rv potties 101

[delbertinie]

As most of you know I'm new to rviing and skoolies.
So its back to skool for me.
Yes this may be the most ignorant question to ask but here it goes
a guy has to learn to crawl before he can walk


why are the toilets in a rv different than in a home. In the really big three figure rvs a real toilet can be found, so why can't we.
My wife hates rv toilets so it is important for me to either

a. put real toilet in

or

b. find an explaination she can live with
and learn like
of why its not possible.

dale

[delbertinie]

oh I also wanted to know on black water tanks does anybody add a fresh water line to clean out the tank after the dump then dump again to make sure solid waste is not hanging around? i would think that this would solve 2 problems 1 an extra clean tank. and when you are leaving camp less water weight to carry home.

also i was toying with the idea of add a sennding unit out of a fuel tank and adding guages to know when my tanks are getting full, and or my fresh watter is low.
good idea bad?
dale

[the_experience03]

I think RV toilets tend to be different to save on water consumption and holding tank size. I'm also not sure how well water sloshing around in the tank would be in a real toilet going down the road. I'm sure you'll come up with a creative solution to all those problems.

For cleaning it out they do make a jet nozzle similar to a sewer snake. If you are planning on putting a permanent fitting they make those too.

http://www.campingworld.com/browse/prod ... rodID=4969



And as for the sending unit and gauge idea...well....



Those already exist as well!

[delbertinie]

I guess my ideas for a waste guage, and tank spray out were not so out there after all.
thanks again.

My biggest fear is not the tank water sloshing thought I could baffle the tank and make a rubber seal for the lid.
but water sloshing out of the bowl and onto the floor. yuck
dale

[delbertinie]

do ya just put a whole in the black water tank and let the toilet drain straight into the tank or is there some oneway valve I need to install?
also does the poo just gravity drain out or is anything special I need to know about dumping.

PLumbing the toilet is one area where its not a good idea to experiment, at least in my books.
Can't afford to make any mistakes there.

I want the system to operate correctly the first time, every time, and not make the bus smell like an out house
dale

[KC10Chief]

I don't know how much water my toilet at home uses every time I flush, But I'm guessing it's about 5 gallons. An RV toilet is a lot more efficient water wise. Also, I would definitely have the toilet mounted directly over the black water tank and have the drain be a straight shot directly into the tank. If you're going to have a plumbing problem, let it be somewhere else. Also, if you want to flush your tank, just run a hose into the toilet. That's how I had to do it in my old RV. But I suppose that if you were to do some pre-planning, you could make a fresh water inlet to the black water tank for flushing. But they do make special fittings you can hook up to your black water drain to flush the tank with. That would probably be easiest.
Matt

[delbertinie]

well what about those hi efficiancy toilets that use 1.5 gallons
i heard they are mandaated in californa just hear say though

[GoneCamping]

RV Toilets are different for a variety of reasons, and the China Bowls you see in the big dollar rigs are still RV toilets, but they are made of nicer stuff.

Water volumn is the one of the keys as mentioned above, you have a limited amount of waste tank capacity, and as such you don't want the black tank topping out after a few days at the campground. As they are right now, very little watere goes down the drain, the toilet bowl itself only holds a couple quarts of water. Typically you won't fill the bowl when flushing anyway, you just use a cup or two at the most... At that rate it'll take quite a bit of use to fill a 30 gallon tank! That is good, because you certainly don't want to have to break down and take the bus to the dump station every other day to empty the tanks.

Now, they do indeed dump directly into the black tank, but the toilet itself has a gate valve at the bottom of the bowl, this is to keep water & waste in the bowl until ready to flush, as well as to keep the oders from wafting upwards into the living area of your bus.

Additiionally, the gated toilet (as compared with a house type with a bottom trap) again prevents oders from wafting up into the cabin while in transit. If you put in a regular house toilet with a trap, and that water sloshes around enough...you're going to have a big mess on your hands (actually on your floor) when you finally get to where you are going. Now if you flush and empty the tank first, then the trap will slosh around until it is empty, then the oders will not just waft back at you, but because you are going down the road at hiway speed, and there is a vent stack from the tank to the roof, the forced air going down that vent stack is now free to fill the interior of your bus with some very unpleasant oders...BIG TIME!

We can also add that a regular house type toilet will not meet DOT spec's either, but there is an abundance of bus converters out there that tend to ignore DOT specs...

[delbertinie]

alright hwere do I find the dot specs of what should and should not be used in a rv for plumbing electrical ect.
I;m in missouri if that helps

[wmah]

I find that the rv toilet isn't that much worse than a house toilet. A good reason not to use a house toilet is in the winter if you are in a area where the temps go below freezing that house toilet would be more likely to freeze and break because of design and using rv antifreeze you will need a lot to prevent freezing The key with them is about extra space around them from side to side and in front of the seat. The way the factory rv builders design them I wonder why anyone ever buys them, maybe the toilet isn't important to those people. Before I dismantle my trailer when I used it the first thing I did was remove the sink to give me more room in there. I tried to give mine as much room around the tree sides for better comfort when using it. You can build a riser platform under if needed to elevate it a little to make it feel more like a house toilet but I didn't do that even though I thought about it. Another thing I did was I put accessible grab bars in by the toilet so it is easier for my friend to use when she uses the toilet but I noticed that even I use them to get up and I will say it does make it easier. I don't know exactly how big my tanks are but the black tank is in the center between the frame rails and I have a three inch pipe that goes to the driver side under the bus body to the tree inch waste gate which probably holds at least 5 or 6 gallons maybe more on top of the tank capacity which I think was a five gallon tank. A bigger tank would be better but finding one that would fit where I wanted it to and the deepness I wanted to make the waste drain better was my problem. Two of using the toilet don't fill that in a week. As for grey water The three inch pipe isn't as long and I will drain it on to the grass or what ever if needed since it is only water from the sink and shower and even then I never fill the tank completely anyways, I explain.

My venting does not go up to the roof. My black water tank vent goes up inside the back halfway up and then turns 90 degrees to the driver side out to a vent hole which is a plastic air duct end which was about the right size for my use. I did put a bug screen between it and the pipe it is attached to using a rubber connecter. My grey water isn't vented at all other then the fact that my shower pan just goes through a hole that is just a little bit bigger than the drain that goes into it and I haven't had a problem with sewer gases coming up and campsites as when I hook up to a sewer system I make a trap effect with the drain hose. And I don't dump the black until I leave after I get it full with enough water to bring everything out but I can see doing it the other way but I figure with my small tank before leaving works better. Someone here did use I think black pvc pipe for the grey and black tank under the bus. I would have done this but with the size of my bus it wouldn't have been real good.

Also you need to have the right sewer connections and a donut gasket and a lot of campgrounds. They could kick you out for not having the right hookups or just not allow you to use them. As for storing my hose I have a 6 inch wide pvc pipe under the bus with a screw on end cap to hold it in. By having a 6 inch I can leave the connectors on the hose.

I will also add that a rv shower head is kinda like a water saver in a house but can restrict the water flow better and they well at least the one I have has a shut off valve on the head to turn the water off or to just make the water come out slow enough to make that quicky shower last longer with the limited hot water supply from a small 5 gallon water heater.

[delbertinie]

so when I buy a toilet it should a tall model?
and about the shower I saw alittle water heater that is connected to the shower head any good?
got to keep my post short tonight don't want to aner the wife she says I am on here to much anyways.

dale

[lornaschinske]

Old thread but I didn't want to start a new one just for this tidbit...

We have been accustomed to using a plastic bowl RV toilet for many years. I had always heard the china bowls were easier to clean. But soooo pricey. Since we had the opportunity to strip out my Mom's RV and keep the vintage porcelain toilet (Mansfield 910), it ended up in the bus. All parts are still available (under Sealand 910 or Traveler 910). We have been in the bus for a month now. The china toilet does stay much cleaner. I have yet to clean it and it does get used. I cleaned the plastic bowl in the Class C weekly (or more often). For someone who dislikes housework as much as I do, this is great. Also it is "more like" a home toilet as it has a wood seat on it that does not flex under weight when you sit down. Would I buy a new china one? Probably not as they seem to be very pricey and we don't have that kind of $$ to spend on a pooper. Would I try to get a used china bowl toilet? You betcha!

[lornaschinske]

My old 910 is about 16" high (same height as the toilet in our last house). Works okay since we are on the short side. I always kinda dismissed the "china is easier to keep clean" thing as a pile of... well, you know. I was terribly surprised. I would not use an homestyle since none that I have found uses as little water to flush as an RV toilet.

[Locutus]

On the OP's question about cleaning out the black water tank, here's a few tips:

1. Dump black tank only. Close valve, remove hose and replace cap. Then pour a bag or two of party ice down the toilet drain and add some water to make an icy slurry. Drive the RV or bus a few miles to slosh it around. this will help separate any solids that are clinging to the inside of the tank. Return to the dump site.

2. Dump the black tank again. Leave the valve open and then open the grey tank valve to just long enough to back flush some grey water into the black tank, being careful to close the grey tank valve in time to prevent any black water from coming back to the grey tank. This will allow you to rinse and drain the black tank a third time. When the black tank is empty, close the black valve.

3. Dump the remainder of the grey tank. This will flush remaining black water from the drain hoses.

[Locutus]

Here's another tip:

In cold weather you can reduce the freezing point of the fluids in the grey and black tanks by adding about a cup of rock salt to each. Much cheaper than RV antifreeze and takes up less volume in the tank. I've heard this will reduce the freezing point down to about 20 degrees F.

[lornaschinske]

I have almost a full 40LB bag of solar salt (looks like rock salt). We used it in the black tank. Two cups salt in a 25gal black tank. Thawing out a frozen black tank is... time consuming. Hopefully we can use it in the water softener we plan on buying (it uses 2 LBS of table salt)