The Unique Method provides a carefully designed approach that combines healthy maintenance habits to enhance the condition of your RVs holding tanks. Regardless of the RV tank treatment products you choose, your camping style, or the weather conditions, this method ensures optimal performance. In this article, we’ll outline the essential steps to keep your RVs black water tanks running smoothly.
Below you’ll find a brief overview of the best habits we have discovered over the last 30 years, but will be discussing some of these details in more depth in later articles. Since we recommend using a high-quality RV black tank treatment with The Unique Method and our products were designed with The Unique Method in mind, we will be using Unique Camping + Marine products as examples while walking through the steps.
Of course, you don’t need to use our products, but the best way to get the most success out of using the Unique Method is to combine it with the products for which it was created. Follow the guidelines below as closely as possible, and you will easily avoid clogs, odors, and misreading sensors.
Note: RVers with Class B RVs or others with smaller sized holding tanks can still apply our recommendations, with adjustments for a smaller tank.
- Keep your black tank valve closed at all times, except when dumping the tank.
- Activate your black tank by adding 2-4 gallons of water to your black tank by holding down the flush pedal for 1 minute and then add a high-quality bacteria + enzyme tank treatment to your black tank (we recommend RV Digest-It Ultra) before you use the toilet. Repeat after every tank dump.
- Keep several inches of water in your toilet bowl while parked to block tank odors from coming up into your living space.
- Use ample amounts of water when using the toilet.
- Fill the toilet bowl with water before using it.
- Fully flush the toilet after using it, holding down the foot pedal for at least 10 seconds.
- Never clean your RV toilet with home cleaners that will damage toilet seals and disrupt black tanks. Clean your RV toilets with Scrub-It RV Toilet Cleaner or another RV-toilet-safe cleaner and use a silicone bristled toilet brush to avoid damage to the toilet seal.
- Never use household disinfectants like bleach, Pine-Sol, zinc-based products, or other antibacterial cleaners to treat your black tank.
- Dump your black tank every 3-5 days for best results.
- Thoroughly rinse your black tank after every dump. The most effective method is to fill your black tank with fresh, clean, water, then dump your tank. Do this twice.
- Keep your holding tanks under 85°F in hot weather by flushing more water, more often into the tank.
- Deep clean your black tank with Clean-It Black Tank Deep Cleaner at the beginning and end of RV season if you’re a seasonal camper, or every 4-6 months if you’re full-timing.
- Never store your RV with poop or paper in the tanks. We recommend using the time between camping trips to deep clean your tanks with Unique Store-It.
Prevent Common Problems In Your Tanks!
From misreading sensors, preventing clogs, or eliminating odors, we've got you covered no matter how you camp! All our best holding tank tips and trick information plus more can be found conveniently in one place when you download our FREE Unique Method Field Guide PDF. Achieve holding tank bliss today!
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