Bleach and tank seals

[DC8Captain]

Hi there,
I went over to check on my TT, which has been winterized, the other day. For some reason I lifted the toilet cover and found a fuzzy bacterial growth in the bottom of the bowl. My idea was to drain the anti-freeze out of the bowl and pour some bleach in there and let it sit for a while to disinfect the area. I would then open the flapper, allowing the bleach to go into the black tank, and then replace with new anti-freeze in the bottom of the bowl. My question is will the bleach dry out, or otherwise damage, the external dump valve seal.

Dale

[Doug]

A little bit goes a long way. If your using liquid Clorox msybe 1/8 cup. I was winterizing my home and condo a few years ago. Just a 1/2 tab in the bowl and tank was unexpectantly damaging. The chlorine gas pitted all the chrome handles in the bathroom. Since then I just use a small amount of Chlorox.
D.

[Flapper]

Probably not - us with swimming pools have all sorts of chlorinators that have rubber seals which are exposed to very high levels of chlorine. Far, far greater than store bought bleach. But, for sanitizing, more is not better. Dilute it down a lot, if for no other reason than to avoid bleach stains on you or anything else that gets splashed. Literally 1-2 capfuls per gallon of water is all you need. That amount, if there is any left in the water after doing the job in the bowl, when it hits your black tank, will get used up very quickly, so you can then let it be there for as long as you like. Just let it sit several hours in the bowl before flushing - it takes time to "soak" into all the bacteria, etc. and kill them.