Design and assembly

I came across the “Janils Ivy bag” purely by accident when doing random google searches on various topics. Since I had a friend who used a large rubberized bladder for RV waste water, I was familiar enough with the device to understand the potential applications. I set the bag out in my head, (what I had read about it at least) and imagined all the necessary links between my existing FloJet Macerating pump and the bag. Then I designed what would be needed to run to a sewer outlet at a dumpstation for the process of emptying the contents.

The bag has 2 of the 1.5 inch male threaded outlets. One on the top, and one on the side. Somehow I originally missed that these were Male and ordered male adapters to step down to a 3/4 Garden Hose Pipe connection for both ingress and egress. The Bag comes equipped with a 1.5 inch NPT PVC female/female ball valve to manage the water leaving the system, and a simple cap to seal the top inlet opening. Given this, the adapters I ordered would work fine with the valve to adapt a hose for dumping, but would not work directly with the top inlet to allow a garden hose to connect for filling the system. I needed to get a 1.5 inch pvc coupler to connect these together.

The initial test of the system did not use the top ingress port. Rather, I used the Garden Hose quick connects to connect a hose to the egress port to fill the bladder with fresh water. I used the D-rings to attach ratchet straps to make sure the bladder would not fall out of the back of the truck during transport instead of closing the tailgate. I filled the bladder about halfway which was approximately 50 gallons or so. This took about 10 minutes to get to about the halfway point and I decided that was enough to test.

The ride to the dumpstation was slow and uneventful, thankfully. There was an obvious undulation to the top of the bladder and the ratchet straps held everything in place nicely. The 3/4 inch hose I built from a “sewer solutions” extention hose is clear and allows visual inspection of the water evacuation process. Although it is not a super quick process as would be the case if it were a 3 inch hose, it took less time to empty than it did to fill. I would guess about 8 minutes to empty using a 3/4 inch hose and Garden hose quick connects to a sewer elbow assembly. The size of the hose is purely to prevent leaking due to excess pressure built up in the bladder. Even though 10 feet is sufficient, I may choose 15 in the future.

After the bag was empty it was not difficult to fold back up to a small size once again, but there was some air trapped that needed to be released. I am unsure if this would be messy in the case of non-fresh water, but there was not any spraying in my initial trial. The bag included a couple of patches and PVC glue in case there is a leak, and while I am keeping an eye on the durability, I am hopeful these will not be needed. It may require a focus on keeping the process consistent and not intruducing any sharp objects that could cause damage.

Overall I am very pleased with the results and will continue to improve and test until I am satisfied with the process. The Bladder itself works very well and I am hoping to get years of use out of it. This is a much more space efficient and convienient way of offloading RV waste water in an environment where a sewer connection is not near at hand and moving the RV would prove burdensome.

-Chris Jacobs

Parts List

There are a few thing I already owned that are essential:

AMAZON – FlowJet Macerating RV pump – was about $209 when we got it

ACE Hardware – Cheap 50’ Garden Hose for waste water – I think it was $12

TRACTOR SUPPLY – Parts to make wiring extension about 35 feet wired to the RV battery – Guessing $20

Total of existing equipment: about $250

The new gear to build the water holding/dumping system are as follows:

AMAZON –100 Gal Water Bladder – 179.99

AMAZON –3/4 extension hose – 22.49

AMAZON –Sewer adapter 3/4″ – 17.86

AMAZON –Hose Adapter Male 1.5 NPT x 3/4GHT – 7.45 x2

AMAZON –90 Degree hose elbow – 6.99

LOWES -1.5″ PVC Ball Valve coupling – 9.80

LOWES -Hose Clamp – 1.15

LOWES -Hose Quick Connect – 6.48  x2

LOWES -Zinc Hose Shut Off Valve – 5.18

LOWES -3/4 Hose end – 4.18

About 6 dollars to make a female to female Garden hose coupling.

LOWES – 30 Gal Bin to hold everything – 17

Total – $313

 

Estimated Grand Total: $550 – $600