How often and how to clean black tank
We have sani flushed the tank only once in 3 years. Recently I read I should be doing this more often. On the other hand some places say not to empty black too often because then there is an inadequat...
Forum Discussion
spoon059 wrote:Tvov wrote:
I don't think it is just my camper or my diet... many friends with campers have said that if their tanks aren't thoroughly rinsed, their campers will smell after sitting in storage or just sitting unused for extended periods.
Try dumping your black tank, but don't rinse it or use toilet chemicals afterwards. Let your camper sit unused for months.
I would be impressed and surprised if your camper doesn't end up getting that "black tank smell". May not be over whelming, but it is there.
If you can store your camper without rinsing the black tank, and have no smells after an extended period, keep doing whatever it is you are doing!
It is possible we are thinking of the same thing, but using different terminology.
For 10 years I've rinsed and left water in the bowl, never had any sewer smells in my camper. One year my wife was pregnant and very sick, we didn't camp at all that summer. No special arrangements made and zero sewer smell in my camper. Clean it properly and maintain it properly and it will not smell. Fail to either clean it or maintain it and it will smell. You can fill the tank full of bleach to mitigate other problems, but it won't solve those other problems.
If you have to sanitize your black tank (literally, clean it to make it sanitary, thus no traces of human waste) to prevent smell then you have something else going on. The systems are designed to hold human waste and not smell inside the camper. If your camper is leaking sewer odors into your camper, it is potentially dangerous and clearly not working as designed. You should look at getting that fixed, rather than masking it with sanitizers.
Okay, so you DO rinse your black tank. Yes, a properly cleaned out black tank does not smell.
I go an extra step and sanitize the tank when we aren't going to be using it for an extended time.
As far as I am aware, our camper and its tanks are fine and in proper working order, same as my friends that have similar issues when they don't clean out their black tank.
We are just talking in circles now - so keep taking care of your camper the way that works for you, I will take care of mine the way that works for me.
Maybe we'll meet at a campground somewhere!
