Toilet treatment and sewer hose

Water works wonders. Chemicals are a waste of $$ IMHO. The toilet valve is only open for a fraction of a second and treatments that are supposed to break down the solids aren't in a tank long enough to do anything.

Add a few gallons before you use the tank. Don't skimp on water when you flush (esp. #2). Fill tank to near full before you dump. An in-tank rinser (if so equipped) or back-flush elbow can help in some cases. I run our in-tank rinser for about 15 min. while breaking camp and tank bottom below toilet usually ends up spotless.

You can peer down the toilet and see if there's still "stuff" down there. If there is, fill the tank up again and open the valve. The rush of water helps move remaining contents out.

On hoses, you get what you pay for. The low end, low cost vinyl hoses often end up with pinholes, plus they crush easily. The better ones are made from TPE.

BTW, don't waste money on over-priced RV TP. There are some ordinary household brands that disintegrate like Costco Kirkland.

Thanks everyone for all the good advice! I tend to overthink things a bit so I was having a little anxiety over trying to decide on what to get! Guess it's better to keep things simple. I'll probably mount a tube under the bumper to store the hose. There's a hose in the bumper, but I'm assuming at this point it's got pinholes. This campground is a county park and I've never heard of a greywater only drain before - only full sewer hookup so we'll see what that's all about. I'll probably just try to keep the grey tank as full as I can to use for flushing out the hose.

What I do: Washing dishes, I use a rubber collapsible pan. When done, I then pour a load or two in my black water tank, soap it up. Sometimes if we use the ice trays in the refrigerator I take and dump them when we are getting ready to leave in the commode to help bust up any accumulation. I have a short hose for dumping that I store in a tube under my rear bumper. I also have a hose kit put together that I keep stored in a plastic container if we are on a site with sewer connection. I also have a very short hose that I have to dump into my potty cart if I take it. Just somethings I do.....

For the hose, go with the Camco Revolution, best value going IMO. As to the toilet chemicals, take your pick. We like the Thetford Campachem powder.

prichardson wrote:
OP mentions a gray water only drain at the sites - must be something local as I have been all over the country and never run into that.

I've seen that once before at a state park campground.

Do not use the grey water dump at the site... unless you're full, and even then don't dump all your water.

dump the black water first and then flush the hose out with the grey water.

Get some mechanics gloves :)

scbwr wrote:
I haven't seen Camper's Friend in stores, but I don't really look for it as I just order it from Amazon. The bigger the container, the cheaper it is per use, so I just order one of the larger sizes and only have to buy it once or twice a year depending on how many extended trips we take.

i don't use the chemicals but will use campers friend every 3 or 4 months. after a trip i will dump and flush the black tank and grey tanks. fill them up with water and couple scoops of campers friend, let them sit for a few days then, dump and flush again.

A portable waste tank is also nice to have.
Don’t use your fresh water hose for back flushing.
Stinky slinky supports keep you from having to walk it.
Don’t store the hose in the bumper. It’s probably rusty inside and can cause pinholes. A lot of us have made our own storage from vinyl fence posts. There is one made by Camco or Valterra.

I also have never seen a grey water only drain at a site. In the campground, yes. But not at the single site. Maybe just peculiar to this campground.