Community Forums

buddy110 · 09-12-2017, 10:39 AM

Hi folks,
We almost exclusively use the macerator tank to discharge both gray and black tanks. I noticed while discharging the grey tank the odor of sewage was still quite strong, this after two black tank flushes. I filled the black tank 100% and discharged it twice, but the odor is still quite strong and the color of the wastewater is brown.

What do you guys do to sanitize, deodorize and clan the macerator?

Thanks in advance

Oldkarphart · 09-12-2017, 10:43 AM

Happy Camper will do the trick..

jbhobbs54 · 09-12-2017, 11:02 AM

I think you will find a lot of people on here use Dawn, we have been real happy with the results.

buddy110 · 09-12-2017, 11:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbhobbs54

I think you will find a lot of people on here use Dawn, we have been real happy with the results.

How much, how and when do you apply it. During the rinse process?

Ann n Gene · 09-12-2017, 08:38 PM

We put a cocktail of a cheap half bottle of liquid dish soap, a bottle of cheap dollar tree version of pine sol and a couple of caps of Calgon in the tank with about 20 gallons of water and drive to the next campground. Immediately hook up and dump and rinse twice. Do this about every 5th or 6th leg of an extended trip. It has worked for us for several years with no smell and clean rinse outs. BUT I rinse twice at least 30%full every time I dump and put a couple of gallons of fresh water in the bottom of the tank as a starter EVERY time I dump and we do not use any other tank deodorizer product. Works good for us.

jbhobbs54 · 09-13-2017, 05:07 AM

Buddy110 - we use about a cup full of Dawn dumped in the black tank. I flush the tanks with each dump till clear. Then put about 10% water in the tank to start with.

brobox · 09-13-2017, 07:47 AM

I do about that same as Gene except 94 to 96% on the back-flush/fill.

Also if parked for awhile I sometimes drain, then back fill 90% with a 1/2 bottle of Dollar Store brand Pinesol and let it sit over night before flushing.

MoHoGo · 09-14-2017, 03:30 PM

I actually think that the smell from the grey tank is worse than the black. Before we changed/raised the discharge hose from the washing machine the stink was awful.

Podivin · 09-14-2017, 03:40 PM

Buddy, after you drain the black tank turn off the macerator and open the valves for both the black and gray tanks - this will cause water to flow from the gray tank to the black.
Close the gray valve and empty the black tank again, this gives the black a bit of a rinse with the gray water.
You can probably do this 2 or 3 times, depending upon how much water you've got in the gray tank.
Leave enough water in the gray tank that you can flush out the hose with it.

Matt D · 09-14-2017, 04:31 PM

Buddy, regardless of effort I believe it to be quite difficult to properly clean the holding tanks in stock, unmodified form.

The reason is that the macerator is not a positive displacement pump, and as such will have an amount of waste water remain within the macerator even when you cannot get any more from the hose.

Examine the stock plumbing from the macerator to the hose. It runs uphill and as such makes the macerator a sump that cannot be drained.

This is reason #467 why the stock setup is not a good idea.

Read the suggestions on the Macerator door repair and there are quite a lot of good variations on the theme of rerouting the macerator to exit the wet bay floor.

We have spent 4 months in our coach so far this year, and while the waste water doesn't smell like roses, it isn't overwhelming. I do absolutely nothing to deodorize either tank.

Get out the hole saw!

-Matt