RV Sewer and Grey Water Chemical Alternative

Your local RV store offers a host of RV  sewer and grey water chemical solutions, however alternatives to chemicals may already be in your cupboard.  I am sure like most of us, you have spent a fair bit of time looking at all the different chemical solutions available.   Some are natural, some are liquid, some are powders, etc. The options seem endless and some of the options contain dangerous and cancer-causing ingredients.

My cousin, who often RVs with us, commented recently on how expensive toilet chemicals are. I suggested he try a method we have used very successfully for quite some time to control RV tank odor.

The method is very simple and uses common laundry detergent, water softener and bleach. Every time I dump my black water tank I pour into the toilet:

 2 cups of dry laundry detergent

2 cups of powdered water softener 

a gallon of water.

I try to use laundry detergent with bleach already included. If you are RVing and dump the RV tanks weekly, you do not smell anything unpleasant.  The vapors just smell slightly different from using chemicals. For longer term storage, we would still use regular specific RV sewer chemicals.

These 3 items are used daily in washing machines all over the world. The inside of a washing machine is always clean and your sewer tank will be as well. Give this cheap and simple alternative a try for yourself. Adding water softener helps make the inside of the tanks slippery so matter does not stick to the walls of the black or grey water tank as easily.

This is especially handy if you run out of chemicals while traveling or RVing in areas where regular chemicals are not available. We personally use this method all the time and experience no odors at all in the trailer in very high heat situations, such as the desert and Mexico in the winter. If you do ever experience odors simply pour half a gallon of bleach down the RV toilet, fill the black water tank with water and the odors should be gone.

Our RV has separate grey water tanks for the bathroom and kitchen.  I have used this same method to wash out these tanks as well.  Sometimes what are thought to be black water tank odors can in fact be emitting from the grey water tanks. We once poured the juice from a can of kidney beans down the kitchen sink. After a few days the smell in the trailer after traveling was far worse than any black water tank smells. The solution: laundry detergent, water softener and bleach. the tank was filled with water and let stand for half an hour, problem solved.

**Note - Read the instructions on all products used as chemical interactions can be harmful. For example I have seen many toilet chemicals that caution against adding chlorine to toilet chemicals.  Try these simple ingredients which  may already be in your cupboard when looking for an alternative to RV sewer chemicals.

RV Toilet Paper -- Choose Economical and Safe TP for RVing