Toilet won't flush

[duggram]

Yesterday I did my weekly tank drain (I full time) and both black and gray made sounds and felt like they flushed. This morning my toilet is full of sewer water. I turned the water off to my trailer so I could flush without adding water to the problem. I then gently stuck a broom handle down the hole and met a solid surface.

Does anyone have a suggestion on where to start to fix this?

[Bobbo]

Get someone in a site near you with a "well loved" RV to walk you through the process. A couple of beers ought to do it.

[golf_bears]

As "Walaby" I'm somewhat confused???? First you say the black tank would not drain.

So, you take it to the dealer, he drains the black tank and tells you everything is OK. Now you go back to the RV park and use the facilities.

You then say the sink is gurgling so you try and drain the black tank again but it won’t drain. If the sink is gurgling it’s probably the grey tank that is full not the black tank. Most RVs have the sinks draining into the grey tank.

In addition, if the grey tank is full you would see water coming up into the RV at the low point in the drain system, most likely in the shower basin.

So now you’re ready to go back to the dealer and have him drain the black tank again???

Are you sure how many tanks you have and do you know which valve handle to pull to empty them???? Some RVs have two grey tanks.

I’m not trying to be sarcastic here so please don’t take it that way. What you are explaining just doesn’t add up, sorry????

[Walaby]

I read through the whole thread, and Im getting the impression the tank has drained at some point in this process.... at least once. If the dealer drained it, and you used it again, and it now won't drain (again), there's something missing. When the dealer said it drains fine, was it actually empty when you picked it back up? And now you've filled it up/used it again, and it won't drain?

Maybe too much TP and not enough water clogging your system? Somehow over the time period between the start of this post, and today, the system has to have drained.

Mike

[Dave_H_M]

If you just want to give the tank a one time rinse or periodic, I used to use one of those wand type rinsers from wally world that you insert down in the toilet. It has a end that twirls around.

That did a good job in my previous RV's that did not have an installed tank rinser.

[duggram]

I got the trailer to a dealer that charged me for an hours work and said the black tank drained just fine. The service manager gave me some advice to wait for the tank to be full to drain it the next time. Also to use Aqua-Kem, two bottles this next tank full. So I did as he said. It has been more than two week since I got the trailer back and my sink was making gurgling sounds this morning so I decided to try to drain the black tank too. Sure enough it won't drain. There was a little drainage but it quit pretty quick.

I hooked up my trailer to the pickup and towed it over some fairly rough road and up/down some hilly roads. No luck. Then I got the idea to try one of those reverse flush adapters that allow a garden hose to add water to the tank thinking it might open up the drain. It was a Rhino tank rinser from Camco. It leaks at the lower joint on all sides. I tried to make a gasket out of Press and Seal kitchen wrap. This actually worked but it still had some leaking.

Tomorrow I'll go back to the same dealer, schedule another shop visit and ask about the rinser they sell. Next time I get my tank to drain again I'm going to do a lot of flushing of the black tank. It's a good thing I'm recently retired because I wouldn't have time for all this if I had to maintain a job.

[maillemaker]

Yesterday when I flushed it I could see that the water level was close to the bottom of the valve, so I drained the tank.

You tried to drain the tank, right? If you look down the toilet, it's still full of water, right? So you did not actually drain your tank. Your black tank is full.

Also, you should know that the gray water flows into the black water pipe above the main slide valve. So I can tell that the main slide valve is still working by draining the gray tank, and it is passing fluid.

It would be helpful to see a picture of this situation. On my RV, the black and grey water waste valves are arranged on either side of the exit pipe.

The way it works is you pull the black water valve while leaving the grey water valve closed, so all the human waste runs out, then you close the black water valve and open the grey water valve and this way your poop slinky pipe gets flushed out by the grey water.

This is what mine looks like:

For sure, I am not taking the hose of the pipe and running the snake up it. If the tank is full and it appears to be that would make a mess I never want to see, and I'm sure my park manager feels the same.

OK, but even with your poop slinky pipe connected, if you open the black water valve on a full black water tank you should have no doubt that liquid is GUSHING through that pipe. Moreover, on my poop slinky pipe the end elbow that hooks to the sewer is translucent and I can see liquid going through it.

You have to figure out whether anything is coming out when you open the black water valve. Do you have a cable-operated valve or is it a direct push rod like the picture above?

Steve

[ndrorder]

With the Grey pipe flowing into the main pipe below the black tank but before the main valve, then there may be a valve between black tank and main valve that's not working. The previous draining may have only emptied the black tank pipe but not the tank itself because the black tank valve didn't function. Would explain the black tank still being full.

[buc1980]

You got to be sure the valve is open.Like somebody say before the cable can broke and you can't operate the gate valve.

[Bobbo]

pasusan wrote:
The one thing that I've heard of is the plastic round disc that is cut out of the tank to add the outlet pipe sometimes is left in the tank and can then try to come out with a dump and clog the opening.

This is a real thing. It happened to me. I bought my first RV brand spanking new. When it was about 2 years old, I was dumping at home with a Flojet Macerator and had a clear section installed so I could see when the effluent was clear. (Nice big word.) All of a sudden, there was a CLUNK and there was this nice round disk in the clear section. Of course, it didn't get macerated, but when I took the macerator off the RV, that nice round disk was where they had cut one of the openings in the black tank. After that, my black tank drained MUCH faster and better. (If I had been using the stinky slinky at the campground, I would have never known it had been in there.)

[98coachman]

mnoeltne wrote:
Get one of the clear plastic reverse flush attachments. This will allow you to watch what gets drained, and you can try pushing some water back up into the tank from the bottom in case something has the outlet blocked.

x2 good luck

[Slownsy]

I recently had similar problem. Blocking of pipe toilet to tank, tank draining true hose but toilet not emptying.. pushed hose op true drain pipe and in to tank while running it in to bucket no luck. Finally brought hose in to toilet and down in to pipe while running it and finally cleared. I do have a 45 offset and believe to much paper not much water was the issue.
Frank.

[mobilefleet]

I would also try a Flush King. They work great to backflush debris out of there. If you don't have one- buy one

[wa8yxm]

Ok.. If an RV Gravity Toilet (Sea-Land for example) will not flush you have a very short suspect list.

1: Broken linkage and the flush gate/ball valve not opening.. Clearly NOT the issue here
2: Tank full....
3: Clogged plumbing (Well the plunger should have fixed that)

I have seen #3.. ONCE (well actually twice but same toilet)

From everything the OP tried it's down to Tank full

NOTE vent clogged will not stop toilet from flushing but it will.. Blow back at you

So your problem may be the tank is not emptying. I have not had that experience, but I have read about one case. Or two.

And again the suspect list is short
1: Valve not opening (Fairly common actually but you'd know that)
2: Clogged outlet .. The one I'm talking about... The workers when they cut the hole in the floor for the toilet pipe just dropped the wood down into the tankj. Where is eventually covered the outlet.. Wood was returned to CEO of comnpany.

[wopachop]

Darn you have a trip!!
Can you safely climb on the roof, use duct tape to seal the blank tank vent, then plunge like crazy with the black tank drain valve open?