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Standing at a dump point wrestling with a hose that won't stay put, or watching a fitting come loose mid-flow, is the kind of moment that makes you rethink whatever you're currently using. Two names come up constantly when caravanners and RVers go looking for a proper sewer hose kit: Camco's RhinoFLEX and Valterra's Viper. Here's how they actually compare, and what's realistic for buying one in Australia.
Do you actually need one?
Worth asking before anything else. If your caravan has a cassette toilet, you don't need a sewer hose kit at all - you unclip the cassette and carry it to the dump point yourself. These bayonet-fitting hose kits are built for caravans and motorhomes with a fixed black tank, where the tank empties through a permanent outlet that needs a hose to reach the dump point's inlet. If that's your setup, read on.
The two kits
Both are 6-metre kits made up of two 3-metre hose sections, a clear elbow adapter that fits standard dump station inlets (76mm slip, or 76mm, 89mm and 102mm threaded), and end caps to stop drips while stored. The hoses compress down for storage and extend back out when you need the length. Where they differ is fitting design:
- Camco RhinoFLEX is sold in two versions - the original, cheaper kit (model 39742) with removable swivel/bayonet fittings held on by a hose clamp, and an updated kit (model 39741) with fittings permanently attached to the hose for a "no leak" design. The 39742's detachable fittings are the design behind most of the well-documented pull-off failures reported by long-term RhinoFLEX owners, so 39741 is the fairer comparison against Valterra.
- Valterra Viper ships with permanently fused fittings as standard - there's no cheaper "detachable fitting" version to weigh up. It's made from heavy-duty, abrasion-resistant TPE, rated to -29°C, and is specifically marketed to spring back into shape rather than crush if stepped on or driven over.
The 39742 - the cheaper kit, with fittings held on by a hose clamp rather than fused permanently.
The updated 39741 - same hose, but the fittings are fused to the hose instead of clamped on.
What owners actually say
Valterra Viper has a strong reputation for holding up over years of regular use - one long-term owner reported five years of use, three of them full-time, with no complaints; another replaced a ten-year-old Viper only because it had finally developed a small leak, not because it failed. The recurring praise across reviews is that it "springs back" and stays collapsed at whatever length you actually need, rather than snaking around in storage.
The Valterra Viper kit - hose sections, clear elbow adapter, and drip caps.
Camco RhinoFLEX 39741 gets similarly strong overall feedback - owners consistently describe it "popping" into shape and staying extended without sagging, and several specifically credit following the tightening instructions during installation as the reason they had zero leaks. But it's not a flawless fix for the fitting problem the update was meant to solve: a handful of reviewers report fittings that wouldn't fully lock into place, drips at the connection despite careful installation, and pinholes developing after extended use - including one reviewer whose fitting failed to seat properly and disconnected mid-drain. It's a minority of the feedback, but a real one, and worth knowing about rather than taking the "no leak" name at face value. The single most common gripe across the RhinoFLEX and Viper reviews, though, isn't a failure at all - it's that the clear elbow adapter is too bulky to fit in a standard 100mm PVC pole carrier alongside the hose, so you'll need to find somewhere else to store it.
Buying it in Australia
This is where it gets impractical to shop like a US buyer. Australian caravan retailers (Coast to Coast RV, Caravan RV Camping, Snowys) generally don't stock either brand as a complete boxed kit - what's actually on the shelf is the hose sold on its own, with bayonet fittings, elbows and caps sold separately as individual parts. Snowys doesn't carry either brand at all; the sullage hoses they do stock (Supex, Companion) are a different product entirely, for grey water drainage rather than black tank dumping.
Buying the imported boxed kit through Amazon AU is realistic but comes at a real premium. At the time of writing: the Valterra Viper 6m kit was $228.92 with only one left in stock, while the Camco RhinoFLEX 39741 (permanent fittings) ranged from around $104.91 to $219.97 depending on delivery speed - and the older, budget 39742 kit with removable fittings was noticeably cheaper again, from around $74.74 to $95.48, if you're prepared to accept the higher risk of a fitting working loose over time.
Which one to buy
If you want the simplest, most tested option and don't mind paying for it, the Valterra Viper's permanently fused fittings have never had a "detachable fitting" version to worry about, and the long-term ownership reports back that up. The Camco RhinoFLEX 39741 gets you very close to the same reliability for less money in most cases, with the caveat that a small number of owners still report leaks or a fitting that didn't seat properly - so it's the better buy if budget matters, as long as you follow the tightening instructions carefully on first use. The cheapest RhinoFLEX kit (39742) is worth avoiding unless the price difference is the deciding factor, since its detachable fittings are the specific design that caused most of the documented failures in the first place.
Whichever kit you land on, pair it with the basics covered in our dump kit guide - gloves, a hose support, and tank treatment - so you're not caught out at the dump point without them.
Last updated August 2026.