Water, waste and where to empty, the basics

Nobody buys a campervan to think about drains. But the three tanks (fresh, grey and the toilet) decide where you can stay, how long you can stay, and whether the landlord lets the next van in. Here's the whole subject in one place.

Fresh water

How much. Plan on ten litres per person per day for tea, cooking, washing up and a wash. Double it if you want a proper shower. A small van with a 20-litre underslung tank and a couple of jerry cans does a long weekend comfortably.

Where to fill.

• Campsites, obviously, including many that will let a passing van fill up for a pound or two.
• Motorhome service points. There aren't many in the UK, but they're growing, and some councils run them at car parks and marinas.
• Garages with a tap, if you ask nicely. Garden centres too.
• Cemeteries have taps for flowers. Fill a bottle for the kettle, not a tank.

Use a food-grade hose, not the one from the garden. Keep it in a bag. Flush the tank with a sterilising tablet every few months, and more often if the water starts to taste of hose.

Grey water

This is sink and shower water. It isn't sewage, but it isn't clean either: fat, food and detergent. The rule is simple.

It goes down a drain connected to a sewer. Campsite grey water points, service points, or, with permission, a pub's yard drain. It does not go in a hedge, a stream, a storm drain by the kerb (those run straight to the river), or the gravel of a pub car park.

If you don't have a grey tank, a collapsible 10-litre container under the sink outlet does the job. Empty it where it's allowed, or take it home.

The toilet

Most small vans have a cassette toilet or a portable one, which is the same thing in a box. A few have composting toilets, which separate liquids from solids and need no chemicals.

Where to empty a cassette.

• Campsite chemical disposal points, usually marked CDP or Elsan. Almost every campsite has one, and most will let a non-resident use it for a small fee.
• Motorhome service points.
• Your own toilet at home, which is where most weekend vans empty anyway.

Where not to. Public toilets, pub toilets without explicit permission, and anywhere outdoors. Ever.

Chemicals. The blue stuff works but is unkind to septic tanks, which a lot of rural campsites and pubs have. Green, septic-safe fluids are the polite default. Many people manage perfectly well with no chemical at all for a two-night trip and empty it as soon as they're home.

How long can you go?

For two people with a small fresh tank, two cans, a 10-litre grey container and a standard cassette, about three nights before something needs doing. The cassette is usually the limit. The honest way to extend it is to use pub and campsite toilets whenever you're near one.

Being self-contained

When a pub asks "are you self-contained?", this is what they mean: you have a toilet on board, you'll hold your grey water, and you won't need their facilities overnight. Being able to say yes to that, truthfully, is what gets you the stopovers. The etiquette around it is in pub stopover etiquette.

Keep a note in the van of the nearest campsite that lets non-residents use the CDP, for each area you go back to. It's the piece of information that's hardest to find on a Sunday afternoon.