Published Date: October 16, 2020
Last Updated on November 29, 2022 by Camper Front
Your RV toilet functions differently compared to your household toilet. But like your household toilet, it needs to be treated and maintained properly. In order to avoid nasty smells and inconvenient clogs, it’s important to know how often to use RV toilet chemicals.
These chemicals aid the breakdown of the waste product, and without proper usage, you will have a “stinkhouse” inside your RV. This article will educate you on how to use these chemicals, and how often you should.
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
How Often To Use RV Toilet Chemicals
Well, you should use RV toilet chemicals as often as possible. Before we talk about its usage, what exactly are Rv Toilet Chemicals?
Rv toilet chemicals are enzyme or bacteria compositions that can be added to an RV black water tank to help break down the waste and tissue.
This breaking down of waste matter and tissue enables the black water tank to be emptied more easily and also prevents the clumping of materials in the tank, which can lead to the blockage of the pipes.
These enzymes and bacteria also help to eliminate odor in the black water holding tank, so your RV space is devoid of waste smell.
RV toilets need this chemical because unlike your household toilet, which uses a large volume of water with high pressure to flush the waste down a long pipe and into your home or city’s septic system.
RV toilets use a small amount of water with relatively low pressure to flush the waste down into the black water holding tank.
And in most RVs, the black water tank is only a few feet apart from the toilet. So it is easy for unpleasant odors to escape back into the toilet area and even your whole RV.
Also, while traveling, the black water tank will be moved around due to the vehicle’s vibration or bad roads, and the tank’s content gets jostled around, this can lead to the emanation of a terrible smell into the RV.
This is where RV toilet chemicals come in; they are available in two different forms; liquid or as a dissolving tablet.
Liquid Rv Toilet Chemical
The liquid toilet chemicals are poured directly into the toilet bowl and then flushed into the black water tank.
For each application, you will need a couple of ounces of the liquid chemical, but you want to consult the liquid chemical packaging for specific instructions on how to use it.
Dissolving Tablets
This type of chemical is usually in powder form, which is dissolved by the water in the black water tank. They offer the same function as the liquid options, but they are usually preferred by users due to their convenience and the elimination of a spill.
Using the best RV toilet chemical, regardless of its form, will not leave stain marks on your toilet, and they are biodegradable and environmentally friendly.
As stated earlier, these toilet chemicals make use of either enzymes or bacteria.
Enzymes: These are biological molecules that increase the rate of any kind of chemical reaction that occurs within a cell. This makes enzymes very effective in breaking down waste products, but they do not offer odor-elimination benefits.
Bacteria: Bacteria also aid the breakdown of waste products, and they also help to eliminate unpleasant odors alongside. But for a bacteria treatment to be effective, it has to be the right kind of bacteria.
In order to achieve a great result with your bacteria treatment, you want to make use of a chemical that converts the anaerobic bacteria that produce hydrogen sulfide gas when food items go bad and waste in your black tank goes untreated into aerobic bacteria which uses oxygen to digest solid waste.
This will prevent it from producing hydrogen sulfide gas. Some products have added fragrance and others don’t. But with a bacteria chemical treatment, your waste is broken down, and the nasty smell is eliminated.
How To Use RV Toilet Chemicals
For better results, you want to do this at the start of your camping trip with a completely empty black water tank.
The first thing you want to do is, add a few gallons of water to the black water tank so that there’s a good base of water in the tank.
You should never use your RV toilet without a good base of water in the black water tank because this can result in the clumping of waste inside the black water tank, and this can further lead to a clog or a false full reading on your tank.
After adding a couple of gallons of water inside your black water tank, all you need to do is push down the flushing valve for your toilet and pour in your toilet chemicals in whatever form. After this, you can go ahead and make use of your toilet.
This procedure should be repeated after each time you empty your black water tank, this is the best way to make sure the contents of your tank can be emptied smoothly, and there is no smell inside your RV.
The only time you shouldn’t do this is if you are winterizing your camper because you want the tanks to be empty to prevent the water from freezing inside the tank, which can damage it.
How To Manage Your Holding Tanks
As stated earlier, your RV toilet uses less amount of water compared to your household toilet, and your waste is stored in two different holding tanks; black and gray.
Grey Tank
The grey tank is connected to your kitchen and bathroom sink, and they collect grey soapy water.
Black Tank
As stated all over this article, The black tank holds toilet waste, and the toilet is usually mounted on top of the black tank and empties directly into it or through a connecting pipe.
In order to keep both of these systems working effectively, you need to remember that the waste is all stored in a tank a few feet away from the source and not flushed into sewer pipes. So you will need two important objectives in order to be able to manage your waste.
- Breaking down the waste
- Eliminating nasty smell
These are the two main objectives you need to understand in order to be able to efficiently manage your waste.
Also, in order to prevent false readings of your black water tank gauge, which can be caused by pieces of waste, tissue, or even hairs, that get caught on the sensors, you can make use of special cleaners that are concentrated to break down materials that could cause false readings on your tank sensors.
These cleaners are usually called RV level gauge cleaners or RV probe cleaners and can be found at your local RV supply store or online.
Conclusion
In order to prevent your RV from being saturated with the smell of waste, proper care and maintenance must be ensured.
Knowing how often to use RV toilet chemicals will help to ensure that the holding tanks can be easily emptied, and they also help to eliminate any odor.
