Emptying black tank after every outing?

Hi,

I was camping for 2 weeks at a time, and never dumped between 2-3 weeks when I would visit a campground with hookups.

So waiting 2 weeks is OK, as long as it is not to warm out. Over about 85F and you will either need extra treatment or dump, your pick. If you only are out for 1-2 days, it is practical to leave out chemicals - if you will be dumping and it is less than about 70F out. I never put chemicals in my grey tank, only the black tank.

By the way - I found this out on Rv.Net, and it makes common sense. If the black tank is totally empty, then what ever is left can dry out into a large thin cake, and that is really bad. It might stick there for weeks! But add 5-8 gallons of water (depending on tank size, mine is 59 gallons black and 42 grey) and it will keep the tank from drying out. Some water will evaporate all the time, more in warmer times.

Do you have a "Clean out" at home? I installed one at my place, and it is easy to dump at home.

As for concerns about "Extra water" consider this - a home bathtub of water is about 40 gallons, much more than a typical RV will use to dump the tanks. While I was dry camping, I would use about 100 gallons over 2 weeks, much less than the average home used in one day. So I would not worry about the extra water being used, just the extra chemicals. Many times chemicals are not good for a septic system, if you have one at home. Some campgrounds that I visited said not to use certain types of chemicals, such as the blue chemical with formaldehyde. I always used something septic system friendly, such as the orange scented chemical sold at Camping World.

Fred.

I 'rinse' my black tank with water, from the fresh tank via a long flush when I dump it. Use buckets of water dumped down the toilet if the water pump is off. Then, I dump a 5 gallon bucket of water with bleach and water softener into the black tank, to slosh around on the ride home. I know you might think you're going camping next Saturday, but sometimes life gets in the way, and the RV has to sit for a prolonged period of time. You don't want it to sit with a nasty black tank.

Like the post above, it's only necessary to dump IF you fear you don't have enough water in the tank to keep things liquid.

No, I wouldn't dump that often. That said, when the weather gets hot, the bt can start stinking pretty bad.

As long as you don't let it dry out, I dump when almost full or when I know the next place I'm going has no dump.

No need to fill to with water to dump, drain the a couple bucket flushes shoud make it clean

I agree that it's wasteful to fill the tank and dump it after only 1 night, especially since you'll be using it again the next weekend. If I was just a weekend user, camping fairly close to home, I'd let it get at least half full on its own before dumping at the campground.

I think you have the right plan. Empty it every time right before you park it. This way, you are dumping it after "agitating" the tank while on the road, and you don't give it any time to settle and become a solid on the bottom of the tank.