How to Hook Up an RV Sewer Hose to a Septic Tank

A recreational vehicle, more commonly known as an RV, is a mobile accommodation that offers regular home comforts and facilities, such as a kitchen and toilet. This means that an RV also transports a sewer system that holds all the produced waste materials.

How then do you dispose of the waste material? Long gone are the days when RV owners manually threw wastewater into bodies of water or even buried waste in the ground.

Now, you just use a hose. You read that right. An RV sewer hose cleans away your wastewater whenever you are on the go! Any outdoor enthusiast or RV owner can tell you how and why an RV hose is super important for, well, the RV as a whole.

What Is an RV Sewer Hose?

An RV sewer system undoubtedly plays an essential role in maintaining an RV’s operations to ensure a smooth ride. A fecal incident is the last thing you’d want when you’re all pumped for that camping vacation.

However, the sewer system requires a sewer hose. An RV sewer hose is made of a long, ridged, plastic tube that expands and contracts while flushing waste material out of the RV.

The RV hose will be connected to a septic tank—yes, the one that is managed by the local jurisdiction. This way, the waste is delivered straight to an actual wastewater management system, and the job is done!

The primary component of an RV’s sewer system is a wastewater tank, also known as a black water tank. Although some do have gray water tanks—a tank that collects only liquid waste products—they do not have their own septic tank.

RV owners can prevent any unwanted disasters by understanding their tank’s function and why waste material disposal is essential for their RV.

The dumping system is designed to connect the RV to a septic tank and to then flush the waste out; many thanks to gravity!

RV Sewer Hose makes cleaning easy

An RV hose makes cleaning the tank much easier, especially since it needs to be cleaned on a regular basis. Accumulating wastewater can really cause problems to an RV’s operation, so don’t put off cleaning your tank. This not only helps you to practice better hygiene but also makes sure your RV doesn’t smell.

Investing in a sewer hose not only purchases the hose but also comes with assorted additional attachments, such as hose fittings and valves that make the septic tank connection process a lot smoother. 

However, you should pay extra attention to how to properly connect the RV to a septic tank—another equally important aspect of an RV’s sewer system. One single trickle can lead to a fat, foul mess.

Connecting the RV to a Septic Tank

First and foremost, assess the level of wastewater in the RV tank. It is a general rule that the tank has to be two-thirds full just to reach an optimal pressure for the flow of waste to flush out.

Next, recognizing the necessary output valve of the RV is the most important step. Identify the wastewater tank’s valves before connecting the sewer hose. This step must be attended to with more care because you do not want the sewer hose to be connected to the water input valve.

Then, making sure the length of sewer hose is as needed, connect the RV to a septic tank. These septic tanks, sometimes known as “dump stations,” are governed by the local council or government and are normally meant for this sole purpose; so, confirming the accessibility of a dump station will be helpful too.

Once the sewer hose is connected between the RV and the septic tank, open the wastewater tank and turn on the RV’s pump. It is common to find these pumps in an RV, but in the case where there is no working pump, you might need to invest in one.

Do you need a macerator pump?

This kind of pump is known as a macerator pump, and it functions as a grinder of the waste materials in the black tank. Basically, macerator pumps ease up the flow of the sewer system to the septic tank.

If using an external macerator pump, the sewer hose should be attached both to the pump and to the septic tank.

With either an external or internal pump, just make sure that the pump is turned on, that the tank’s valve is open, and that you run the disposal until the tank is empty. Once the tank is emptied, the pump and tank valve can be returned to their original state.

In the instance that the septic tank you’re using is a home septic tank, be sure that the sewer hose connection is sealed firm. Again, it is extremely important for the valves to properly connected because we do not want a leaky connection.

If possible, it’s advantageous to get a transparent elbow to hook the connection of sewer hose to the septic. It will allow you to see the flow of the sewage and later confirm its cleanliness.

Moreover, it is also important to run the tanks with clean water after they have been emptied since it is not uncommon for solid waste material to be sedimented at the bottom of the tanks. In the long run, it maintains not only a clean sewer system for the RV but also the sustenance and sanitization of the tanks.

Two last tips to be mindful of are to keep a bucket handy and to wear gloves at all times during the connection procedure. You don’t want any literal, murky mess on your hands.

There you have it: full, detailed, step-by-step instructions on why and how to connect an RV’s sewer system to a septic tank.