Lessons learned about the importance of purchasing a plunger for your RV bathroom
Included in this article are product recommendations and reviews.
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Picture it: You're purchased your dream RV or motorhome and you're out on the road. Excited, you stop at your first destination, hookup your water, grey and black hoses and begin your camping adventure. You've got extra large grey and black waste tanks and you're ready to put them to the test.
Over the next few days, you use your toilet, successfully empty the black tank and run into a problem. Your black tank is backed up and you can no longer flush your toilet for fear that it will overflow. This happened to us on our maiden voyage with our new RV.
We spent hours reviewing YouTube posting, trying just about everything from purchasing a wire snake, using a hanger (poor man's solution for everything), Drano (it couldn't hurt to try), and even attempted to flush the black tanks thru the external port on the RV, but nothing came out thru the black hose. We didn't know what to think.
Next we thought to ourselves, why aren't we using a plunger? Our next attempt with the plunger also failed. But it wasn't because we didn't know how to use a plunger. One has to remember, an RV toilet system is not like your toilet at home. In an RV, there is a pipe that runs from the toilet to your black tank to store your waste. Your home toilet does not work in the same manner.
Solution: Finding the actual solution to correct the issue was random, but we have used it ever since. Normally, when using a plunger you are trying to get the plunger to push thru the backup by the simple action of forcing the water in the toilet to push thru obstruction. This is NOT the case that worked well for us. We determined after many attempts that the passage way to the blank tanks was partially obstructed and no amount of water or flushing of the black tanks was working. What did work was building up enough suction using the plumber to force the blockage in the unclog and allow the water to pass freely. Imagine that, using suction and air to resolution the issue.
For those of you that have not purchased a plunger for your RV or motorhome, save yourself hours and make this one of the initial purchases before you leave on your maiden voyage.
Below is a great plunger/bowl brush combo set from MR.SIGA. I would recommend this as it reduces the need to buy yet another item for your bathroom when space is limited.
MR.SIGA Toilet Plunger and Bowl Brush Combo for Bathroom Cleaning, Black, 1 Set
MR.SIGA Toilet Plunger with Holder, Heavy Duty Toilet Plunger and Holder Combo for Bathroom Cleaning, Black
If you only need the plunger at this point to complete your set, here's another product recommendation. I like this one because it contains a holder for the plunger that can reduce any smells from the plunger after usage and also will capture any moisture on the plunger after use.
Final recommendation: Whenever you are working with waste, make sure you wash your hands thoroughly after using your plunger, toilet brush or any of your RV or motorhome tank hoses.
Lesson Learned: Purchase a plunger
For more information on this blog posting or product recommendations, you can reply back to this posting or send your questions to therealrvblog@konvrgence.com. Please note: any prices quoted here are suspect to change by the actual recommended seller.
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