Grey Tank Drain blocked

[MapNerd]

Grey tank has been draining slowly since, well...November. It’s basically a small trickle - approximately 1/8 of the flow volume. I reported it to Newmar and they added it to my list of grievances to address in my January visit.

Last night, unbeknownst to us, whatever is blocking the tank either moved or got bigger and now the tank is completely blocked. Not knowing this, DW put on a load of laundry and we woke this morning to find a kitchen sink full of grey water. I went down to take a look and the gate valve is wide open but nothing is coming out.

I googled around a couple of weeks ago thinking this was due to Newmar’s silly tank design only to find that its apparently somewhat common for there to be construction debris in the tank. Apparently, sometimes when Newmar drills the bottom of the tank to add the bulkhead for the drain, they allow the plastic circle to fall into the tank. When that happens, it often moves towards the drain and eventually blocks it.

I called Newmar asking for assistance and they are saying that none of the Nearby dealers can take us in, and the soonest they can get a mobile tech to us is Friday. I said I could drill a small 1.5” hole in the top of the tank and drain it with a siphon and then disassemble the drain pipe and remove the obstruction, but in doing that they’d need to replace the grey tank at my next visit. They don’t want to agree to that because they can’t be sure it’s construction debris.

Any ideas for draining the tank without flooding the wetbay compartment?

 

[Richpatty]

Maybe try a FlushKing which may help push back against the clog and dislodge it enough to get some or most of drained...

Flush King

Shop the Flush King 20522 for efficient RV waste management. Designed for easy use and reliable performance, it's a must-have for your camping adventures. Buy now.

www.campingworld.com

 

[RandyB]

Building on the suggestion from @Richpatty, could you use compressed air (at a low pressure) to dislodge the debris? The thought was to only momentarily increase the volume in the already full tank. It would require some standard plumbing fittings from the hardware department, but possible. Creating a big bubble going up the drain pipe might do it. Just a quick, low pressure bubble to start.

Really out there, but...create a suction on the roof vent pipe in an attempt to draw volume up into the tank from the outlet pipe (drain valve open), thereby dislodging the debris?

Having never been faced with this issue these are ideas only. There is no guarantee and certainly no assurance that you might get some waste water where you don't want it. Good luck and keep us apprised of your progress, please.

 

[Neal]

Be prepared to eat a mess but I would take off your sewer hose and run fishing tape or something up the path. I "assume" your gray gate valve is in fact opening and is not broken/defective such that you're pulling the handle but something isn't quite right in there. Not hard to replace on your own (four screws) but probably unlikely but a thought. So essentially if you can find something flexible to push up the path it may help.

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

I like the idea of using some low-pressure air to dislodge the blockage. If you don't have one, pick up a sewer fitting bayonet cap with garden hose fitting on it. A local hardware store should have a brass female hose fitting adapter to 1/2" pipe thread (IPS) and an air fitting with 1/2" male pipe thread. Set the compressor at 30 psi or less and use a couple of short air bursts to dislodge the blockage.

I would also try to verify that your slide valve is actually working as suggested by @Neal.

Good luck and let us know how you resolve this problem.

TJ

 

[Neal]

If you are under warranty Newmar should send a mobile tech to you. Don't let them say NO.

 

[NWIP]

I know someone had a similar problem and used a coat hanger and was able to fish out the construction debris. Once they got the obstruction to the opening with the valve removed they got a hold of it with pliers. They had a pretty much empty tank to start though.

 

[Neal]

It may be an Amish oompa-loompa. You may be birthing it and have to name it. Be prepared. We're excited for you! MapLoompa

 

[MapNerd]

As usual, Newmar was useless. They also suggested it might actually be the gate valve but I was able to disprove that. They couldn’t get a mobile tech to me until Friday and none of the local dealers had any availability. They wont agree to replace the tank if I drill it so that I can pump it out.

We tried a couple of things with no success:

• Flushed and filled the black tank with water, put the drain cap on opened the gray, then opened black to try and get the water from black to flow over and push the debris out of the way of the bulk head. Closed black, and gray, put a bucket under the cap and dumped what was into the pipe into that, then hooked up the sewer hose hoping for some drain, but no dice.
• Unhooked the coach and drove it around the park, making a couple of aggressive stops in an empty parking lot. Came back, hooked up and tried to dump. A small trickle followed by nothing.
• Drilled a small hole in my 90-degrees elbow fitting that connects to the drain, ran an 8 gauge wire through the hole and up the gray drain pipe, but couldn’t get it past the last turn towards the fresh tank before it goes up to the bulk head. Did get it past the gate valve though, proving the gate valve wasn’t broken.
• Removed the panel, thinking maybe I could access the lines that dump into the tank, take them off and then siphon the tank out with a transfer pump. Lines were filled with water and too far deep into the cavity to reach.
• Went to the opposite side and removed the pegboard, hoping that ingress line might be more accessible, even less accessible.

Tomorrow I will call Newmar again and ask them to either get me an appointment or send a tech and we’ll check into a hotel until it can be resolved. For many, this will come as a shock as I’ve been relatively quiet with most of my Newmar grievances until now but this is the last straw.

DW and I have decided we’ll be selling the coach at the end of the year. This is not the only issue we’ve had and we expected issues going in, but suffice it to say we are learning that Newmar is not the company we understood them to be. Getting support from them is often like pulling teeth - even when we were under warranty. I hope my experience is an anomaly but we wont continue paying the premium for a Newmar when Newmar isn’t there for us when it really counts.

We don’t plan to stop RVing and I wont be leaving this awesome place (sorry you’re stuck with me), but we’ll get getting something lower cost and simpler in design so that when bad things happen, at least I don’t feel like I was paying for someone to stand behind me that was never there.

 

[Kevin D Pem]

@Neal has the idea using a fish tap to push the debris into the tank. However I would sacrifice the hose with a small hole to push the tape in and keep the mess to a minimum.

 

[MapNerd]

Maybe try a FlushKing which may help push back against the clog and dislodge it enough to get some or most of drained...

Flush King

Shop the Flush King 20522 for efficient RV waste management. Designed for easy use and reliable performance, it's a must-have for your camping adventures. Buy now.

www.campingworld.com

That would have worked if Newmar didn’t design their drain pipes like they belong in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

Edit: Thinking about this again, this could be an interesting idea to build counter pressure by closing black, pumping water in and building pressure on the opposite side, then cutting the water and opening the gate. I think i might try that tomorrow

 

[MapNerd]

@Neal has the idea using a fish tap to push the debris into the tank. However I would sacrifice the hose with a small hole to push the tape in and keep the mess to a minimum.

Tried it with a 4’ long piece of 8 gauge wire. Can get it past the gate valve, can’t get it around all the bends and up to the bulkhead to push on the obstruction. Spent two hours trying.

 

[MapNerd]

Building on the suggestion from @Richpatty, could you use compressed air (at a low pressure) to dislodge the debris? The thought was to only momentarily increase the volume in the already full tank. It would require some standard plumbing fittings from the hardware department, but possible. Creating a big bubble going up the drain pipe might do it. Just a quick, low pressure bubble to start.

Really out there, but...create a suction on the roof vent pipe in an attempt to draw volume up into the tank from the outlet pipe (drain valve open), thereby dislodging the debris?

Having never been faced with this issue these are ideas only. There is no guarantee and certainly no assurance that you might get some waste water where you don't want it. Good luck and keep us apprised of your progress, please.

This is an interesting idea. How would I connect the fittings to the drain pipe for an air-tight seal so that I could build some pressure? I’m a little worried about how much pressure I’d need. The obstruction has 45+ gallons of water pushing down on it. That’s easily 350lbs.

 

[Kevin D Pem]

For many, this will come as a shock as I’ve been relatively quiet with most of my Newmar grievances until now but this is the last straw.

That's funny, I just talked to a man that had a happy grin on his face pulling a 16ft TT. Without prompting he told me he was much happier down sizing to his TT and that he had had his fill with diesel pushers. I don't know, they sure are pretty, even if they are way out of my league.

 

[Kevin D Pem]

Tried it with a 4’ long piece of 8 gauge wire. Can get it past the gate valve, can’t get it around all the bends and up to the bulkhead to push on the obstruction. Spent two hours trying.

Having been an electrician I will tell you that wire is a poor substitute for fish tape. with plumbing I would think a snake would be better but was thinking about small holes to get to the problem.

 

[MapNerd]

Having been an electrician I will tell you that wire is a poor substitute for fish tape. with plumbing I would think a snake would be better but was thinking about small holes to get to the problem.

Fish tape is normally used for pulling new wire through old work. Having never used it myself I could be wrong, but I think I’d need something relatively stiff once I get up to the bulkhead that I can push on to dislodge the obstruction. I would expect fish tape to be too flimsy to give a good push.

 

[Neal]

@MapNerd give me a call tomorrow if you want to discuss but here is what I suggest.

Dump black as you want that tank empty. Unscrew the four bolts to separate the gray gate valve. The black tank is light and should have play so you can slide the wye valve left (the wye valve is what you connect the slinky to). Now you have access to your gray pipe. Go to Lowe’s and get one of those plumber things to clear a clog and run it up the pipe. Or contact a plumber and see if they can come help you. The plumbing threads into the tank from the bottom so you can probably rotate the plumbing slightly if needed. When you clear the clog gray is going to dump. So be it. Nothing you can do about it.

 

[MapNerd]

@MapNerd give me a call tomorrow if you want to discuss but here is what I suggest.

Dump black as you want that tank empty. Unscrew the four bolts to separate the gray gate valve. The black tank is light and should have play so you can slide the wye valve left (the wye valve is what you connect the slinky to). Now you have access to your gray pipe. Go to Lowe’s and get one of those plumber things to clear a clog and run it up the pipe. Or contact a plumber and see if they can come help you. The plumbing threads into the tank from the bottom so you can probably rotate the plumbing slightly if needed. When you clear the clog gray is going to dump. So be it. Nothing you can do about it.

Might need a few more days and a couple shots of whiskey before I take that approach but it is an option.

 

[Kevin D Pem]

Fish tape is normally used for pulling new wire through old work.

Fish tape is used to pull wire or rope/strap through conduit. it is 1/8 x .062 steel tape that is heat treated and will go around 360 degrees worth of bends with no problem. I will admit the radius of conduit is at its smallest 4" radius. but turning the tape in circles will usually get it past a corner. But alas @Neal is right again. disassembly makes a lot of sense.

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

I think the correct tool would be a "plumbing snake" rather than a 'fish tape." A plumbing snake is a reinforced spring of sorts with an end designed assist in getting around corners. It is rotated slowly and when it encounters a change in direction, the spiraled end helps if work its way past it. For RV use, I would not use a powered version; a manually cranked version will provide more control.

Sounds to me like Newmar needs to step up and have a mobile tech come by to resolve the issue. And...IMHO...if a piece of construction debris left behind during the build process was the cause of the blockage, it should issue a written apology and pay for any time the owners spent in a hotel. That's the absolute least they should do!

TJ