Brad Ideas - Use grey water to flush RV toilets - Comments

It starts to stink quite rapidly

brad — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:17:23 -0800

But it’s minor and you leave the vent open in the bathroom. It also depends on how well your toilet seals. If you go driving and slosh it around, it’s worse.

Sorry for the typo, I meant

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:53:51 -0800

Sorry for the typo, I meant FLU and not fly.

How long

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:52:54 -0800

How long can a holding tank for black water go without a trip to the dump station before it starts to stink?

Bigger tanks

brad — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:17:48 -0800

Bigger tanks are of course possible, but they take precious physical space, and when full they are quite heavy. They must be in the bottom — the black water tank is almost always located directly under the toilet and the gray typically under the shower. 80 gallons of water weighs 640lbs, which is not trivial.

And yes, you want to empty the tanks sooner rather than later because they stink, especially the black one. No matter how many chemicals.

I’m surprised I don’t see more dry composting toilets running on propane or something which would change things a bit.

Extracting water from the air

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:12:24 -0800

Dehumidifiers will only work well on ambient that is very humid and will not do well in dried places. Besides being expensive to work them there is also the question that viruses, principally fly, spread really well on dried and warm environments.

Would that be possible to

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:08:04 -0800

Would that be possible to have a larger holding tank for black water on most motor homes, as they usually come already installed; pretty much as about 40 gallons of Black and around 60 of gray on large RVs, without major modifications on the system?
And to possibly have a second gray water holding tank connected to the dump system. like lets say 15 gallons extra holding tank, so one could set up a drain near the sink and dispose of gray water with lots of oil, grease, leftovers, rest of soda, milk, coffee and the like?
If one is using gray water for flushing then the amount of water in the first gray tank would supposedly be decreased and if water from it after passing through filtration is almost as good as clean then one could just water the lawn around the RV when the gray tank gets full?

I am not so sure how long a black holding tank can keep waste in without taking a trip to the dumping station as I just went RVing very few times on weekends. Could someone shed some light on this for me?

Extracting water from the air

brad — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:16:25 -0800

While there are some systems for this, primarily fog and dew harvesting, dehumidifiers (which are essentially refrigerators) take a lot of power, so they are not really that practical as a water source unless you have tons of power around, or a very humid climate.

recycle

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:43:10 -0800

Listen to my idea,
I believe allmost all the water from your RV can be recycled/treated and reused possibly in any way you choose.
Here is my idea.
Why can't we find a way of useing a dehumidifier to draw the evaporated moister out of our systems and use and reuse it?
I now use a dehumidifier in my bedroom every day and it upsets me when I dump a gallon of water away every day,just seems like a way can be improvised to draw the humidity back out of all water based things we use to make it possible to be used over again,isen't that what they do on the space station and shuttle?
Make a dehumidifier that is small enough to run off a solar panel by day and batteries or land line at night.
Gotta be a way.
And why can't a gutter of some sort be put on Rv's to catch rain water with a tank to catch it and filter the rain water and pump it back into the fresh water insted of letting it all run on the ground?
Thanks/Bill

RV grey water recycling systems

GregC — Tue, 05 May 2009 08:08:08 -0700

After using grey water recycling for many years in my RV I decided to market a series of products that focus on RV water conservation and reuse.
The first set of products are focused on grey water recycling.
--We have a book that discusses this topic and provides the in's and out's for safe RV grey water recycling.
--We also have a Dry Camp Days calculator (a sophisticated MS-Excel workbook) that allows you to enter your tank sizes and your water consumption habits then it calculates your without recycling and with recycling benefits. It includes a consumption analyzer engine that will provide customized recommendations on how to extend your Dry Camp Days.
--Also available is a set of parts kits that include everything you need for grey water recycling including a custom manufactured bulkhead blind tank fitting. This allows you to easily and quickly tap into your grey tank from the outside only. It creates a extremely secure and water tight connection with just a 1" drilled out hole.

Go to www.usi-rv.com to learn more. If you would like to discuss further, go to the contact-us page on the web site and leave your questions and I will get back to you ASAP. Or you can email me at info@usi-rv.com

You really can extend your Dry Camp Days by 75-90% with grey water recycling.

Safety of gray water system - Cross Contamination?

ADK Bob — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 06:17:04 -0800

I'm concerned about Cross contaminations, to prevent any contamination from gray water back into fresh water system.

I am interested in learning more about gray water systems for use near waterfront cabins, and in RV's. I've seen other precautions such as in commercial kitchen drains where there is a in the pipe with a funnel like fitting below to drain sink without bacteria being able to follow back up drain into sink, and new anti-siphon valves on water campground/public water systems to protect the siphoning back into the water system from a possible hose sitting in a contaminated puddle etc. from being sucked back into the water distribution system to cause someone else to be sick.

So I too will be interested in hearing more. And yes I know that some safety features just protect us from ourselves, when most people can follow safety precautions.

I am looking to learn safe gray water disposal/recycling systems, to reduce septic system use. I've heard that under use of septic system can cause issues. (I still have a lot to learn).

Gray water and RVs

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 20:03:13 -0800

I have been reading about graywater recycling systems for homes, and am thinking about a scaled down version for an RV, as a way to safely dispose of graywater without a dump. I find I'm often in a position to get water but dump stations are much more rare. Some ideas:

> Wash the RV with the graywater (using biodegradable soap would be a nice idea on this one)
> Filter the graywater with a sediment filter to catch hair, food particles, etc. then use a mini soil leachfield (perhaps a large potted plant or two) to filter the water then pass it out the bottom on to the ground or storm drain, or use it to water any nearby plant life)
> Boil it, distill it, treat it--then you can reuse it over and over for washing (the RV), flushing, etc. whatever you feel comfortable with. But you'd need a 4th tank for "white" water... treated gray water to be used for certain things.

I'm wondering how I can test white water to see if it's clean enough to legally use in a way that discharges it on the ground, i.e. washing a vehicle, watering plants, etc.

ideas and thoughts on any of this?

- B

Great idea!

Paul — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:54:33 -0800

We're planning on buying a small RV soon and I didn't realize until reading your blog post that RV's don't use the grey water for flushing.

It makes so much more sense. When we finally get our RV I'll be making this modification.

Thanks for the inspiration.

grey water

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 15:53:00 -0800

Will be setting up a camp at the lake and will not have water or sewer. The chem toilet or portapottie will work and have to be dumped or a portajohn service used. The problem will be showers and the grey water and what we can do there. Any suggestions? The lake assoc. and town are very strict. Please email with your ideas. WE are used to camping with an RV and Sewer system.

I was just wondering about

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:48:23 -0700

I was just wondering about this today which was what led me to this page. In many areas, Car Wash's and Laundromats are required to recycle their water, so I would imagine that some system could be devised on a smaller scale that could be installed in a motorhome or trailer. The task of flushing and refilling your water tanks is a real pain and the ability to recycle your gray water would extend the maintenance interval on your tanks considerably as many water uses could be done from your gray tank rather than your fresh tank. I wouldn't drink or cook with water from the gray tank, of course, but for toilet and wash down purposes it would save a lot of water and maintenance over time.

water recycling

fiona — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:54:12 -0700

has anyone heard of a commercial system that will recycle/filter the grey water for you? do any r.v.s come with this technology? thanks!

Use grey water to flush RV toilets

brad — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 15:47:06 -0700

Ok, this idea will make no sense to those who have not gone RV camping. RVs have 3 water tanks — one for fresh water, one for the toilet sewage (known as “black water”) and one for the other drains (shower, sinks) known as “grey water.” When you camp in unserviced campsites for a while you become very aware of the capacities of your tanks.

However, the RV uses the fresh water tank to “flush” the toilet. It seems to me that with a small extra water pump, one could use the grey water, or a mixture — grey with a final spurt of fresh to rinse the bowl.

RVs don’t really flush the toilet, that would use way too much water. You rinse the bowl after #1 and you pre-fill the bowl before #2 and rinse later.