Putting in larger black tank?

[Randy P]

I just ordered a "Seelevel Tank monitor 709. The Spenser's are mounted on the outside of the tank. Never gets gunked up. I'll see how it performs.

[VinceU]

Originally Posted by Randy P

I just ordered a "Seelevel Tank monitor 709. The Spenser's are mounted on the outside of the tank. Never gets gunked up. I'll see how it performs.

Good move!

[BamaBob]

Randy,

Just a couple of "Lessons Learned" FYI...

Try my solution (repeated flushing) with cleaner to de-gunk your tank.

The 40# or so of ice in the tank & drive around is a interesting solution I had not thought of - may want to try that too.

If you do not have a flush connection on your RV, buy one of the Camco ones that attach to your black water tank. You attach a black water hose to this device (NOT your drinking water hose! ) and let it spray the tank out real good - even though our unit (new) has a flush attachment, I still plan on using our old flusher 1-2 times a year--I really DID strip everything from the TT when we sold it )

Here is a link to what I am talking about:
http://www.amazon.com/Camco-39062-Flush-Holding-Rinser/dp/B000BUQOAE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386257734&sr=8-1&keywords=camco+black+tank+flush

OK, now on to Everything you ever (never? wanted to know about black water tank maintenance…

I respectfully disagree with some of the others that say the tank sensors do not work correctly after a while – and only because I lucked out @ 9 years ago and met one of the Fleetwood holding tank specialists at a large RV dealer when we were living in New Mexico.

He told me that 99% of RV owners are never educated on how to correctly maintain Black Water Tanks. Based on his advice, I have developed a “Black Water Prime Directive” that I follow scrupulously – see below.

No matter if you are dry camping or hooked to a sewer, this is how you use a Black Water tank.

Black Water Tank Prime Directive: Never EVER leave your black water valve open to a constant drain to the park sewer! This will lead to very bad things happening to your black tank!

While you are at it, let your gray water tank (the one joined with the Black Tank line) fill up as well. If you use a lot of Gray water, you can partially open the gray valve to let water trickle out if you are hooked to a sewer.

Black Water Dump Procedure:
1. Always let your tank fill to at least 2/3 full.
a. Dump Black Water, close valve once complete
b. Dump Gray Water (which flushes sewer hose of black tank residue), close valve once complete
c. At commode, run 3-4 Gal of water to Black Tank
d. Add Black tank Treatment (EVERY TIME you dump tank!)
2. At the end of EVERY camping trip, flush your black tank out with the flush connection on your RV.
a. After flushing, run 3-4 Gal of water to Black Tank from commode & add Black tank Treatment (this will happily slosh around as you drive home scrubbing your black tank to a like new condition
3. 2x a year flush the tank from the sewer with the Camco black tank flusher I linked above. After flushing, if you are not still camping, perform 2(a) above
4. You should not have any problems, and your tank sensors will be accurate

BTW, Gray and Galley water tanks, need love too - especially if you have a lot of greasy water & solids going down the pipes. It is not critical to add cleaner EVERY time--I do ever other tank dump though - it keeps the sensors in like new condition.

I also do the same with Gray/Galley water as I do with black when I am done camping – 2-4 gal of water and cleaner in the tank before we hit the road.

Here is a link to the Black (Gray) Tank cleaner/Sensor Cleaner)
http://www.amazon.com/Unique-Marketing-Colorado-244-Digest/dp/B003X3PQN2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1386258127&sr=8-2&keywords=RV+black+tank+cleaner

And the Gray Tank Cleaner/Sensor Cleaner:
http://www.amazon.com/Walex-TOI-61776-Elemonate-Deodorizer-Cleaner/dp/B003BSB7PU/ref=pd_sim_auto_1



This may seem like a lot...but a ounce (err...4 ounces of cleaner actually <G>) of prevention keeps everything working and ya know I really NEVER EVER want to have to do anything more complex to my sewer system than the above ...ewwwwww!

[bclemens]

We tested the Seelevel system a while back. Way more accurate...but the electronics were a little bit finicky for our taste. When they worked they worked well.

You might also look at the Horst Miracle Probe. There is a video on the site that shows why they read incorrectly and how this probe is supposed to solve that problem. We have tested these as well and seem to get good results.