allow water to run continuous, rather just wet what you need and then turn it off. Welcome to Heartland and RV life.

First off, Welcome to the Heartland family!!!

I agree w/ Fox above, somehow it seems your using way too much water. Tanks should have at least 40 gal capacity and last you prit near a week before having to dump them. My sister was same way when she/hubby got their RV (never had one before) and she use to let water run a LOT. Just like Fox said, everything is kinda like the Sailor method in RVing, quick and use as little as possible. ONLY exception being is for toilet, but that isn't your question.

Do you have a clear adapter at sewer hose connection so you can see contents draining? How long does it take to drain the tank in question? If only just a couple minutes, then tank isn't full and gauge reading isn't right (not unusual). If draining takes several minutes, then gauge is right and too much water is being used for this tank. FWIW, we can go almost a week to darn near a whole week before having to dump tanks w/ 3 people. Granted, they were FULL to point of toilet was almost burping. I really wanted to see just how far we could go (1 black, 2 greys.....all 3 are 40 gal). Even on w/e trips we don't use a lot of water in sinks, but still a decent amount. Again, black tank is exception. So let us know how you are using the water for grey tank in question.

You should have two 45 gallon gray tanks. Are both filling up too quickly (apart from what the tank level indicator shows)?

If only one tank is filling too fast, you may need to do some investigation into which drain goes to which tank. One way to do this is to empty both tanks. Then close one of them. Then with a clear adapter on the sewer outlet so you can see what's coming out, open each faucet, one at a time to see which faucet drains through the open tank.

The reason for this experimentation is to understand how your trailer is plumbed. If for some reason, the shower drain and kitchen drain both empty into the same tank, it's going to fill pretty quickly. Usually, the kitchen and shower go to different tanks.

donr827 said:

When I arrived at a new camp sight I would keep the gray water valve open until day before leaving. The water accumulated would help flush the lines after emptying the black tank.

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While this seems like a good idea, it is not the best. I know a lot of people do this. What you are doing is venting the entire sewer system of the park through your vent pipe which could cause some odor issues.

Gary521 said:

While this seems like a good idea, it is not the best. I know a lot of people do this. What you are doing is venting the entire sewer system of the park through your vent pipe which could cause some odor issues.

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You are correct about venting the entire sewer system, but this can be avoided by forming a P-trap in your waste hose. Just a 4 inch dip in the hose will do it.

Peace
Dave

Gary521 said:

While this seems like a good idea, it is not the best. I know a lot of people do this. What you are doing is venting the entire sewer system of the park through your vent pipe which could cause some odor issues.

Click to expand...

For those who like to leave their gray tanks open most of the week, it's a good idea to arrange the sewer hose with a bend to act as a p-trap.

On edit - Dave, you beat me to it.

Gary521 said:

While this seems like a good idea, it is not the best. I know a lot of people do this. What you are doing is venting the entire sewer system of the park through your vent pipe which could cause some odor issues.

Click to expand...

I stumbled when I read Donr827's post also. I reread it 3 times and am certain he meant to say "closed", not "open". Give it a couple more reads...

Yes, I did have the hose form a trap. Should have mentioned that.

donr827 said:

Yes, I did have the hose form a trap. Should have mentioned that.

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Aha....then you did keep it open, but saved up just the last day's worth of gray water for black tank flushing. My bad for misunderstanding the context of your post.

Leave it open UNTIL A DAY BEFORE you leave. That translates to close it the day before leaving to allow some water buildup to help flush the hose after the black tank is dumped.

The 'P-trap' in the sewer drain hose is not a fool proof method to keep those gasses in the sewer.

Here is a good video (must watch all 5-minutes of it - the important part is about 2/3rds in):

https://www.rvtravel.com/why-to-keep-your-rvs-gray-tank-closed-when-hooked-up/