Am i the only one with the smallest watertank drain valve?

[rmasontaylor]

Hello,

I was just wondering if there are any other quicker solutions to draining the unused water in the tank.
The only drain valve that I know of on the rig and according to the owners manual is the one under the chassis on the driver side.
with about a half tank of water combined with such a small exit hole; it literally takes couple days to drain (more like bleed) the water tank.

would love to see/hear any ideas or mods to this inconvenience.

Thanks in advance.

rmt

[Blue~Go]

My drains (and others I have seen) are simply tubes of 1/2" OD PEX tubing (just like the rest of the plumbing). There are three on my rig: The one in the floor right by the water pump, plus two in the floor right at the side couch wall that is behind the driver's seat. In fact they straddle the couch wall ("mouse hole" cut in couch wall to accommodate them).

I have also found that these drain super slowly. OTOH, similar drains in a completely different make of camper van did the same, so it's not just a Chinook thing. I was able to speed them up by turning on the water pump and "power draining" them, but still...

I have actually eliminated mine for now and I'm not sure I'm going to put them back, since they're slow, hard to reach, etc. On boats you can't gravity drain tanks (because it's not physically possible to have holes "below" the tank), so they are either drained by just running the tap, or (for winterizing) with a drill pump, or maybe by siphoning if the boat is on the hard. My current thinking is that I'm just going to plan to use a drill pump plus blowing out the lines, and so eliminate three pipes through the floor, plus three little/hard-to-reach valves. Another reason for this in my case is that I have never liked tanks where the line to the pump comes out the bottom. It's all too easy for those spin-welded tank bosses to develop a leak, and then you could have 30 gallons of water on the floor. In boats there is typically a "dip tube," which means that the opening is on the top of the tank (so you can't lose all your precious water out at sea due to a small leak).

I haven't worked it all out completely yet, but it's on my "I may set this up a better way" list. OTOH, you can speed up the floor drains by using the water pump. Or just pump the water through the sink and into the grey tank, thus "rinsing" the grey tank. Or from the sink faucet run a hose out the window and pump onto the ground.

Anyway, here is a link to a nice tutorial on winterizing boat water tanks, and he uses the drill pump method to drain the water heater (they can't gravity drain like ours can). The pumps are very small to store (maybe 6" long by 4" wide by 3" thick or so), and inexpensive. And a drill is a common tool.

http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/wate ... interizing

[Concourse]

Couple hours, yes. Couple days, no. Open the petcock in the floor next to the Shur-Flo water pump under the sofa back near the sink. Also open both valves on the floor behind the driver's seat. Then remove the cap on the fresh water fill in the service center (flap/door on the outside of the coach). That isn't really necessary because there is a vent but just in case the check valve is stuck. It will drain out a full tank in about two hours. I've done this several times over 3 years ownership without issue.

[jeanie19]

I also got tired of waiting for a gravity drain, and the water dribble was wasted on the driveway. So pumped it into a 5 gallon bucket from the outside shower and dumped it on some thirsty shrubs. Then left the petcock by the pump open for a while to drain out whatever was left.