Toilet back up

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clcupp

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Joined
Jun 24, 2015
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I have a '99 Chieftain. No mater the situation the toilet backs up. Plunge it a couple of times and all is good. This is a constant 2 or 3 times a day. Any suggestions would be great.
Thank you.
 
Four questions come to mind before we can get a clear picture of what to do:

How long have you owned this RV?
How long have you been RV'ing? 
Do you leave your black water tank valve open when camping?
How full do you let the black water tank get before dumping?

Answer these questions then we can go from there.
 
Owned for 2 years.
RVing for 15 years.
Yes, we leave it open.
We never let it get full.
 
The whole problem is leaving it open. That causes a poop pyramid to build up in the holding tank. You need to keep the valve closed and only open it to empty it when the level gets to 3/4 or better. Since you are leaving it open the liquid isn't enough to send the solid material down the sewer pipe so it just sits on the bottom of the tank and builds up. Eventually it will be as hard as concrete. What you need to do is go buy a flush system for your tank and a clear pipe for the sewer line. Then you flush out the tank until the water runs clear. Should take an hour or so to get it cleaned out.

http://www.amazon.com/Camco-40074-Flexible-Swivel-Shutoff/dp/B0006IX7YC/ref=sr_1_7?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1459182701&sr=1-7&keywords=black+tank+flush

or this;

http://www.amazon.com/Camco-40126-Tornado-Rotary-Rinser/dp/B000BUU5TU/ref=sr_1_1?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1459182701&sr=1-1&keywords=black+tank+flush

and this:

http://www.amazon.com/Camco-39072-Flush-Holding-Rinser/dp/B000BUU5T0/ref=pd_sbs_263_15?ie=UTF8&dpID=41bqippf9-L&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR111%2C160_&refRID=1H7RQW70KW1CSZVV5DTN
 
Answers three and four are your problem.
NEVER ever leave the black tank valve open.
ALWAYS let the black tank get full before dumping.

What you have now is the dreaded poo pile.  No matter what, you have created a huge mess that you need to fix.  With the black tank valve open, connected to sewer, open the toilet  and using a tank flush wand down through the toilet rinse until you see no more poo. Close rhe valve, add maybe 10 gallons of water, a half cup of Dawn dish soap and  a cup of calgon, followed by 10 pounds of ice cubes and go for a drive.  30 minutes should be good.  Fill tank with water, dump. Close valve and add 5 gallons of water.
 
donn said:
Answers three and four are your problem.
NEVER ever leave the black tank valve open.
ALWAYS let the black tank get full before dumping.

What you have now is the dreaded poo pile.  No matter what, you have created a huge mess that you need to fix.  With the black tank valve open, connected to sewer, open the toilet  and using a tank flush wand down through the toilet rinse until you see no more poo. Close rhe valve, add maybe 10 gallons of water, a half cup of Dawn dish soap and  a cup of calgon, followed by 10 pounds of ice cubes and go for a drive.  30 minutes should be good.  Fill tank with water, dump. Close valve and add 5 gallons of water.
Click to expand...

Get a clear fitting for your stinky slinky. Then do above. Repeat above until it comes out clean. Good luck.
 
Yes, we leave it open.
We never let it get full.
Click to expand...



And.... therein lies the problem!!!!! A  black tank should never be left open as that will lead eventually to blockages of one nasty kind or another.

Why?? When the BLACK tank is left open all the liquid is drained out immediately leaving the "not so liquid" stuff behind in the tank. Eventually, a sufficient build up will occur and blockages such as you describe happen. When you leave the tank closed until it is a least 3/4 or so full, the gunk is kept in suspension and will flush quickly (very large wooosh) when the valve is opened. It can be very difficult, dirty job to clear should everything left in the tank dry out. The previous owner may have contributed to your problem too.

What to do now??? Let the tank almost fill with clear water, add an enzyme treatment and let it work for a few days, the longer the better. Dump and flush and, if necessary, do it again. Always add 4-5 gals of water in the tank after dumping.
 
Thank you so much for the info. I will heed your advise. And as I read all the entries it only makes sense. I have septic system here at home and lord knows I never want it to run dry. Thanks again. It proves two heads are better than one!!
 
clcupp said:
It proves two heads are better than one!!
Click to expand...
Five, but who's counting?  ;)

If you're lucky, you might be able to just close the valve, continuously flush until the tank is full. Let it sit for a day, then go for a drive, then dump. If you have an RV store nearby there's a product called "tissue digester" designed to help this situation. It's not for normal usage, just problem issues. Or a quadruple dose of natural tank enzyme and sit for a day.
 
SeilerBird said:
Should take an hour or so to get it cleaned out.
Click to expand...

Thank you for answering all my questions. As you can see, you know what exactly happened.
Keep in mind Tom, he's been doing it this way for 2 years and no way of telling what the previous owner did. I think it's going to take a lot longer than 1 hour and it will take multiple times filling and dumping. Maybe not.  He could have a huge pile of poo concrete down there.
 
What I would do it fill it up with fresh water, add some Riddex or similar.  Let it set for quite a few days. Then drive it around on the windiest road he could find. Then take it to a dump station and let it rip. Like stated earlier, purchase a clear 45 degree elbow to put on your sewer outlet then connect your sewer hose to that.

Keep doing that procedure until only clear water is visible in the clear elbow.
Have a lot of patience because it may take a long time. Hard way to learn. Good luck.
 
Another option to clear the dreaded "poop pyramid" is one of the various "poop blasters" that are on the market...and I suspect that if the tank has been building up for two or more years...it's gonna take some work to get it all blasted out.

http://www.amazon.com/Valterra-A01-0184VP-Master-Blaster-Tank/dp/B000BGHYDO

http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/flexible-tank-wand/14497

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Camco-Flexible-Swivel-Stik/14504324

In years gone by, I made my own with 1/4" copper tubing and some fittings...really put out a fine, powerful stream that would blast the most stubborn bits to pieces...
 
Rene T said:
Thank you for answering all my questions. As you can see, you know what exactly happened.
Keep in mind Tom, he's been doing it this way for 2 years and no way of telling what the previous owner did. I think it's going to take a lot longer than 1 hour and it will take multiple times filling and dumping. Maybe not.  He could have a huge pile of poo concrete down there.
Click to expand...
I have cleared up a number of poop pyramids and chemicals never have worked for me. The poop pyramid is like concrete. What it needs is physically attacking the pile with high pressure water.
 
'The dreaded pyramid of poo' strikes again!

You might be able to break it up with a RV toilet wand if you have a straight drop into the tank.  I'd suggest making your own out of PVC pipe.  Put a hose adapter and valve on one end and a cap with a single (small) hole on the other.  A single high pressure jet has worked for me when blasting the pyramid to smaller poopy bits.

I've heard that septic tank enzymes might help but the tank has to be as full as possible and it has to sit for several days.

feeling your pain.  We had a motorhome with such a badly designed tank that it formed 'The Pyramid Of Poo'. No matter what we did.  (That's when I built the high pressure jet wand)
 
My opinion is if you have any distance from the sewer outlet to the tank or if there are any elbows, the clear elbow with the hose fitting for flushing would be pretty much useless. The only time that would be handy would be if the sewer pipe was totally plugged up then using that style fitting would help unplug the pipe. At a minimum, get one of these. Walmart sells them also.

http://www.amazon.com/Valterra-T1026-1-45%C2%B0-Clearview-Adapter/dp/B000NCS7GE/ref=pd_sim_263_5?ie=UTF8&dpID=41o3GuhfruL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR122%2C160_&refRID=0S3DH81H14344HZMXVJ2
 
I was the proud owner of a 1999 Winnebago Superchief, with a similar problem. I found on removing the toilet and the toilet flange, it had never been glued together, so the pipe dropped down until it hit the tank bottom, and left about 1/16" gap from pipe to flange. This caused the back up, stink, etc.  I pulled it out, cleaned and reglued, coated the exterior of pipe with silicon caulk to seal against rubber grommet on tank, put it back together.

Never another problem! Must be some line worker didn't think pipe glue was needed.
 
One thing I haven't seen mentioned here is the use of the proper TP. You need something that breaks apart easily, and that's something that you need to check with a glass of water and a single piece to see if you can shake it apart. Don't assume a 1-ply paper is what you need. We recently got single-ply paper that was like a sheet, it was hard to rip apart even by hand. Fortunately I found this before it went through the macerator
 
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