Black Water Take Level Indicator

[Cardinals]

Our TT is 4 years old and has been used quite a bit over the years. The level indicator light for the black tank is not working as it should. Even when tank is empty, after our trip this past week, the light still shows 1/3 full. When it was probably 1/3 full it showed 2/3 full.

Any suggestions on how to deal with this? I clean the tank every time we empty.

Thanks

Mike

[Wishbone51]

My black tank sensors work almost all of the time. My grey sensors will often show 1/3 when empty, but the rest of the lights have no issues.

I use the GEO method, and use my tank rinser to fill it up all the way before dumping. If I have time, I will fill it up again, dump and rinse while dumping. Continue rinsing until clean. Put 5 gallons and the GEO mix in.

I do use the toilet while it's sitting in my driveway, maybe sitting for months at a time. I repeat my dumping procedure right before leaving to a campsite and let the clean mix slosh around while driving.

Maybe overkill, but I like to see the lights work. On a possibly related note, I never smell anything bad in my trailer at all.. While dumping, flushing, while sitting in 100*+ weather, nothing. Possibly due to my being anal (pun intended) about my dumping procedure.

[Ava]

I have one of those rotating head wands that go down the toilet to rinse the black water tank. It has always worked well for me. Cheers Doug

[mikensallyt]

I'm a bit embarrassed emptying my tanks. Mine is 2/3rds full (40 gals), don't be watching me. But I've got all the items needed to make it safe and clean afterwards. I don't know, there's just something about this operation. lol

Next I'll be tackling adding fresh water, I'm such a newbie.

[Erie_Tom]

They have a product for cleaning the sensors. I put the prescribed amount in the tank and added 5 gallons of water.

Did this and drove to the next campsite about 6 hours. The movement of the liquid cleaned the sensor which might have had a piece of paper or scum on it. This happened when temps were really high for a long period. Dumped at the next site and never had the problem again

[korbe]

I have found that the best use for the sensors is to let me know when I have rinsed the tank well enough. When the tank senses empty, I'm done with the rinsing.

[rbpru]

I have not found any way to consistently keep the black tank sensors working. A bag of ice dumped down the toilet and bounced down the road works as well as any.

Unfortunately such fixes are short term. The tanks are too narrow and the sensors are easily shorted out by the crud sloshing in the tank. This is often most noticeable in the black tank.

If in doubt, we simply look down the toilet bowl.

[mbopp]

I made a toilet wand for use in our previous HTT that worked well. And even though the new TT has a tank rinser I still get a lot of "stuff" out of the tank using the wand.

[pulsar]

The holding tank monitoring systems for most RVs has long been the bane of RVers. Winnebago now uses probes that are external to the tank. Our previous coach, 2008 Journey, had these sensor and worked perfectly, except for the stupid placement of the probes. (The 2/3 full probe of the 90-gallon fresh water tank was very close to the full sensor and the 1/3 full probe was at the 1/2 full point on the tank.)

Our current coach has the external sensors, also, but it is too soon to judge there longevity.

There are third party external sensors that one can install, but it is not always easy to get to the tanks.

Tech-Edge (iSeries)

Garnet Instruments (SeeLevel)

Tom

[WyoTraveler]

How do you clean your tank after dumping the black? I use a home a homemade wand down the toilet. Basically high pressures it clean. I noticed on several RVs I have owned a couple of things going on. Sometimes just condensation with a temp change will effect the indicators. At times when mine starts to look full a day later it is less full. I suspect as paper etc. breaks down it also shows errors on the indicators. I just try to make sure every time I dump it shows empty. I use the wand until it does. You need high pressure in the tank to clean it. The wands I have seen at Walmart and RV dealers don't seem to get the job done.

[midnightsadie]

X2 never trust a tank sensor

[gbopp]

The best way to deal with it is, accept the fact that tank sensors are not reliable or accurate.
You can try the Geo Method or ice cubes in the tank to clean the sensors.
I think most just learn to judge when the tanks need dumped.

You're not alone with a sensor problem. 😉