Black tank flush fitting not working

dkr1946 · 05-09-2009, 04:01 AM

I've had our FW for two years and have used the fitting on side of the FW near the black tank several times to flush the black tank after emptying it. Worked fine until this spring. Now when I connect a hose to it and turn on the water there is no water movement.....acts as if a valve is closed somewhere. I suspect there is a one-way valve somewhere in the works that is broken.

Has anyone had to repair or replace one of these valves? I can not figure out where the valve is. I can see the hose fitting on the ourside of the FW, and I can see a short length of hose going from that fitting into the belly of the FW, but that's about it. Before I start removing things to get inside I thought I'd ask for help here.

Thanks.

Chrisnan23 · 05-09-2009, 06:14 AM

The check valve is in the spray head mounted on the tank. It's a good bet that some gunk got on the spray head and dried there over the winter. Try putting some hot water (maybe 5 or 10 gallons) down the toilet to soften it up.

fhenn · 05-09-2009, 07:26 AM

All so if you put a bag of ice in the tank and drive with it it will clean the sensors and the spray tip

malojeer · 05-09-2009, 08:18 AM

The spray head at the tank plugged up on our 5er. The only way I could make it work is to remove hose and barb fittingat tank and remove the spray head by sliding it out of the mounting on the tank.All it is is around plasticscreen about 4" long withholes in itand clean with a small metal wire ,wire brush and water.The old "stuff"turns to concrete! To keep this from happening use flush every time you finish a camping trip and make sure ithe tank is compltely clean. Be sure tank is empty before starting the repair.

dkr1946 · 05-10-2009, 12:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by malojeer

The spray head at the tank plugged up on our 5er. The only way I could make it work is to remove hose and barb fittingat tank and remove the spray head by sliding it out of the mounting on the tank.All it is is around plasticscreen about 4" long withholes in itand clean with a small metal wire ,wire brush and water.The old "stuff"turns to concrete! To keep this from happening use flush every time you finish a camping trip and make sure ithe tank is compltely clean. Be sure tank is empty before starting the repair.

Oh boy.............sounds like no fun!

What's the "barb fitting"?

Is the spray head near the top of the black tank? Others have mentioned putting in 5-10 gallons of water and/or ice, but that would not seem to be effective unless that spray head is near the bottom of the tank, which seems illogical......but then many things on my FW are illogical!

The mistake I made was not using it each time we camped. We usually only use the FW six trips per year, and two of those trips are for 30+ days. I tend to use the flush fitting only on the last morning before putting the FW back into storage, usually for several months. From what I am reading on the 'net, there are MANY problems with these so called "flush kits".

I think I will try connecting a hose to the flush kit fitting and turn on the water with minimal pressure and let it "run" for several hours. It might do nothing, which I suspect, but then again it might get things moving again. I'll do that one day soon (we're camping for the next 3 weeks) just in case it breaks through the crud; wouldn't want to over flow the black tank! I don't see where I could make anything worse by trying. However, taking things apart doesn't sound like something I want to do here while we're camping. I might wait until we return home and tackle the work when it's in storage again..
Edited by: dkr1946

fhenn · 05-10-2009, 12:55 AM

I read in another forum where people have been putting Ridx the septic stuff in the tank added water and drove to the campground. They said that when the got there every thing was back to soft and it cleaned on out

dkr1946 · 05-13-2009, 11:18 PM

Well, my plan of hooking up a hose to the flush fitting and turning the water on maybe 20% worked. After several hours of that, we began to get a little water through the flush kit. Not a lot yet, but we are going to continue this action and I expect it to be 100% within a few days.

scott · 05-14-2009, 02:40 AM

One thing you might try after you get it working againis the liquid water softner. You can get it at Wall E World. This makes everything inside the tanks slick, so "things"

will not stick. When I finish dumping the black tankI add a cup of liquid water softner and some sort of soap into the toilet. I've used liquid Dawn, powder laundery detergent, it doesn't matter which one, then I fill the toilet up with water 3 or 4 times. The idea behind this is the water softner softens the water making everything slick and the soap along with the water cleans everything on the trip home. Do asearch on the internet or on this forum for the GEO Method. It will explain this process in detail. Mytank sensorshave never been more accurate and I have hadno problems with the sprayer since doing this.

mosledder · 05-14-2009, 11:55 AM

We just got our 2010 cruiserand the first tme I tried the black water flust kit, it didn't work. water sounded like it just stopped then started leaking water under the bathroom sink. Our unithas a brass fitting that has a pop-off valve or a check valve under the bathroom sink. I don't know if your unit has one of these but our dealer say's these go bad once in a while. He got us another one and it works fine now.

Good luck

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