Open low point drains after every trip?

CanadianTabber

Hey all!
Does everyone open the low point drains after every trip?
I have been reticent about doing this for fear of problems priming the pump.
Thoughts?

XenanMe

I don’t.  I leave them closed between trips.  I do open the yellow Alde flapper after each trip and drain some water to keep the air cushion in the hot water tank.  And I drain the fresh water tank.  

dsfdogs

Yes I do. Hot water, cold water and Alde (yellow flipper valve), plus fresh tank. I've never had an issue with my pump. I usually first attach hose for city water and fill the lines and hot water tank. I fill and flush the toilet first, then turn on cold/hot faucets to get air out of the lines. Then, I fill the fresh tank. Once full, turn on the pump. It does it's hammering thing to build pressure. Again I'll start with the toilet and fill the bowl and flush, then kitchen faucet until sputtering stops. Usually the lines will be pressurized and pump stops hammering after the toilet flush.

dragonsdofly

@CanadianTabber we drain our tanks after every trip. Fresh, black and gray. And the plumbing lines. We open the low point drains, a hot and cold faucet and the alde tank. Nasty stuff can grow in the stagnant water filled lines. By opening the low point drains and a faucet, air enters the open faucet and helps the lines drain more completely. While we drain and flush both gray and black tanks between trips, we do put in a gallon of water with a scoop of the tank treatment Happy Campers in each tank, which stays in until the next tank empty and flush. The fresh water tank drain gets opened as we begin the trip home. The trailer bouncing on the road helps to slosh most of the water out. The less water puddled in the tank, the less opportunity for bad bacterial growth there. If you don't drain your fresh water tank and lines between trips you are really risking the odds for unpleasant or unhealthy bacteria to gain a significant foothold in your t@b plumbing.

Ask some of our forum members about the evil sulphur smell or rotted food smell in the water left in the fresh water tank, and the lengthy or herculean effort it takes to overcome said smell as most of the time even sanitizing and bleaching the fresh water tank won't clear the residual smell and/or taste. It takes much less work to just drain stuff than to try to clean up after an incident.

techietab

I open every low point drain after every trip. I've had zero issues priming the faucets and toilet via city water configuration or via the pump drawing from the fresh tank.

MarkAl

I try and remember to open them to drain as much as possible. I will pre-charge the system when filling the tank by running "city water" and opening the faucets after the fill.

pthomas745

My trailer always has water in it, so I don't drain any of the tanks.  (It is my part of my emergency earthquake kit!)  I sanitize about 4 times a year.

Slackers

To add another data point, we open low point drains before we leave the dump site.  We don't always open the Alde valve, but get around to it once we get the trailer home.  Solids don't enter our black tank, so we treat our black tank with a bucket of water and Dawn as we travel home.  The gray tank gets a similar treatment once or twice a year.