Macerator

Among the various spare parts, and camping-specific goodies that came with my Overlander was a Macerator pump in a nifty carrying case. Basically, the pump is used by connecting it to the Airstream’s three-inch sewer outlet via the stinky slinky. The device then grinds up the solids & sends them through a garden hose into the sewer tap in the front yard. The previous owner was quite proud of acquiring the pump in ’69, and had great plans for it’s use. But he ended up never using it, and hence had no advice on it’s operation.

Now skip forward a mere 36 years to a week ago last Sunday. In getting the Overlander ready for our first trip of the season, I was faced with needing to empty the black tank before the 400 mile season opener because my four & five years old boys had repeatedly helped me test the new water pump installed a couple of weeks ago. Since I knew the tank had more than just water in it, the Macerator was returned to active duty.

The first chore was getting the sewer tap cap in the front yard off. Even after living in my house for the past eight years or so, I had never had a reason to remove it. Since it was a brass cap threaded into a cast iron fitting, I had no reason to think it was going to come off easily. But I was mistaken; A five foot pipe on the end of my crescent wrench made short work of the task.

This pump’s 10 foot power cord attaches to 12 vdc, which just reached the battery compartment on the aft street side of the Airstream. After running about 75 feet of garden hose, the pump was switched on, and the dump valve was opened. Success! I ran over to the sewer tap to see a very healthy stream of blue water coming out of the hose.

Although the setup worked quite well, the single page instruction sheet that came with the unit showed a straight 3-inch fitting screwed into the pump instead of the angled fitting I had. I may try to acquire a straight fitting because using it would allow me to position the Macerator directly beneath the dump fitting, and allow the garden hose to lay flat on the ground. In this page’s opening picture, everything was arranged to allow the three-inch hose to drain as well as possible with no additional support.

While the whole idea of being able to dump the black tank at home is pretty cool, I really don’t know how much use it will get. My preference is to dump the tank when leaving a campground with a dump facility, and I don’t see up boondocking anytime soon. But now I can offer courtesy parking with full hookups! J