Vinegar in Black Water Tank

[kimann]

We’ve never owned a trailer before. We are considering using vinegar instead of chemicals in the black water tank in our new trailer. Does anyone have experience with this?

[sclifrickson]

Vinegar is a mild acid. So is urine. We use diluted vinegar as a general purpose cleaner in a spray bottle but I don’t know if it would do the job in your black tank or not. Another alternative to chemicals in the loo is probiotic additives that actually digest everything, because the goal down there is to keep things free flowing and less stinky. How much vinegar are you thinking of using?

[C&G in FL]

Originally Posted by kimann

We’ve never owned a trailer before. We are considering using vinegar instead of chemicals in the black water tank in our new trailer. Does anyone have experience with this?

If you do not want to use “standard” chemicals in your black or gray tanks, I would suggest you Google “Geo Method” and explore its use. It essentially utilizes laundry products, Calgon water softener, detergent, and occasional small volumes of bleach.

[Iowa Dave]

If you have some vinegar in your black tank and you are Sanitizing your water system using bleach, and you flush the bleach mixture through the toilet lines and into the Black tank the resulting reaction can generate Chlorine gas and chloromines which are toxic. I would advise against this. Use the products sold for black tanks. They are safe and not that expensive. Many years of hooking up 150 lb cylinders of chlorine gas to swimming pool sanitizing systems and the tragedy at Bopahl India gave me a healthy fear of chlorine gas.
Iowa Dave

[Jim Bennett]

Pickled poop?

I think the winter blues are setting in.

[Iowa Dave]

My wife Rita reminded me that if you have developed a odiferous black tank, the enzyme based pet odor product Nature’s Miracle is excellent for creating an enzyme based reaction that will eliminate the odors. We use it on a periodic basis in both the grey and black tanks purchased in a gallon jug. A friend of mine inherited a storage shed that had been home to many mice for many years. He emptied the building and hosed it out. Then he put a couple gallons of Natures Miracle in a Hudson sprayer and thoroughly sprayed the interior down. Odors disappeared and he was good to set it up as his fur handling and drying shed. Apparently his skunks don’t stink.
Iowa Dave

[steve dunham]

Originally Posted by C&G in FL

If you do not want to use “standard” chemicals in your black or gray tanks, I would suggest you Google “Geo Method” and explore its use. It essentially utilizes laundry products, Calgon water softener, detergent, and occasional small volumes of bleach.

We have used the Geo method in our black tank for several years . It does a good job of cleaning the tank but IMHO it does not control odor ( Especially in HOT weather) as well as the commercial black tank products.
Also be aware that there are some black tank treatments which are approved for septic systems and some that are not.
As Iowa Dave pointed out , blindly mixing chemicals can have unintended and unhealthy consequences.
When I was working at the refinery in the chlorine room something suddenly sprung a leak. It is an experience I never want to repeat !!

[C&G in FL]

Originally Posted by steve dunham

When I was working at the refinery in the chlorine room something suddenly sprung a leak. It is an experience I never want to repeat !!

Steve, hopefully you were able to don a protective mask OR were able to run like Hell!

[steve dunham]

Originally Posted by C&G in FL

Steve, hopefully you were able to don a protective mask OR were able to run like Hell!

We were suited up and were wearing some WW2 gas masks.
All I know was we saw a cloud of gas and headed for the door and ran upwind really fast

Mind you this is back in the days before OSHA.
I worked in the refinery's instrument and electrical shop
There were 12 of us and in one year 6 of our group were injured.
The injuries required them to be off work for more than 30 continuos days. Not a very good safety record.
The Kansas brothers who owned the refinery were very profit oriented.

[Ron in BC]

I must be the only person that doesn't do anything to my black tank except hose it out most times I dump. Love that opening bathroom window.

Maybe my tank really stinks and I can't smell it. Oh, now I'm worried, maybe even my best friends aren't telling me something I should know.

Ron

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by Ron in BC

I must be the only person that doesn't do anything to my black tank except hose it out most times I dump. Love that opening bathroom window.

Maybe my tank really stinks and I can't smell it. Oh, now I'm worried, maybe even my best friends aren't telling me something I should know.

Ron

You do more than me then, I hose it out once or twice a year, tops. I do use a deodorizer but mostly to break things down, and dump the tank after each use.

Except when flushing, the tank is closed from the inside. I guess if you have residue in the toilet like shown earlier, but we have never had an odour.

[escape artist]

Originally Posted by Jim Bennett

Pickled poop?

I think the winter blues are setting in.

Hi: Jim Bennett... It's been said that I've been "Pickled" most of my life. We do also use the "Geo Method" to treat the waste tanks. Rather than using the laundry detergent we use "Dishwasher" detergent with the Calgon. It's low sudsing and contains the bleach and is avail in every Wall-o-mar-t!!! Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[SFDavis50]

tanktechsrx.com

[gbaglo]

The black tank, the toilet, the TP and the person sitting on the toilet are all made of chemicals. Everything in, on and of this earth and space, are chemical.
Odorlos is designed to break down the contents of the tank in a perfectly natural way.

[Greg A]

That stuff looks pretty good, Glenn. Thinks I'll try it out.

[kimann]

Excellent feedback. Thank you Iowa Dave for your insights and cautions about mixing vinegar and bleach. The soap idea sounds interesting as well. And of course the do nothing approach has its merits - thanks Ron. As usual we are wowed by the responses. We appreciate the input to help us figure this out.

[ThomasG]

We’ve used Camco TST Orange Holding Tank Chemical (http://a.co/gsBK1F0) with good results. It is fairly cheap, readily available (RV stores, Walmart, Amazon) and it doesn’t have formaldehyde. Sometimes we will add a 2nd dose if we are camped for several days and the weather is hot. We’ve also used it in the gray tank from time to time.

[Kingbiscuit]

Treatzall is the best black tank product we've found. https://www.dupreeproducts.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=2

In addition to Treatzall, we put some Calgon water softener in the tank. This makes everything slippery so very little sticks to the tank or sensors.

Lastly, we put in a bit of Dawn dish detergent. This helps break stuff down too.

Hope that helps