Quote: Originally posted by lunarlexonds on 13/11/2011
Hello,
As a number of you will already know, i am a product design student and am trying to improve the wastewater container.
Could you answer me a few questions please;
1.) What is the maximum price you would be prepared to pay for an improved wastewater container?
I'm trying to find out the ideal capacity of a wastewater container;
what capacity would you like? (if there was not as much weight on the handle as the wastemaster)
the wastemaster is 38L and the waste hog is 45L
The weight also needs to be manageable for a female user so bear this in mind - or is the wastewater more the man's job?
Thanks for your help
Alex
Hi Alex.
I would think that 40L is about right for size.and wouldn't really see it as viable if the price was much more than £40-£45.
You may also be considering some of the following points, but I will mention them just in case.
The larger (i.e. larger the capacity) of water container, the less often it will be emptied. I would tend to consider the impact of 'standing water'. Leave a water container for too long (depending perhaps on temperature) it could possible tend to smell. We used to find this on site in France with the wastemaster.
A larger capacity waste water container would bring several other problems. You may have plans to solve the transportation of the container to the grey water point, but as someone else has pointed out, not all empting points are at ground level, so an alternative 'pump-type' system may have to be deployed to avoid lifting a larger container.
At a time when caravanners are being all that more aware of the weight they carry in the van, the materials used in construction may also need to be addresses to produce a lighter recepticle, although this may appear small issue. In connection with a larger capacity, one would need to consider the size of the container. We like to pack out water container away when travelling (i.e. not on the floor of the caravan, so perhaps one needs to consider the size and shape of the container in relation to the size of the bed lockers or front compartment. At the same time one needs to consider that the container needs to be flat enough to fit under the van (especially if the van is pitched on a sloping pitch where the waste water outlet pipe is close to the ground.
You may wish to ignore this next comment for the purpose of your project as I'm sure it is a question of some debate. Personally, I can visualize a time when waste water containers and water containers will be less of a vital part of caravanning equipment (but don't know about timescale). Many more sites are installing pitches with water hookup and grey water drainage, without the need for containers. At present, the Caravan Club lag behind many commercial sites in producing 'full service' pitches, but I wouldn't mind betting it's only a matter of time. There was a time when sites had no electric hook up (some still don't) but I wouldn't mind betting that the majority of caravanners use EHU, and I cant think of many (any) caravans that don't have the facility for EHU. In the future, perhaps we are all going to be looking for smaller water and waste containers, just to use as a 'back-up'. I know there are a minority of caravanners on here who do not take a waste container with them. is a larger container really the way to go?
Just a few rambling thoughts, which might help - or not! 
Topic: Waste Water container design
