Dishwasher Tabs For Black Tank

[Wind_River]

Has anyone used dishwasher tabs in their black tank for cleaning? I have read that some have used them in grey tanks.

[TNGW1500SE]

beemerphile1 wrote:

Wind River wrote:
Has anyone used dishwasher tabs in their black tank for cleaning? I have read that some have used them in grey tanks.

I would never clean dishes in the black tank.

LOL

[beemerphile1]

wa8yxm wrote:
...I finally said "@Q#$@# The sensors.

Best approach.

[wa8yxm]

I will give you two answers as to why someone would wish to "Clean the black tank"

One: (which I fund humorous) is that some folk like to clean... Don't ask me why.

THe second and the one I find reasonable. Sometimes if you clean it.. The sensors will actually show EMPTY when you are done.. Believe it or not.. Had that happen a time or two when I cleaned.. but then I've only cleaned (in 13 years) very few times.

I finally said "@Q#$@# The sensors".

[ktmrfs]

troubledwaters wrote:

ktmrfs wrote:
So, we use liquid HE tide detergent. seems to work well for us.

So I'm curious, when do you put the tide in and what is it "work well for us" doing?

DW uses tide HE for our laundry, so already have it in the house.

We camp a great deal, 3 month/year or so. Our trailer is a 2010. After about the first year of camping I added tide to the grey/black tanks just before we came home to our mostly full tanks. (I have a dump station at home). When I dumped the grey water had more "junk" particles than normal. and it took less time using the black tank flusher to get the black tank reasonably clean. Since then it seems the laundry detergent keeps stuff in suspension better than no detergent.

And at that time I had the cheap factory tank sensors, which after a few times out with the tide, were working about as well as one can expect with the cheap sensors.

Since added the sealevel gauge so can't say how well the laundry detergent would do long term on the sensors.

The laundry detergent is cheap enough that we continue to use it. We have very soft water most places we go so how it would work alone in hard water, don't know. Calgon or similar would also help if the water is hard.

[MrWizard]

GordonThree wrote:

troubledwaters wrote:
Why do I need to clean my black tank (or gray tank for that matter). I don't intend to eat or drink out of it and next time I use it I'm just going to **** in it again.

I always wonder the same thing.

Clean....Not Sanitize
Aka keep the crud from building up

[troubledwaters]

ktmrfs wrote:
So, we use liquid HE tide detergent. seems to work well for us.

So I'm curious, when do you put the tide in and what is it "work well for us" doing?

[ktmrfs]

we use liquid laundry detergent. It's now formulated to work in cold water, even though hot is better. Not so with dishwasher soap, it's formulated to work in hot water.

laundry detergent usually is formulated to be more aggresive and harsh than hand soap, normal dish soap etc. that besides cleaning must be formulated to be ok on your hands etc.

So, we use liquid HE tide detergent. seems to work well for us.

[bartlettj]

I just fill the tank halfway with fresh water and drive over some bumpy roads for a bit and it cleans it right out (knocks the TP shards off the sensors). Add a couple of bags of ice if your really feel frisky.

[beemerphile1]

Wind River wrote:
Has anyone used dishwasher tabs in their black tank for cleaning? I have read that some have used them in grey tanks.

I would never clean dishes in the black tank.

[coolmom42]

I don't think the tabs would dissolve well in a gray or black tank. They are intended to dissolve in the 100% hot water that dishwashers use. And as STBretired said, they are pretty alkaline, much more so than liquid detergents.

If you want to keep stuff from sticking to the sides/bottom/sensors (at least to some degree) use some Calgon or Borax dissolved in about a quart of hot water, plus a squirt of liquid dish detergent. Put it in the tank before you move the RV and it will slosh around and get distributed pretty well.

[STBRetired]

Like ScottG said, DW tabs need HOT water to be effective. It is also a fairly corrosive detergent and I would be worried what it would do to the rubber seals on the dump valves. A healthy squirt of Dawn dish detergent before you hit the highway with about 10 gallons of water in the tanks will do a decent job of getting rid of any residual gunk clinging to the sides.

[ScottG]

DW tabs and detergents don't do a lot in holding tanks because there isn't enough heat to break them down.
You'd also need a ton of them to do anything.

[2oldman]

GordonThree wrote:

troubledwaters wrote:
Why do I need to clean my black tank (or gray tank for that matter). I don't intend to eat or drink out of it and next time I use it I'm just going to **** in it again.

I always wonder the same thing.

Kinda goes along the same lines as never putting toilet paper in it, to never doing #2 in it, to never using it. To each his own, but that's just weird.

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

GordonThree wrote:

troubledwaters wrote:
Why do I need to clean my black tank (or gray tank for that matter). I don't intend to eat or drink out of it and next time I use it I'm just going to **** in it again.

I always wonder the same thing.

I was at a dump station once and just got my BT dumped and all cleaned up. My daughter asked me for the keys to the trailer. You guessed it. She wanted to "dirty up" my BT again. :R

That's why I never use a washer or any of that stuff.