Community Forums

Snowboat · 01-30-2016, 08:31 PM

After having the black water back up, having to remove the underbelly and all the insulation, and redoing the plumbing, I have a question. The black tank sensors are unreliable. My tank figures out to be 50-55 gallons. How often do you think my DW and I should dump? Is there a way to determine how full the black tank is? The plumbing is not straight down. The unit is a 2006 40' Travel Supreme 5vr. Thank you.

nothermark · 01-30-2016, 08:43 PM

One of the many reasons why I do not use the city water hookup is that I can make a reasonable guess at tank usage by looking at the fresh water tank. I also noticed that the bathroom sink develops a distinct gurgle when the black tank is full before it overflows.

Old-Biscuit · 01-30-2016, 08:46 PM

GF & I Full Timed for 7 yrs. Our Black Tank is 50 gallons.

Haven't looked at the tank monitor in over 7 yrs....they are junk.
And after using RV for couple weeks we figured out what our typical usage was.

Tank filled up and we dumped roughly every 6 days.

If we stayed shorter time just we just added water via flush connection while dumping.

When toilet 'burps'.....time to dump black tank (air comes back up via toilet when flushing due to level in tank being high enough to almost block off vent line----with 5vr toilet sits 3' above black tank so level isn't going to be hogh enough to come out of toilet)

When sink/shower start to drain slower.......time to dump grey tanks (grey/galley----when close to full drains from sinks/showers will slow down)

When water pump goes 'burrrrrrpp'.......fresh water tank empty. Should have already added water

Add couple of full toilet bowl flushes back into black tank after dumping......keeps tank bottom wet so any stuff will not stick/build up and sloshes around during travel

Santara · 01-30-2016, 08:48 PM

does shower use black as some do,not to many as far #days 4 should be fine if just potty

jondrew55 · 01-30-2016, 10:00 PM

What's the connection between the bathroom sink and the black tank?

Quote:

Originally Posted by nothermark

One of the many reasons why I do not use the city water hookup is that I can make a reasonable guess at tank usage by looking at the fresh water tank. I also noticed that the bathroom sink develops a distinct gurgle when the black tank is full before it overflows.

dpinvidic · 01-30-2016, 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jondrew

What's the connection between the bathroom sink and the black tank?

Some coaches plumb the bathroom sink into the black tank to give it a sourcee of additional water.

Many people don't use enough water when they flush, so this helps out.

Regards,

Dan

Dtwallace · 01-30-2016, 10:40 PM

Not mentioned here but discussed in other threads, the benefit of using an inexpensive dish washing detergent in the black water tank.

Most have found this practice helpful in maintaining a working sensor system, and aiding to prevent buildup on the sides and bottom of the tanks.

The amount you use is your personal preference, and over usage only produces more soap film and sometimes bubbles while dumping the system, neither is harmful in any way to your system, hoses or environment, and is less expensive than using commercial additives.

DTW

nothermark · 01-31-2016, 02:36 AM

If one considers either the problem of sufficient water in the tank or contamination the bathroom sink really should be connected to the black tank. That keeps most of the sources of fecal contamination going down the same drain.

Scatterbrain · 01-31-2016, 03:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snowboat

After having the black water back up, having to remove the underbelly and all the insulation, and redoing the plumbing, I have a question. The black tank sensors are unreliable. My tank figures out to be 50-55 gallons. How often do you think my DW and I should dump? Is there a way to determine how full the black tank is? The plumbing is not straight down. The unit is a 2006 40' Travel Supreme 5vr. Thank you.

You could always add a SeeLevel tank gauge system. No need to guess then.

Dr4Film · 01-31-2016, 03:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scatterbrain

You could always add a SeeLevel tank gauge system. No need to guess then.

Smart man!

X-2.

Dr4Film ----- Richard

Snowboat · 01-31-2016, 04:21 AM

Thanks for the responses. I think I'll add a little Dawn and dump every four days. I never noticed any gurgling through the drains. Since I removed the elbows it should drain much more freely. I guess watching the clear elbow may give me a better idea of what's going on in the tank. Thanks, again.

Scatterbrain · 01-31-2016, 01:19 PM

Does your black tank have a flush port?

ralphie · 01-31-2016, 01:41 PM

Seems most people report 5-7 days on the average size tank.

MrsChilerick · 01-31-2016, 04:29 PM

When it's just the two of us, we can get 10 days out of our 38 gal black tank. That said, we aren't hanging out in the RV all day, so the % of time you use the toilet in the RV makes a difference.

As far as the sensors, we tried all kinds of things and we have had the best results using Happy Camper tank treatment. They have "Extreme" to use to do an initial clean up and then we just use the regular treatment all summer. We've not had a problem since and our sensors work quite well. We also throw ice cubes down the toilet before we head out to our next destination to "scrub" the sensors and break up anything that decided to stay after we dump.

One thing we just learned, is that there are services that will "power wash" out your holding tanks and claim to bring them back to almost new condition. We've never used one, but think they might be helpful with holding tank problems.