How to drain water tanks?

following this -- my grey tank is a little funky too. In fact my 'goal' today was to pull the camper out and just rinse the daylights out of it with warm water. Try to liquify some of the oils, which is probably the biggest source of odor.

A good friend of mine does tank flushes on large rigs, and he's said it a couple of times. He'd rather flush black tanks than grey -- the funk that is in the grey smells 10 times worse than the "effluent" in the dirtiest of black tanks.
 
Sweeney said:
following this -- my grey tank is a little funky too. In fact my 'goal' today was to pull the camper out and just rinse the daylights out of it with warm water. Try to liquify some of the oils, which is probably the biggest source of odor.

A good friend of mine does tank flushes on large rigs, and he's said it a couple of times. He'd rather flush black tanks than grey -- the funk that is in the grey smells 10 times worse than the "effluent" in the dirtiest of black tanks.
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I think the reason for that is soapy water. Black water is raw sewage, and actually decomposes if left long enough, think septic tank. Whereas Grey water is soapy water, food particles and cooking oils. That's why I use small bins to wash and first rinse, and dont pour down the drain, you can dig a small hole or pour around a tree to get rid of it, in nature it breaks down quickly and the food particles are beneficial. I use a bio degradable soap that breaks down the oils as well. The only thing I pour down the drain is the second rinse water, or plain water, so not much soap. I was also told to keep the tanks full when storing to minimize oxygen in the tanks. So far so good
 
Just a quick update on this! As some of you know, my wife runs an animal rescue. The downside of this is that often we have far more critters in the house than we should, and this often results in far more....what can I say, its adds a je ne sais quoi to my home? Yah, lets go with that.

She uses this stuff in her rescue, and it does an amazing job controlling that certain something ;) I added it to my grey tank before I took my last trip, filling the tank with water and just letting it sit for a few hours. The difference was night and day! I just went back from a 4-day excursion to northern Michigan (45 at night, 70's during the day --- amazing blue skies!) and found the odors were still slighty present, but were knocked down by 90% -- I'll be adding a few more pumps and refilling the tank, allowing the enzymes to work for a few days. We'll see how it works at CICO, which is our next planned trip.

 
Sweeney said:
Just a quick update on this! As some of you know, my wife runs an animal rescue. The downside of this is that often we have far more critters in the house than we should, and this often results in far more....what can I say, its adds a je ne sais quoi to my home? Yah, lets go with that.

She uses this stuff in her rescue, and it does an amazing job controlling that certain something ;) I added it to my grey tank before I took my last trip, filling the tank with water and just letting it sit for a few hours. The difference was night and day! I just went back from a 4-day excursion to northern Michigan (45 at night, 70's during the day --- amazing blue skies!) and found the odors were still slighty present, but were knocked down by 90% -- I'll be adding a few more pumps and refilling the tank, allowing the enzymes to work for a few days. We'll see how it works at CICO, which is our next planned trip.

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Thanks, ordered and giving it a try.
 
All this talk about the putrid smell coming from the tanks and the difficulty getting rid of it makes me wonder if it's worth it to even have the sink. I choose not to with my build and don't regret it. Instead I use a very low tech solution for my water needs. This to store the water: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Reliance...6?classType=VARIANT&athbdg=L1102&from=/search And this to collect my gray water: https://www.lowes.com/pd/United-Solutions-5-Gallon-General-Bucket/1000462835

I empty both at the end of each trip - often in the fire pit if we've had a big fire going. The water jug will also accommodate a portable shower: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WGMDBDF?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_2&th=1 It requires heating up a pot of water to pour in if the weather is a little cold. But this method has served me well.
 
Fresh water shouldnt' be a problem if you do one of two things:

1] keep them full
2] keep them empty

Sanitization with bleach will help to --- on fresh only. 1/8 cup of bleach (Standard clorox) mixed in the tank with 8 gallons of water, splash it around well --- run it thorugh the sprayer, faucet, and external 'shower' hookup.....drive the camper around for a little bit to splash it around the inside of the tank....let it sit for 24 hours. Rinse everything out until you don't smell bleach.

Grey water, is a littel tougher. bleach can actually kill off benficial stuff. Keep the bleach out of the grey tank. I leave the drain cap off when in storage. And when I can, I'll run a lot of water through just to rinse things out.

Do not put food scraps down the drain. Wipe off the dishes before you put them in the sink. Do that, and your situation should improve. If your grey smells bad, an enzymatic cleaner like "Bioda" does wonders. Mine got really bad last year, and a good shot of this stuff ended the problem pretty quickly

Hope that helps....
 
Ben said:
All this talk about the putrid smell coming from the tanks and the difficulty getting rid of it makes me wonder if it's worth it to even have the sink. I choose not to with my build and don't regret it. Instead I use a very low tech solution for my water needs. This to store the water: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Reliance...6?classType=VARIANT&athbdg=L1102&from=/search And this to collect my gray water: https://www.lowes.com/pd/United-Solutions-5-Gallon-General-Bucket/1000462835

I empty both at the end of each trip - often in the fire pit if we've had a big fire going. The water jug will also accommodate a portable shower: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WGMDBDF?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_2&th=1 It requires heating up a pot of water to pour in if the weather is a little cold. But this method has served me well.
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I like your idea. The simpler the better.
 
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