Cleaning Holding Tank Sensors

[1fanman]

Greetings fellow Rv'ers, 1Fanman here with a question, can one of you tell me how to clean my holding tank sensors, I have used every available product and haven,t had any luck, sometimes my grey tank will show everything from empty to half full, etc after I drain it and the black tank is the same. Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks and smooth roads to each. 1Fanman.

[DutchmenSport]

Yuck! You're standing in the shower and water starts to build up around your feet! You're all soaped up. What do you do?

"Hey honey! .... quick! Run outside and pull the lever! I'm about to drown in here!"

"Sorry deer you're on your own! ... plop... plop ... I've got my own problems!"

Now actually .... that's funny!

[beemerphile1]

Lynnmor wrote:

beemerphile1 wrote:
When the toilet burps, the black tank is nearly full.

When water backs up in the shower, the gray tank is full.

I guess the next thing to do is dump it in the Walmart parking lot? Staying in a campground and traveling are two different things. It would be very helpful to know the tank level so one can plan on dumping on an intelligent schedule.

I don't see the need for the smart response. Anyone RVing for long knows that the gauges are nearly worthless. After a while it is relatively easy to estimate "an intelligent schedule" as to how long it will take to fill a tank.

[Oasisbob]

My guages lie like politicians. I use a sprinkler type tank flusher which temperarally helps.

[Lynnmor]

beemerphile1 wrote:
When the toilet burps, the black tank is nearly full.

When water backs up in the shower, the gray tank is full.

I guess the next thing to do is dump it in the Walmart parking lot? Staying in a campground and traveling are two different things. It would be very helpful to know the tank level so one can plan on dumping on an intelligent schedule.

[beemerphile1]

When the toilet burps, the black tank is nearly full.

When water backs up in the shower, the gray tank is full.

[lanerd]

My approach is somewhere along the line of the Geo Method (Google it). Prior to traveling, I empty the black tank and flush it out with the grey tank along with the fresh water from the internal tank rinser. When empty, I add back in about 5 gallons of fresh water, add a cap full of Calgon liquid water softener and a cap full of liquid laundry soap (I use Oxy Clean). I also do the same with the gray tank. Traveling with this solution in the tanks has (in the past) kept my sensors working properly. However, we normally sit in one rv park for most of the summer and along the end of our stay, the sensors start acting up. Once we start traveling home and using this solution, the sensors will clean up and start working again.

This also has a side benefit of eliminating any odors from the tanks.

Hope this helps

Ron

[CA_Traveler]

Don't use city water, instead use the pump only and the fresh water level will be a good guide for dumping.

99% of the sensors are only intended for the salesman to sell the rig - "And it comes complete with a great tank monitor system."

[1fanman]

A Hearty Thank You to all that replied, I hadn't thought about using Dawn but definitely will do so. Thanks again and smooth Roads to each of you.
1Fanman (AKA Del)

[ksg5000]

Gray water tank sensors tend to get mucked up with grease - I have found that Dawn seems to be the easiest way to tackle those sensors.

Black water tank sensors tend to get much up with toilet paper and other "stuff" ... I use a "butt wand" sold at any RV outlet which you put down the toilet and use a high pressure spray to clean off the sensors. If your patient you might consider adding a bottle of septic tank cleaner to the black water tank ... fill to the brim and wait a week --- tends to dissolve everything. Many RVers tend to ignore the black water tank sensors - you kinda know when that's getting full .... gray water tank is more important in my book.

[Dutch_12078]

I found the best solution for us years ago, was to replace the existing "screws through the tank wall" monitor system with an external capacitance sensor system. I like the "SeeLevel II" series that uses the existing wiring. With normal tank flushes, we've never had a misreading tank level. I also like that the SeeLevel II display reads in percentages instead of the inaccurate "Empty, 1/3, 2/3, Full" displays common on OEM and KIB systems.

[DutchmenSport]

I don't think there really any good way. Stuff stick to them and that's whats causing the miss-readings. I have found the best way to keep them working is to dump all your tanks completely. Then add a 3-5 gallons of water and a bit of Dawn Dishwashing liquid (stronger is OK). Then take it for a good drive, or travel to your next destination.

The sloshing of water will pound against the sensors beating off anything that's stuck to them. The Dawn will help clean the tank and the sensor too.

Beyond this, there's really not much else that can be done. You can try different chemicals in your tank, but it's the sloshing while on the road that works the best.