Is this a 'good' thing?

[JFXG]

Well, I could comment on a couple of aspects of this thread, like perhaps the efficiency of running 200 gallons of water through to enhance the cleaning of a 40 gal tank that spends its life holding POOP!
But my main point is to mention a rule of thumb I learned some time ago- because things don’t always go as we presume- and that is, for me, that I never, I say again, NEVER walk away from the water bay when the black tank flush is activated. Period. Drop mike. {Don’t ask [emoji6]}

[Mudfrog]

Originally Posted by Edd505

Clean poop! Great!

We each gotta do what makes us feel good. For me, plenty of water during use and dumping at or above the half full mark has always worked fine for us.

I suppose I might try some soap or something if the tank level sensors ever got out of whack or another problem developed. But to "spruce" up the tank just for grins,,, nah, I got better things to do.

[triplewide]

Originally Posted by Old Scout

"Grease in the black"....think I need to hear more about how this happened????

Too much pepperoni with extra cheese pizza?

[5240]

My Gulf Stream BT Cruiser kitchen sink drains to black tank. Lav sink and shower drain to gray tank.

[knight13]

I did the same thing once. Never again.

Bob &Susan Tinnerello
2013 Monaco Knight 40PDQ

[hitlinks]

I don't use commercial tank treatments. After I dump my tanks I put 1/2 cup of dawn dish soap and a 1/2 cup of borax in my black tank and add about 5 gallons if water then use as usual.. In my gray tank I use 2 cups of ZEP cleaner and 1/2 cup of borax.. I don't empty my tanks until they register full. I give a good rinse to the tanks after emptying them. I never have odors from my tanks and the sensors remain clean. I got this recipe from a YouTube video when I was searching for remedies for sensor cleaning.

[Busterroy]

Originally Posted by TriMoot

So, today I REALLY wanted to clean out my black tank, so I emptied it out and then started refilling it with clean water from the back flush hose and thought I'd really get it spiffed up so I dumped in quite a bit of dawn dish soap.

I set my timer for 8 minutes, kind of a guess as how long it would take to fill the black tank, and went back to work.

My alarm hadn't gone off yet, but I thought I'd check, so I lifted the toilet seat and looked down the hole with my flash light. Yikes! Soap suds popped up and were right near the top! "Okay, must be good".

So I went out and dumped the tank and when I went over to the other side of the RV I noticed soap suds coming out my vent on the roof!!!!!!

I'm assuming that's a good thing? Meaning the vent is working?

Here's some pics:

I have put a tiny amount of dish soap in a bottle/container and started to fill it with water to clean it out. Invariably, about 10% water accumulates in the bottom and the soap comes pouring out the of the top.
I never would have dreamed about trying that with a black tank for the obvious reasons that you discovered. Hope all is clean and smells good. I might be a bit concerned with the suds in the vent however.

[BrassPlayer]

I do wish you had a video. It could keep me entertained for quite a while.

[rvnomads1974]

Dish soup foams to beat the band. Can you imagine a dishwasher if you put regular dish soap in it?

There are many posts full of bad advice to use dish soap. Ignore those people. Use dishwasher liquid. Same result with out foaming disaster.

[waterman480]

Never fill your black water tank through the rinse fitting. If for any reason your vent is plugged, you will either blow apart your couplings or your tank. You want to treat that tank with TLC, as to replace it you may be tearing out floors and walls. Fortunately, I was able to replace my coupling after many hours of groaning and scraping my hands and fingers without having to pull up the floor. Be forewarned. That is why the sticker is there.

[BRBD]

If you all aren’t careful, you’re going to have that Dihydrogen Monoxide running out of your taps!!

[Our05Winneba]

You should not use a sudsing detergent. Rather use dishwasher detergent (designed for dishwashers) as it is non-foaming.

Also - after rinsing your tank as best you can (if you do not have an internal tank sprayer - or hose available - you can always take a 5 gallon bucket and dump that down your toilet to help flush things out) fill your blank tank about 1/3 - 1/2 full with water, and add a non-foaming dishwasher or laundry detergent, you should drive your RV around for a while - (couple of says??) in order to let the agitating action of this detergent water slosh around your tank to really "scrub" it clean. Some like to also add a bag of ice cubes to help provide an additional abrasive.

Then dump & rinse.

For more detail refer to these 2 RV Geeks articles & videos -

https://www.thervgeeks.com/dumping-c...rv-black-tank/

https://www.thervgeeks.com/clean-your-rv-tank-sensors/

[n6medjim]

Gotta be really careful with dihydrogen monoxide. Need to carefully read the Material Safety Data Sheet re before using it. This material can be highly destructive to your lungs, can cause a major electrolyte imbalance if ingested in excess amounts, and, given a very smooth floor surface, can cause major injury if one slips on it.


Jus' sayin' !

[Jack_Hall]

Got this at a RV rally:
48oz pine sol (any "flavor")
1/2 cup Calgon Bath Beads (kind of hard to find)
Water to make up 1gal.
Put 8 Oz in black tank and 2 gal water (more or less)
Do this AFTER dumping and flushing black tank and BEFORE driving home. This allows it to slosh around and clean the tank (and especially the sensors). I have a 1996 Holiday Rambler which had sensors which always said the black tank was 3/4 full even right after a dump. After a YEAR of doing this on every trip, the sensors now work. BTW- the built in flusher is worthless. It is 1/2 inch pipe with 4 different right angle turns before it even leaves the area behind the bathroom sink to head for the tank.

TR Bowlin has a different formula on Youtube. I would bet that his is as good or better than the above because he always does things the right way. He has lots of other great ideas as well.

I have a flushing wand I built. It has a hose connection (for a dishwasher) to 1/4 inch copper pipe(28" long), connected to right angle, then a fitting for a compression fitting to create a nozzle. This thing REALLY cleans the gunk out of the tank. Best washer I have ever seen or used.