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.

[Stan1357]

 Close tanks. Fill a 5 gallon bucket. Pour into the black holding tank. Open black tank to septic. Fill again. Dump bucket in toilet. One more time. It just happened to me last week not works 

[Stan1357]

Close the tank. 5 gallon bucket. Fill it a. Outlet time and pour it in the toilet. Then dunno the tank in the septic. Just happened to me last week. 

[opnspaces]

I used to worry about cleaning out the black tank many years ago. Then one day I just realized it's a poop tank and it will never be clean so why bother. After many more y4ears with the same tank I can say that the sensors seem to have the same amount of erroneous readings as when I tried to clean it. Also I don[t use chemicals and do not have any odor problems. That being said I always found this guy on youtube to be interesting as he debunks many black tank beliefs or myths.
Link 

[Jerart1982]

I usually put a couple bags of ice and some water  in my toilet tank just before heading to my next stop and let it slosh around seems to do a good job

[markdaniels]

Your RV tanks can be cleaned using a variety of tools, such as a tank cleaning wand. This solution is specifically designed to clean the sensors in RV black water tanks. It cleans your tanks on all sides in a circular motion by spouting water at high pressure.

[SCClockDr]

1fanman wrote:
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.

As mentioned already I use the Geo method I also installed the Seelevel II system. If your thru tank sensors are gunked up, try this.

1. On the morning of departure do a complete dump & flush.
2. Add 10-15 gallons of water to the black tank. At the camp store or the first convenience store seen purchase 4 or 5 bags of ice.
3. Drop them on the pavement to break the ice up.
4. Dump the ice down the john.
5. Drive away. At your destination dump again. The black tank should read correct.

For the gray tank 10- 50 gal a quarter bottle of dawn. Dump at your destination. This method not as quite as successful as the ice.

[TakingThe5th]

Oops-posting on the wrong thread. Sorry.

[jake2250]

Oh,, in addition to the Calgon, I installed one of these,, hook the hose up to it and let 'er rip!! I drain Black then Grey then run the whizzer thru a couple of dumps,, doesn't put out allot of water so it takes time to get the black tank to at least half.. If I got people waiting on me dumping then I just run one rinse,, then finish at home!!
The Whizzer!!

[Lynnmor]

I think you will find that the KIB systems trigger the tank level lamps to illuminate correctly under pristine conditions. Once used, there will be some amount of scum on the tank walls. If the system was built to allow for some accumulation of scum before triggering the light, much of the problems would go away. I built a device to compensate for this problem, and my sensors are working. When I mentioned this before on this very forum, I recieved the smart remarks.

Glug, Glug

[pchartrand]

Dutch_12078 wrote:
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.

I just installed the SeeLevel II as well after first trying several ways of cleaning things. So far I'm pretty happy with these new sensors and they were quite easy to install.

[time2roll]

I use Quckie-Flush with a custom spray pattern. Installed with PEX to get full pressure on the business end. Extra directed at sensors and lots toward rear of tank. Sensors work perfect. Although it only takes about a quart to go from empty to one-third. The bottom sensors don't really matter anyway. It is the Full and maybe two-thirds that matter.

[myredracer]

Well, false readings are normal and to be expected. If you don't have them, then is definitely something not right! :B

Some tanks are easy to dump and flush and some aren't because they come in many different shapes/configurations and dimensions and the outlet can be on the side, end or bottom. We've had both extremes and currently have the difficult type because it is too shallow compared to it's width & length. There is the Horst Miracle Probe that may or may not help. The Horst probes really helped on a previous TT but did almost nothing in our current TT. Another thing that can happen is that the factory sometimes installs the button sensors in incorrect elevations and they won't read right no matter what. For more a lot more $$ you can get the SeeLevel sensors that go on the outside of a tank. If you have an enclosed underbelly, changing sensors is not a simple job tho.

Preventive measures will help for the black tank - 3-5 gallons of water before use, fill tank to near full before dumping and flush/rinse as best you can before heading off. A built-in flusher works well for us (can be retro-fitted). A Valterra backflush elbow worked great on a previous TT but does nothing for our current one. If the toilet pipe drops straight down to the tank, a wand type flusher will help.

If you have a really plugged up tank or it's walls are coated with slime and short-circuiting the sensors, the best method of all for cleaning is Liquid Drano (or equiv.). Our owners manual actually says to use it. It needs to be the type that doesn't not attack metal and do NOT dump it into a private on-site septic system. We've used it 2 or 3 times and it is amazingly clean afterwards. Sadly, it doesn't take long for false readings to come back. :M

[DrewE]

beemerphile1 wrote:

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.

I guess I haven't been RVing for long, because I find my tank level meters somewhat handy. They also seem to keep working without overly much effort, mainly the occasional use of a blank tank sprayer wand. Figuring a consistent schedule is not always a practical thing to do, especially if you camp with different groups of people at different times.

I have noticed that there is a very real correlation between posters who can't keep their sensors working well (for whatever reason, be it the specific RV design or whatever) and the posters who insist that they're of no value whatsoever and don't give any useful information and you're better off entirely ignoring them.

At any rate, there have been some decent answers given for trying to clean the tanks, and for using a capacitive sensor that is less affected by incidental buildups. I suppose a dipstick through the toilet would also work pretty reliably for the black tank (assuming it's a straight shot down, as it often is), but...eeew.

[jake2250]

X2 on the Calgon softener, I bought a gallon jug of Calgon at Wal Mart, I am not as precise. I just put a few glugs of Calgon down the toilet before each trip.
So far sensors work and tank flushes good!