Oh No!?!,,?

[MSGTRETIREDCSP]

Well, I went out to empty the black and gray tanks. I first pulled on the black tank handle and nothing happened. No big gash on liquid and solids draining. I felt the hose and could feel a trickle of liquid coming from the black. I then pulled on the gray handle and a gush of flowing liquid could be heard. For years, we have always made sure to have plenty of water in the black tank to avoid the infamous poo-mountain.
Before I start to make anything worst than it is, what suggestions would you have on how to approach a black tank clog. I'm in a rv resort in south Texas. I don't want to make a bad situation worst by having a black tank spill.

I don't think it's a valve problem. It seems to open and close fine. I'm thinking it's a plug. Anything to pour into the tank to dissolve solids?

Any suggestion or help would be much appreciated.

[8ntw8tn]

X2 on the RV-Digest-It. I, and a few others here in the park, have been using it for the last couple of months. So far, everyone is happy with it and there are no complaints.

[1L243]

I added Tornados to both gray and black tanks. The flexible hose installtion kit they come with is not ideal. I hard plumbed the Tornado into the tank with pvc..

Easier access because my trailer is open on the bottom...No sealed underbelly to go through...

I am amazed how much still comes out once you do the initial flush and then turn on the Tornado..








I put the back flo valve right at the tank so there will be no contamination of fresh water supply..

[2112]

I had this problem several years ago. The black tank would drain but very, very slowly.
I bought a secondary valve like THIS. I drained the black and filled the gray and then installed the secondary valve. With the secondary closed I opened both tanks. The water from the full gray back flushed the black tank and cleared the clog.

[LarryJM]

1L243 wrote:
I think this is a great video on tank cleaners.. It's long but informative..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfTd0Slt_cU

That was an interesting video mainly to demonstrate the striking lack of real performance in a lot of these tauted tank systems. I'm fortunate and I think a lot of other RVs are plumbed the same where the toilet drains directly down into the black tank and is generally somewhat located near the middle of the tank. I bought the intank "swivel stick" rinser and think it does about the best you can do in not only cleaning, but even helping dislodge clogged outlets and even breaking up the "pyramid of doom" providing the pyramid hasn't turned rock hard. At least for my usage the rotating head on the swivel stick and the ability to adjust it's location up and down inside the black tank thru the toilet allows me to really not only rise the walls, but clean the in tank sensors. Also, the rotating jets of water from it are really strong and helps break up any larger "chunks" along with other more solid waste such as a wad of toilet paper. Of course if your toilet is not plumbed directly into the black tank then something like the tornado is the best you can do. Of course the biggest draw back of something like these toilet wands is you have to either run a hose into the bathroom or have a fitting and method of hooking them up from inside the bathroom. I prefer to run a hose directly to the outside faucet and w/o any pressure regulator on it for max pressure and I'm fortunate in that I can run the hose in thru my bathroom window so it's quite convenient.

Like what evidently happened to the OP with some sort of "CLOG OF TOILET PAPER" I had that evidently happen once and was able to clear it fairly easily using my swivel stick in tank wand. One thing with these to remember is not to actually let the black tank fill up to the brim since you have to have some tank room when using the wand to try and break up any obstructions since it is putting additional water into the tank and unless it can drain out it will continue to fill the black tank.


Larry

[Beaker]

.

[Harvey51]

Off topic but funny .....
We had a town crew on our street recently, clearing the plugged sewer line from the high school. A 100 yard snake was run upstream into the line from a manhole. All of a sudden the clog broke and you know what flowed out into the manhole. The man on the snake instantly commented, "I heard that school was full of sh-- and it sure was!"

[Lauren]

This is really a crappy topic !

[Grit_dog]

Eat more ruffage!

[wa8yxm]

True story: Man had your problem, turns out the RV body builder, when they cut the hole in the floor to install the Toilet, they dropped the wood (2 half moons) into the black tank, where they eventually slid over the outlet and blocked it.. The owner managed to remove them (Do not ask how as I do not know) and sealed them in baggies (double bagged in fact) and returned them to the CEO of the RV manufacturer company, or so he said. (And again I do not know how).

Suggestion.. Start by closing the valve.. Get a short (5") clear extension and install it on the outlet. (NOTE: if you get a flush king with the clear part you may not need that) now Assuming you have a gallon or two of room in the tank.> Open the existing valve only (keep flush king closed) force 1-2 gallons of water in via the vacuum breaker/back flow preventer and then open the 2nd (Added flush king) valve, see what happens.

if the problem is something blocking the outlet, this may break or move it.

This is not a normal "Rinse out the tank" issue so the video does not apply.

Option two (The coat hanger method) makes one mel of a hess as Mr. Spooner might say.

[1L243]

Watch that video link...flushking did not do very well...

[calewjohnson]

We started using Happy Camper for both of our black tanks. I always watch the muck through a clear elbow, that stuff does what it says, everything is virtually liquid when it comes out. I don't advocate the use of a lot of TP, but it is hard trying to get the daughter to understand the idea of using it sparingly. Knock on wood, we have been good to go.

Cale

[C-Bears]

To prevent that from happening again, or to solve it very simply if it ever happens again, purchase the FlushKing and keep that on your sewer discharge all the time.

I don't even use my interior black tank flush anymore, I just back flush with the FlushKing.

[Community Alumni]

Lynnmor wrote:

bullydogs1 wrote:
RID X if it is pyramid...

The Rid-X for septic systems is bacteria that will take days or weeks to do any good. The Rid-X RV kind may help break down paper, but the real purpose is to reduce odor.

Rid-X is now made for RVs but I do not know how the chemical works, seems to be something new, not the Rid-X but the RV part.

jimR

[1L243]

I think this is a great video on tank cleaners.. It's long but informative..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfTd0Slt_cU