Montana Owners Club - Keystone Montana 5th Wheel Forum - View Single Post

VagabondLove · 04-07-2021, 04:15 PM

Wow I am surprised at the responses!

As a full-timer who moves pretty much every week, I ALWAYS keep my grey and black tanks about 1/4-1/3 full with clean water during our weekly moves. And, this past week I started adding Cascade detergent to the tanks to attempt to assist in the sensor cleanup (I saw it here in the owners forum at some point). I will post my findings when I get more results, but so far no negatives.

The sloshing does a world of good in getting remnants and solids into the slurry. As soon as I get to my destination and hook up, I dump the blacks and can see the results of the sloshing's hard work!

Especially if you are not moving frequently, I would totally recommend traveling with fresh water in your black and grey tanks. Loosen the s**t up!

I have only used my grey tank to back fill my black tank once: when there was a blockage in the black tank due to an unusual situation. A full grey tank, a closed wastegate at the exit, and a blocked black tank...open grey and black, and the pressure from the grey cleared the black blockage. Then, open the wastegate and all is empty.

Instead, and I think I posted this on this forum before, here is my MO...

I keep greys open and black closed all the time. Shower and dish clean as much as you like without thinking. Use lots of water when flushing the toilet. Then, once I determine that the black tank is getting full (sound change while flushing, a slight 'bubble' pop when initially flushing indicating that the vent tube opening is under water), I close the two grey tanks. I do dishes, take a shower or two, run a small load of laundry, to fill the grey tanks with the post black empty rinse liquid.

Once I have relatively clean grey tank liquid stored up, I go to town. I bring my foot rinsing and plant watering outside hose into the bathroom. Then, I open the blacks and make sure s**t is exiting, and go back to the toilet and open the hose up to the stream position, and stream away anything I can see inside under the flapper. Once I am satisfied that I did all I could in the visible world, I open the hose full throttle and pour it all into the black tank. Let that hose run!!! After a few minutes, you can see that the effluent going out the sewer hose is no longer brown, but is clear with the occasional piece of something. That is when I close the black tank and let it fill!

A few minutes of a high pressure fresh water hose filling the black tank creates all sorts of currents that loosen up all sorts of debris that was left behind. After 5-10 minutes or so (be careful...depending upon setup it could happen quickly) I decide that the black tank is full enough, and I dump it. I get to see the rewards of my labor by watching the sewer hose and seeing how brown its effluent is. If I still see a lot, I do that all again.

Once my active flushing is to my satisfaction, I shut off the hose, and let the system drain completely (which could take 10 minutes...trickling the final portion can get a little more s**t out). Then I blast the hose on again for a minute or so to get the stuff that settled out, and once everything is running clear, I close the black waste gate, letting a little fresh water seed the next batch.

If I were about to travel, that "little fresh water" would actually be about 1/3 tank. If not, I would add an enzymatic pod to the tank to let it wake up and start eating and have some fresh water to do that with.

With the black gate now closed, I will open both grey tanks (it is amazing to see how much black stuff 'back flows' into the grey tube, as shown at the initial opening of the grey valve which had no black stuff in its tank). The grey water flushes any stuff that remained in the sewer hose.

If I were about to travel, I do all of this the day before departure, and then disconnect my sewer hoses, clean them, and let them dry before storing them. I also partially fill the grey tanks by taking a shower or two and doing some dishes, and I started adding a large squirt of Cascade to the mix with the night before's normal activities.

So, when I travel, I have a black tank 1/3 full with fresh water plus the prior evening's and current morning's constitutionals, and the grey tanks have a few showers and dishes in them...all sloshing during the ride, ready to do their job when we get to our destination!

I think the full-open hose stuck in the toilet is the best thing that I added to my routine. Hooking up the hose to the "tank cleaning spray" input is useless in my opinion, as it takes 20-30 minutes to fill 40 gallons through that "sprayer". Not enough in my opinion to create eddys and currents that would loosen up the flotsam and jetsam left behind.

Thoughts??

04-07-2021, 04:15 PM	#11
VagabondLove Montana Fan Join Date: Dec 2020 Location: Full Timer Posts: 117 M.O.C. #27665	Wow I am surprised at the responses! As a full-timer who moves pretty much every week, I ALWAYS keep my grey and black tanks about 1/4-1/3 full with clean water during our weekly moves. And, this past week I started adding Cascade detergent to the tanks to attempt to assist in the sensor cleanup (I saw it here in the owners forum at some point). I will post my findings when I get more results, but so far no negatives. The sloshing does a world of good in getting remnants and solids into the slurry. As soon as I get to my destination and hook up, I dump the blacks and can see the results of the sloshing's hard work! Especially if you are not moving frequently, I would totally recommend traveling with fresh water in your black and grey tanks. Loosen the st up! I have only used my grey tank to back fill my black tank once: when there was a blockage in the black tank due to an unusual situation. A full grey tank, a closed wastegate at the exit, and a blocked black tank...open grey and black, and the pressure from the grey cleared the black blockage. Then, open the wastegate and all is empty. Instead, and I think I posted this on this forum before, here is my MO... I keep greys open and black closed all the time. Shower and dish clean as much as you like without thinking. Use lots of water when flushing the toilet. Then, once I determine that the black tank is getting full (sound change while flushing, a slight 'bubble' pop when initially flushing indicating that the vent tube opening is under water), I close the two grey tanks. I do dishes, take a shower or two, run a small load of laundry, to fill the grey tanks with the post black empty rinse liquid. Once I have relatively clean grey tank liquid stored up, I go to town. I bring my foot rinsing and plant watering outside hose into the bathroom. Then, I open the blacks and make sure st is exiting, and go back to the toilet and open the hose up to the stream position, and stream away anything I can see inside under the flapper. Once I am satisfied that I did all I could in the visible world, I open the hose full throttle and pour it all into the black tank. Let that hose run!!! After a few minutes, you can see that the effluent going out the sewer hose is no longer brown, but is clear with the occasional piece of something. That is when I close the black tank and let it fill! A few minutes of a high pressure fresh water hose filling the black tank creates all sorts of currents that loosen up all sorts of debris that was left behind. After 5-10 minutes or so (be careful...depending upon setup it could happen quickly) I decide that the black tank is full enough, and I dump it. I get to see the rewards of my labor by watching the sewer hose and seeing how brown its effluent is. If I still see a lot, I do that all again. Once my active flushing is to my satisfaction, I shut off the hose, and let the system drain completely (which could take 10 minutes...trickling the final portion can get a little more s**t out). Then I blast the hose on again for a minute or so to get the stuff that settled out, and once everything is running clear, I close the black waste gate, letting a little fresh water seed the next batch. If I were about to travel, that "little fresh water" would actually be about 1/3 tank. If not, I would add an enzymatic pod to the tank to let it wake up and start eating and have some fresh water to do that with. With the black gate now closed, I will open both grey tanks (it is amazing to see how much black stuff 'back flows' into the grey tube, as shown at the initial opening of the grey valve which had no black stuff in its tank). The grey water flushes any stuff that remained in the sewer hose. If I were about to travel, I do all of this the day before departure, and then disconnect my sewer hoses, clean them, and let them dry before storing them. I also partially fill the grey tanks by taking a shower or two and doing some dishes, and I started adding a large squirt of Cascade to the mix with the night before's normal activities. So, when I travel, I have a black tank 1/3 full with fresh water plus the prior evening's and current morning's constitutionals, and the grey tanks have a few showers and dishes in them...all sloshing during the ride, ready to do their job when we get to our destination! I think the full-open hose stuck in the toilet is the best thing that I added to my routine. Hooking up the hose to the "tank cleaning spray" input is useless in my opinion, as it takes 20-30 minutes to fill 40 gallons through that "sprayer". Not enough in my opinion to create eddys and currents that would loosen up the flotsam and jetsam left behind. Thoughts??