Having an RV is a door to adventure, happiness, and freedom. It helps you to feel and view nature at its best. You have the freedom to move along the road, anywhere in the woods, and also along some river or lake. It’s a fun and adventurous thing to own an RV. You can view the wonders of nature, and different weathers at different times of the day to have a new perspective of every place you visit.
Alongside all the benefits and fun facts about having an RV, this also brings great challenges for you. These challenges can be very hard if you do not know the proper idea of how to deal with them. While you are on a road, the many challenges you face in your RV can be tougher than usual as the circumstances are different when you are on a road trip.
One of the biggest challenges that you can face while in an RV is when your RV’s toilet starts creating problems for you. The foul smells that escape from your RV toilet’s holding tank are just unbearable and so irritating. Imagine living, eating, driving, and doing everything with all that foul smells coming all the time inside your RV.
The best remedy and solution for these foul smells are to make some homemade deodorizers and to treat your RV holding tank with some homemade treatments. These homemade deodorizers use citrus and water as the main element. These are natural elements that are why they propose no harm to your RV toilet or tank.
RV Toilet Tank Overview:
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All RVs come with a holding tank. This is a tank that is made to hold the liquid, solid waste, and wastewater coming down from your RV toilet, sinks, shower, etc. the tanks need dumping after every 2-3 days or at least once a week. These tanks come in different sizes depending upon the size of your RV. Their size can range from 10 gallons to 100 gallons.
Homemade tank cleaners are important because you need to clean your RV tanks in order to reduce bad smells and avoid buildup on the inside of tank walls.
Types of RV Tanks
Some common types of RV tanks are defined below.
1- Fresh Water Holding Tank
This tank is used to hold fresh water for you. All your needs, while you are on a trip, are fulfilled by the water in this tank. Showering, cooking, bathrooms, sinks, etc, all of them get the freshwater supply from the water in this tank.
2- Black Holding Tank
This tank is used to hold all the solid and liquid waste coming from the toilet of your RV. Everything going down from your toilet is held by this black holding tank.
3- Grey Holding Tank
The water coming from sinks or showers etc of your RV is going down into this grey tank. All the wastewater from your RV except toilet water is coming down in the grey holding tank.
Best Homemade Cleaners Method for RV Holding Tanks
Following are some best homemade cleaning tips and cleaners that you can use for the cleaning of your RV holding Tank.
The Geo Method
This method works just like a washing machine works to wash and clean your clothes. The basic idea of this method is that your tanks also need constant cleaning just like your clothes. The difference between a washing machine and your RV holding tank is that a washing machine is a self-cleaning appliance. It cleans itself with the detergent while washing the clothes. However, your RV tank needs your attention for every procedure.
The geo method suggests that you should clean your RV holding tank on a regular basis to avoid any difficult situation that can result if debris builds up in the tank and it can cause clogging, smell, and other issues.
You will need the following ingredients to make the homemade RV cleaner for tank treatment.
- 1 cup of Laundry detergent
- 1 gallon of warm water
- Chlorine or bleach
- 2 cup softener in powder form
After you take all these ingredients then follow the below steps:
- First, empty both black and grey tanks.
- Now shut off the valves of tanks to stop any flow outwards.
- Add laundry detergent and softener to one gallon of water.
- Mix the ingredients properly in water.
- Also, add chlorine or bleach to give an extra cleaning effect.
- Now dump all the mixture inside your tank.
- Let this mixture sit inside the tank for a few days.
- After that, dump your tank. It will be clean and odor free.
Using the geo method for cleaning your tanks after regular intervals will help to stop the buildup of any gunk inside the tanks and also make them smell nice.
Citric Acid Cleaning Bombs for RV Tanks
Citric acid is a mild acid that cannot do any harm to your RV holding tanks. However, it will help a lot to remove the gunk from tank walls and to reduce the foul smells. This homemade cleaner is so effective that it is even used for many commercial RV tanks. You will require the following ingredients to make a citrus cleaning bomb.
- 1/3 cup Baking soda
- 1 tbsp Clean water
- 1/3 cup Borax
- 1/3 cup Citric acid
Follow the below steps to make cleaning bombs and use them for your tank cleaning.
- Mix borax, citric acid, and baking soda in a plastic bag.
- Start adding water slowly to the plastic bag to let the ingredients mix with each other.
- Pour this mixture into a silicone mold.
- Let the mixture rest in molds for 1 day. The next day, put out the bombs from mold and store them in an airtight container.
- Now if you want cleaning of your RV tanks place a bomb inside your empty tank and close all the valves.
- Now pour gallons of water inside the tank through the toilet, shower, sinks, etc. it will work wonders and after a few hours what you will get will be a clean and smell-free RV holding tank.
Conclusion
The above text has given you immense knowledge about some of the best homemade cleaners that you can use for your RV holding tanks. Homemade cleaners are one of the best options for cleaning and deodorizing an RV tank when you are out on the road and there is no other option available.
