Fresh and grey water

Considering a van, how do you manage your fresh and grey water if you are static for a while? Topping I assume you could drive to the service point or use the usual water containers. Just seems there no storage for a wastemaster or an aqua roll in the van other than the shower?

Ah - do I detect an ex caravanner!!   Welcome to the other side.

Depending on how the van is equipped and the personal preferences of the owner, there are several easy alternatives. If space is at a premium you certainly don't want to carry wastemasters or aquarolls!

To dispose of grey waste you only really need a bucket - probably a collapsible one to save on storage space.

For topping up with clean water, many of us use a watering can, but if your van has only a Whale type filler which has to use a submersible pump, you will no doubt decide on a water container to suit your preferences.

Driving to the service point solves both problems, but you may not always want to bother. We find that a couple of watering cans per day keeps us topped up, and the grey waste tank usually lasts until we move on - then it's emptied at the service point as we leave.

It's a bit more awkward if you spend long on Aires or wilding, but with care and a bit of forward planning it's never much of an issue. Much easier than with a caravan - assuming that is your heritage! 

As Dave says, under the circumstances you describe, start on site with a full fresh water and empty waster water tank. A couple of trips to the tap/drain each day with collapsible bucket and water container and you will remain in that state till you leave - or, as I do, miss the trips for the last three days and call at the service point on the way out.

Built in tanks are meant to replace wastemaster and aquaroll.

I use a collapsible bucket for emptying and a 10 litre plastic can with a spout to fill up with. I sometimes empty out over a site drain but haven't used the hose I carry to fill up with for years. I do fill up with a hose before I leave home.

Agreeing with others, watering can is perfect. My view is top up every time you have an opportunity to access potable water, l tend to get through average of 12 litres or two watering cans. Also a couple of 4 litre bottles behind the drivers seat for emergency.
Folding bucket works for the grey water.

Thanks for the responses, no sorry not an ex caravanner.

Half my post didn’t make it? Aqua roll and wastemaster duelly deleted, watering can and bucket added :-)

Now you just need to train the Boss. 

We try to remember to take the watering can with us every couple of days when we visit the toilet block. That way it doesn't involve a special journey, and we usually find that one shower and one piddle each is enough to top up with water.

As said before, our grey waste tank lasts at least four or five days before it needs to be emptied, but it's always best to keep the fresh water topped up. Same logic as filling up with LPG or diesel when the gauge reaches half way - then you are never in the merde, even if the French spring a sudden delivery drivers' strike on you. (It happened two years ago, and a lot of motorhomers found themselves stranded in lay byes!)

Hi
   We are also ex caravaners and the new MH cannot be filled with a watering can,The old Aquaroll and Wastemaster are just too big to fit in a MH. We have purchased Fiamma 23l containers and they fit in the wet locker with space to spare.We purchased them from "The Caravan Shop" in Glasgow The prices are good and postage resonable

I also have a 23l. waste water wheeled container, easier and quicker to empty. only small and fits under seat when travelling, it is in its own water proof drawer string bag. also carry watering can in outside locker. Fill up at home with food grade blue hose,
Plus carry 2 x 5 litre water containers for drinking water and dogs. tank water for everything else.

Gemdeco - If it's of interest there has been some discussion recently about installing a "hole in the wall" water fill point. Several novel ideas have emerged for doing the job quite easily and cheaply.

Daisy Mae - Just out of interest, if neither you nor the dogs drink water from the tank, why do you use a food grade hose to fill up? (No reply needed. Just pulling your leg!  )

That's just me Dave,  to be sure to be sure, drink tank water in hot drinks and wash teeth etc.Ive got the blue hose, didn`t fancy using the garden one, that has been outside for years.

We all have our own funny ways of doing things I guess.

Marg

gemdeco wrote:Hi
   We are also ex caravaners and the new MH cannot be filled with a watering can,

You use the watering can spout to top up the toilet flush tank and put the truma pump in the fill hole to pump water into the fresh water tank.

Unfortunately, it's often the nature of the beast that small vans have small storage (certainly for those Aquaroll/Wastemaster things) and this is where larger tanks (which require filling/emptying less often) and a straight forward filling system (a hole leading to the fresh tank) would make life fairly simple....a hose, maybe split 1/3-2/3 to allow for the majority of full fills close to a tap (small part) and the odd fill from a tap further away (join two pieces)...
as others suggest, a 10ltr container (with spout or with a guttering elbow neatly fitted into the fill hole) will do for any top ups.
as some may use the shower which can mean multiple trips with a small bucket, the decision then rests between these multiple trips, taking the van to the MHSP or, perhaps the compromise of the much more compact Fiamma 23ltr container.
'tis horses for courses and small vans, small tanks, 'particular' filling methods make for a bit of personal thought...
Of it were me, I'd certainly consider moving to a simple filling hole to allow speedier filling at a tap, more flexibility about how to conduct supplementary fills (watering can etc) but that's just me..

I used to use two Fiamma wheeled containers for the Nuevo but the Sussex requires the waste (and fresh) pipe to be unclipped from under the sill and the Fiamma containers are too high for the waste tap to be inserted making the hose go uphill which of course doesn't work. I have now obtained a Thetford waste container which is flat and low enough to get a flow going. Unfortunately the Thetford ones are no longer made (I knew of them and managed to get one off eBay). As for filling, luckily I have standard hose filling hole so take two lengths of clear hose , 1 X 1 metres and the other 4 metres . I also have a 10 litre plastic Jerry can with spout. The Jerry can and waste container travel in the washroom.
I've just found one on eBay to show the type it is..

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I have a Fiamma which I use on long term continental sites and although the waste pipe is pretty low, it has a screw in flexible pipe (about two feet long and expandible) which I can lay up along the top of the Fiamma and then drop into the hole.
As long as the end of the pipe is lower than the tank, water flows nicely into the Fiamma.

bolero boy wrote:As long as the end of the pipe is lower than the tank, water flows nicely into the Fiamma.

That's the problem, it isn't.

We have one green ( for fresh water, drop submersible pump in) and one red bucket for grey water.

In the well- honoured tradition of everything in a motorhome having several uses, the buckets are also used as coffee tables, footstools, launderettes, storage when moving, pitch markers and so on. One day we might even fill the red one with water and float plastic ducks on it as a fire bucket.

Big difference between fixed drainage Taos on coachbuilts and flexible waste pipes on van conversions. Can't use a bucket as too tall.

Paulmold wrote:
That's the problem, it isn't.

Sorry Paul, I didn't explain that very well (a picture would help)....
What I should have said was 'if the end of the flexible pipe (which is inside the Fiamma) is lower than the water level in the tank, the water flows nicely into the Fiamma'...
The thing is, if this set up is employed, the water level in the tank gradually rises and then, when sufficiently above the bottom of the flexible pipe, the grey water syphons into the Fiamma.
Obviously it will stop when levels equalise, but then will start to empty again as it fills.

With your pipe unclipped, are you able to add an extra piece to create a height difference in this way?

No cos there's a big tap in the end of the pipe. I only use the flat tank when I don't want to go off site, otherwise I use the motorhome service point when leaving site and fill up on way back in. It's not really that big a problem.

Paulmold wrote:Big difference between fixed drainage Taos on coachbuilts and flexible waste pipes on van conversions. Can't use a bucket as too tall.

We can’t get the waste bucket under the tap either but a few centimetres of flexible hose does away with the need to try. 

I was also pointing out that it is not necessary to carry something like a one-use watering can when you have a pumped system, when a bucket is more versatile and easier to find space for ( ie full of other stuff).

So the bucket for grey water is also used for fresh water?
Hmmm, that would go down well as we use our fresh for drinking.

bolero boy wrote:So the bucket for grey water is also used for fresh water?
Hmmm, that would go down well as we use our fresh for drinking.

Er no...if you look at my original post I mention our two buckets : red for grey water and green for fresh water.

We live in the van full- time for 5 months or more each year and have never had an upset tum so must be doing something right in terms of hygiene !

ZQuilter wrote:
Er no...if you look at my original post I mention our two buckets : red for grey water and green for fresh water.

We live in the van full- time for 5 months or more each year and have never had an upset tum so must be doing something right in terms of hygiene !

Ah, good one.....sorry, missed that....I just picked up the Single use watering can v versatile bucket, phrase....
I agree with your point re the flexible hose, which was what I was trying (poorly) to convey to Paul.
BTW, we have about 30 weeks a year in the van and have never had a bad Tum, but that is neither here nor there...
Fortunately, space is not too much of a premium in our 'huge' 6.4m van...