New to RV

[ajw]

Quick question.

I have three valves, two in the hook up area and one outside under a slide near outlet (black?)

Are the closed pushed in? Or pulled out? And what is the third one under the slide for? The other two are labelled.

Dumb questions from a newbie!

Ajw

[Frdfan]

Hello ajw
The two in the hook up or docking station should be grey water and black water, the other one should be your galley tank, also grey. If the handles are pulled out they are open,,push them in to close.

[hankpage]

It would help us a lot if we knew what model trailer you have. I moved your post here assuming it is a 5er. Normally the two valves that are together are 1 gray water (Shower and vanity sink) 1 black water(toilet). The one that you say is under the slide is most likely your second gray tank (galley). Perhaps someone with your model can be of more help. Welcome and travel safely, Hank

[SkiSmuggs]

Your valves should always be closed while on the road. While camping, I used to leave the gray open until the day before leaving and then close it to build up water for flushing the hose after dumping the black tank. But I realized that deposits were more likely to build up from light water flow, so now my policy is to dump full tanks so the momentum flushes deposits (shaving cream, soap suds) out leaving a cleaner tank.
I have a built-in black tank cleaner and turn that on a few minutes before dumping the black tank to add more liquid and dilute the tank. I leave it running while the tanks dumps until it runs mostly clear (clear plastic adapter at the outlet). Then I close the valve, let the cleaner run another 5-10 minutes and open the black valve again. Amazing how much more debris comes out. If not in a hurry, I do that one more time and let it run for a few minutes with the valve closed just to have some starting water in the tank.
Once done with the black tank, I empty the galley tank next as it may have food debris in it and finally the shower tank to flush any black or galley tank debris from the sewer hose.