Why I Finally Bought a Sewer Hose Kit

The sewer hose that came with our used motorhome was the one piece of equipment I never thought about. It was thin. It folded up small. It lived in a compartment I did not open unless I absolutely had to. Then, on our second trip, at a dump station north of Ardmore, Oklahoma, it split right at the fitting.

No spill on anyone. Just a slow drip running down the outside of the hose onto the concrete while I stood there in gloves with an expression Dean still will not describe. We rinsed it off, finished the job, and drove home. Somewhere around the Red River I had already decided.

We bought the Camco RhinoFLEX 15 foot sewer hose kit about three years ago, within a week of getting home. It was not a researched purchase. It was the kit the neighbor at our next campground recommended, and the one that showed up at the house two days after I ordered it. Three years and roughly eighteen trips later, it is still the hose in the bin.

Here is what you actually get, since I had to learn this the slow way. The hose is 15 feet long with the fittings already attached, so there is nothing to assemble at the dump station. It has swivel bayonet fittings, which means the ends turn independently of the hose itself. The kit includes a clear elbow with a 4-in-1 adapter, and that adapter fits the common dump station pipe sizes. The hose is 3 inches in outside diameter and the whole kit weighs about 3 pounds.

It lives in a lidded plastic bin in the outside storage bay, on the opposite side from the drinking water hose. That was Dean's rule and it is a good one. Nothing about the kit is heavy or awkward to handle, which matters more at 64 than it did at 40.

I should say I am not a person who researches hoses. I am a retired school office manager who learned most of this by asking the people parked next to us and reading the paperwork that came with the rig. If you are further along than that, good. If you are not, this is the short version.

Three years, about eighteen trips, one hose, and it has not split at the fitting once.

The first time I used it was at a dump station outside Tyler, on the way home from that same trip. Dean stood back and watched, which is his way of being supportive without taking over. It hooked up in less time than it took me to get my gloves on, and nothing dripped that was not supposed to. Biscuit slept through the whole thing in the cab.

Three years in, the part I notice is the fittings. The swivel ends mean I am not fighting the hose for position while I line the bayonet lugs up with the RV outlet. I turn the collar, it seats, I let go. Same at the other end with the clear elbow and the dump station pipe. The 4-in-1 adapter has handled every pedestal I have met in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and New Mexico.

The clear elbow surprised me. I did not think I cared about seeing anything. But there is a real difference between dumping and hoping and dumping and watching. You see when the tank is done. You see when it is not. You stop standing there counting to twenty in your head.

What I do not love is honest and small. Fifteen feet is exactly enough for our setup. There have been two sites where I would have liked a few more feet of slack, and we have never bought an extension, because most of the time it is fine as it comes. The hose is flexible enough that if you coil it without rinsing it well, a little water can stay inside until the next trip. That is a rinsing habit, not a defect, but it is why the bin has a lid.

We have thought about a portable tote tank for sites without full hookups, and never bought one. So far we have stayed at full hookup sites or used dump stations, which is what this kit is built for.

The warranty is a limited one year, which has been irrelevant to us because nothing has gone wrong with it. I mention it because you should know what you are buying rather than what a listing headline implies.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

I would tell you that the sewer hose is not the part of RVing anyone wants to spend an afternoon on, and that is exactly why it should be the part you only buy once. The hose that came with our motorhome arrived with the rig. It also cost me my composure at a dump station in front of two strangers. The Camco kit cost me one decision and three years of not thinking about it. If your rig came with a thin hose and you have not had a problem yet, you are not wrong, you are just early.

Buy the 15 foot kit, rinse it before you coil it, keep it in a bin with a lid, and keep it on the other side of the bay from your drinking water hose. That is the whole advice. Dean would add that you should wear gloves, and he is right about that too.