Black Tank & Toilet Paper

gotsmart wrote:

Larryzv7 wrote:

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What are your opinions, if any, on this? What do you use to clean your black tank and do you use regular or RV type toilet paper? Yeah, it does sound like a bunch of crap.

Black tank sensors are notorious for false readings. There are a couple of vendors out there with "solutions" to the problem. Anyway, TP and everything else in the black tank can collect on the sensors. Period. Many just ignore the black tank's readout on the monitor panel. This may help:

Does the owners manual for your RV have a dumping procedure for your RV's tanks? Mine does.
My MH does not have a tank rinser and my manual says to:
1. top off the gray and black tanks with water.
2. dump the black tank and leave its valve open.
3. when step 2 is finished, dump the gray tank. The tanks are plumbed to have the gray backflush the black.
4. when step 3 is finished, close both dump valves.
5. repeat steps 1 through 4.

This is my modified procedure:
1a. top off the black tank with water.
1b. rock the MH side-to-side 4 to 5 times to slosh the water around in the black tank in an attempt to unclog the sensors. My MH does not have levelers or stabilizers. Lucky me.
1c. close the gray dump valve (if open) and fill the gray tank with water.
2. dump the black tank and leave its valve open.
3. when step 2 is finished, dump the gray tank.
4. when step 3 is finished, close both dump valves.
5. repeat steps 1a, 1b, 1c.

6. wait 2 to 6 hours. I call this "soak time". It is my opinion that allowing the black tank to have "soak time" (especially during the summer) loosens up even more stuff to achieve a cleaner tank.
7. dump the black tank and leave its valve open.
8. when step 7 is finished, dump the gray tank.
9. close both dump valves.

THEN...

I check at the level in the black tank on the monitor (see below). If the middle or top LED is lit I get slightly irritated. I may then choose to fill and dump the black tank again. In between dumping tanks I monitor the black tank by listening to the water as I'm flushing the toilet. My toilet is a Dometic Sealand with foot pedal (and no spray). When the tank approaches becoming full the sound of the water entering it changes. This tells me that I have about 4 to 5 good sized flushes before the tank gets full. YMMV. Then I do my modified dumping procedure. When finished I add 3-4 gallons of water to the black tank - to keep the bottom of it and the dump valve wet. Then I add 2 cap-fulls of Tide laundry detergent to the black tank (dish soap can foam up too much - up and out the waste vent on the roof).

TP or no TP - the choice is yours. I use Angel Soft and I flush it down the toilet. I can't be bothered to throw money at the black/gray tank sensors. As long as the sensors for the fresh water tank, LP gas, and battery work then I'm happy.