When is black tank full?

[Bayoutalker]

Originally Posted by daveobieone

Last night I was able to obtain...

Blue Dawn, Calgon Water Softener, and Borax at the big-box store.



I'll follow the recipe, and add about 10 gallons of water to the 32 gallon tank. That should allow for a good bit of "sloshing around" when we leave with the Eagle next week for a camping trip.



Hopefully this will clear the sensors a bit so we can get some useful info from them again. You would think they would at least last 2 years.



It's also been suggested to me to add 10 pounds of ice to the tank just before we pull out. The explanation being that the ice will help to clear the sensors. Has anyone else tried that?



BTW, we do use RV rated Scott single-ply TP...and as little of it as possible. The package says it's "Septic Safe" and "Clog Free", and "Breaks up 8x faster than Charmin".



Dave O.

Good luck. It works for us.

As for TP we use the regular 2 ply household stuff that we buy at the grocery store. Much cheaper than the RV stuff and much nicer to use. We dump once a week and all I see are little scraps of it. I buy the "soft" kind not the "strong" one.

I've heard people say the ice works but I've not tried it. I've never had sensors that are reliable so I never check mine to see if they work or not.

[Camper_bob]

Originally Posted by daveobieone

Last night I was able to obtain...
Blue Dawn, Calgon Water Softener, and Borax at the big-box store.

I'll follow the recipe, and add about 10 gallons of water to the 32 gallon tank. That should allow for a good bit of "sloshing around" when we leave with the Eagle next week for a camping trip.

Hopefully this will clear the sensors a bit so we can get some useful info from them again. You would think they would at least last 2 years.

It's also been suggested to me to add 10 pounds of ice to the tank just before we pull out. The explanation being that the ice will help to clear the sensors. Has anyone else tried that?

BTW, we do use RV rated Scott single-ply TP...and as little of it as possible. The package says it's "Septic Safe" and "Clog Free", and "Breaks up 8x faster than Charmin".

Dave O.

I've never tried ice in my tanks. Primarily because of this video by "The Fit RV" on Youtube.

https://youtu.be/iH6acEmqvcw

And also because I would MUCH rather put ice in my drink than down the toilet! LOL!

IIRC, he tested various methods and found the most effective to be filling the tank with as much water as possible for a good strong dump. Next in line was tank sprayers. Ice didn't seem to work all that well.

According to his unscientific tests anyway...

[Bayoutalker]

I have several issues with this "test". If I were to redo it first of all I would put about 1/2 a tank of water with some kind of tank chemical like it would be in the real world and allow it to work for a few hours. Then I would add the ice to the tank and drive around. That should do a couple things. The contents should be in a slurry and not a clump on the bottom. It would allow the solution to splash around the whole tank and not just the bottom. Then dump the tank. Now, would the ice do anything useful? Doubtful but these conditions should give it a better chance.

[daveobieone]

Agreed...
The test would have been much more useful if the tank was about half full of water first. Seems like much more sloshing around would have been happening. You can't just put ice in there and expect good results.

After all, our goal (at the moment at least) is to clean some stuff off the sensors, which I'd assume are on the sides of the tank.

Dave O.

[AKRUEBBE]

Originally Posted by daveobieone

Agreed...The test would have been much more useful if the tank was about half full of water first. Seems like much more sloshing around would have been happening. You can't just put ice in there and expect good results.After all, our goal (at the moment at least) is to clean some stuff off the sensors, which I'd assume are on the sides of the tank.
Dave O.

You would think that the tank flush/sprayer would be designed to spray on the sensors in an effort to clean them?

[norty1]

Originally Posted by AKRUEBBE

You would think that the tank flush/sprayer would be designed to spray on the sensors in an effort to clean them?

Nope, the tank is shallow and wide. The sprayer often does not reach all areas.

[Jim Smyth]

Originally Posted by Joan617

For some reason Jayco manual says not to keep the rinse hose connected between uses but we cannot figure why, so it stays until we move.



Angus

I can tell you exactly why.............


I have a guy that parks next to me in our community storage yard. He had a 30' Puma 5th wheel. Its went missing for a few months as me and my wife came and went camping. When I seen him I asked if he sold it. He told me no that it was in the shop and then explained why.


He was at a Campground where the hose spigots were all clumped next to each other like 4 units worth. He did exactly like what your saying and put a Y slitter on one hose connector and connected 2 hoses to his unit. One for the water in and one for the black tank flush.


Him and his wife went out for the day and came back 4 hours later. Only to find out someone accidentally turned his Y spliter black tank flush to the on position. Well you guessed it, it filled up his tank, then overflowed into the camper and even came out the roof vent...............for hours!


His whole interior was scrapped and the underbelly insulation all had to come out. Major damage from someone who was very sorry but still caused the problem.



Lesson learned. It takes a few minutes to connect another hose up for the black tank flush when your ready to flush. Also when flushing I do nothing else and when the wife comes by asking stupid questions I ask her to leave until I'm done. I dont need any bigger messes to clean up.

[AKRUEBBE]

Originally Posted by Jim Smyth

I can tell you exactly why.............at a Campground where the hose spigots were all clumped next to each other like 4 units worth. He did exactly like what your saying and put a Y slitter on one hose connector and connected 2 hoses to his unit. One for the water in and one for the black tank flush.Him and his wife went out for the day and came back 4 hours later. Only to find out someone accidentally turned his Y spliter black tank flush to the on position. Well you guessed it, it filled up his tank, then overflowed into the camper and even came out the roof vent...............for hours!His whole interior was scrapped and the underbelly insulation all had to come out. Major damage from someone who was very sorry but still caused the problem.

Holy crap!!!

[GABob]

Originally Posted by Magnolia Tom

Tang? [emoji23][emoji23]

That’s for outer space... this is inner space

[AKRUEBBE]

Originally Posted by norty1

Nope, the tank is shallow and wide. The sprayer often does not reach all areas.

Have you ever seen what the flush mechanism looks like inside of the tank?

[GABob]

My sprayer in the black tank protrudes about a third of the way under the toilet drain tube. This has caused a “traffic backup” several times. Thanks goes to my sister in law who gave my daughter some s’mores sticks, which we now refer to as the S stick... very useful in dealing with a logjam. Question: is it supposed to be located so that it can be seen down the hole, or was this just another slap together oversight?

[daveobieone]

In a well-designed system, you would certainly think yes, they sprayers would spray on the sensors. It sounds like they didn't care enough to design it that way. We had a 2007 Big Horn before this Eagle, and the black tank sensors were still pretty reliable when we sold it, after 10 years of use.

We do leave a hose connected to the black tank clean-out, but it has a secondary in-line valve at the TT hose connection...which is INSIDE of the locked cover on the side. That second valve is ALWAYS left turned off. Two valves must be turned on (besides the campground spigot, which would make 3) to allow water into our black tank. We always turn off the campground spigot when we leave the camper for the day too.

I've heard stories of kids thinking it was a "funny" joke/prank to open someones black-tank clean-out valve, and watch the flood. That's why there's a second valve inside of a locked cover!

Dave O.

[norty1]

Originally Posted by AKRUEBBE

Have you ever seen what the flush mechanism looks like inside of the tank?

Your joking right? Seems like many are confusing the toilet tank and the black tank. Just wanted to make sure.

[Bayoutalker]

Originally Posted by norty1

Your joking right? Seems like many are confusing the toilet tank and the black tank. Just wanted to make sure.

Then you better enlighten us. My trailer has only 1 tank associated with the toilet and it is the black tank.

[RetiredOne]

Originally Posted by AKRUEBBE

Have you ever seen what the flush mechanism looks like inside of the tank?

I'm wonder this too??

Nope, the tank is shallow and wide. The sprayer often does not reach all areas.

That's what I'm thinking. I used my tank sprayer for the first time yesterday, so I slid underneath to see where it actually attaches. The tank is definitely shallow and long, and my sprayer is hooked up at the end, under the toilet drop area. My guess is it's designed to spray right at the area of where a "pyramid" would form, to break it up. There's only one blue water line going to the tank. If it's a true, complete spray, it would require multiple spray heads.

I really doubt (based on the other inferior thinks Jayco engineers do) it's a complete tank sprayer, hitting most areas of the tank. My guess (and I'm going to confirm with my access camera), it's just sprays water on the "drop" area and produces some additional water flow to send the stuff down to the drain fitting.

[norty1]

Originally Posted by Bayoutalker

Then you better enlighten us. My trailer has only 1 tank associated with the toilet and it is the black tank.

Many manufacturers made a run of what's known as FEMA trailers that were not intended for recreational use. They had a residential toilet with it's own tank and trap and the plumbing went straight out with no internal holding tanks. They are used for temporary housing after natural disasters.

After the disaster, whats left of them were sold at auction and you see them around in parks. One way to ID them is the lack of many windows. Some park models are plumbed that way also.

[Bayoutalker]

Originally Posted by norty1

Many manufacturers made a run of what's known as FEMA trailers that were not intended for recreational use. They had a residential toilet with it's own tank and trap and the plumbing went straight out with no internal holding tanks. They are used for temporary housing after natural disasters.

After the disaster, whats left of them were sold at auction and you see them around in parks. One way to ID them is the lack of many windows. Some park models are plumbed that way also.

I know FEMA trailers really well. This thread was about recreational trailers so I never considered those. The flush we were discussing is the internal black tank sprayers.

[RetiredOne]

So, I got my inspection camera out and took a look down that scary place to see what the built in spray nozzle looked like. This nozzle is right next to the area where the pyramid would form. All it looks like is a drilled out cap. 3 holes in the middle, and a bunch around the edges, which sprays the high end of the tank, near the toilet inlet.

I think there might be another one down in the middle of the top of the tank, it was hard to see, so I need to slide underneath the rig and see if there another water line to the top of the tank.

Anyway, this is what that nozzle looked like inside:

[AKRUEBBE]

Originally Posted by RetiredOne

So, I got my inspection camera out and took a look down that scary place to see what the built in spray nozzle looked like. This nozzle is right next to the area where the pyramid would form. All it looks like is a drilled out cap. 3 holes in the middle, and a bunch around the edges, which sprays the high end of the tank, near the toilet inlet.

I think there might be another one down in the middle of the top of the tank, it was hard to see, so I need to slide underneath the rig and see if there another water line to the top of the tank.

Anyway, this is what that nozzle looked like inside:

Looks like it would do a good job providing you have enough pressure.

[Merrick]

Aahhh…..the elusive tank sprayer. Ive never seen one.