Stinky Tanks....

I've done enzymes and home brew mixtures that include Downy. In my opinion Happy Camper does a phenomenal job.

 

I own an Itasca 26P (Sunova) and I had odors from day one. Two things help me resolve this. First, the vents on the roof were installed incorrectly by the factory on both the black and grey water vent stacks. I installed the 360 degree rotating bullet shaped vents on both stacks. this helps a lot. Second, if you are driving down the highway with the windows open by the driver and the passenger this creates a slight low pressure inside the coach and can suck fumes out of the tank which travel forward and out the open windows passing just by your nose on the way out. I open a small window in the rear of the coach which helps remove fumes out the back and away from my nose. I also run the vent on high (even with windows open) to pressurize the inside of the coach and help keep the odors inside the tank where they belong. Doing these few easy things has virtually eliminated this problem for us.

 

Get the tank throughly flushed out first and put a high pressure hose nozzle down you exterior vent stack to make sure the bottom of the vent stack is not plugged, Then get a tank flush out wand with horizontal side water outlets and put it down to the tank through the toilet bowl valve. Add enough water using the high pressure wand to fill about half the tank then ad a cup of cheap fabric softener, a cup of cheap bleach and a cup of cheap liquid detergent and continue to use the tank until the next time it needs to be dumped, from then on add the 3/cups of laundry products about once a week. When you store it add the 3 cups after you drain the tank, so when you go to go camping again, it will still be fresh smelling. We have done this for the past 3 years and have never had an issue.

 

Many times it is not the black tank causing the odor but the grey tank. The water in the p traps allowing the odor to come into the RV. The shower drain is the biggest culprit since so many people just use it for storage. Just run water into all drains and the odor might just vanish.

 

I use vinegar and Pine-Sol. 1/2 gal of vinegar and 3 cups of Pine Sol. After you flush your tank. That is the only thing air lines use. Better than any camper stuff.

 

We have had our unit for 2 years. Last time we went boon docking it was a bit odorous. I put 1 cup of Calgon water softener with 2 gallons of water in both black and grey empty tanks to clean them. Once we got yo our destination, we dumped and found a lot of stuff came out if the grey, which I believe was the tank that smelled the most. I'd try it and see. We'll know more next time we boondock.

 

Lots of good suggestions. But, you need to get the tank cleaned first if you suspect there is sludge build-up.. That seems to be part of the problem. Once the buildup is gone - then it gets easy to keep it clean using many of the above suggestions. A lot of people keep it simple and use Dawn liquid detergent and Baking Soda. As others have said - the home remedies will work as good or better than anything at Camping Word and are much cheaper to use.

 

There is a ridex RV that is used in RVs Walmart sells it

 

trims....

I think you will find that Ridex is for Septic Tanks and a slow microbial breakdown of solids, not holding tanks. Can't hurt, just mostly a waste of money. Plain water and a high pressure nozzle down in the tank works wonders.

This one works well.

https://www.amazon.com/Valterra-A01...8-1-fkmr0&keywords=rv+holding+tanks+wash+wand