Water and Houseboat Holding Tanks

by Nick Vitale
(Vermilion, Oh)

How do you handle problems with houseboat holding tanks? What types and size tanks do boats generally have on board.

How do you deal with Grey water, Black water? What are the different ways to store or contain all of the water, grey water, and black water.

When it comes time to empty the tanks, how is this taken care of?

Thanks, Nick Vitale,
Vermilion, Ohio

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Reply - Answer

Good question Nick, since many people with houseboats may have issues, problems, or a hard time understanding all the different holding tanks.

To help clarify the different tanks, these are the common holding tanks.

Tank Construction commonly are made of aluminum, stainless steel, plastic, or polyethylene style materials. They can range in size from 5 gallons to whopping 100 gallons and beyond. You can buy standard sizes, or have tanks made to measure.

Water Tanks are designed to hold clean potable water, and pumps are used to distribute it throughout the houseboat.

Grey Water Tanks are meant to hold waste from the kitchen sink, bathroom sink, and shower. Often, grey water is either dumped overboard, and some installations allow for diverting into a holding tank.

Black Water Tanks are for holding the waste from the toilet, and both the grey and black water tanks are generally vacuumed out at pump out marinas equipped with the suitable equipment. Some houseboats are equipped with more advanced MSD types of holding systems that treat black water.

On a side note, when the time comes to be emptying or pumping-out the holding tank on your houseboat, the thought of it makes people cringe. There has to be a better way to handle the whole process, and there is, it’s a new pump-out adapter designed for houseboats.


Lastly, hopefully some of our readers and visitors will share and post comments about their houseboat fresh water, grey water, or black water tank experiences.

Feel free to use the "Click here to post comments." link found near the bottom of this page.

Thanks again for sharing, IAN from all-about-houseboats

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