What Is The Unique Method?

The Unique Method is a proven holding tank treatment process that we have meticulously developed over the years through in-depth conversations with campers of all types, both highly experienced and brand new. Our process is easy to follow and will virtually eliminate all problematic tank odors, prevent clogs and pyramid plugs, and ensure that your tank sensors continue to read properly. With The Unique Method, we've taken the confusion out of tank maintenance for RVers of every type by developing a simple yet robust program that is hands-down the most effective process available today!

Ask ten RV owners how to properly care for your black and gray water holding tanks, and you’ll get ten different opinions on the “best way” to treat them! Certainly, each of these recommendations and home remedies have their pros and cons. For example, some home remedies are great for eliminating toilet odors, but they do very little for waste digestion. As a result, clogged tanks and misreading sensors are all too common. Still other recommendations are helpful for solid waste digestion inside the tanks, but they do not help with odors. You see the dilemma? The issue is that none of these remedies completely solve tank problems all at once!

Many of these treatment styles and home remedies require you to follow strange rules, often involving use of ice, laundry detergents, water softeners, or expensive chemical treatments. Then, after a whole lot of headache and expense, you're still left with troublesome tanks! It can be enough to make you consider hanging up your keys and calling it quits, especially if you're a new RVer!

Fortunately, The Unique Method doesn’t over-promise success based on a certain product or a home remedy based on old wives' tales; instead, we offer a well calculated mix of mechanical processes (physically doing the right things) coupled with the right kinds of tank treatments. In this way, you’ll easily be able to achieve an odor-free, clog-free, and problem-free holding tank!

In fact, we’ve successfully helped thousands of RVers using The Unique Method. The techniques we use can be successful with any type of camping (including full hook-ups, dry camping, or full time) in any temperature—as long as you follow the rules. Like anything else, failure to reasonably follow The Unique Method's rules will ultimately limit its success. That's just the simple truth.

We want to be upfront about this: nothing is a magic bullet, and if you insist upon pushing your RV past its reasonable limits, you will have problems. For example, if you dry camp for two straight weeks in excessively hot temperatures, use virtually no water in your toilet, and never dump your tanks, odors are going to show up. Sure, you can use a chemical deodorizer to help cover up those nasty toilet smells with strong fragrances, but then it’s likely that your sensor probes will misread, and waste will build up inside your tank! Of course, it’s entirely your prerogative if you want to camp this way! Enjoy your RV however you wish, but also understand that you will have tank issues.

All that we’re trying to say is this: like it or not, there are certain unchangeable “rules of holding tanks.” Refuse to abide by the rules, and you will likely end up paying the price: odors and/or clogs. But don’t worry! Like we said before, The Unique Method’s “rules” are actually quite straightforward, so you don't have to completely change how you use your RV if you want to avoid holding tank trouble!

Ready to start using The Unique Method and eliminate your toilet troubles? Let's get started!

Why Does The Unique Method Matter?

The Unique Method speaks to some universal concepts that are true for all RVers, no matter their experience level. This is why The Unique Method is so applicable to the RVing community: it actually addresses and fixes the common problems that RVers run into! If you know these universal concepts, you’ll better understand why we developed The Unique Method like we did and, more importantly, how and why it works!

• Properly maintained holding tanks achieve two things: 1) odor-free tanks and 2) clog-free tanks. It's imperative that you put an emphasis on both—not just one or the other.
• In order to properly maintain your tanks, it takes a combination of the right procedures and the right tank treatment products.
• Bacteria + Enzyme products are the only treatment option that will both digest waste and eliminate odors. All other treatment types do either one or the other, but not both.
• Deodorizing treatments won't do anything to prevent clogs. They are simply designed to eliminate toilet smells—usually by covering the odors with strong fragrances. Moreover, formaldehyde products are dangerous, ineffective and starting to be banned in some states, so we recommend that you avoid them entirely!
• Although enzymes are great for digesting waste, they won't do anything for odors. Though often believed to be the same thing, enzymes and bacteria are actually very different. So using an “enzyme treatment” won’t enable you to eliminate smells in your holding tanks.
• Most problems that arise in holding tanks (including smells, clogs, and sensor issues) are caused by using inadequate amounts of water.
• Tank odors are caused by “bad” anaerobic bacteria, which come from your stomach. As they break down, these bacteria release smelly hydrogen sulfide gas. In order to eliminate tank odors, you need to replace “bad” anaerobic bacteria with “good” aerobic bacteria. Aerobic bacteria can do the same job as anaerobic bacteria, but they don’t produce smelly hydrogen sulfide gas. Therefore, aerobic bacteria will break down waste and keep your holding tank odor-free! See our article here for more on aerobic bacteria and how to eliminate odors in your RV!
• If you kill the bacteria inside your tanks with caustic chemicals or harsh treatments, you will ultimately prevent the breakdown of waste, which will eventually lead to solid waste backing up in your tanks, causing clogs and increased odors.
• Camping in hot weather will lead to more odors; therefore, you must compensate by using more water and dumping your tanks more often. This allows the “good” aerobic bacteria from your high-quality holding tank treatment to thrive, because it gives these bacteria the water they need to survive. Using more water and dumping your tanks more often also cools your holding tanks to create an environment where the bacteria can thrive and do their job of breaking down waste and eliminating smells. Learn more about how to eliminate odors.
• It's important that you regularly rinse your tanks very thoroughly. This will lift and remove residual, trapped waste inside your tanks. No matter how effectively your treatment digests solid waste, even the most liquefied waste cannot completely drain out if the tank is installed out-of-level or if the RV isn't parked perfectly level. Instead, the waste will accumulate over time and lead to increased tank odors and problems.
• Using normal toilet paper is completely fine in 99% of all RVs if you are properly breaking down the solid waste inside your tank.
• Understanding how to correctly use your black and gray tank valves is a must to ensure your tanks are properly cared for. This is covered in depth in The Unique Method.

As you can see, The Unique Method addresses many of the universal problems that RVers run into; therefore, it is a highly effective and applicable method of RV maintenance. In short, The Unique Method matters because it works!

Using The Unique Method

Now that you know a little bit about The Unique Method, let’s get on to how it actually works! To do this, we will revisit the Key Rules of The Unique Method. If you follow the rules below as closely as you can, clogs, odors, and misreading sensors will be a thing of the past! In each number below, the first sentence contains the basic idea of each rule. After this, we give more detail to help you to fully understand how to make The Unique Method work best for you!

The Unique Method for Black Tanks:

1. Always keep your black tank valve closed, unless you’re dumping your tank.
2. Always treat your holding tanks with a high-quality bacteria + enzyme treatment each time you dump. We suggest Unique RV Digest-It.
3. Always fill your toilet bowl with water before you use the toilet. This will help waste to flow effectively down the line.
4. Use ample amounts of water each time you flush your toilet. Water is a huge component of proper tank maintenance. We recommend holding down your flush pedal for ten full seconds each time you flush your toilet. This will hydrate the good bacteria inside the tank and allow them to adequately break down solid waste. It will also ensure that all of the solid waste inside your tank is covered by water, which will help suppress odors.
5. Always keep several inches of water in your toilet bowl. This will prevent foul smells from seeping into your RV.
6. Keep your tank temperatures below 85 degrees. If you believe the tank is exceeding 85 degrees, use more water with each flush and consider increasing the treatment dose.
7. Ideally, you should dump your tanks every 3-5 days for optimum odor control. If you extend the time between dumps, treat your tanks every 4 days with your bacteria + enzyme treatment and keep plenty of water in your holding tank. Doing so will boost the microbial count inside your tank and allow the bacteria to work in this non-optimal environment.
8. Flush your holding tank for 20-30 minutes every 3-5 dumps with a built-in tank-rinser, external tank-flusher, or wand. This is crucial, because waste (no matter how well it gets digested by your tank treatment) will collect and accumulate in the low spots of your holding tank if your RV isn’t parked 100% level (and most RVs are always parked ever so slightly out of level). In this case, waste cannot gravity-drain when you dump your tanks, so it must be manually flushed out.
9. Never clean your toilets with chemicals or bleach. Use only RV toilet cleaners, like Unique RV Toilet Cleaner. Using chemicals or bleach will kill the active bacteria that are doing their part to keep your holding tank systems working properly.
10. Perform a deep clean on your black tank twice per year. Unique Tank Cleaner is specially designed for biannual tank treatments. This will flush out the system, remove waste from the sidewalls and tank floor, remove debris that may have collected on the sensor probes, and lubricate your valves and seals. Learn more about deep cleaning your black tank in this article.

The Unique Method For Gray Tanks:

1. Minimize the amount of grease that is allowed to go down your sinks and showers. Even if you do a good job of wiping your dishes clean before you wash them, some amount of residual grease will still likely end up in your gray tank. If you are dry camping (where you leave your gray tank valve closed and the water is being stored as a solution in the tank), grease will accumulate over time on the sidewalls and cause your sensors to malfunction. In some ways, grease in your gray tank is inevitable, because soaps, shampoos, and dirty dishes will always add some level of grease, but the more grease you can wipe away before washing your dishes, the better off you'll be! How you clean your tanks and how you use your gray tank valves is very important in the prevention of gray tank issues, as you'll see below.
2. Regularly perform a deep clean on your gray tanks, using a strong enzymatic cleaner. If you are dry camping, it would be smart to do a deep clean of your gray tanks each trip the night before you head back home. For full hook-up campers, we recommend preventatively cleaning your gray tanks once every 5-10 dumps. As a rule, if you start to see your sensors acting strange, it’s probably time to do a deep clean on them. Cleaning gray tanks is very easy and inexpensive, so do it often. You can learn more about cleaning your gray tank sensors in the tabs below that give specific instructions for using The Unique Method with each specific style of camping: Dry Camping, Full Hookups, and Full Timing. Also, you can learn more about deep cleaning your gray tank in this article.
3. Use a high-quality enzyme-based dish soap to wash your dishes. We recommend that you bypass the cheaper options and purchase a large bottle of Blue Dawn dish soap. Blue Dawn is a great grease-eater and will go a very long way in helping you avoid common gray tank issues.
4. If you are camping on full hook-ups, leave your gray tank valve open with a P Trap in the line. When you are camping on full hook-ups, there is no reason to keep your gray tank valve closed. On the other hand, it's crucial that you always keep your black tank valve closed, because if you don't, liquid waste will easily flow out and down the drain, but the solid waste will get stuck, eventually forming a pyramid of poop and paper that will plug your toilet! If you are doing a good job of wiping your dishes before you wash them, you should never have any solid waste getting inside your gray tank; therefore, leaving your gray tank valve open should pose no clog issues. Just make sure, as we said above, that you put a P trap in the line to create a water barrier in the hose. This will eliminate foul odors from the sewer that may waft up into your RV.
5. If you are dry camping, keep your gray tank valve closed and perform a deep clean on the tanks each time you use your RV. When dry camping, most places require you to keep your holding tanks closed, including your gray tank. By keeping the tank closed, you allow the water to build up inside the gray tank. Like we’ve said above, all of the grease in that solution of water will start sticking to the sidewalls of your tank, eventually leading to malfunctioning sensor probes. Unfortunately, there is little leg room here, because regulations require you keep your tanks closed. However, in order to help prevent sensor issues and smells from waste that has collected inside your tank, you will want to clean your gray tanks well at the end of every boondocking trip.
6. Anytime you leave your gray tank valve closed, treat your gray tanks with a high-quality bacteria + enzyme treatment each time you dump. We recommend RV Digest-It as it has been specifically created with The Unique Method in mind.
7. Never clean your sinks, tub, or showers with chemical or antibacterial cleaners. Using caustic chemicals or antibacterial cleaners will kill the active bacteria inside your tanks and neutralize the bacteria you are adding with the bacteria + enzyme product you are using to treat your gray tanks.