American Dream Vacations

12961 North Freeway, I-45, Bldg B

Houston, Texas 77060

(281) 872-9200

Fax: (281) 872-1440

Proper Holding Tank Use

WE recommend leaving all holding tanks closed at all times, except while dumping. There are always two wastewater-holding tanks; black, gray, and sometimes units have a “galley” (kitchen sink) tank.

The black water holding tank should only have the commode waste in it. The gray water tank can have the kitchen and bathroom sinks, the shower, and sometimes a washer and dryer going into it. The galley holding tank normally only has the kitchen sink waste. Notice, I didn’t make any statements reflecting an exact, definite meaning. Some factories have been known to bend the rules to make a floor plan work.

The gray water waste tank can fill up everyday if two or more showers are taken daily, dishes being washed and you brush your teeth. Some RV’s have washers and dryers in which the waste goes through the gray water tank; other manufacturers bypass the gray tank draining out directly. 50% of RVer’s leave the gray water and galley tank open all the time. The positive is they cannot forget to dump and have the wastewater back up into the bath tub. The negative to leaving the valve open is every thing in the sewer system such as; sewer gas, mosquitoes, gnats, flies, maggots, and cockroaches go into your RV holding tanks.

NOT A GOOD THING.

The other negative is that the water will drain out leaving all the hair, soap scum, toothpaste, food, grease, oils, etc….in the tank!! Good food for all the bugs and a good way to clog dump valves. Cleaning a clogged dump valve is not a warranty repair. If you don’t leave it open you must dump once a day every day AND THIS ELIMINATES ALL THE ABOVE PROBLEMS.

Your monitor panel will not help you for long because the metal sensors inside will soon get coved in grease, oil, etc….it will then show ½ or ¾ full even while the tank is empty! Do not spend money trying to fix this problem, it is not under warranty and there are only temporary fixes available. The monitor for the fresh water tank or potable water tank will work for many years trouble free.

The black water or commode holding tank must always be closed. The biggest worry with this tank is bad odors. The cure for bad odor is not toilet chemicals; it is putting the right amount of water in the holding tank. The right amount of water is eight to ten gallons. The problem is how long it takes to flush this much water down the commode. You can prop the commode open with anything that is tall enough not to fall into the holding tank. On some units, this requires a 5 ft. or longer props. Buy a dollar timer, prop the commode open for eight minutes and you have the right amount of water, or ten full commode dumps.

You can also use something to prop open the foot pedals or the levers which ever is easier.

  1. Campers, not full timers:
  2. If you are going for four days or longer, you should use some chemical. At Auto & RV World of Texas, we recommend Bio Green, an enzyme chemical. This type of chemical can be used in all of your holding tanks, your home, and your septic system. When you camp for four days or less, you won’t need any chemicals. Just start out with eight to ten gallons of water and dump before you leave.
  3. Full-Timers:
  4. If you are camping for one week or longer, we recommend that you use chemicals with the same eight to ten gallons of water, but dump every week.

If your unit has a holding tank flush, use it; and if you don’t have one, get

one. Also, if you do not have a SEWER SOLUTION, get one. This is the cleanest, easiest, least expensive, complete dumping system on the market today.

Chemicals: We never recommend any type of formaldehyde chemical. They are poisonous and formaldehyde is a preservative. Anyone want to save this stuff? We recommend enzyme chemicals in the powder form only. If you want to use a liquid chemical the cost will be about 6 times more expensive then dry chemicals.

Example:

GREEN KEM 9.49 for 32 ounces – 8 ounces per dump – 4 dumps per bottle=$2.37 a dump.

POTTY TODDY a dry tablet form 4.69 for six dumps=only .78 per dump verses liquid.

BIO GREEN 13.99 for 38 teaspoons – 1 teaspoon per dump= 37 cents a dump.

RV TOILET PAPER the expensive Thetford 4 pack is a better buy than the cheap Thetford 4 pack.

WHY? The expensive pack has 500 sheets of paper verses 296 sheet and it is 2-ply verses 1-ply.