Grey water doesn't drain

sherryshi · 08-16-2017, 11:56 AM

Hi my name is Sherry! Nice to "meet" everyone here. We have a 2720SD TM 2013 model. We are camping out at crested butte right now. It is our first use of the trailer this year. The campsite is electric only site so we filled water in the fresh water tank, now the indicator shows the grey water tank is 2/3 full and we want to dump the grey water, but when opening the grey water valve, there is no waste water coming out, in fact you can see dust on the surface inside of the pipe, which means waste water has not come down to the valve at all. We tried also turning off the water pump and dump taking suggestions from our neighbor, still can't dump. Has any had this problem before. Any help or tips are greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
Sherry

Larryjb · 08-16-2017, 01:04 PM

Did you open the toilet drain valve instead? I can't imagine how the gray water drain could be plugged unless the previous owner rinsed a lot of thing like coffee grounds down.

**Bill** · 08-16-2017, 01:11 PM

Has it ever worked properly?

Larry's point is a good one. Are you sure you are pulling the right valve handle?

Assuming you are pulling the right handle, are you sure that the valve is actually opening? If the tee-handle came loose from the slider inside the valve body, the handle will pull, but the valve won't open. This is my best guess as to the cause. You should be able to tell by removing the cap from the end of the pipe, opening the gray valve, and then pushing a wire coat hanger (or something similar) up into the outlet, making sure that it bends toward the gray tank, not the toilet. If it hits something at about the location of the valve body, you know the valve isn't opening. Replacing the valve isn't hard or expensive, but it will be interesting with 20 gallons of gray water behind it.

Other than the disconnected handle, I have heard of this behavior only once. The story was that when the tank is initially mounted on the trailer, the installer cuts a round hole in the side of the tank to attach the pipe. The cutting tool removes a round plastic disk that is supposed to drop out of the tank when the tool is removed. If the disk does not drop out, it can lodge in the pipe and block the flow. However, I would expect it to at least seep past the blockage, and you not seeing this. If this is the case (and I am doubtful), you could push a sewer snake up into the pipe and dislodge it.

Let us know what you find.

Bill

sherryshi · 08-16-2017, 05:41 PM

Bill, thanks much for taking the time to answer my question in detail. Yes we had used this trailer once last year and both black and grey water pipes drained just fine. This is our first time use of the trailer this year. We opened the smaller pipe which is the grey water pipe according to the menu. now I wanted to make sure we did open the valve itself if there are more steps other than just pulling out the handle, here is what we did, 1. removed the cover of the smaller pipe, 2.pulled the handle out to open the valve (a white round piece of plastic or metal that supposedly to hold waste water, is this the valve or is there other place to open valve?)

Thanks much!
Sherry

sherryshi · 08-17-2017, 12:13 PM

Bill and Larry, we got back to the campsite too late last night, so we checked this morning following your comments to make sure we were dumping the right pipe, sure enough you guys are right, we opened the wrong pipe. We're so embarrassed to making this kind of stupid mistake

thank you so much!

Sherry

**Bill** · 08-17-2017, 01:58 PM

No problem, Sherry -

This is the kind of mistake we all make (I'd hate for you to see my list, which includes nearly allowing my TM to rampage, wild and unhitched, through a hillside campground).

By the way, it sounds like you have separate outlets (hose connectors) for the black and gray water. That is an unusual setup - only a few were made that way. No one seems to know why ...

Thanks for getting back to us.

Bill

sherryshi · 08-17-2017, 03:26 PM

Bill - yes our TM has separated the black and grey water connections. I'm not sure if it is previous owners customization or manufacturers initial setup.

Thanks again!
Sherry

**Kidkraz** · 08-17-2017, 05:07 PM

Sherry, I have a 2013 model 2619 and I had two separate drains. those were standard for the year, not a mod.

**Kwantau** · 08-17-2017, 07:10 PM

I have a 2011/2720 TM and it has two outlets. I was told at the time that is was due to new regulations. I'm not sure though what they are.

HoMiPa · 08-17-2017, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kwantau

I have a 2011/2720 TM and it has two outlets. I was told at the time that is was due to new regulations. I'm not sure though what they are.

I would imagine it is so no one accidentally dumps the black water just any old place, since many are dumping gray water in their gardens, etc. Although, I think you could just as easily dump it no matter how many drains there are....