Would this treatment help on the black water tank

Campinfan wrote:
I add some dish soap every now and then and it seems to help flush the junk out of the black tank easier. I use to use the geo method but cannot find the calgon water softner stuff.

20 Mule Team Borax replaces Calgon. It does the same job. Mix the soap and Borax in warm water and then dump into the black tank. No stick and no odor.

Vic

Don't leave your gray tank hose open. Let it fill up each time and you'll be good to go. There are plenty of soap products in there - hand washing, showers, dishes.

Don't throw garbage or coffee grounds or grease down the drain. Take a used paper towel and wipe things off before washing them.

In 16 years of full-timing and using the RV daily, we never had a problem with either the gray or black tanks. We didn't use any additional 'stuff'.. just plenty of water.

We accomplish a similar thing but without wasting any dish detergent.

We seldom have full hookups so conserving gray water capacity is necessary. We set a plastic tub in the sink to wash dishes and then pour the wash water into the black tank via the toilet.

I was thinking the suds was the purpose for breaking down the build up on the tank?

So, reviewing the answers already posted:

What you propose is a BAD idea as it will put WAY too much sudsy detergent into the held water and likely cause foaming problems.

Any one of the available holding tank treatment products likely would be MUCH better than dish washing detergent.......but in the grey water tank you don't need much of that either.

SoundGuy wrote:

rickhise wrote:
Do you think using dawn dish detergent. With occasional squirts through out your week. End would lessen any side wall tank build up, the. Finish the bottle off on your rinse?

You haven't specified just which tank you're talking about but if it's the trailer's black water tank I'd suggest you familiarize yourself with The Geo Method.

x2 on the Geo Method. It works for me.

All I use is one of the blue pods and a little calgon after I dump the tank. Before use lots of water going #1 and #2 especially. Leave some water in the tank for the calgon and blue pod to swish around when on the road.

We use the powdered Calgon water softener. I tried to find it at Wally World, but they didn't carry it. Then I checked with our neighborhood grocery store, and there it was.

Lately I have found that WalMart is OK on selection as long as you are looking in their store brand, but since they introduced the store brand the diversity of other products has gone way down.

djousma wrote:
My wife washes dishes with Dawn. The problem we have is that it is super concentrated. I believe that soap suds "live" in my gray tank, and as such continually foul my sensors so that they give false full readings.

A year ago I started using Walex Elomonate in our trailer's grey water tank and find it quite effective, along with Walex Porta-Pak treatment for the black tank ... both pleasant smelling, easy to use, no offensive tank odours at all, and the tank monitors are about as accurate as they could be considering the probes are mounted inside the tank and therefore always subject to sludge buildup.

We used shout detergent to wash the radiators when oil was mixed in the engines, today I wash the black tank with dish washer detergent and a wand, I fill the tank half way and use the spray wand, then of course I have a straight shot.

Once I have made enough suds I let the whole mess sit for a while and then dump while the spray wand is the running, it is amazing how much sticks to the walls.

My sensors quit working years ago and they never read correct, the only one that reads correct is the propane sensor.

navegator