A Women's RV Forum run by Women RVer's!

Actually, what Calgon is good for (and for those of you who don't know - this is NOT the calgon you use in your bath - this is Calgon that is harder to find - the old fashioned Calgon for laundry) - but it is supposed to help keep the sides of the tank slippery - and that also keeps the rods easier to open and close. Now, actually ANY soap will do that - but you don't usually put soap down the toilet - so the GEO method added calgon to it to keep things slippery. Me, I just take some of my dishwater and put it down the toilet occasionally. Or I use the water from doing my handwashables.

You have to be careful - if you use chemicals - don't use the calgon method and vice versa. And the chemicals are supposed to keep things smelling fresh and oil the rods, etc, too.

But no matter which method you choose - the most important thing - USE ENOUGH WATER. And use a tp that will break apart in water - and if you go back to my post on that elsewhere in this section - you'll discover the best are Scott and others like it - better than the ones made specifically for rv's. That's true for many products made specifically for rv's. Unfortunately.

About black water tanks,, one question:

Why the calgon?

and.... I agree w/ whomever mentioned the icecubes. They provide a 'scrubbing' action when you are going down the road.
My advice to you all is this....dump it when you leave the cg if possible , and then put in water and ice cubes and go down the road letting that action do it's work and then dump again as soon as you can,, that seems to help get rid of most of the
"gradoo" that might be hanging on.

Any more suggestions would be appreciated.

thanks and happy trails!

JanetA wrote:About black water tanks,, one question:

Why the calgon?

thanks and happy trails!

I always thought the calgon soften the stuff hanging on the sides of the tank
and just helped it get unstuck. I've used White King water softener and it does
the same thing, cheaper than calgon, and a much bigger box

Some of us have an exterior clean-out spray connection for our black tanks. I can hear it spray back and forth in my tank. Before I dump, I make sure my black tank is full (since I travel for months at a time, that's no problem!), drain, then turn the spray on and close the black valve. Then I open it a couple more times. Now, I have one of those Flush King clear plastic connectors and so I can SEE what is coming out of my tanks. So when I repeatedly flush my black tank, I can see when the water is running (mostly) clear. After it's clear, THEN I dump my grey water.

Before I had the rig with the black-tank sprayer, I used the Flush King to back-wash my black tank to get the extra gunk out. What's also great about the Flush-King is that I can close the valve at the bottom of the clear connector in addition to closing off my individual tanks. Make for lots fewer messy errors.

Hi Janice

You mentioned that you have a sprayer in your black tank. As I also have a HR ('07 Neptune), I don't know if I have one of those. Bill just always dumps and then runs the gray water thru. Believe me, I am not looking forward to doing this myself???!!!!

Thanks for your help.

Linda

Linda,... don't worry about dumping,... it's easy. But I always check to be sure both plunger valves are IN before I open the outside to attach the hose. I've heard of mischief in campgrounds and kids running around in the dark and opening those so that when you go to attach the hose you get a yukky shower.

Seriously,... there is nothing to doing it. You will be fine.