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Old 04-18-2018, 03:41 PM   #1
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slow draining of grey tank on 2017 19'

I have a new to me 19 and the grey tank drains very slowly. Black tank drains quickly. Is this normal, or might there be blockage somewhere?
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Old 04-18-2018, 03:49 PM   #2
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It is pretty typical for the grey tank on the 19' to be slow draining. What I sometimes do at the dump station is to drive the trailer up onto about 2" high wooden blocks placed below the passenger side wheels so that side is elevated. That seems to provide a significant boost to the rate of flow out of the grey tank. I also seldom wait around for the tank to completely drain, as it seems to trickle out for ever, and there is often a lineup of trailers waiting to use the dump station.
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Old 04-18-2018, 03:56 PM   #3
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Thanks Dave. I think we can live with it since most of the tank drains quickly with only a small volume dribbling.

R.
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Old 04-18-2018, 04:16 PM   #4
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Rick I use that small amount left in the grey tank to put in some tank cleaner/deodorizer and have it slosh around in there where traveling to the next destination.
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Old 04-18-2018, 04:31 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Walter View Post
What I sometimes do at the dump station is to drive the trailer up onto about 2" high wooden blocks placed below the passenger side wheels so that side is elevated.
I have a couple chunks of rough cut 4x6 I put under the passenger side wheels when at a dump station. Lisa usually jumps out, grabs and places them, then I pull up on them. It may not seem like a lot, but I bet it saves at least a minute, and drains a heck of a lot more out.

When leaving out land, I just pull the driver's side down in the ditch, easy peasy.
That is when we are not fertilizing the hay field.
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Old 04-18-2018, 07:21 PM   #6
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Thoer,
That sounds like a good idea. If fact, this might clear the scum on the tank level sensors so that they are not giving a false reading, which is now the case on both my grey and black tanks.
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Old 04-18-2018, 08:52 PM   #7
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Our gray tank has a vent/overflow in the passenger side wheel well, but Escape stopped this practice for some reason. Maybe because of odor which we have had on occasion. Anyway, I’m wondering if opening the shower drain when draining the gray tank might help? If it has a traditional trap then maybe not.
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Old 04-18-2018, 09:32 PM   #8
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Drain

Quote:
Originally Posted by rubicon327 View Post
Our gray tank has a vent/overflow in the passenger side wheel well, but Escape stopped this practice for some reason. Maybe because of odor which we have had on occasion. Anyway, I’m wondering if opening the shower drain when draining the gray tank might help? If it has a traditional trap then maybe not.
I was de winterizing to get our 21 ready for the season yesterday including sanitizing the water system. It seemed to me the grey tank was draining very slowly so I took the shower drain out, it was screwed in tight. The grey tank then drained more quickly. Once drained, I was running the pump to push fresh water through the lines and flush the bleach water smell. I could run two taps wide open and the tank drain would keep up. So it worked for me on the 21.
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Old 04-18-2018, 10:42 PM   #9
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Originally Posted by rubicon327 View Post
Anyway, I’m wondering if opening the shower drain when draining the gray tank might help? If it has a traditional trap then maybe not.
First of all, the black tank pipe is a 3" one with a vertical drop so it makes the small grey water drain look bad right from the get-go. The vertical, from the bottom, black tank drains fast for the whole time it's draining.

The grey water tank drain is on the side of the tank. It's smaller so it drains much slower by comparison. Once the tank level is at the top of the pipe the area of pipe available to drain decreases. That's why the last amount seems to take forever.

Escape uses a modified trap made from ABS pipe fittings. It's very shallow, not a great design and it may or may not still have sitting water in it depending on how bumpy the road was.

Running the passenger side wheels up on blocks certainly does speed up the process.

Ron
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