Dealing with the RV sewer hose is one of the joys we get to deal with as RVers!  Whether you are a full-timer, a weekend warrior or the occasional user of an RV, sooner or later you will have a fecal incident!!

Since we switched over from the behemoth 5th wheel RV rig to our more mobile Class C RV home office, we have to deal with the black and gray water RV storage tanks a little more frequently.

Yesterday I decided to really give the black tank a good flushing because even when I emptied the gauges were still reading there was some stuff left in there.  Now, we don’t have internal sensors like some tanks do.  Those can give false readings because “stuff” gets stuck on them and it makes them read that the tank is fuller than it actually is.  We have the external kind so I knew we had stuff that needed to be flushed out!

I emptied the tank and checked inside – looking down through the toilet into to black tank.  Yes, it was still reading 1/3 and I saw why – yuk!!  Okay, so I filled it up all the way full with fresh water and dumped again.  I also did this on the 5th wheel every time I dumped the black tank.  It had a tank rinser though.  Now, I have to use the bathroom sink or a hose to fill the tank.  In this new RV it is plumbed so that bathroom sink runs into the black tank.

I dumped that tank of fresh water and watched the output through my clear Camco sewer attachment.  I noted that sediment was still coming through the hose system.  When I checked the gauges inside the tank was now recording empty.

The other problem we are having is that the park we are in does not have a good draw of waste through its system so I don’t get the flush out that I really need to get everything out of the tank.  When I looked straight down into the tank after the clear water flush I noted that I could still see some sediment collecting around the pipe that comes out of the tank.

I  think I have found a solution to that issue which I will order on Amazon and test out.  I will tell you about that in a later post.

The RV Sewer Hose

But, in order to get rid of your black and gray water from your RV tanks, you need a good reliable RV sewer hose system.  I have been using the old style slinky hose for years. I had not found the need to change because we hooked up our rig and usually left it that way for weeks on end.

However, now that we are moving about quite regularly, I decided to investigate something more sanitary than the old slinky hose stuffed into a garbage bag when moving the RV home.

I have noticed others using Camco’s Rhino Flex RV sewer hose system and thought this may be the way to go.  It has lots of assorted attachments to make the process more orderly and I really liked the end caps that come with the hose system.  Ten feet of RV sewer hose compresses down to a few feet and it stays that way.  Put the end caps on and you can store it safely without worry: no leakage or odor.

Okay, this is where the fecal incident occurred.  When I first hooked up my new Camco RV sewer hose system and pulled the black gate valve, I got an unexpected surprise – stuff leaking out!  Now I have done this process hundreds of times and have only had two fecal incidents.  The first was the old style rubber donut that popped off the sewer outlet, and the second was this one.

I followed the directions about tightening up the hose end couplings before use.  I am using three ten foot sections because where we are now the sewer outlet is all the way at the back of the site – old Florida RV parks, big sigh!!

After investigating further I discover that the coupling that I used to attach to my RV’s hose connection was missing a gasket.  It came that way from the manufacturer and I did not notice it when I hooked up.  Fortunately, I started out slowly as I always do when first hooking up to a new system, and I was able to minimize the fecal matter from going everywhere, including on me!!  And yes, I was wearing rubber gloves.

Well, from here this discussion could go downhill: expletives, potty humor, etc.  But, we won’t go there!!  I did however write an email to Camco about my experience with the Rhino Flex RV sewer hose system.

They did respond quickly and let me know their product has a one year warranty and also sent me out some extra gaskets to fix my immediate problem.  Fortunately, I did have a part that I could borrow a gasket from to complete the black and gray tank dump that I started.  Camco also referred me to some YouTube videos for some extra assistance to be sure I had securely locked the hose end attachments.

We are now all hooked up and things seem to be working fine.  We were in another RV park last week and had much better results.  I think that is due to a more updated RV park sewer system.

Always be sure to utilize a clear adapter so you can see what is coming out of your tanks and to also allow you to verify that your tank flushing activities are achieving the results you desire.

My RV Sewer Hose Review

My overall opinion of this new RV sewer hose system is mostly favorable so far.  I guess you could say I had a crappy start to the initial use of Camco’s Rhino Flex RV sewer hose system, but it is different than what I have used in the past and it does have more parts and pieces.  The more connection points you have the greater the chance of problems if you are not checking your connections before “letting it flow!”

You can purchase parts of the system separately or you can buy a kit.  I bought the 20 foot hose kit that had the couplings and caps included and added their clear adapter which also swivels (needed for my RV) and then purchased an additional 10 foot hose and the sewer hose flush attachment. The best part is that it all reduces down to a manageable size that I place in a small bin for storage in the RV.

So, check back soon as I will be doing a review of Camco’s tank rinser system.

Please feel free to leave a comment or ask a question before you go!

Happy Travels from Pam, Howard and of course, Lindsey!  Check out her weekly bark report.  She has been quite humorous lately!!