Toilet backing up

[WhittleBurner]

. Anyone ever have thing kind of problem ? What was the problem ?

I accidentally dropped a small bottle of blue stuff down the first year we got the trailer. 3 years later it resurfaced in the neck of the toilet right near a slight bend and backed things up to the top. We plungered and things appeared to break free. A few days later the same thing, this time after clearing we ran lots of water and a small white bottle floated to the top. Ended up having a good laugh and happy we did not have the dreaded poop mound.

How often do you use the tank flush ?

[traveldawg]

The way my rig is vented if the main grey water tank fills up it can back-flow, through the vent pipe, into the grey tank. And the other way around.

I found this out one day by over filling the black tank when rinsing and water came up the shower drain.

[boyscout]

Google search "Geo Method" on youtube for RV's. It's worked for us even when our RVs had 20 years on them.

It works most effectively when you are moving. 10 gallons of water in the tank, with Borax, Dawn and Calgon.

@sptrucksbyed we're big fans of the GEO method too but it should be noted that Borax and Calgon are essentially the same thing: water softeners that improve the efficacy of the Dawn dish soap. Use either Borax or Calgon (Borax seems easier to find these days) and follow @Sportsdad60's advice regularly to minimize problems with your tanks (gray as well as black).

However it won't likely resolve the issue you're having. It will probably prevent the current problem from recurring once you've cleared it because it does seem likely that you have stuff blocking free flow out the outflow. Others above have provided advice about clearing that.

Good luck.

[Scott'n'Wendy]

The way my rig is vented if the main grey water tank fills up it can back-flow, through the vent pipe, into the grey tank. And the other way around.

I found this out one day by over filling the black tank when rinsing and water came up the shower drain.

That must have been lovely....

[TangleMan]

We had the same problem with our 2018 Imagine 2500 RL. The solution was a cleaning wand with water jets on the end - standard easy to find RV item. Hooked it up to a hose - it has an on off valve that I wouldn't really trust but it makes it a little more convenient to use - pushed the open pedal and sprayed up and down inside the toilet drain. We determined the cause as not holding the pedal down long enough when flushing the toilet. We now count to 10 - it uses a little more water but we haven't had a blockage problem since.

[AZMike]

We had the same problem with our 2018 Imagine 2500 RL. The solution was a cleaning wand with water jets on the end - standard easy to find RV item. Hooked it up to a hose - it has an on off valve that I wouldn't really trust but it makes it a little more convenient to use - pushed the open pedal and sprayed up and down inside the toilet drain. We determined the cause as not holding the pedal down long enough when flushing the toilet. We now count to 10 - it uses a little more water but we haven't had a blockage problem since.

+1 on the toilet wand. It has saved us more than once!

[Aridon]

Either you have some kind of blockage, you didn't dump all the way or something is filling it. Toilet, roof vent (rain), black fill etc

The stuff is coming from somewhere. It's either in the tank preventing it from draining or your gate valve isn't opening as the way etc. I don't see how the black fill could be connected to city in any fashion it's always separated but figured I'd mention it. Toilet or if it's combined a sink / shower could be steadily doing it.

If the tank vent top is off rain could be helping fill it

[traveldawg]

That must have been lovely....

I got lucky. The tank was pretty clean and I caught it before anything got really ugly - or stinky.

[traveldawg]

That must have been lovely....

I got lucky. The tank was pretty clean and I caught it before anything got really ugly - or stinky.

[Richter]

If the tank vent top is off rain could be helping fill it

The physics of this don’t work out very well. Thinking about the square inches available for collection at the top of the vent (probably less than 6-8) and the square inches of the surface area of the tank (hundreds, as a square foot of surface area is 144 square inches) it would take more than a monsoon to collect any measurable amount of water in the holding tank. I don’t see that water coming down the drain from outside would be much of an issue.