Black tank question - Poll

[J. V.]

Seems like a lot of water is wasted when filling the tank. I leave the valve open with the flush going and fill the stool with the fill peddle and dump the stool all at once and the solids flushes right out. I sometime have to dump the stool a couple of times before the drain water clears up in the clear pipe insert. Nothing is left in the tank. Probably dump 1 1/2 gal. of water each time.

J. V.

[dkchcolo08]

After reading all of these post and being a newer RVer than most that repond I seem to get that you do what works for you and a little of each suggestion would be wise to use, am I correct.  I dump, flush always with valve open, than close for about five minutes, open and dump, flush once more for about five minutes and I guess hope this is doing the job. I also the day or so before I dump the black I close the other two tanks and after all done with the black I dump those to clear out the lines.  This is my second winter staying in the trailer for 4-5 months so the black tank gets it use.  I think this is somewhat of a comanation of what other post suggest or are doing.  Keep on dumping, Dick

[HaroldG]

..... and I guess hope this is doing the job....

Dick,
The only thing I would add is to get the clear elbow so you can see what is happening during your flush. You won't have to guess.
Harold

[Hut]

..... and I guess hope this is doing the job....

Dick,
The only thing I would add is to get the clear elbow so you can see what is happening during your flush. You won't have to guess.
Harold

Definitely a must have item.

[Lance]

  If you forget and fill the tank until the water starts up the vent, you get 1 PSI for every 27.7 inches of water height in the vent above the tank. That will likely result in 3 or 4 pounds of pressure in the tank before it reaches the top.

[Lee and T]

Kind of like my climbing up my 225 lb rated step ladder with my 240 lb bulk....   

I always wondered what the weight limit was...  Guess I need to stay on the diet for a bit longer than I wanted to!!! 

lee

[bpe]

The best flush results I've ever gotten was by filling the toilet completely and dumping it several times. I tried about ever other method and when I did this I was shocked at what it broke loose. We bought our unit used and I don't believe the black tank was maintained well. What I eventually did was dump 5 bags of ice in tank along with 10 gallons of water and drove across 2 states to next park. Removed the hard scale buildup. jfyi. God bless.

[Flcruiser2]

I'm going to buy an egg timer.  Witnessed one of our forum members get distracted and burst his black tank (not pertty).. 6 months later I almost did the same thing.  Egg timer for me.....now I hope I can remember to use it!

[cedarhillfarm]

Our tank flusher says that it must be open, so I never considered doing anything else!  The things I learn here! 

[Newt]

Our tank flusher says that it must be open, so I never considered doing anything else!  The things I learn here! 

That's lawyer CYA talk.  Because, you sure don't want to be distracted and leave it on too long.

Newt

[ron brugh]

When I want the tank real clean. With the valve open and the sprayer on Igo insde and hold the toilet flush open for afew minutes.the water coming down gets hit by the spray and in my opinion does a better job.    Ron

[warthog]

It appears that something so simple does have lot and lots of ways to clean the tank out.  So I would say, whatever works for you will work.

Nate

[ron brugh]

I leave mine open while spraying.while the spray is on I go inside and hold the toilet flush valve open.I think the extra turbulance helps.my sensors still work after four years.

   Ron

[sonny]

I use a 5-gallon pail and dump it in the toilet fast to clean the tank after dumping. Never have had a problem after doing this.

sonny

[Fred A.]

I use a 5-gallon pail and dump it in the toilet fast to clean the tank after dumping. Never have had a problem after doing this.

sonny

That is a good idea.

We do about the same when the dump does not have a hose to connect to the flush inlet. We fill the toilet full of water three times and send it  down after I dump. If he water is not fairly clear, we will send another toilet full down.

If I can attach a hose to the flush inlet, I run that until the water is clear.

Fred

[Yoopers]

I leave mine open while spraying.while the spray is on I go inside and hold the toilet flush valve open.I think the extra turbulance helps.my sensors still work after four years.

   Ron

When you do this, where is the flush water coming from if the sprayer is hooked up?

Johna

[ron brugh]

The sprayer is totally independent . You have the pump on or hooked up to the rv parks water. Ron

[Arizona Flying Dutchman]

We often get 10 days out of a tank when boonie-camping. Solids don't stay solids for that long. Waste breaks down into a liquid slurry fairly quickly. Only the more "recent contributions" turn into the "chunkies" everyone is so thrilled with. I put one of those clear plastic ends on the sewer hose to monitor progress. When I do dump the black tank, I open the gate and let it all drain out first, then close the gate and turn on the sprayer and run it for no more than one minute. I open the gate again, let it drain, and repeat the process until the water is reasonably clear. Then I close the gate, run the sprayer for about 30-45 seconds, which pumps in a "preload" roughly equal to 6 gallons of water, which I leave in there to cover the bottom of the tank. My sensors have always been correct and I have had no problems in 8 years. I dump the grey water tank last to help flush the sewer hose.

BTW: We don't use the buck-a-roll RV toilet paper either. We use Kirkland two-ply, or any two ply, septic safe TP. In the beginnng we took the expensive stuff and put a few sheets in a glass of water. Same with the Costco stuff. Biodegraded in water at almost the exact same rate. Never had a clog. Never had a problem. Just saved a ton of money.

[HaroldG]

........When I do dump the black tank, I open the gate and let it all drain out first, then close the gate and turn on the sprayer........

I used to do it that way until some toilet paper didn't make it all the way thru the drain and I shut the gate valve on it, there it stuck and let the liquid pass thru. You know what happens then. Of course I didn't know it at the time till I took the valve apart and found toilet paper stuck there. Now I turn on the sprayer right after I open the black valve and let it continue to run till it is pretty clear. I do that a few more times.
Harold

[Newt]

Unless the black tank is "really" full, I start the sprayer before opening the valve.

Newt

[Big Greg]

I'm with Newt, it mixes stuff up a little more before dumping.   Greg

[Trap]

I always travel with at least 10 gallons of water in both the black and grey tanks, the water swirling around in the tanks while on the road seems to help keep it clean, so far my sensors have always worked using this method. At the end of the season I fill with about 20 gallons of water along with a cup or two of calgon and some Dawn dishwashing soap and dump tanks just before getting home.

Once we're home I'l fill them with water to rinse them out and dump the water on the lawn. So far no surprises.


Trap