Smell from Waste Tanks & Vacumn Hoses

[BLewis]

One thing I don't like about the summer is the smell from the tanks and hoses. I spray the tanks out weekly but have never really did anything with the hoses. I was thinking about a fix the other day and wondered if one might take a 5 gal bucket of water mixed with about a quart of bleach and vacumn up once a week or so when spraying out tanks etc to stop the sewage smells that sometimes comes out of the hoses.

I did a search and didn't find anything, so for you guys that have been doing this for years, will this work or please share what you do. I have ss waste tanks fyi.

 

[Farenheit251]

I use a little pine sol and some times add water. Not sure if bleach would be corrosive to your dump tank.

 

[Dolly Llama]

bleach is OK for stainless tanks, not so good for aluminum

Billy, I've seen mentioned that some guys use bleach tabs (the kind made to drop in the back of a toilet tank) in their waste tank.
I've never tried that, (aluminum tanks) so I have no personal experience .

besides a good rinse and drain , leaving the dump valve open when home helps too.



one thing I know helps the hoses is to rinse them when done.
It's as simple as plugging a QD in the sol line, sticking it in the vac hose and let flow for a minute or two.

There's always "some" amount of carpet nectar swill in the vac hose at shut down.
It "sheets" on the side of vac hose and moves at a much MUCH slower pace than the bulk of the moisture ...there's always "some" swill left in the vac hose
rinsing helps make it clean rinse water there instead of 100% swill fomenting on a hot day

if it's the outside of the hose that suffers stankrot, a kids inflatable pool is an inexpensive and effective way to to soak them over night in a deo/sanitizing solution.
That soaks the outside AND inside too


rinse vac hoses every time before shut down should help you a lot though.
It does us.
note; We don't clean any restaurants, but we clean our fair share or sec 8 ratholes
rinsing at shut down makes a world of difference


..L.T.A.

 

[bob vawter]

Look...an average BODY sheds approx 70lbs of dED skin a YEAR...now depending how many people live in the house and how many hours a day they are there...
there can be a considerable amount of dED skin in the carpet....and that ain't counting snot...boogers....and OTHER body fluids that accumulate......
So YES it usually smells like dED body in there!

 

[XTREME1]

so your suggesting an enzyme Bawb

 

[bob vawter]

i would clean my SS Genies tanks out about every seven years......
it took that long for the coins to build up to the height of the dump opening.....
and YES...
on Mon AM...it might be a little "ripe"

 

[-JB-]

i would clean my SS Genies tanks out about every seven years......
it took that long for the coins to build up to the height of the dump opening.....

 

[bob vawter]

JB...why is that funny....
if you clean yor tank...
it jus gets dirty again!


I'll admit that my wastetank DID give birth to a big giant lintball sometimes!

 

[Scott S.]

i cant wait till someone uses a floating pool clorene tablet holder for in their tank. hahah..

 

[Mike Draper]

I usually rinse myne 1x per year. I'll fill it to the rim with water (210 gallons) and 4 gallons of bleach in the mid summer and let it sit for a 3 day weekend. then I dump it and rinse the hell outa all the scum buildup. there is usually enough hairballs in the tank to make a couple wiggs. 8)

 

[Ron Werner]

only have an issue with my recovery tank if I forgot to dump it. Otherwise the tank is fine.
Never had an issue with the hoses, just let them get sucked out well before I disconnect the hose.

 

[Jim Morrison]

Ditto with Larry on flushing out the hoses, especially after doing something nasty or with heavy soil load. Have not noticed any odor since I started flushing them out at the end of the day.

 

[BLewis]

Thanks for the replies. Oh, by the way I had a typo I don't spray my tanks out weekly, just monthly. Also, the way these tanks were set up the crossover connecting the two at the bottom is about 4 inches from the bottoms so you have to drain each separatly to totally empty them both. I usually just drain one so that is where my problem is coming from I am leaving about 4 inches of crude in one of my tanks. My other truck had the plumming piped in together so both tanks would drain completely. One good blueline improvement over FMI.