remove "flushable" wipes from black tank?
Just returned from another great trip dry camping in the '05 Yellowstone (class C Ford E450 chassis, 27'). We took my mom, who had 'elk rut at RMNP' on her bucket list, so 4 adult women using the toil...
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As others have noted, black tank sensors are famous for not working properly.
My TT's toilet sits right over the black tank, as many RV toilets do. I made my own flushing wand from a piece of 1/2 inch PVC pipe, capped the end, drilled three holes in the side of the cap so it squirts at right angles to the length of PVC. I can run it all the way to the bottom of the tank, twist it around to spray every which way, and flush the top, bottom, and sides of the black tank thoroughly, and maybe after three or four flushes that show only clear water during dump do I sometimes get the black tank sensors to read empty when it is. And with only my wife and I using it EVER, we are certain that NOTHING weird has ever gone down that hole.
So for what it is worth, with your tank having weird stuff (i.e., "flushable wipes") down there, I'd expect it to take some serious flushing before you could clear the sensors. They may never again work for you. But this is not a tragedy. Pay attention to how long it takes to fill up, and go by time & usage, rather than sensor level.
Finally, no amount of 'splainin' is ever going to insulate you from folks who think nothing of flushing undesirable stuff down the toilet. There was a poster to these forums a couple years ago who ran into trouble when the "flushable cat litter" filled up their black tank. Somehow they had managed to not believe the injunctions both here and in their owner's manual saying ONLY bodily waste and RV toilet paper should EVER go down there. "Flushable" wipes, tampons & applicators, tissues, paper towels, the list is long, and way too many people believe they are exceptions to everything.
Good luck getting those wipes out of there. I hope you do better at it than the cat litter folks.
My TT's toilet sits right over the black tank, as many RV toilets do. I made my own flushing wand from a piece of 1/2 inch PVC pipe, capped the end, drilled three holes in the side of the cap so it squirts at right angles to the length of PVC. I can run it all the way to the bottom of the tank, twist it around to spray every which way, and flush the top, bottom, and sides of the black tank thoroughly, and maybe after three or four flushes that show only clear water during dump do I sometimes get the black tank sensors to read empty when it is. And with only my wife and I using it EVER, we are certain that NOTHING weird has ever gone down that hole.
So for what it is worth, with your tank having weird stuff (i.e., "flushable wipes") down there, I'd expect it to take some serious flushing before you could clear the sensors. They may never again work for you. But this is not a tragedy. Pay attention to how long it takes to fill up, and go by time & usage, rather than sensor level.
Finally, no amount of 'splainin' is ever going to insulate you from folks who think nothing of flushing undesirable stuff down the toilet. There was a poster to these forums a couple years ago who ran into trouble when the "flushable cat litter" filled up their black tank. Somehow they had managed to not believe the injunctions both here and in their owner's manual saying ONLY bodily waste and RV toilet paper should EVER go down there. "Flushable" wipes, tampons & applicators, tissues, paper towels, the list is long, and way too many people believe they are exceptions to everything.
Good luck getting those wipes out of there. I hope you do better at it than the cat litter folks.
