Would this treatment help on the black water tank

[rickhise]

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?

Doesn't seem to complicated an inexpensive


Opps I didn't mention black water tank.

[rondeb]

oops

[rondeb]

We use a capful of Calgon after each dump. It is a water softener and helps keep your tanks clean from Build up

[Dtank]

vic46 wrote:

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

"20 Mule Team Borax replaces Calgon" = not really..:(

"It does the same job." - maybe, but not as well.

*LIQUID* Calgon is available in most stores where you (previously) purchased Calgon powder.

IMO - neither Borax or White King water softener are good substitutes for Calgon - but if those 20 mules ring your black tank chimes, cool!..;)

The GEO Method is alive and well - and EZ...:C

.

[Sfla2]

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.

Walmart has the liquid just as good

[ktmrfs]

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. I often think about creating a highly concentrated mix of TSP to add to about a 1/2 full gray tank BEFORE we leave on a long road trip to "wash" the tank. I've never gotten around to it however.

same experience with dish soap. we've switched to another brand. Dish soap is made to foam up so it "looks good", doesn't need to in order to do it's job. Dishwasher soap, laundry soap, especially the HE stuff doesn't foam up much at all.

We live in an areas with very soft water, so not sure calgon does much good. But we use the happy camper stuff in the grey/black tank, put it in before we leave home. Then just before we leave for home, I put in liquid laundry detergent, enough for one load of laundry in each tank. let it slosh around on the way home, then dump the next day at my home dump station. If we won't be heading home and have near full tanks, or are going to another campground, do the same thing then dump along the way after stuff has had time to slosh around.

I avoid dumping the black tank as I leave a campground like the plague, unless it is the only option. Grey tanks, ok, but usually if I have stuff in the black, leave the greys full and use them to backflush the black tank when I do dump.

we camp close to 3 months/year and after 4 years I have never had trouble with excessive tank buildup.

[Campinfan]

Thanks for the info about finding it at Amazon and about Borax. I was just looking at Borax the other day at Dollar General and was wondering if it was like Calgon.

When I put dish soap in my black tank, I still added some Odorloss or something like that....it did not foam up at all but I think it helped make things a little slicker.

[Vulcan_Rider]

sdianel wrote:

for the gray tank we use 1 cup of Dawn Platinum

Another case of WAY overkill.

Given the recommended concentration of Dawn to make a good working solution, a cup would be enough to treat about 500 gallons.

Since it is likely that your holding tank is not over 50, you are using about 10X too much.

[sdianel_-acct_c]

we use Thetford black tank chemicals. Worth it. No smell. I don't think Dawn dish detergent by itself will mask odors in the black tank. My brother in law used Lysol but I don't like the smell of it. When it's hot out we use extra chemicals.
for the gray tank we use 1 cup of Dawn Platinum and 1 cup of Borax mixed with hot water. No gray tank smell and clean tank.

[beemerphile1]

vic46 wrote:

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.

Read the title of the thread again! BLACK TANK!

Read the OP again where it says;

Opps I didn't mention black water tank.

* This post was edited 07/01/15 09:23am by rickhise *

[vic46]

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.

Read the title of the thread again! BLACK TANK!

[vic46]

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

[2gypsies1]

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.

[beemerphile1]

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.

[rickhise]

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