How do you use black water tank flush?

[Hudgen]

Just purchased a 251RKS this week and the only thing I don't understand is the black water tank flush. There is nothing in my papers about this so I guess we just hook up a water hose, open the black water tank valve and flush?

Question is for how long and is that it?

thanks . . . .

[Hudgen]

Never mind - found what I needed

[fella10]

Originally Posted by Hudgen

Just purchased a 251RKS this week and the only thing I don't understand is the black water tank flush. There is nothing in my papers about this so I guess we just hook up a water hose, open the black water tank valve and flush?

Question is for how long and is that it?

thanks . . . .

if your tank flush unit is mounted into your tank on the street side, as most if not all are, consider this: ... it is mounted on the drain side, probably just above the drain valve(that's where mine is), ... the flush unit sprays water into the tank, so, IF you "spray while draining", you are spraying water into/against the flow of water and solids trying to flow out the drain, ... thus hindering that flow, ...

for a long time, I assumed the flush unit would be mounted on the curb side of the tank and over there would actually be spraying in the direction to help push the stuff towards the drain, but that's not the case, .... our first two trailers didn't come with a factory flush unit so I installed an after market tank flush system, the "quickie flush", on both and mounted them on the curb side because to me that is where it should be installed, trailer #3 came with the flush unit installed and I thought that was going to be great, ..... I used it the same way until I discovered it's mounted just above the drain valve on the street side of the tank, ... now I spray as much as I want to spray and then turn off the spray before opening the dump valve, I then open the dump valve and let the tank dump without spraying water into that flow trying to leave the tank, ...

you will need to search to find where the unit is installed into the tank, but more than likely it is on the street/drain side,...... its easier for FR to put it there, than to run a line over to the curb side and it does work from there , it just works better if you don't spray while dumping, ......

[youroo]

Originally Posted by Hudgen

Never mind - found what I needed

I would recommend a "Clear 45Deg elbow "on the discharge,just before the hose! Seeing is Beliving! Youroo! !

[Martsing]

I have learned that my black tank is NOT empty after simply opening the black valve and letting it drain. I have a clear elbow. First I drain the tank. Then I close it. Then I run the tank flush until it is about 1/2 full (I have a 36 gal black tank). Then I drain it. I do this two or three times. That seems to clear the sensors and get the bulk of the material out.

Marty

[Teaman]

Teaman here.

Have been meaning to ask sort of similar question. My Black tank may not be flushing properly. I had a strong suspicion something was amiss and recently ordered a clear 45 degree adapter for the drain, to enable observation of the cleaning progress. Sure enough, the Flush sprayer gadget seems to be clogged or not installed correctly. Only a tiny trickle of water is flowing thru the clear adapter while trying to use the flush. The water hose is connected and the faucet turned full on.

Any ideas anybody. Is this flush gadget accessible or even repairable???

I have only owned this 2013 Sunseeker for about six months and am still working the 'bugs' out.

Will appreciate any tips.

Thanks

[Flybob]

I would be very careful running the black tank flush with the dump valve closed. You are introducing water into the tank at a fairly high rate. If you have a clogged or partially clogged or malfunctioning vent, you could get black tank contents where you don't want them or damage the tank.

[DrLewie]

A note of caution. Don't use your fresh water hose for the tank flusher. Most rigs don't have a check valve on the flusher inlet so its possible for some black water to back up into the hose. I carry a separate hose which I only use for the flusher. Those collapsible compact hoses work great for this and don't take up a lot of space.

[Martsing]

Originally Posted by DrLewie

A note of caution. Don't use your fresh water hose for the tank flusher. Most rigs don't have a check valve on the flusher inlet so its possible for some black water to back up into the hose. I carry a separate hose which I only use for the flusher. Those collapsible compact hoses work great for this and don't take up a lot of space.

X2.

Marty

[hiinthesky]

My black water flush is on the street side. Do I still need to use the knock down pressure gizmo during the flushing of the black tank or do I need to remove the water pressure regulator for higher pressure for flushing the black tank???

[veraken]

Suggest you watch the following video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXkV8PPPzWI

It's from RVTravel and addresses the issue of how to flush your tank.

Ken

[Hugh R]

The wifey (OK, maybe it was me) bought non-RV TP once and it clogged something. I have a sewer dump at the house, so I bought a sort of jet, but not high pressure, water wand for the house hose and ran the hose through a window and stuck it in the toilet and ran it around for a while. It cleared all that was clogging it and the black water level sensors started reading properly. I ONLY use that wash wand for that purpose.

[fella10]

Originally Posted by Hudgen

Never mind - found what I needed

well Hudgen, I can see you are are getting several folks warning against doing what I described in my post #3, ..... what that is about is, some people clean their tanks by filling the tank FULL or ALMOST FULL then letting that drain out, then doing it again and letting that drain out, and possibly even doing that a third or fourth time, ... I can't imagine wasting 30 to 40 gals. of water on each dump and doing that 3 or 4 times, what a tremendous wast of water, ...... but IF that's how you clean, then sure you have to be very careful because when you are nearing the full level you run the risk of flowing out the vent pipe and making a mess that no one wants to see, ...... I spray my flush unit for about a minute, maybe 1 1/2 mins. at the most, 2-3 gals. each time, total of maybe 10-12gals, max for my whole cleaning process, and will compare my cleaning results with the 100 gal. cleaning process any day, ...... it just isn't necessary, the flush is SPRAYING water all over the tank, washing down everything, .... but anyway, what I described is happening in post #3 is a fact, ..... do what you want to about it, but it ain't necessary to waste 100gals of water to get a clean black tank, ..... happy trailering ..............

[fella10]

Originally Posted by Teaman

Teaman here.
Any ideas anybody. Is this flush gadget accessible or even repairable???
Will appreciate any tips. Thanks

if your spraying unit has gone bad/stopped working, a simple fix is to install a "quickie flush"(link below), works great, .. and I would install it on the curb side of the tank, you'll get better results over there, see post #3, .....

https://www.amazon.com/Camco-40123-Q...=quickie+flush

[Hudgen]

fella10 - I agree, I don't need to use 100 gallons of water to clean my tank. Especially if the flush unit works just fine . . .

thanks to everybody for their advise

[CNYCamper]

Originally Posted by Flybob

I would be very careful running the black tank flush with the dump valve closed. You are introducing water into the tank at a fairly high rate. If you have a clogged or partially clogged or malfunctioning vent, you could get black tank contents where you don't want them or damage the tank.

My camper has a decal near the black tank flush stating it should only be used with the dump valve open. Besides what Flybob has mentioned, I also think the flush does a better job when the black tank is empty.
When I run the flush I can hear the pressurized water spraying against the tank sides - doing its job. If you've got the dump valve closed the spray isn't directly hitting the sides once the water level rises which reduces its effectiveness.

[Tom48]

[QUOTE=Teaman;1396328]Teaman here.

Have been meaning to ask sort of similar question. My Black tank may not be flushing properly. I had a strong suspicion something was amiss and recently ordered a clear 45 degree adapter for the drain, to enable observation of the cleaning progress. Sure enough, the Flush sprayer gadget seems to be clogged or not installed correctly. Only a tiny trickle of water is flowing thru the clear adapter while trying to use the flush. The water hose is connected and the faucet turned full on.

Any ideas anybody. Is this flush gadget accessible or even repairable???

I have only owned this 2013 Sunseeker for about six months and am still working the 'bugs' out.

Will appreciate any tips.

Thanks[/QUOT f

First, if it only a trickle there may be a problem with flow, but we have one on the new TH and it seems slower than my old process and I still use the old process when relying on the dump station hose since the end is usually too messed up to screw on the fitting anyway.

What I do is assume at best the hose running full is at most ten GPM. I have a 40 g tank. I drain it, then pick up the end, a I've tank level and run the hose in it for three minutes.

Lay the hose back in drain. I usually get a large amount of brown and paper. Repeat. Surprisingly, the second time there is usually still a small amount or no paper, but still very brown. Repeat. Usually by third flush I am getting clear water. Done.

[Boots49]

I have a 2010 Wildcat 5th wheel. When we bought it in 2010 the black water tank flush valve was installed backwards. The manual states that the valve only works if the BW valve is open. When we were connected to the black water tank flush & had the BW valve open there would be only a trickle coming out of the tank, which I believe was just more draining water, plus when I disconnected my hose from the black water tank flush I would get a tremendous pressure & water bolt back. My dealer said that I was not the only one that had the black water tank flush valve installed backwards, it has been working great since then. I love the clear 45 degree I installed at the end of the piping because with the cap on it I do not get a surprise when I remove the cap now!

[DrLewie]

Originally Posted by hiinthesky

My black water flush is on the street side. Do I still need to use the knock down pressure gizmo during the flushing of the black tank or do I need to remove the water pressure regulator for higher pressure for flushing the black tank???

The instructions with my flusher are to use full-pressure water. I assume because the flusher is always "on" there's little risk of over-pressure causing a water line rupture.

[KenFitz]

Could you tell us what you found. I just purchased a 21’ model of what you have. I have a hose hooked up turned on water and nothing? Hope to hear from you.