A reminder for those who sanitize the water system.

The tanks on an RV are holding tanks and not a septic system. There is very little "breaking down" via bacteria and enzymes that occurs in between dumpings. If waste broke down that fast, household septic tanks would never have to be pumped.

As far as getting a little bleach water in your black tank, I would not worry about it. According to Oregon State University (and many others) "Because it is unstable, when used for disinfection, diluted bleach should be prepared fresh daily". Add to this the fact that using the black tank adds water which dilutes the bleach even further means the odds it will be able to kill anything becomes pretty much zero quickly.

http://oregonstate.edu/dept/larc/sites/default/files/pdf/chlorine-fact-sheet.pdf

Bobbo wrote:
If you double the amount of bleach, you can cut the sit time down to 1 hour

This is an old wives tale! In other words, not true.

WoodGlue

WoodGlue wrote:

Bobbo wrote:
If you double the amount of bleach, you can cut the sit time down to 1 hour

This is an old wives tale! In other words, not true.

WoodGlue

It may be an old wives tale, but it is in black and white in my Winnebago manual. That is where I got it.

It's amazing how many people believe waste will break down in a blank tank!

You would have to fill the tank and let it sit for many weeks or months for any real break down of waste to happen. Anything you add to the tank would be for odor control only.

We have never used city water hook ups so we sanitize each spring with bleach

Linc

Lspangler wrote:
It's amazing how many people believe waste will break down in a blank tank!

You would have to fill the tank and let it sit for many weeks or months for any real break down of waste to happen. Anything you add to the tank would be for odor control only.

We have never used city water hook ups so we sanitize each spring with bleachLinc

that's not true. I use a black tank chemical that DOES break down waste. You have to read the label very carefully to find one that states it does. Most of the new ones on the market now are targeted to the greenies and all they do is add perfume.

Which the one and only time I used one of those perfume ones because I had run out of the one I use......the whole RV stunk like a french whore and set my asthma off the charts. Had to find a dump station and get rid of it asap.

I have dumped with this chemical in my tank and without and with the clear sewer connection there is definitely a difference. Our RV's are not your home sewage system. We have a small diameter exit and a blade valve just begging to get clogged up.

I don't have time while on the road to deal with clogs of any kind. And have not. The original chems that break down the waste have been on the market for years and years for RV and marine.

This is the only one I use. No sewer odor ever, no clogs. And that goes for long periods between dumping in hot, hot, Florida in the summer. :B


Packaging is very similar for this one and their natural one. Read the label and look for breaks down waste.

RAS43 wrote:

Johno02 wrote:
but its harder to get the bleach odor out.

Refill the tank and add a half cup of baking soda and pump through the system. Let it sit a couple of hours and then drain and fill. The bleach odor is gone!

Yupp, baking soda works for us, too. . . been doing this for 14 years and 3 TTs.

A black tank is a large chamber pot. It isn't a septic tank where the waste is turned into compost. Instead, what happens is that TP and poop should be turned into liquid. With this in mind, it doesn't matter what bugs are in the tank. Because of this, it doesn't hurt to bleach it out to get rid of odors.

As for turning waste into liquid, the magical chemical I use is Dawn hand dish soap. It dissolves grease off of dishes, and when dumped in the black tank, it does quite well in doing the same exact thing to stuff in the black tank. I've been doing this for a few years now, and so far, no clogs or plumbing issues, so I'm either lucky or doing something right.

Plus, there isn't anywhere else to put the water from sanitizing the tanks. If I dumped the bleach water onto the ground, I'd leave a soggy mess of dead grass for the next person. So, I might as well have it kill odors (especially in the grey tank that can get quite stinky) and call it done.

I use a teaspoon of pool & spa chlorinating granules in the fresh water tank. Fill it, let it sit overnight, run it through all the faucets until drained.

Then I fill the tank again with just water. If I smell the chlorine, I may drain a second time and then refill.

My old TT had a horribly musty icky smell to the fresh water tank. Like a stagnant pool. I did the above twice and the water tasted just as good as from my home tap (which is the best tap water I've had). I did my RV when I first got it. I'll repeat if water sits for a long time and/or the taste changes.

Lspangler wrote:
It's amazing how many people believe waste will break down in a blank tank!You would have to fill the tank and let it sit for many weeks or months for any real break down of waste to happen.

Take a dump and don't flush it. After about 3 days it will be pretty much 'broken down.'

toedtoes wrote:
I use a teaspoon of pool & spa chlorinating granules in the fresh water tank. Fill it, let it sit overnight, run it through all the faucets until drained.

Then I fill the tank again with just water. If I smell the chlorine, I may drain a second time and then refill.

My old TT had a horribly musty icky smell to the fresh water tank. Like a stagnant pool. I did the above twice and the water tasted just as good as from my home tap (which is the best tap water I've had). I did my RV when I first got it. I'll repeat if water sits for a long time and/or the taste changes.

X2!