Black tank always reads 3/4 full?

[stormer]

Originally Posted by 5picker

Yep.
Fabric softener is formulated to work with... well...fabrics. Not plastic and metal.

Water softener is what will help the gunk flow out of the tank.

Makes sense to me. Ive never purchased ‘water softener’. Ever had to! Where do i get it? Walmart?

James

[BandJCarm]

Originally Posted by stormer

Makes sense to me. Ive never purchased ‘water softener’. Ever had to! Where do i get it? Walmart?

James

Calgon.

Walmart.

[PJSNorwood]

Had the same problem. Filled the black tank about 1/4 full and added a container of Thetford Aqua-Kem about two days before next camping trip. Flushed the tank upon arrival, and again filled 1/4 full, and added chemical. Worked for me. Sensors working again.
Now I always add the Aqua-Kem and water before setting out.

[stormer]

Originally Posted by rockfordroo

You want to use water softener. Fabric softener is an entirely different chemical and doesn't help unless you're flushing your clothes down the toilet. I'm guessing just filling the tank is what solved your problem, not the fabric softener.



https://sites.google.com/site/cbruni/

Hey, thanks for that link! Great info!

James

[5picker]

Originally Posted by PJSNorwood

Had the same problem. Filled the black tank about 1/4 full and added a container of Thetford Aqua-Kem about two days before next camping trip. Flushed the tank upon arrival, and again filled 1/4 full, and added chemical. Worked for me. Sensors working again.
Now I always add the Aqua-Kem and water before setting out.

You should always add some liquid and the chemicals of you choice back into the black tank after dumping.

[OldCoot]

You can also put about 5-10 gal of water and a gallon of SuperClean in it and pull it about 25-50 miles a couple of times and it'll clean out any holding tank.

[spock123]

Originally Posted by Skyliner

A flashlight looking down the toilet valve is all I need to know how full it is. As a previous poster stated, the gauges are very inaccurate. Mine reads 3/4 full even when empty.



As a practice because we conserve water when camping, we do not discard toilet paper in the toilet black water tank. We put TP in little ziplock bags and discard them in small bagged trash can and dispose of the waste every couple of days. We find less material buildup on the grey water tank with this practice.

There is no way I’m going to put used toilet paper in a zip lock bag or ask DW to do it.

[stormer]

Originally Posted by spock123

There is no way I’m going to put used toilet paper in a zip lock bag or ask DW to do it.

Haha, im going to have to #2 this motion.

[A32Deuce]

X3! Not in this lifetime!

[RandK-M]

In both my current camper and my previous one, I replaced the tank probes to Horst Miracle probes. They aren't perfect, but many times better than the standard ones.

I may occasionally get a 1/3 reading immediately after dump and flush, but it always clears within 20 or 30 minutes and read empty. Most of the time they read empty right away. They have a nice video on their site.


Here's a link:
http://www.rvprobes.com/home.html


I bought mine on Amazon



Ray

[Rbare31]

Had trouble with my sensors and bought a bag of COMMANDO. Followed the directions and let it set overnight. It’s amazing how much “crap” came out of the tank.

https://www.amazon.com/Walex-CMDOBG-.../dp/B0177AJ64G

[changing it up a bit]

Dittio on how Scrapper determines when the tank is full. Living in the rig full time allows you be in touch with the how the systems work that are managed properly with OE components.

[JohnD10]

Originally Posted by Rbare31

Had trouble with my sensors and bought a bag of COMMANDO. Followed the directions and let it set overnight. It’s amazing how much “crap” came out of the tank.

https://www.amazon.com/Walex-CMDOBG-.../dp/B0177AJ64G

Yup!

I use the Commando in the black tank and it worked wonders!

You can get Commando at Camping World, and I've seen it recently at many Walmart stores in the RV section.

Tried it in the gray tank and for some reason it didn't work there...actually made them worse!

However, I've discovered something recently as I've been full-timing for over five months now and traveling around the western and southwestern US of A...

If you press and hold the sensor button for 30 seconds to 1 minute...you might just get a better and more accurate reading!

Just pressing it for a second or two doesn't seem to give the correct reading...seems that the sensors need to be activated for more that a couple of seconds for them to gather the correct reading!

However, you might still need to clean the sensors to get them to work this way.

I discovered this after I ran the Commando in the black tank the first time.

[DouglasReid]

Originally Posted by stormer

hahaha! I should say so! To be honest, I was like wow, my wife must be using a lot of TP! how are we already 3/4 full?? Then I noticed yeah... something is amiss here.

Well, it seems to be a common issue with RV's... seriously haven't they figured out how to make a good sensor that is accurate yet from the manufacturer?

Thanks for the input!!

James

What happens is a film develops on the sides of the tank in the black tank. The film slowly falls down the sides of the tank and completes the circuit between the body of the sensor and the center electrode. This tells the sensor there is water and that is the reading you get.

Two solutions..............

1. look up the Geo Method or just add 5 gallons to yrou tank when dumping and leaving the campground. To that add about 3 ox of Dawn DW liquid. IT will slosh around inside while you are traveling home and back to yrou next campground, cleaning the insides of the tank.

Dump it when entering the new campground. YOu may have to do this a couple of times to get the crud off the insides of the tank. Do this every time you leave and it will not reoccur.

2. You can replace the probes with a cover over the center element. These prevent the sludge from contacting the center probe so they will not give false readings.

Here is what they probes look like

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Valterra-T2...4AAOSwMQBaRwoU

[Murbella7]

Originally Posted by stormer

Well this is a new one for me. I empty the black tank, flush with black tank sprayer, let it run clear. I come inside, check the reading and it stays at 3/4 full. Bad sensor? We use the rv tp and i use the drop ins to help with break down.

Welcome to the world of RV Black Tank Boogaloo.
If that doesn't make sense then be comforted by the fact that neither do waste tank semaphores. People have spent hours, days, years and trying to get a lasting solution for incorrect/crazy readouts/reporting on tank states. It will never happen. The best advice I saw was to rip out or cover the lights and ignore them. Go by instinct, smell and sight. If it smells then it near full. If it overflows then it is full. Until you reach that point, just keep using it. Grey tanks can be just as cantankerous, but a tiny bit more manageable and you can often dump a grey tank in places you can't/shouldn't/wouldn't dump a black tank.

[Tomban]

Went to Alaska and had problems with the black tank readings after dumping. I got several gallons of water and a bag of ice into the tank. After a day on the road everything was fine.

[lckspt]

Had the same problem...what we did was add about a half tank worth of water....then empty a half box of dish washing powder.....then take a trip or head to your next destination and agitate away!...problem solved. Tried the ice method but had issues getting 10 lbs of ice down the toilet....and you will not get any ice into the grey tank if you have any issues with that one too.........what happens is that scum and other stuff grows on the side of the tank covering the sensors and providing a continuity path.....We do this every time the tank sensors act up....

[KeithInUpstateNY]

I dry camp in a State Forest with 20 designated camp sites from May until October. Each site has its own outhouse, but I use the camper bathroom and use the outhouse just for dumping my tanks.

A big learning curve the first summer with my then brand new Bullet 220RBI, but through trial and error I ended up with a routine similar to what most are recommending here, as far as using the tanks until they are full, disposing of toilet paper separately (I use diaper disposal bags from the dollar store inside an opaque plastic container with a snap on lid), etc.

Dry camping water is a valuable resource so this is the method I have come up with to maximize its use.

I use two 5 gallon buckets. I fill the first one from the gray water tank and set it aside. I then proceed to empty the black water tank, dumping it in the outhouse. Then I empty the gray water tank, dumping it into the toilet to refill the black water tank and then empty the black water tank again. The soap in the gray water helps to clean the black water tank, as does the agitation of having the water poured into the tank. Finally I pour the first pail of gray water in the black tank so it doesn't start off empty.

The one thing I learned that has helped keep the gray water tank clean was switching from "normal" soap to a glycerin based soap. I use Pears, I like the smell and it is available at Dollar Tree, but any glycerin based clear soap should work. There is virtually NO soap scum in the gray water.

I bought my 2014 Avenger 22RB at the beginning of the season. It had been used seasonally in a campground and even the gray water sensor read full when the tank was empty. The second time I emptied it after having used only glycerin soap for showering chunks of what looked like Crisco (congealed soap scum presumably) came out in the gray water. The sensor now reads 2/3 when empty and I am expecting after a few more emptyings it will read more accurately.

I plan to try using powdered water softener as recommended above to see if that helps speed up the cleaning process and aids with maintenance in the future.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[Texas]

Originally Posted by stormer

Well this is a new one for me. I empty the black tank, flush with black tank sprayer, let it run clear. I come inside, check the reading and it stays at 3/4 full. Bad sensor? We use the rv tp and i use the drop ins to help with break down.

Your rinser is not hitting the sensors. I had to rebuild my wet bay requiring removal of all tanks. I now have two rinsers in both the black and gray tank. They are at each end. I no longer get false readings.

[Bdershaw]

Ductwork is probably touching the sensor probes causing it to read 3/4 the ductwork is just like your dryer vent 4 in Flex foil I had the same problem and they had to take some of the underbelly loose and strap the duct away from the sensors so that it would not touch anymore