By Cheri Sicard
Is your RV toilet clogged? In the video below, Josh the RV Nerd talks about an important, albeit disgusting, topic: How to prevent and fix clogged RV toilets.
The discussion begins with a fact that many RV newbies fail to understand: An RV’s plumbing system is NOT the same as the plumbing system in a regular house. The pipes are narrower, and they cannot handle the same volume and mass of material running through them that a home system can. Also, personal wipes and the like should never go in an RV toilet. And while you do not need special RV toilet paper, you should use septic-safe toilet paper.
Tips to prevent a clogged RV toilet
• Use LOTS of water.
• If you are at a campsite with a sewer connection, do NOT leave it open and draining all the time, lest you end up with a poop pyramid. Fill the black tank, using lots of water, dump it, then close the valve until next time.
• After dumping, be sure to put at least a couple of gallons of water back in the tank.
What to do if you have a clogged RV toilet
Josh says the first step is to get some gloves. You will not want to deal with this job barehanded. He also says to wash your hands after you are done even when wearing gloves, then go ahead and wash them again.
You will also want to pick up a Tank Wand Master Blaster to help loosen the clog and clean your black tank. This invaluable gadget gets hooked up to a garden hose before going down the toilet and into the holding tank itself. This will help loosen everything up. However, a word of caution: If your tank is already clogged, you want to make sure and monitor the levels so you don’t overflow it into your RV! Yuck!
What else can you do to fix a clogged RV toilet?
• At point 3:55 in the video, Josh talks about various super chemicals that can help break down the solid waste that is causing the clog. This is the one he recommends.
• At point 4:00 he talks about another gadget that attacks the cleaning problem from the outside of the RV via the tank’s exit port. You must take care against flooding with this one, too.
• Josh says it can sometimes take a combination of all these things to break up a stubborn clog, but it can be done.
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RVDT2703
Chemicals help, but know that most recommend agitation (moving the coach or trailer over the road) to help the chemicals to work. Really it’s the opposite, chemicals help the mechanical work of agitation.
Better to learn how to keep your tank cleaned out before you have a problem.
We have a macerator toilet and a direct deposit toilet and I honestly can’t envision how anyone can possibly clog them. I guess if you force them to swallow a bunch of things they shouldn’t, you could dam them up but wow, is this a real thing or is Josh trying to sell gadgets?
Thank you for highlighting and summarizing the video, Cheri! I guess our previous RV toilet clogs were pretty minor because I used a toilet plunger and restored a free-flow of water to our toilet. Have a great day and safe travels!