Leaving black tank filled

[N-Trouble]

Im pretty religious about dumping my tanks after each outing but this last trip pulled a brain fart and forgot to dump and have put the trailer in storage. Contemplating whether I should pull it out and dump or just wait til next outing? Tank is only about 1/4-1/3 full and no sign of odors yet. Pull it out and dump or leave??

[badercubed]

N-Trouble wrote:

Rover_Bill wrote:

badercubed wrote:
It will be fine. We "camp" at the Bills games (we TRY to limit the amount of bathroom usage) and I regularly don't get a chance to dump for a few months. Grab two bags of ice when you pull it out of storage and dump them in the toilet when you leave. They will slosh around and break up anything in there and anything that may have stuck to the walls.

Save the ice for your drinks - ice in the black tank does nothing to clean it. Watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH6acEmqvcw

I would completly disagree. Use to use the ice method on my old trailer to control the turd teepee that would form umderneath the can. When going to dump it came out as pooh soup. Dont believe everything you read/see especially on Boobtube...

Thank you for adding "turd teepee" to my vocab

[N-Trouble]

Rover_Bill wrote:

badercubed wrote:
It will be fine. We "camp" at the Bills games (we TRY to limit the amount of bathroom usage) and I regularly don't get a chance to dump for a few months. Grab two bags of ice when you pull it out of storage and dump them in the toilet when you leave. They will slosh around and break up anything in there and anything that may have stuck to the walls.

Save the ice for your drinks - ice in the black tank does nothing to clean it. Watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH6acEmqvcw

I would completly disagree. Use to use the ice method on my old trailer to control the turd teepee that would form umderneath the can. When going to dump it came out as pooh soup. Dont believe everything you read/see especially on Boobtube...

[badercubed]

For the $3 bucks for two bags of ice, its worth it if it knocks one poop hanger loose.

[Sam_Spade]

Rover_Bill wrote:

Save the ice for your drinks - ice in the black tank does nothing to clean it. Watch this video:

Even "Mr. Wizard" didn't say that it did nothing.

His experiment is interesting but weak for at least two reasons:

In addition to the ice cubes, there should have been a significant amount of water, like 1/5 the capacity of his box.

And if he/you think you can simulate the motion of a tank in the belly of an RV with a tank in the bed of a pickup......you are totally mistaken.

Even given that, I think the ice cubes thing is weak.
A good dose of detergent and hot water probably would do more good.

Dumping it while things are fairly fresh would be even better.

[Rover_Bill]

badercubed wrote:
It will be fine. We "camp" at the Bills games (we TRY to limit the amount of bathroom usage) and I regularly don't get a chance to dump for a few months. Grab two bags of ice when you pull it out of storage and dump them in the toilet when you leave. They will slosh around and break up anything in there and anything that may have stuck to the walls.

Save the ice for your drinks - ice in the black tank does nothing to clean it. Watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH6acEmqvcw

[badercubed]

It will be fine. We "camp" at the Bills games (we TRY to limit the amount of bathroom usage) and I regularly don't get a chance to dump for a few months. Grab two bags of ice when you pull it out of storage and dump them in the toilet when you leave. They will slosh around and break up anything in there and anything that may have stuck to the walls.

[Old-Biscuit]

Farmhawk wrote:
Left mine to stew for three weeks on a previous trailer, opened the bathroom door after that time and it was full of flies! Thousands of them. Never again, I dump after every use.

Now HOW could those flies get in????
Not because tank was left with waste.

Something was BROKEN!!!

Toilet bowl seal failed
Toilet floor flange failed
Sink 'P' trap went dry (if bathroom sink drained to black tank)

[FLY_4_FUN]

I used to dump at the end of every 2 or 3 night trip. Used chemicals and did backflush when there was no line up. Now I realize we can go around 8 nights between dumping so try to plan that. Saves time, chemicals and the small amount of weight carried around is negligible. I find the tanks are well "churned" after more time and the sensors almost always read correct. Thats been my experience.

[Farmhawk]

Left mine to stew for three weeks on a previous trailer, opened the bathroom door after that time and it was full of flies! Thousands of them. Never again, I dump after every use.

[Huntindog]

The Bacteria treatments really work well. A few times I have had to leave my tanks full for quite awhile.. Each time the Bacteria had done such a good job that the water was almost clear. No solids at all, and no smell either.

I no longer use any other type.

[tenbear]

I would add water and leave it.

[Sam_Spade]

wildtoad wrote:
Bleach will kill the beneficial bacteria in a holding tank. Just leave it alone till next time, assuming there is plenty of water in the tank.

Spoken like one who has never had to deal with a floating brown island. 😉

And there really is no need for "beneficial bacteria" in a holding tank. As those "beneficial bacteria" work, they release not-so-beneficial gasses. Better to leave that kind of digestion work for the septic tanks or processing plant.

[time2roll]

Water and waste can only be good for the seals.

[Old-Biscuit]

B.O. Plenty wrote:
I don't know that there are any seals. It's just a sliding plastic blade that slides in and out of a plastic slot.

B.O.

YES the dump valves have seals......each side of valve in a grove on valve body. Blade gets sealed by them.

BUT......nothing in waste tank is going to hurt them.





OP........
Leave it until next time out---not going to hurt anything
Best to dump when tank level is higher