Black tank

[JoeT]

I HAVE BEEN FULLTIME FOR A FEW NOW . THE SMELL WAS REAL BAD, FLUSHED TANK (FILLED WITH WATER AND DUMPED) SMELL GONE AFTER THAT, CAN'T GET IT, OUT OF THINGS TO DO! (1)Toilet seal new (2)Checked vent pipe (3)No smell basement (4)Having to dump evey 3 day to keep smell down Fill to dump (5)Spray wand to flush tank

[jim44646]

You may have a build up your not completly getting rid of. Try some Happy Camper Extreme.
Happy Camper - Odorless Holding Tank Treatment Black and Grey Water
All Star Happy Camper | Holding Tank Treatment for RVs

[Anita1]

Is it smelling inside the camper without the toilet seal being open? If so, and you have a plastic camper toilet, it could be the same problem that we had. The toilet was failing to seal inside the toilet. The toilet under the seat is hollow with an inside pc. and an outside pc. You have to take apart the two pc's and it is not a "glory job" because it is possible for "stuff" to get up into the bottom of the toilet. The two pc.'s seal together under the seat. We ended up using a double thickness of putty tape in order to get it to seal and even then it was really difficult to get a good seal. We ended up replacing the toilet because the smell had permeated the plastic of the toilet seat and we finally just gave it up because the cost of a new toilet is pretty cheap. New toilet was the end of any problems....wish we would have done that from the get go.

[pwb01]

Just something else to check. For a month or so I used a "green", "good for the environment", "tree hugging", "eco friendly" deororizer with NO FORMALDEHYDE and the smell was overwhelming every time we flushed and had the valve open for a few seconds. Went back to the "contains formaldehyde" brands and threw away what was left of the other. Never had a problem since. So much for "Green".

[JohnB]

It may be possible the vent pipe inside the tank is plugged or clogged inside the tank and the tank cannot vent. When you said you checked the tank vent, did you take off the roof top cover, shine a flash light down and see the inside of the tank or poke a long 6 to 7 foot rod down to make sure it was not plugged at the bottom?

If it is clogged with "stuff", the extreme cleaner Jim linked you to will help eat it up in a few days, but you will have to fill the tank full with water after you add the cleaner so the digesting bacteria and get at the clog.

Good luck and hope this helps.

[bunjin]

If after the above mentioned if you feel you need to still "scrub" the inside of your tank, put about 5 pounds or so of ice cubes with some water inside tank and drive around for awhile. This slosing will help dislodge solids that may have built up on the tank.

[Poppy & Nana]

Originally Posted by bunjin

If after the above mentioned if you feel you need to still "scrub" the inside of your tank, put about 5 pounds or so of ice cubes with some water inside tank and drive around for awhile. This slosing will help dislodge solids that may have built up on the tank.

We add ice cubes after every outing.....can say that we never had the black pyramid build up! We also you a "wand" to clean after dumping and hardly ever put toilet paper into the tank (yea I know "gross" but it works!) and when we do it is cheap, one ply that dissolves quickly!

All good advise here, hope things work out for the OP!

[RRS2670]

I assume the wand people are mentioning is probably similar to what I'm going to mention here. I have an aluminum wand about 3-4' long with a slight bend in the end which I attach a balloon filling attachment to get a small opening to increase the water flow to a high velocity. I stick this through drain valve on my black tank and twist in a circular motion and push/pull wand in and out into a container under drain. I do this numerous times until the water comes out clear. I also go in from the inside through the toilet, but I don't think it's as effective. I have dedicated hose and pan and do this procedure when coming back from a trip and in the spring. I always leave some water in tank, even in the winter as I use RV antifreeze in the drains so I just pour a little extra to keep the bottom of tank wet. I've had my trailer over 10 years, this method seems to keep tank clean.
I tried the putting stuff in the tank and driving around, it's just kind of time consuming and a bit of a hassle to hook up trailer just to clean tank. Obviously though I do add more water when I'm leaving on vacation to get some cleaning action while traveling to destination.
Sorry if this is obvious to everyone, as you can tell I'm not on this forum much.

[JoeT]

Thank's to all