Grey water tank overflow - whups!

[MTSuz]

Can anyone tell me if there is an overflow mechanism for the grey water tank? (I see threads about these being built into the wheel wells of older models. We have a 2019 19', without this.)

Today after emptying the black and grey tanks and filling them part way again to give them a rinse out, I decided to do it one more time, filling them close to full to get them extra special clean. I filled the grey tank with a hose at the sink, and was watching the monitor panel. When it registered as full but before I could get the hose turned off, I noticed we had grey water backing up into the shower through its drain. No biggie, I thought, until I noticed that we had water dripping out from under the trailer. I was a steady drip coming down under the step. We have spray foam insulation so I can't see where the leak originates, but it appears to be seeping through a crack in the spray foam that's in the area near the upper front corner of the grey tank on the door side. (This is right by the front brace of the step, so relatively far from the wheel well.)

I have a couple of questions. Is there an overflow mechanism or did I somehow break something? If there is an overflow tube, should I be able to see it? Should the spray foam be cleared away from it so that it has a direct exit line and isn't seeping out a crack in the foam?

Thanks all you smart people!

[cpaharley2008]

See here for possible bad news https://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f...ion-18996.html

[Want2Go]

Originally Posted by MTSuz

Can anyone tell me if there is an overflow mechanism for the grey water tank? (I see threads about these being built into the wheel wells of older models. We have a 2019 19', without this.)

Today after emptying the black and grey tanks and filling them part way again to give them a rinse out, I decided to do it one more time, filling them close to full to get them extra special clean. I filled the grey tank with a hose at the sink, and was watching the monitor panel. When it registered as full but before I could get the hose turned off, I noticed we had grey water backing up into the shower through its drain. No biggie, I thought, until I noticed that we had water dripping out from under the trailer. I was a steady drip coming down under the step. We have spray foam insulation so I can't see where the leak originates, but it appears to be seeping through a crack in the spray foam that's in the area near the upper front corner of the grey tank on the door side. (This is right by the front brace of the step, so relatively far from the wheel well.)

I have a couple of questions. Is there an overflow mechanism or did I somehow break something? If there is an overflow tube, should I be able to see it? Should the spray foam be cleared away from it so that it has a direct exit line and isn't seeping out a crack in the foam?

Thanks all you smart people!

from an unsmart person, on our aug 2020 5.0, we have had a full gray water tank once... and had a little overflow looking spill from underneath.

Nothing broken... works fine without it being full.

So going to watch this thread.

[MTSuz]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

See here for possible bad news https://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f...ion-18996.html

Good morning CPAHarley2008 -

Thank you, sort of , for directing me to this thread. It definitely sounds like the same issue that others are experiencing. For that reason I suggest ending this thread and I will move my info over there. Thanks again.

[Perry Butler]

Originally Posted by MTSuz

Good morning CPAHarley2008 -

Thank you, sort of , for directing me to this thread. It definitely sounds like the same issue that others are experiencing. For that reason I suggest ending this thread and I will move my info over there. Thanks again.

First, I would contact ETI, before ass u me ing you have this problem. Only then would I remove the foam.

Enjoy,

Perry

[MTSuz]

Hi Perryb67 - Thanks, and I will contact Escape today. We won't be doing any fix ourselves...we're not handy in that regard. But the thread that CPAHarley2008 refers to has a handful of folks with issues that sound just the same, so I'll continue the discussion of our leak over there.

[Dcboyd]

I looked at a 21’ 2017 or 18 shower drains underneath 5he trailer. The under floor drains go from 90 to tee and from tee to P trap using street elbow to the p trap. Their is no way To remove ptrap to repair or add a Hepvo valve all because there is not an exposed link to cut and remove p trap.
Well Hepvo Valve and flexible link can be added downstream of p-trap close to tank.
Wish I could post a pict but haven’t figured it out yet.

Poor engineering for repair. Great engineering to save a short piece of pipe.

[tdf-texas]

Originally Posted by Dcboyd

I looked at a 21’ 2017 or 18 shower drains underneath 5he trailer. The under floor drains go from 90 to tee and from tee to P trap using street elbow to the p trap. Their is no way To remove ptrap to repair or add a Hepvo valve all because there is not an exposed link to cut and remove p trap.
Well Hepvo Valve and flexible link can be added downstream of p-trap close to tank.
Wish I could post a pict but haven’t figured it out yet.

Poor engineering for repair. Great engineering to save a short piece of pipe.

Rease is the one that started this. The earlier 21s had a stinking shower drain problem due to water standing in the pipe going to the grey tank.

In the earlier trailers, the trap was installed close to the grey tank, the piping from the trap to the shower drain ran slightly downhill, and the trapped water in the piping stagnated and stunk. So the resolution was to move the trap as close to the shower drain as possible to prevent this.

Still bad engineering the way they did it.
One: A glued in trap? How do you get stuff out of it when it plugs?
Two: How do you repair a broken trap since it is a low hanging spot that could get hit? All the sink and shower drain connections are glued and inaccessible behind a fiberglass enclosure.

Like I have posted before - that trap and the associated piping was the FIRST mod I did to the trailer. The original shower drain piping, that's still being done, had absolutely no regard for maintainability.

[tdf-texas]

Originally Posted by Dcboyd

Their is no way To remove p trap to repair or add a Hepvo valve all because there is not an exposed link to cut and remove p trap.

It still can be done but it involves some creative work. The street 90 has the be cut off and the remaining ABS carefully removed to expose the T fitting hub. ABS glue then can be used to seal the surgery enough to install a section of pipe.

Not elegant but can be done and it takes some time to get it right. But with the way Escape installed the trap, what other option is there?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMzjQN3aLZ8

[Dcboyd]

Originally Posted by tdf-texas

It still can be done but it involves some creative work. The street 90 has the be cut off and the remaining ABS carefully removed to expose the T fitting hub. ABS glue then can be used to seal the surgery enough to install a section of pipe.

Not elegant but can be done and it takes some time to get it right. But with the way Escape installed the trap, what other option is there?

If they had a few inches extension between the T and P-trap it could then be cut, then replaced, repaired or removed all together. I have requested this on my Dec delivery.

[gbaglo]

If It Isn’t Perfect, It Isn’t Finished

It's Reace, not Rease.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by gbaglo

If It Isn’t Perfect, It Isn’t Finished

It's Reace, not Rease.

Very funny Glen, opps I mean Glenn.

With all this talk about leaks I guess that I'll go out and fill my grey tank and see what happens. Since I don't have spray foam I should know one way or the other if I have any leaks.

Ron

[tdf-texas]

Originally Posted by gbaglo

If It Isn’t Perfect, It Isn’t Finished

It's Reace, not Rease.

Thanks, I'm still getting it wrong after all this time.

[Ron in BC]

Guess I got lucky, filled my grey tank until water bubbled up the shower drain. Checked the two side drains and no water was leaking there or down from the top. Since I've been to Baja etc. and a lot of Forest Service Roads this year and there's no leaks I'm thinking that the odds are that it isn't an issue for me.

Pulled the plug on the grey tank. Pretty graphic example of why it seems to take forever to completely drain especially when there's someone behind you tapping their toes while you wait for the grey tank to drain completely. Typical of a side drain. Once the water level reaches the mid point of the pipe the rate slows to a point where I usually say, good enough.

Ron

[Ron in BC]

Fast turning to slow.