When Tammy and I started our RV lifestyle back in 1989, we didn’t have a black tank.  This was because there was no bathroom in our 1971 Jayco JayWren Travel Trailer.  We found that to be a huge disadvantage with two small children that occasionally required midnight runs to the campground bathrooms.  There is nothing exciting about climbing out of your trailer at 2:00 A.M. with a flashlight.  As a result it didn’t take very long before we started talking about finding an RV that met all our needs as a family.

A year after buying the Jayco we upgraded to a Mallard Sprinter.  The Sprinter had a nice bathroom and we learned about the joys of maintaining and dumping the black tank.  The Sprinter had a great dump system on it and I have to say maybe the best we ever had.  The folks at Mallard that manufactured the trailer had the common sense to make sure the black tank waste line was a straight shot from the black tank.   Needless to say we have had some trailers since the Sprinter which were not designed as well for dumping.  Anytime you have bends or twists in the line its a recipe for problems.

Travel Trailers have had many changes over the last 30 years.   One of the things that has changed is the chemistry behind black tank treatments.  While you can still buy the exact same black tank treatment that we bought in 1990 (Thetford Aqua-Kem), there has been a move in the market to more eco-friendly products.

So what is the difference?  Aqua-kem states that it liquefies waste and toilet paper rapidly as well as control odors.  I’m not sure how it breaks down waste as it is made up of formaldehyde and methanol.  It certainly controls odor, I would give it an A+ for that.  We have used  Aqua-Kem for over 25 years and it has worked well for us.  Based on my experience though,  I don’t believe it actually breaks down the waste materials.

Now there are a few items on the market that use a probiotic approach to breaking down waste.  Take for example TankTechRX, here is what the company states about the product:

  • Just ½ ounce per treatment – beneficial bacteria multiply to treat any size tank
  • No Formaldehyde – probiotic bacteria eliminate odor and break down waste to liquid
  • Unscented – eliminates odor without deodorizers
  • All Natural, Environmentally Friendly, Made in USA

Now we decided to give this a try on our trip to Wisconsin this summer, always keeping the bottle of TankTechRX out of direct sunlight and in a moderate environment.  If you fail to store this properly it will kill the active enzymes and you will not get the result you want.

I would say that for the most part this product works fairly well.   It was easy to observe during dumping that the waste had dissolved. I know a lot of people have sworn up and down that they get no odors using this product;  but towards the end of the trip we noticed the odor had been building. Despite adding more of the solution the odor did not abate.  So after one of our last clean outs, I went back to the Thetford aqua-kem.

I still think the TankTechRX is a great product but my plan is to use it as an overall tank cleaner during the winter storage (which in Texas should not be an issue), and then probably use Thetford’s product while on the Road.

One other product that many people have good luck with is “Happy Campers”.  This is an organic powder that apparently works in extreme temperatures.  Happy Campers breaks down waste in the same way TankTechRX works.  I plan on giving this one a test as well.

There are many other treatments on the market so do some research and see what you think might work for you.  As you can see black tank technology has really changed over the years.