Waste water tanks (black and gray) replacement with single tank?

[thisoldhippy]

Was wondering if I can replace the grey water and black water tanks with one large combined tank? I can't see what it would hurt just wondering?

Mark did I do this one right? 

[salplmb]

not sure how your unit is plumbed but u should b able to do it. both drains would have to b plumbed to the new tank location. not sure why u would want to do this tho. its to your advantage to keep the tanks separated. if u have two dump valves like mine u could combine both to one outlet for ease of use but it might b hard to convert to a double valve.
hope this helps a little.
sal

[thisoldhippy]

My reasoning is first the tank has a huge break in it. The other reason is that we do not use the toilet much and there never seems to be enough liquid in the black tank for it to drain very well. Thank you for your info!

[DaveVA78Chieftain]

I have a small grey (26 gal) with a large black (58 gal).  Each tank has it's own slide valve and the pipes join into one single sewer outlet (drain black then flush with grey).  Because the grey always filled up first I added a "Grey Water Holding Tank Maximizer" to my system (http://www.camco.net/#app=16a6&a231-selectedIndex=26&d76e-selectedIndex=0).  Allows me to transfer grey to black so I do not have to dump as often.

Dave

[DaveVA78Chieftain]

You can plastic weld the break using an 80 watt soldering iron and polyethelene tubing (icemaker water supply tubing)

Dave 

[thisoldhippy]

The break is pretty severe and the wall of the tank is caved in. I just thought that I could just buy 1 60 gl tank and go that route. Would kill 2 birds with one stone More liquid in the tank and the break is fixed. I am going to redo the bathroom anyway. So plumbing is no problem! Worked for Monaco for 10 years so kind of know my way around this thing.

[tiinytina]

partial to keeping them separate myself... we always put 3-4gal fresh water down the loo when we flush out the tanks.... 

Tina

[ClydesdaleKevin]

There is one HUGE reason to keep your tanks separate.  While it is illegal to dump either of your tanks to ground while boondocking, it is just plain unethical to dump your black tank to ground.

Dumping your grey water to ground is the equivalent, in my opinion, of washing your car in the driveway, your dog in the yard, powerwashing your house, etc.  Especially if you are like us, and use phosphate free detergents that won't hurt fish and other critters.

Dumping black water to ground, even heavily diluted in grey water, is bad juju, unethical, and shouldn't even be considered.  I feel horrible if I do it by accident, which can happen when things like sewer hoses let go, etc.

If you never plan on boondocking, ever, then it doesn't matter.  But if you ever plan to boondock for more than a couple of days, it does matter.  We can typically, really conserving water when flushing the toilet, go for 2 weeks before having to go dump our black tank.  Even highly conserving water with the grey tank, we still have to dump it out at least once a week, and twice a week in more typical...my wife and I both like to be clean and showered.  Even in Hot Wells Dunes this past winter, where we stayed for a couple weeks, we still had to dump some of the the grey right towards the end of our stay there.  And we were soaking in the natural hot springs every day, so we didn't have to use our shower (they have a bathing area coming off the hot springs).

Just my opinion, but if you ever plan on boondocking, keep your tanks separate.

And Dave...that Maximizer thingy is awesome!  I wonder if it would work the way our plumbing is configured?  I'll definitely have to look into that!

Kev

[thisoldhippy]

Thanks for the input everyone.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Just reread this, and its funny that the way I re-valved my tanks to make both tanks Grey when we installed the composting toilet is very similar to Dave's Maximizer!

Kev

[DaveVA78Chieftain]

I have to replace my maximizer as it apparently got knocked off when I had a tire blow last year.  It does make life easier though.

Dave