I love the one tank system. There is plenty of gray water to effectively flush solids. Once the logic and layout of the plumbing is understood the system is easy to use.
I do have a flush port mounted low in the waste tank but have never used it. I feel like a few loads of laundry or occasionally filling the waste tank by running the faucets keep the waste tank fairly well flushed.
David I have pretty much have the same system as you and will do about the same thing as you are doing. I will also once or twice a year ( depending on use) buy a couple of quarts of waste tank gauge cleaner and run it through under the two or three options shown on the instruction label.
(04-07-2018, 08:06 PM)Fulltiming Wrote: [ -> ]Mike, typically only the toilet(s) go directly into the waste holding tank. The shower and all sinks/lavatories go into a pipe which terminates between the two valves on the driver's side. When the inner/manual value is closed and the outer/air valve is open, everything except the toilets bypasses the waste holding tank. IF the outer valve is closed and the inner valve is open, everything goes into the waste holding tank. IF both valves are close, the pipe that accepts the sink/lavatories starts filling up and at the top of the waste holding tank, tees off and dumps into the waste tank. That way if you leave both valves closed and run the sink, shower, lavatories, washer, etc, the grey water will fill the pipe between the two valves until it reaches a level above the top of the waste tank and then be discharged into the waste tank instead of backing up into the shower which is typically the next lowest point in the grey water drain system.
Thanks Michael, exactly what I was looking for. I had been told incorrectly by a RV repair guy,and it was not matching my experimentation with valves.
I am of course reading a lot of different threads and this one caught my attention! Soooo There is a grey water bypass on the newells?? I need further training!! I have had to change two tank sensors in the last months, first one was defective. I now can at least read the level of the waste tank.
So are we saying that the waste tank fills at a different rate the the grey side? How would I know if there is a grey bypass? Ive got so much to learn!
Nope, you should have only 1 waste tank which holds black and gray waste. What's discussed above are the valves that allow you to direct the gray water out either on the ground (if permitted) or into the sewer system while allowing only black waste to fill the tank. When we had our Newell we would sometimes open the bypass when washing clothes so the tank wouldn't fill as quickly.
Hope you can come to the rally in Spearfish next year.
When we were living in our Newell, we typically had full hookups. We would leave the rear dump valve closed and the front valve open almost all the time. That reduced the frequency of dumping the black water tremendously, especially since we were running the washer almost daily and my wife loves to cook which generates lots of pots and pans to wash. With the front dump valve closed we literally had to dump every 24-36 hours. Before traveling, we always dumped the black tank several hours before we were to leave to allow grey water to accumulate in the tank. The grey water sloshing around as we drove seemed to help clean the walls of the tank and the sensors. About once a week, if we were staying put that long, we would close the front valve after dumping and allow grey water to enter the tank to make sure we were not getting any accumulation of waste in the bottom of the tank. The next day we would dump the almost full tank, close the rear valve again and return to normal life. We love having 154 gallons of black water storage is wonderful.
The key when staring at the valve setup is ONLY the black waste goes directly into the tank. All grey water enters the tank through the pipeing at the exit of the tank.
New issue/problems
Black tank AND fresh water tank gauges
Are BOTH showing full
Water tank is about1/2 and black tank
Is empty
Any ideas what has happened?
If only one tank was malfunctioning I would say it needs to be cleaned. Since it is both and assuming it is a concurrent problem I would look for an electrical issue starting with checking for proper grounding at the gauges.