The other day, whilst Puricleaning my water system, I decided to fit the 6 metres of new waste pipe I bought for my caravan (the old ones had perished under the 'van, where they are open to the elements).
Now on my little Lunar, there are 2 waste outlets on the side (for the washroom sink & shower) & one on the back (for the kitchen). I decided it would be a good idea to bring them all together, so I took the kitchen one along the back edge of the caravan, around the corner jack, & forwards towards the other two.
Mine has the older 23.5mm waste. I had thought about going to the 28mm stuff, but the thought of having to change all the fittings & widen the holes in the floor was just too much for me.
Now, the trouble is, my kitchen sink, which previously drained really well, is taking ages to drain!
Do you guys have any thoughts on what I could do to make this better? I don't think it's a good idea to just live with it, as it's going to block sooner or later.
Have I got to put it back how it was???
I would rather keep the outlets as close to the axle as possible, as this will always be the point with best clearance for the waste container under the 'van. & many of the places I camp are sloping. Some will have the back of the 'van practically on the ground.
Have you got plugs in wash basin and shower in ,if so try with them removed as you may be getting air lock.For this reason i always keep them separate side buy side and make a Y connection outside van to link them into one.Also by running them into one under the van if you get a block it is possible for water from sink to come up inside shower.
Make sure you're pipework is sloping towards the outlet. I've rerouted pipework on previous vans and doing this, like domestic pipework makes the waste flow faster. If you fix it close to the caraven floor then waste matter can build up and as there is not enough force to the flow of water it will be restricted !
There are still 3 separate waste outlets on the side of the 'van, I just moved one of them round so they were all side by side.
I think this could well be to do with the fall. I was a bit concerned it was just the length of run, & I was never going to be able to have them all on the same side.
I have run the hose close to the caravan floor, & to make it worse it goes down & back up again around a chassis timber (only by a couple of inches though).
I honestly thought, with the sink being so much higher, this wouldn't be such an issue.
Looks like I've got to re-think things a bit then.......
Sounds like you may not fancy this option but I had a similar problem on my van when I bought it. It took an age for the kitchen sink to empty and glugged as it did and it drove me mad. when I took a proper look at it the waste pipe as yours is it was badly perrished, so I decided to put a solvent weld domestic 32mm waste system on it. the result is I now have traps under my 2 sinks and they both drain very quickly.
I have the outlet near the wheel for the reasons you pointed out and I have a few different lengths of pipe to slot into the outlet elbow depending on the slope I'm on.
For the shower I left a short length of flexi and fed it into an upturned fitting which is on its own leg of pipework to stop anything backing up as someone suggests might happen. I hoped that open end would act as an air admittance to stop any vaccum problems and it seems to have worked. one of the best mods I've made I think and well worth the effort.
The down side is it cost me about £60 with traps and new sink wastes.
How about joining the 2 sinks together - not the shower or you'll flood the caravan.
I moved outlets from the back to the side behind the axle, cut down the length of run and because the kitchen sink was at the opposite side managed to achieve a respectful drop by mounting the outlets on a wooden block.
Hi Matt,
It's all in the size (or bore) and having a good fall in the pipework.
For anyone wanting to change their pipework, have a look how I did it. It is a good upgrade and since doing it I have not had one comment on how the sink drains!!
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Topic: Waste Pipes & slow draining sink
