How to Properly Use RV Black Water Tank Chemicals

We get a lot of questions about how to properly take care of the blackwater tank what to do with the toilet, chemicals and that type of stuff. So we're gonna cover the five biggest mistakes that RV owners do with the sewage system or the black water tank. The first is not using the right chemical. You use an anaerobic type of a chemical in the Blackwater tank and that allows what we call the good bugs basically to erodically eat or digest the sewage that's in it. Just very similar to your municipality.

If you use the wrong type of chemical, then it's going to create an anaerobic type of digestion and that's where you get the rotten egg smell and you get it's just gonna have a lot of problems with it. So Thetford, it makes a product that is designed to have the enzymes that the good bugs are gonna need. So use the proper chemical. The second thing is, using the proper toilet paper. Now a lot of people think I can just use a septic type toilet paper that would be good for a home and we did a test and you definitely wanna use one that is designed for RVs and it's gonna break down faster.

You don't want that stuff inside clinging to sidewalls cause what's gonna happen is it's gonna go up against the monitor panel probes and you're gonna get a bad rating. Again, Thetford is one of the leading brands of the toilet paper that will dissolve in your waste system. The third one then is not properly cleaning the blackwater tanks when you're done using them or even in between. Now, a lot of people like to use this which is a black water flush valve and it simply sits, it's permanently mounted to the sidewall of the blackwater tank, positioned towards the monitor panel probes cause you're gonna clean those out. What happens with those probes is you've got one power probe that comes in to one side and then you've got one, two, three on the other side.

So as the level rises it arcs across and it tells you it's a third it's two thirds and full and so forth. You drain that down, you're still gonna have some slime. You're gonna have some sludge stuff stuck to the side of that tank and that's gonna give you a false reading. So by hooking a garden hose up to this you get pressurized water that spins some of the wands, cleans that whole thing out. If you don't have this on the side and you can't install one then I would suggest using a wand, which you stick down the toilet of the RV and clean it that way and another good product is just every once in a while use the Tank Blaster.

This is just a product you can put in and blast the crud as you can see, on the side of that tank and again you're just trying to clean all that sidewall off so you don't get that false reading. Now the fourth thing, that our viewers do is they empty their tanks too soon. You should not empty your tanks until they get at least a half, some say two-thirds full, which does a couple things. First of all, it allows the enzymes to work to start to digest. The second thing is that it allows that paper, the toilet paper to dissolve on the inside.

You don't wanna leave them open because you'll get what's called pyramiding. If I sit at the campground and I leave that valve open, first thing is I'm gonna get some smell coming from the underground system up inside but I'm also gonna have the fluids drain fast and the solids stay and they just start the pyramid and then you've got some real problems and that's not fun to deal with. And the last mistake that a lot of people make and it's usually just the first or for those that are slowly and maybe the second time is, they leave their roof vent or the vent coming out above the toilet open, when they open their toilet. Shut that vent off. You'll get those smells will from that blackwater tank will come right up through and you'll know it right away.

So little bit of preparation, the right product and you'll avoid the five mistakes that our viewers make in their sewage system.