Can I Use Rid X in My Rv Holding Tank

In our seminars and vendor booth, we hear lots of wild stories most "recipes" for homemade toilet chemicals to use in your RV. It but sounds nuts to me that anyone would attempt to make or create toilet chemicals for whatsoever reason. About tell us they do this to save money. So, permit's take a await at two things… saving money and toilet chemicals. This data will make your life easier and save you coin. That's a good affair.

Saving Money on Toilet Chemicals
I one time checked four different brands of RV toilet chemicals online and found at that time, the average cost was very close to $1.00 every fourth dimension you put toilet chemicals in later on dumping your tanks. Almost of those I checked were sized for a xl-gallon black tank.

For discussion purposes here, lets assume y'all can last ane week before dumping. This would average dumping 52 times per twelvemonth and, at a $one.00 chemic-cost, that would exist an almanac toilet chemical cost of $52.00.

How do you recover or make up for that expense? Uncomplicated. Just boondock two nights per twelvemonth. With an average nightly campground fee of $30.00, two nights of boondocking will save you $60.00—enough for a i-year supply of toilet chemicals and yous've got viii bucks left over! Problem solved and you no longer have to mix your own.

Toilet Chemicals
Your blackness tank works very much like a septic tank does for a house. Both take hold of and hold raw sewage. You physically dump (empty) your RV's black tank simply the habitation septic tank slowly leaches (drains) into the world—information technology empties itself—again, slowly.

Both your black tank and the abode septic tank will piece of work more than efficiently with what is commonly chosen "toilet chemicals. " Toilet chemicals are bacteria and enzymes—designed to interruption down solids and control odor. The RV toilet chemic industry derived much of its early info from the home septic arrangement industry (we had home septic systems long before we had RVs).

Toilet chemicals are found in three "groups," commercial RV products, commercial dwelling house-septic-arrangement products, and homemade concoctions. What follows is some info on all 3.

• Commercial RV products… are sold all over the country and come in liquid, crystal, and tab (drop-in packet) class. They are sold nether numerous brand names. All seem to piece of work pretty well and the major real difference is convenience—it's easier to drop the tab in than to cascade in the liquid plus there is no splash. However, the typical RVer tends to use what their friends recommended. With the all products, you still become an occasional aroma. These products are readily bachelor at RV outlets.
• Home septic system products… come in liquid and crystal (similar instant java). The most common is Rid-Ten® and this stuff is really concentrated—you use 10 ounces in a 1,500 gallon dwelling house septic tank! Rid-X works and will work in RVs, besides. Rid-Ten has not been sold at RV outlets—only in the home chemicals section of your local store. However, they are at present selling a Rid-X in RV outlets.
• Bootleg concoctions… are merely that—somebody, somewhere, thought up their personal "recipe " and likely tried it. If information technology seemed to work, so be it—suddenly it was a miracle product—sort of a "Look, Ma, I've invented a new toilet chemical!" moment. We have had seminar attendees tell us (and the crowd) that they utilize PineSol, yeast (the kind for cooking), various oils (olive, vegetable), a detail make of dishwashing detergent, even "Tang" (the orange flavored drink), and other stuff in their black tanks. One person was convinced that his mixture of a powdered h2o softener and laundry detergent was the magic elixir of toilet chemicals and the softener would make the tank walls slicker and so that sewage would simply "slide " off hands and the detergent would merely "wash" it away (Deplorable, I'm Non making this up.). Another person said he used a one/ii-cup of bleach in his tank. (Call back, your RV organization is merely a septic system that is in a vehicle and therefore, smaller than the i at dwelling. Adding bleach volition kill off the leaner and enzymes thus destroying their ability to break down solids and control odor.) The three things we have noticed virtually the homemade concoctions is (A) the lack of consistency—i.due east., your recipe is dissimilar from my recipe, (B) the potential exists for the batter existence detrimental to the concrete system (seals, valves, etc.) because no group every tested it long-term, and (C) nobody just you uses it.

The black tank craves water – the more the better. A non-caustic soap volition not interfere with the type of bacteria used in toilet chemicals. A caustic soap (such as the soaps for dishwashers) will destroy the bacteria. While information technology doesn't hurt anything, there's no research whatsoever that it helps either—only anecdotal (RVers telling other RVers). The RVers that utilise the Pine-Sol and other home concoctions volition generally swear by their recipes and tell others. After all, they tell me.

Rid-X for your RV'southward Blackness and Grey Tank
Nosotros take a 56-gallon-each black and grey tank in our motorhome. We utilise two capfuls of liquid Rid-X in the black tank and one capful in the grey tank. These are carefully measured. Please note that oft, what smells like a sewer odor is actually coming from the grey tank. In the 8-plus years nosotros have been using Rid-Ten consistently, we have eliminated most all odors. Use the Rid-X liquid, non the crystal stuff—it's too difficult to measure out an corporeality that small in the crystal form.

Whatever method you choose, add plenty of water. I recommend 4-5-six toilet flushes when you add together the chemical.

To verify what I was saying in my seminars, I called Rid-X customer service (the number from their website) and was told the following…

• Rid-10 is designed specifically to interruption down solids—that's one of the primary things information technology does.
• Rid-Ten is not designed for "portable toilets"—similar those used at a construction site. While I agree that nosotros have our toilet with us in our motorhome, information technology is non considered to be a "portable toilet. "
• Rid-X is fine for RVs and volition, in no mode, harm them, or seals, or valves.
• I told the customer service rep that one person said that Rid-X could splash up on your exposed rear terminate and could harm you (Yes, the guy stood upwards and said this.). The customer service rep had no information on damage or damage to your exposed rear end. I tin adjure that I have occasionally splashed a bit of Rid-Ten onto my fingers with no harmful aftereffects. My fingers are still attached—thankfully, so is my rear end. My strong suggestion is to not add the Rid-X (or any other toilet chemical) while sitting, exposed, on the toilet. Information technology's much easier to add it while standing up.
• The client service rep did agree with me when I said that we used Rid-X in our grey tank to control the occasional smell.

If there was a downside to our conversation, it is that Rid-X does not stay in the blackness tank long enough to complete the process of breaking down solids but neither does any other chemical. In a "home " septic tank, information technology might have months to completely dissolve solids—and that'south fine. All the same, Rid-X starts work within 3-4 hours and continues until yous dump—and so information technology has some consequence—to what extent depends on how long before y'all dump.

My consistent recommended amount of Rid-Ten is two capfuls (using the cap on the Rid-X bottle) for the black tank and one capful for the greyness tank for tanks near 50+ gallon capacity. If yous have smaller tanks, then use proportionally less. This amount was calculated in this manner…

For a home septic system, the Rid-X company recommends x.v ounces of Rid-X in a 1,500 gallon system. That equates to two (two) teaspoons of Rid-X in a 50 gallon property tank (the measured kitchen teaspoon—not the typical tableware yous stir your coffee with). The Rid-10 cap happens to be a dead-on one-teaspoon measure (luckily).

An Expensive Rid-10 Story

A personal story… My grandson ended upwards away from home attention a tech school. The family unit found a large 5th cycle, dirt inexpensive, in pretty good shape, and bought it for him to live in it since he would be there for xviii months. He'd never spent a night in any RV, period.

I was going through some long-distance maintenance stuff with him on the phone and elimination the tanks was part of the info. I told him exactly how to employ and measure Rid-X and that i major reward to him was the cost savings when compared to the typical RV toilet chemicals.

Near six weeks later, he chosen and said that he thought the Rid-X was pretty expensive and wanted to know if I had other suggestions. I idea this was odd so started questioning him about using it.

I found that each fourth dimension he dumped the black tank, he poured the WHOLE bottle of Rid-Ten in!!!

The moral of this story is… don't exercise that.

Wrap Up
Why the push for Rid-Ten? Simply, it works—and no, I practice not have any fiscal interest in that company at all. Is it improve than your personal concoction? I don't know. Has information technology been tested? Yep, for nearly a century in home septic tanks. For RVs, I know of 3 long-term tests through friends/fulltimers, and I've used it for over 15 years consistently and to date, no negative results. I recommend you lot try it.

← Back to RV Topics: Using Your RV

fountainmighter42.blogspot.com

Source: http://www.aboutrving.com/rv-topics/toilet-chemicals-for-rvs/

Share this post