Gray Water, Black Water, Waste/Sewer. Which is?

Originally posted by kymooses It is only the 181g but our garage sink goes to our black tank while the 182g goes to the grey as normal.

Just a thought, but is the black tank in the rear on the 181G vs in he front on the 182G ? If so, maybe it's just easier to get from the rear to the black tank on the 181.

From an interesting thread on the iRV2 forum: the question of dumping gray water in the desert was asked of and answered by the BLM. Their regs defined gray water as including sinks, showers and tubs, but specifically excluded kitchen sinks and dishwashers. Kitchen sinks and dishwashers were considered sewage or black. I don't know how the garage sinks on Pods would be classified. The BLM response indicated dumping gray water was OK UNLESS overridden by local rules, regs, or law enforcement personnel.

In my personal experience I sometimes capture dish washing water and dump down the toilet to preserve gray water capacity. Gray is easier to deal with than black if you use a "blue' tank.

Charlie

I wouldn't say it was "cool/environmentally OK" to dump gray anywhere, but it may be "acceptable" in some cases. However, for the majority of cases both should go to the dump and your question of having two tanks is well taken. The two tank config probably evolved in past times when thinking was more lenient. Maybe, in the future, single tanks may return, if only from pure cost considerations. In the meantime, it's still preferable to have two tanks if you  periodically empty the gray tank into a waste hauler. I guess in the best of worlds I would have the gray water sources selectable to either gray or black tanks, but that adds complexity and cost.

Charlie

There are many places were grey water can't be disposed of on the ground.  At least some National Parks that I know of. 

I've wondered about the reason for two tanks too.  I suspect it may be generally easier to mount two 30 gallon tanks than one 60 for one thing.  The sloshing effect of 40 or 50 gallons in one big tank could be a safety factor too when you're going down the road.

It seems like it would make sense if you have to dispose of both tanks at one dump station if you could dump the black tank and then dump the grey water through the black tank to help rinse it out.

TT

Our 178 makes dumping easy. The pull handles on the lines are black and grey. Brilliant color coding idea on the part of FR'

Yes, DH would like to mod the lines to a single hookup. Moving the hose is yucky.