Month: January 2025

Camping in an RV is the most comfortable way to go on an adventure. The amenities it provides bring a touch of home to the great outdoors, and none can be more important than a functioning bathroom. But keeping your RV bathroom in good shape can be difficult. Clogged drains, mold, mildew, broken seals, and full tanks can all add up to unfortunate damage and smells. As a responsible RV owner, there are a few things you need to do to keep your bathroom working and avoid damaging it in the process.

Preventing Toilet Odors And Blockages

As nice as it can be to have around, an RV toilet is significantly more high-maintenance than what you might be used to in your home. Instead of pipes leading to a municipal sewer or underground septic tank, your toilet flushes into a holding container called a blackwater tank. If you start to notice unpleasant smells in your bathroom, it’s likely due to issues with your tank. 

Never use chemicals or toilet paper that’s designed for a residential toilet. Your RV toilet is more fragile, requiring RV-specific products that are gentler on the coatings and the pipes. Only one-ply RV toilet paper is safe to flush, as denser products might cause clogging. Never flush any items besides waste and that toilet paper, including hair, Q-tips, “flushable” wipes, and other sanitary products.

Emptying Your Blackwater Tank

The blackwater tank will need to be emptied and cleaned regularly to prevent odors and back-ups. This isn’t quite as unpleasant a process as you’re probably imagining, but it should still be done carefully. Fuller tanks empty faster, but obviously you’ll want to avoid letting it fill entirely. Only empty it when the tank is around ⅔ or ¾ full, since lower levels will be difficult to empty properly. 

To empty your blackwater tank, hook up a sewer hose to the tank valve on one end and to a dump station on the other end. Never empty the tank anywhere else! Make sure to close the tank’s valve once it’s finished emptying, and think about investing in specially-designed chemicals to sanitize the tank and prevent odors.

Check The Toilet Seal

Before and after every trip, double check your toilet seal to make sure it’s intact and tight. This helps keep water in the toilet and prevents odors from spreading. If it hardens, it can crack and split, causing unpleasant leakage. Plumber’s grease might help to reseal a cracked seal, but significant wear will require a replacement.

We hope you found these camper bathroom maintenance tips helpful! If you are in the market for your perfect family RV, check out the selection at Bankston Motor Homes. We are based in Huntsville, Alabama, and also serve those in Gadsden.