Grey Water in the shower

[Garyjgriff1]

Has anyone ever had the grey water back up into the shower through the drain? We had it checked out but the dealer said they could not find a problem. They blamed it on the grey tank being too full. The level gauge indicated 2/3 full. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Gary

P.S.: A little clarification of my post here. I have a new 2015 model with 36 gal tanks. We dry camp so I cannot allow the grey tank to drain. The fresh water tank level indicated 2/3 full, the black tank 1/3 full and the grey tank 2/3 full. I do believe the tank levels do not read correctly, however the grey tank could not have been full. This happens every time we went out(all 3 times). We also make sure the grey and black tanks are empty when we go out.

Thanks for the comments so far. Any others are welcome.

 

[TxCowboy]

The tank level monitors are inaccurate, some horribly so. Do NOT rely on them to be accurate.

Dump your grey tanks more frequently than your black tank. When it' time to dump your black tank, save some grey water to flush the septic hose after your dump the black tank.

 

[danemayer]

Hi Garyjgriff1,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum.

Yes, standing water in the shower is a pretty good indication that the tank is full. The shower does a pretty good job of filling the tank faster than you might imagine. On a Wilderness where the gray capacity is 76 gallons, that's probably split across 2 tanks; one for the galley and one for the bathroom. So that would give you 38 gallons for the shower (and sink). If your water pump delivers 3 gallons / minute, that's going to be around 12 minutes of shower time.

The gauges can be pretty inaccurate. For one thing, if the trailer is a bit off-level, the water will be higher on one side, causing an inaccurate reading. And as you use the trailer, gunk accumulates on the sensors, leading to even less accurate readings.

 

[jbeletti]

Gary,

I've had it happen when my Gray tank was full. Often, you will smell it before you see it. Gray water smell can be fairly bad.

Leaving your gray tanks closed while camping is a great practice but you need to be very vigilant. Over time, you'll know how long you can go based on experience. That said - many of us leave our gray tanks open while camping except for the day before we plan to dump our tanks. Pluses and minuses for both methods.

 

[cookie]

As mentioned, the OEM gauges are seldom accurate.
The gauge that we use is when the water is up to our ankles in the shower it's time to dump.
Sounds like your shower gauge is working properly.

Peace
Dave

 

[Oregon_Camper]

Depending on just how far away your boondocking takes you, there is an option. We use this device, attached to a long garden hose (used ONLY for this...never to fill RV with water) and drag it off to a location that needs water. I then allow the grey water to water the area. Some will say this isn't right, but I've seen countless tent campers with portable shower draining everywhere and same tent campers dumping their dish water out after they are done. So what is the difference?

Note..i don't EVER do this is water if close by (river...lake..stream...etc).

 

[travelin2]

Depending on just how far away your boondocking takes you, there is an option. We use this device, attached to a long garden hose (used ONLY for this...never to fill RV with water) and drag it off to a location that needs water. I then allow the grey water to water the area. Some will say this isn't right, but I've seen countless tent campers with portable shower draining everywhere and same tent campers dumping their dish water out after they are done. So what is the difference?

Note..i don't EVER do this is water if close by (river...lake..stream...etc).

View attachment 39878

Back in the day, my father in law had a bucket under the dump valve of his MH. Funny how it never got full all weekend long !!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jmgratz]

Be careful about dumping your gray or black water on the ground. Most parks, including State and Federal Parks, forbid it with big fines attached if caught. Most public campgrounds forbid it. Why, because it is contaminated with food debris and soap. Most soaps we use are not biodegradable and food debris can and do attract wild animals including, possums, skunks, squirrels, and even bears not to mention ants and cockroaches and mice and well you get the picture.

 

[wdk450]

You might think about taking water saving, Navy-type showers. This is easy to do with the shutoff valve on the hand shower wands. This will result in less draining of the fresh water tank, and less filling of the shower gray water tank.

 

[Garyjgriff1]

****

P.S.: A little clarification of my post here. I have a new 2015 model with 36 gal tanks. We dry camp so I cannot allow the grey tank to drain. The fresh water tank level indicated 2/3 full, the black tank 1/3 full and the grey tank 2/3 full. I do believe the tank levels do not read correctly, however the grey tank could not have been full. This happens every time we went out(all 3 times). We also make sure the grey and black tanks are empty when we go out.

Thanks for the comments so far. Any others are welcome.
​

 

[Oregon_Camper]

Be careful about dumping your gray or black water on the ground. Most parks, including State and Federal Parks, forbid it with big fines attached if caught. Most public campgrounds forbid it.

Yep...understand the rules for campgrounds. Fortunately, in Oregon we have some of the best BLM camping I've seen. The picture below is a site we normally camp in every summer (sometimes twice a summer). As you can see this a LARGE open area. Nothing around...not even other campers. This year the closest person to us was about 4 miles away. Oh...and it is free to camp here. This is how we camp all summer....very remote locations. On the far left of this picture is a great hill that I normally set up my steel targets and then shoot my 40 and 9mm.

 

[Garyjgriff1]

Thanks for the info. If I am ever in Oregon I will remember that.

Gary

 

[olcoon]

When I was in Navy boot camp, they told us that a "proper Navy shower" would use about 1 gallon of water. In case you don't know how to take one, turn the shower on, get wet, turn the water off. Soap up (wash) your body, then turn the water back on, & rinse, turn the water off. Had to do that plenty of times on the ship, and do it when needed in the camper.

 

[whp4262]

When I was in Navy boot camp, they told us that a "proper Navy shower" would use about 1 gallon of water. In case you don't know how to take one, turn the shower on, get wet, turn the water off. Soap up (wash) your body, then turn the water back on, & rinse, turn the water off. Had to do that plenty of times on the ship, and do it when needed in the camper.

Really! You Navy guys had a shower? In the Army all we had was the outer shell of our brain bucket to shower and shave. Some branches just had it easy I guess.


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[olcoon]

Yep, we had it made, 3 hots & a cot! Never more than a mile from land...but it was straight down!!! But we didn't have the Country Club like those Air Force guys! To them roughing it was not having steak in the galley!!!

 

[JohnD]

As others have said, the tank level gauges are not very accurate, so you just have to learn how your gauges read for your trailer.

So now you know that when the gauges are nearing 2/3 . . . that really means your tanks are full!

You may want to get one of those portable tanks on wheels so you can drain the trailer tanks and tote it to the dump station.

Also, when boon docking you've got to use the water sparingly . . . as you've already found out.

And that is everything . . . from getting a drink, washing hands, doing dishes, showers, flushing the toilet . . . every time you run the water you've got to only use it for what you need and don't let it just run!

We don't do much off the grid camping anymore, but when we do (usually up Poudre Canyon), we do all of our dishes outside . . . even use our old camp stove to heat up the dish water!

And I have two large water tanks on wheels that I fill up before we leave home to use for dish water so we don't have to draw that from the trailer tanks.

By the way, you should join the Heartland Owners Club (free for the first year) . . . we have a rally coming up in two weeks in Central City that you might want to check out!

 

[Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn]

We are all assuming this only happens when you are 2/3 full or more !!! Do you have any problems when it's empty or less then 2/3's ?

 

[JohnDar]

You may want to check your shower head. I'm not sure if the newer OEM ones are the water saver types, or not. If not, invest in one. Some like the Oxygenics models, but there are other brands available.

 

[murry135]

Another way to check your volume would be to buy a garden hose water meter and intentionally fill GREY tanks and monitor volume. If less than 36 gal goes in, then there is a problem. You may not be dumping you tanks out completely also resulting in a quicker than normal refill. Grease and grime build up around and blocking drain opening can cause this.

 

[dbbls59]

The only way water will back up in the shower is if the holding tank is full.