Grey Tank Clogged

[RG@2434]

Parked ina resort for 3 months useing washer Dryer on regular basis.Used extra soap hot water regularly with dishes and also wiped frypans etc before draining to tank.Tank had to be power flushed and cleaned to release and tech said greasy sludge was evident.Could this have been the Extra amount of soap we added that maybe clogged with the clothes Washer?Thought the extra soap and hot water would lessen chance of grease buildup?

 

[Neal]

I'm not sure what size port is on the bottom of your tank but my guess is it's a 3 inch port like mine. They may step down the plumbing (pvc piping) but I would find it hard to believe that could get stopped up. I put Cascade (liquid type) in my tanks every few months as it seems to handle that type of product in dishwashers nicely, so I use it for tank treatment, nothing else for me. No issues to date. Maybe try some Cascade liquid and let it set overnight and then flush a time or two and see if that helps?

There could be a clog somewhere else and therefore there is no air vent which is needed for it to drain. Cascade in all the sinks feeding to the tank is what I'd do. Are any sinks not draining? Shower? If everything is draining properly then that should be an indication the plumbing to the tank is good.

 

[Rich W.]

Regular dish soap and laundry soap are sudsy and can foul things up. Dishwasher detergent as Neil pointed out, breaks down crud, and it doesn’t suds up, so it’s great for cleaning tanks and keeping them clean.

I always periodically added some powdered cascade to both my tanks and never had problems with clogging or the tank level sensors. I learned this the hard way after adding either laundry or dish soap (don’t remember which) to my tanks thinking this would clean them. It took weeks to get the sudsy crud out and off the sensors.

So…..dishwasher detergent yes, all others as little as possible. With laundry, keep the soap to a minimum. Nice soapy grey water is great for flushing the slinky, but in moderation. All that said, it still seems odd that your grey tank system clogged. Also keep the grey tank valve closed until the tank is nearly full for a good flushing of the system after dumping the black. Leaving the valves open is asking for trouble.

 

[Rollin Ollen]

Parked ina resort for 3 months useing washer Dryer on regular basis.Used extra soap hot water regularly with dishes and also wiped frypans etc before draining to tank.Tank had to be power flushed and cleaned to release and tech said greasy sludge was evident.Could this have been the Extra amount of soap we added that maybe clogged with the clothes Washer?Thought the extra soap and hot water would lessen chance of grease buildup?

I suspect sitting for three months may have been the biggest part of your problem. I just sold our 2011 Winnebago last month. All tank monitors read correct even after seven years of full time use. We just made sure that our black and grey tanks were fairly equally full before we dumped. That meant often dumping lots dish water into the black tank and we always tried to make sure they were both well agitated before we dumped. In the black tank, we added about a 1/2 cup of Dawn plus 1/2 cup of Borax and about a gallon of water after dumping. I think the most important part of the process was dumping when they were both full and agitated. The grey tank did not get any additives at all but the gauges always read correct.