# Problem Dumping Black Tank



## jaeson7 (Aug 15, 2010)

Would appreciate anyones help/suggestions. I have owned my outback for less then 2 months now and have taken it out twice. The second trip we had full hook ups and when I went to dump the black tank it would not drain. The black tank was probably 1/2 full. The grey when I opened the valve would dump just fine. So I waited til out weekend was over and tilted the trailer a little and it finally dumped. Now to present day. I am trying to finish winterizing and went to dump my holding tanks. Again nothing would come out of my black tank, the grey dumped just fine. The black tank did not have much in it (maybe 3 gallons of fluid), but I still expected it to drain. Any thoughts/suggestions?


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## Herbicidal (Aug 29, 2003)

You may have some kind of blockage. I cannot stress enough to use lots of water when using the toilet while camping! Prior to a "dump" of the black water tank, I open the lid to the toilet and using a hose, fill the tank up almost as far as possible. This builds up a lot of water pressure when you do your 'release'. We've never filled the black tank while camping, always the grey. Did I say use lots of water? There are also attachments that connect to the output and with a hose, blow a strong stream of water back up the tube to dislodge anything that may be stuck at the valve. I use this method _after_ dumping the black tank. I also use a cheapy wand with a sprayer at the end that attaches to a hose for flushing the tank. A clear adapter on the output will help you gauge how well you are cleaning the tank via the toilet. There are aftermarket sprayers that mount inside the tank and are a more automated way to do the same thing. For me, the manual method works great!


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## crunchman12002 (Jul 26, 2009)

You have some blockage. Make sure your toilet paper is RV safe.
I have some issues when the brown pyramid gets to high. In a delicate manuver, when dumping... 
1)Attach black tank hose to trailer outlet. 
2)Place other end into waste hole. 
3)Open gray valve enough to start flow.
4)Once hose is full of gray, close valve, grab end of hose that is going into waste hole. Carefully lift hose end high enough to trap water in the hose. (1/2 to 3/4 full) 
5) While holding hose end a few feet in the air pointing away from your face, open the black valve.
6)This is the trickey part... Lower the hose enough until the gray almost comes out the end and then raise it rapidly enough to force the water backwards into the waste pipe on the trailer. You will hear the water in the pipe sloosh up into the pipe and then the tank. Lower and raise hose forcing a wave effect to sloosh into the black tank. After 3 or 4 waves going back and forth, you will dislodge the paper and stuff blocking the tank outlet.
7)Last manuver is the worst. Hold hose in air one last time and close the black tank valve. VERY QUICKLY,Place hose end back into waste hole. You will hear the hose empting, open black valve. The black tank will now flow. Yes, you might make a bit of a mess around hole but make sure to rinse down the ground with their water hose. After the black is empty, finish dumping the gray to rinse your hoses. 
Might take a couple tries, but you will get it.
8)One word of caution, do this when there is not a line of campers behind you waiting to use the hole








Good luck,
crunchman


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## Tangooutback (Apr 16, 2010)

crunchman12002 said:


> You have some blockage. Make sure your toilet paper is RV safe.
> I have some issues when the brown pyramid gets to high. In a delicate manuver, when dumping...
> 1)Attach black tank hose to trailer outlet.
> 2)Place other end into waste hole.
> ...


I profusely sweat while reading this procedure......


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## K. Smith (May 25, 2009)

Wouldn't it be less messy and "risky" to just use a Flush King?


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## pintoplumber (Nov 4, 2007)

jaeson7 said:


> Would appreciate anyones help/suggestions. I have owned my outback for less then 2 months now and have taken it out twice. The second trip we had full hook ups and when I went to dump the black tank it would not drain. The black tank was probably 1/2 full. The grey when I opened the valve would dump just fine. So I waited til out weekend was over and tilted the trailer a little and it finally dumped. Now to present day. I am trying to finish winterizing and went to dump my holding tanks. Again nothing would come out of my black tank, the grey dumped just fine. The black tank did not have much in it (maybe 3 gallons of fluid), but I still expected it to drain. Any thoughts/suggestions?


We have a 2005 21RS. To dump our black tank, I have to have the drivers side elevated and the tongue elevated. Sometimes I have to unhitch to get the tongue high enough.

Last time we camped at Pine Grove Furnace state park I couldn't get a drop out of the black tank. The dump station leans the wrong way for me both ways. Our sewer at home is between the sidewalk and curb at home, so dumping at home is no problem. Dennis in Lititz PA


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## Oregon_Camper (Sep 13, 2004)

Get a flashlight

Look into toilet and fill with hose about 1/2 way...maybe a bit more.

Dump 3-4 bags of crushed ice down the toilet.

Now go for a drive...say 10 miles on a road with a lot of curves.

This will knock down all the standing "issues" and scrub down the sides. The head off to a dump station.....fill tank 100%.....then dump.


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## Traveling Tek (Oct 15, 2010)

I had the same problem first time I tried to empty.

Its not easy being a new guy. 

I fixed it easily (as they said above)
Simply fill the black tank. Use a hose or some thing to fill it all the way. I watched mine with a flashlight till I saw it coming up in the toilet, then I quickly pulled the tank lever. *WOOSH* Apparently one of my kids dropped a wash cloth in the toilet while flushing (or messing around) and didn't tell me. It had clogged the drain, but with the tank all the way full it was enough pressure to bring it out.


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## duggy (Mar 17, 2010)

Tangooutback said:


> You have some blockage. Make sure your toilet paper is RV safe.
> I have some issues when the brown pyramid gets to high. In a delicate manuver, when dumping...
> 1)Attach black tank hose to trailer outlet.
> 2)Place other end into waste hole.
> ...


I profusely sweat while reading this procedure......








[/quote]

X2


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## crunchman12002 (Jul 26, 2009)

duggy said:


> You have some blockage. Make sure your toilet paper is RV safe.
> I have some issues when the brown pyramid gets to high. In a delicate manuver, when dumping...
> 1)Attach black tank hose to trailer outlet.
> 2)Place other end into waste hole.
> ...


I profusely sweat while reading this procedure......








[/quote]

X2
[/quote]
Don't be scared. It works!


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## duggy (Mar 17, 2010)

crunchman12002 said:


> You have some blockage. Make sure your toilet paper is RV safe.
> I have some issues when the brown pyramid gets to high. In a delicate manuver, when dumping...
> 1)Attach black tank hose to trailer outlet.
> 2)Place other end into waste hole.
> ...


I profusely sweat while reading this procedure......








[/quote]

X2
[/quote]
Don't be scared. It works!
[/quote]

Hopefully, I'll never have to find out!


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## brian j (Nov 24, 2009)

as already stated, use lots of water. i had problems with my tank before camping with some outbackers and they helped me out. now before heading home i fill my black tank with water and then dump. then i'll usually fill again with water just to make sure i got everything out.

i haven't used a flush king but i've heard good things. i used this when my tank got blocked.

http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/rv-flexible-swivel-stik/15716


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## The Teke's (Oct 11, 2009)

duggy said:


> You have some blockage. Make sure your toilet paper is RV safe.
> I have some issues when the brown pyramid gets to high. In a delicate manuver, when dumping...
> 1)Attach black tank hose to trailer outlet.
> 2)Place other end into waste hole.
> ...


I profusely sweat while reading this procedure......








[/quote]

X2
[/quote]
Don't be scared. It works!
[/quote]

Hopefully, I'll never have to find out!
[/quote]


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## The Teke's (Oct 11, 2009)

Did anyone else have a flashback of the movie "RV"?


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## SLO Outbacker (Jan 30, 2009)

The Teke said:


> Did anyone else have a flashback of the movie "RV"?


I was just thinking the same thing. It was on this weekend and I caught the scene where they tell him "just to hold the "Y" up in the air". Right! I love the fact that the rest of the campers were there in their chairs watching the whole deal. Everyone has a "dumping story"!


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## Greg (Nov 12, 2009)

I have had trouble dumping my black tank a couple of time. I have a wife and 3 girls so you can imagine how much toilet paper gets used. I have the black tank flush and even though it says to have black tank valve open when using I have found that it seems to work much better if valve is shut when you first start your flush. Give it 30 seconds to a minute of swirling ever thing around and then open valve and leave flushing for a few more minutes seems to clear black tank ever time.


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## Dub (Dec 8, 2008)

As others have suggested, throw some ice into the tank and drive around....well, instead of ice go to Lowes and buy a 40lbs bag of water softener ($6) and dump about 10lbs down into the tank. Let is soak overnight or for a day or two then dump 5lbs more down the hole. Then drive around for 10-20 miles. Water softener will not dissolve as fast as ice so it will break up more of the problem when driving. As an added bonus it will soften the water and allow it to clean the tank better because it breaks the surface tension on the water and allows it to get in between more of junk stuck in the tank. On trips I do this with about 5 gallons of water and afterwards my tanks sensors start working again. It has been suggested on many sites to use water softener as part of your routine tank maintenance.


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## jaeson7 (Aug 15, 2010)

Thanks for everyone suggestions. It's been a blast to listening to all the experience. I will let you all know what I do and the results.


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## Braggus (Aug 8, 2010)

The Teke said:


> Did anyone else have a flashback of the movie "RV"?


We have the DVD and bring it with us every trip...sooooo funny


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## ELSEWHERE (Sep 16, 2007)

duggy said:


> You have some blockage. Make sure your toilet paper is RV safe.
> I have some issues when the brown pyramid gets to high. In a delicate manuver, when dumping...
> 1)Attach black tank hose to trailer outlet.
> 2)Place other end into waste hole.
> ...


I profusely sweat while reading this procedure......








[/quote]

X2
[/quote]

X3...as K. Smith said, use a Flush King. I use one and dump my black tank, close the Flush King valve, open the gray for about 10 seconds (back flushing the black tank), close the gray and open the Flush king valve. I do this a couple times and then close the black tank and finish dumping the gray tank which cleans out the hose. By backflushing the black tank with the gray water I can get a lot more of the solids out of the black tank.


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## LaydBack (Aug 22, 2010)

pintoplumber said:


> Our sewer at home is between the sidewalk and curb at home, so dumping at home is no problem. Dennis in Lititz PA


Is this legal?


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

srwsr said:


> Our sewer at home is between the sidewalk and curb at home, so dumping at home is no problem. Dennis in Lititz PA


Is this legal?
[/quote]

He must be taking about a sewer connection to an underground system and not surface dumping. One is legal and the other is not.


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## pintoplumber (Nov 4, 2007)

We have a double vent house trap between the sidewalk and curb. A cleanout is on the street side and a vent on the house side. I dump down the vent side because that is the direction of flow to the municipal sewer line. If I fill the water tank at home, I've already paid for the sewer on that water. We get charged sewer based on the amount of water we use. Dennis in Lititz PA


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## marker (Aug 14, 2009)

When really bad, the Flush King as others have said works very well.

On a tank regular tank flush, I often drain the black, then leave the black valve open and open the grey for awhile. As long as the pipe is full, then the grey is draining into the black as well as draining out the hose. Then close the grey again before the pressure subsides, and you will be surpirsed how much grey went into the black tank. When the black emptys again, close the black valve, open the grey and finish the cycle.

I think this will work if there is a slight blockage at the black tank outlet. For a complete cleanup though, the Flush King is the best.


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