An Easy Way To Clean RV Holding Tanks

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Cleaning your holding tanks is one of those RV maintenance chores that needs to be done on a regular basis. If you don’t keep them clean, RV black and gray tanks can start to smell really nasty. In addition, if you don’t keep your tanks free of buildup, your tank sensors will get covered with crud and they won’t function properly. 

You can’t get around having to clean your holding tanks at least once a month when they are in use. A quick Google search reveals many methods for getting RV holding tanks clean. However, we wanted to find the most effortless, simple method that anyone can use for cleaning their RV holding tanks.

What you need to know about RV holding tanks

Here are a few things that will help you keep your gray water and black water tanks clean and performing at their best. In general, you want to keep things from drying out to avoid buildup on the bottom of your holding tanks. With this in mind:

Always keep at least 5 gallons of water in your holding tanks to prevent buildup from happening and keep them from drying out. If you have water in your holding tanks when you are traveling, it will swish around, helping to clean any gunk off the sides of the tanks. Also, dumping a bag of ice into your black tank before you travel will help clean it as you drive. Always keep gray and black tank gate valves closed until they are more than half full. Even when you are hooked up to sewer services, you’ll avoid drying out your tanks by keeping RV valves closed. Allowing your tanks to fill halfway before emptying them helps to ensure that there is enough weight in the tanks to push everything out when its time to empty them. You should only flush digested materials and RV-safe toilet paper down your RV toilet. This will ensure that you avoid blockages in your RV’s plumbing system.  Harsh chemicals and bleach will damage RV holding tanks and their seals. Never use bleach, Draino, or any harsh chemicals in your RV plumbing system.

Use an overnight RV holding tank treatment

The easiest way to clean RV holding tanks is by letting an enzyme-powered holding tank cleaner work overnight in your tanks. Here are a few of many enzymatic tank cleaning products that promise effortless overnight cleaning. 

Super Seal Pirranhais an enzymatic liquid product that is designed to break down and liquefy anything in your RV’s black and/or gray tanks.  Thetford Tank Blastercomes in drop-in pouches that use microfoam to help loosen crud inside your holding tanks. Thetford’s customers agree that Tank Blaster gets rid of crud in RV holding tanks when used as directed.Walex CMDOBG Commando Black Holding Tank Cleanercomes in pouches designed specifically for cleaning blackwater holding tanks overnight.   

 

No matter which holding tank treatment you choose, there are some steps you’ll need to take to get it to perform properly. Enzymatic cleaners contain enzymes that happily eat and digest the stuff on the inside of your tanks. But you’ll get better results if you make their job easier. Here’s what you need to do:

Use the treatment while you are hooked up to sewer services. This will allow you to fill your tanks up before you empty them. Fill each of your holding tanks to more than 75% of their capacity. Having them as full as possible will really help get them clean.  Empty your black tank and then your gray tank. The soapy water from your gray tank will help clean any remnants in your sewer hose. Now flush your black tank with either your RV’s black tank flush or a tank flusher likethis one from Valterra.  Before you go to bed, mix or dissolve the manufacturer’s suggested dose of tank treatment into a bucket of warm water and dump this down the toilet. If you are treating your gray tank, mix up a second bucket to carefully dump down whichever drain is closest to the gray tank. This is often (but not always) the shower drain.  Now fill up your holding tanks with water.  In the morning, repeat Steps 1-5.    Test your black tank’s cleanliness by turning on the overhead fan and opening the valve in your toilet. There should now be no offensive odor. 

Track your RV maintenance

Make sure you keep track of all your RV maintenance and repairs with an online tool such as RV LIFE Maintenance. Not only can you keep all of your documents in one place, but you’ll also receive timely reminders when maintenance is due to help you avoid costly repairs and potentially serious accidents.

Related articles:

Do You Really Need RV-Safe Toilet Paper?How To Get Rid Of Awful Black Tank Smells

 

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