- Ooh, I hear bubbling. I hear bubbling in the toilet. I might have gotten more
water than I planned on. So we're here at the... Where are we?
(train whistle blows) - We're at the train convention. - We are here at the Grand
Design National Rally, and you can get a lot of
different services here. Today we're gonna do one
that's a little bit special. - Something that's never been done before, which is somewhat scary, but I'm actually excited
to find out how much crap literally is stuck in our tanks. (upbeat music) This is Wendy and Joe, and they own the Kleen Tank franchise here in Michigan, right?
- Correct. - And we actually met these guys in 2018 at the same rally, and we went on the
motorcycle ride together and all that stuff. (upbeat music) We've never had this done before. So, it's going to be an
interesting thing to see. - So right before they got here, I did a really what I would
consider fairly thorough flush of both of our black tanks. We don't usually flush our grays, but we use our gray
water to flush the hose. So today we're having our
tanks thoroughly cleaned. So I am going to really
dump and flush ours as good as I can using
traditional normal methods, of course, just filling
and dumping and flushing, but I'm gonna try to do
it really, really well. I'm really curious to
see how much is left over over the five years. So, let's get busy flushing. We're gonna start with the back. Sometimes when we have full hookups, I will hook up both the
front and rear dumps at the same time, but very, very rarely. Usually I hook up the front one, 'cause that's where we're
gonna be dumping gray a lot and doing laundry and dishes, and I'll have to dump maybe more than once while we're at a location. The black tanks I typically dump right before we leave on T24, particularly with the rear one, because I leave it
unhooked just like this. I'm just gonna move
this line over to here, dump, flush, get it all clean, and then go back to the
front and do the front side. So I'm not gonna go into a lot of detail, but what I like to do is
when I first hook it up, I hook up the flush and
I just let that flush just sort of keep running and running until I see pretty much clear
water coming through here. Obviously you only do
this on full hookups. After I see clear water running, then I go to like a phase two
where I will fill the tank up with the flush by closing
the valve, flushing it again. I do that a couple times. You'll be surprised how
much stuff keeps coming out. Sometimes I will also let
the water completely drain with no flush on then, turn on the flush, so that the spray inside
the tank is spraying onto an empty tank, and it might spray some
of the stuff loose. And I do that a couple times. So, just kind of going
through a cycle here, and I don't do it in any particular order. I just kind of go by feel
based on what I'm seeing come out of the little hole down here. And then I just keep going until I don't really see
anything else coming out. This rear tank shouldn't
have a whole lot to it. We just don't use it as much. And yes, I do have a leak up
here on a little water meter. A water meter is really important if you're going to be
filling your tanks to flush, because you really want to make sure you don't put too much water in there. You can explode your tank
or maybe make it fill up through the vent tube
all the way to the roof. With water pressure and flow
being different at every site that could make a big difference. So you don't wanna rely on timing alone. You wanna use a water meter. But you can see 10 gallons so far. It's upside down. When I'm doing that very first just keep flushing type of thing where I wait until I see
clear water outta here is I will reset my meter. Set a timer for 10 minutes. - [Voice Assistant] 10
Minutes counting down. - My point with this is even
though it's open right now and just flushing right
through, it's not gonna fill up. There's no danger of it overfilling. I like to have that 10
minute timer, come back out, look at my meter. That gives me an idea of
how long I will let it go when I have the gate closed
and I'm filling it up to flush. Timer's done. Let's go see how much water we used and what our flow looks like. 27 gallons, which is pretty good. So we'll use that 10 minute
mark, maybe 12 minutes. The flow looks pretty clear. So what we're gonna do now is
I'm gonna shut the main valve. I'm gonna reset this. Set a timer for 11 minutes. That should put about 30 gallons or so in, and then we'll use that
30 gallons to flush. Timer is done. Let's go check it. This is one timer you do
not want to snooze. (laughs) 29 gallons. Shut that off. Pretty clean, not like
drinking water clean, but I do see some toilet paper and miscellaneous solids going by. I will let this water run
all the way out and dry. Then I'll turn the flush back on and I'll see if I can get
the flush inside the tank to spray a dry tank and maybe loosen up
anything else in there. Probably do that a couple times. I wanna make this an extraordinary flush , the best I would ever do,
but hopefully it's done. Yep, so nice and dry. As you can see, nothing coming out. So we are gonna go over here
to our leaky little thing, turn on the flush, and this is where
sometimes gets interesting as we watch what comes out. This is when you can see, oh wow, there were still some
solids left in there. Now this is the rear tank, so
it doesn't get as much use. What's interesting about this is a lot of times you'll see
this water stop flowing, and it's because there's a backup in there somewhere, clogging it up. And then all of a sudden, poof, it goes through and then
the flood waters come, but this one's flowing pretty
clean right off the bat. We are gonna lock this down, close it up, and move
to the front tank flush. I just wanna make sure it's on real good. Don't want that sucker popping off there. I'm going to test my connection
with gray water first. Make sure nothing's leaking. It's good. Start the flush. You can see the nastiness. Set a timer for 12 minutes. Give that about 12 minutes to just flush. - [Voice Assistant] 12
minutes starting now. (upbeat music) - Just had to go film a
segment somewhere else. So I had to take a break, but we're back and we're
gonna finish this flush job. Got an hour 'til they get here. Black tank close. Set my meter there. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Ooh, I hear bubbling. I hear bubbling in the toilet. I might have gotten more
water than I planned on. Oh, 48 gallons, holy cow. (laughs) That was close. I'm glad I didn't set
the timer for 12 minutes. We could have had a disaster on our hands. So I'm gonna let that flush
and do the same thing I did on the back where I let
it drain all the way out, and then I'll turn it on, so that the spray goes into an empty tank. I'm gonna do that at a
regular flush a few times before they get here. I'm not gonna show you every time, because that's just silly and boring. So you guys are gonna do
all four tanks, right, they both grays and both blacks? - Correct.
- I'll be curious to see what we have, especially in our gray tanks. - Well, that's what I was gonna say is I kind of know what to expect, I think, out of the black tanks,
but the gray tanks, I'm kind of curious to see
how much stuff comes out. How do you even go about this process? What do you use to clean? I think like I saw Pine-Sol
or something over there. - [Chad] Any issues with
the pine oil in Pine-Sol or any of that stuff? We've heard some people
say not to use that. - Pine-Sol used to contain pine oil, but it hasn't since the 80s - I challenge anybody
to clean grease better than this top liquid cleaner. - We'll take you on, me and my Pine-Sol. - So it's safe for your tanks. It's not gonna cause any harm. - Unless you're holding onto a
bottle from the 80s. (laughs) - Well I can imagine if
it was true pine oil, that would be kind of sticky.
- Yeah, it is very caustic. - It wouldn't work well with plastics and rubbers and stuff in there. - Is it like a big, long hose that's got like powerful
jets and stuff or? - That is it, yep. - Does it pshhhh? Is it like one of those
little lawn sprinkler kind of things, but really fast? - Sorta. (Chad laughs) Yeah, we're kind of giving
your RV high colonics. - Yeah, okay. (Chad laughs)
Nice! I did look online at some
of the things that you offer and your schedule for
all the different rallies and places that you're going
to be are listed there as well. - [Chad] So if somebody comes
and finds you throughout, do you guys have a booth inside? - We do, yep.
- Can you explain a little bit of the different options that people can get done on their RV? - Sure, we do the full tank cleaning, the black and the grays. We do water heater flushes,
water heater sanitation, and fresh water sanitation, but we do need RVers to be on full hookups for a lot of these services, because the water that we're using. - Yeah, that makes sense. - We also handle clogs. So if you're having issues where like there's a poop pyramid. - Poop, poop pyramid. (chuckles) - That's usually from
leaving the black tanks open. - Yeah, never ever leave
your black tanks open. - Or grays.
- Oh, really? We leave our middle-
- Not always, but you'll leave it open if
you know I'm doing laundry. - You're doing laundry. If we're gonna do laundry and a bunch of showers or whatever. - That is okay. You don't leave it open
for weeks at a time. - Yeah, we do sometimes. (laughs) We put a p-trap in there. So what's wrong with
leaving the gray tank open? - Same thing, the liquids come out. That's connected to your shower and bath. So while the liquids come out, you're gonna leave skin
cells, hair, soap scum, lint from the dryer. And that just sort of festers in there and creates some mold. - Because sometimes that
gray tank smells worse. - Oh, especially.
- Odor you get from that gray tank can be foul. - We'll have to keep our gray tanks closed unless we know we're doing
laundry or something like that. - Are you available if
you're not at a rally and somebody's in your area? You go travel to somebody to do this? - Yep.
- Okay. - We travel, what, crisscross Michigan at least twice a week? - Yeah, that's kind of
our primary business. The rally is more of
just like as a service to provide maintenance for RV owners. Our primary, at home we're constantly... - Oh, excellent.
- Going out, very cool. - Cool. - Tara mentioned you guys
can also do the poop tube from the toilet, that part.
- Yes. - [Chad] You come in
from the top for that? - We do.
- Okay. - You mentioned that you
can tell if there's mold that comes out, - You'll actually be able to see it, yep. - We're not gonna blur it,
'cause I think it's important for you to see, because Chad
did a really good flush, and I think it's good for
you to see what comes out. - [Chad] What was the
stuff in the bottom there that's mixing in. - [Wendy] It's the Calgon. - [Chad] Take me away. - Calgon, take me away! It's paradise. - [Announcer] Calgon,
lose yourself in luxury. (Chad laughs) - This is exactly what we want it to do. We want to take that out of your tanks. - And not all Calgon's the same. You don't want to use
laundry detergent Calgon. - [Chad] Right, that is
like a water softener. - Yep, exactly. - It's the surfactant that breaks the surface tension of water. So, it keeps it slick, and
it slides out of your tanks. - [Chad] I've been in the market for a good surfactant for a while. (Joe laughs)
- We talk about it at dinner sometimes.
(Chad laughs) (upbeat music) - [Joe] So it's not nasty stuff. It's just water heater stuff. - This was a water heater
you guys did recently, and it was all... The scaly stuff I expect, but I guess it maybe turns brown when it's not in the water and wet, but, yeah, that's a lot
of a lot of sandy stuff. - [Joe] Yep. (upbeat music) - [Chad] So you work
your way from here up? - I do, yep. We go up through here, so we never have to enter your coach. The way the cleaning heads
work, they jet forward, but a lot backwards,
so it pulls it all out. - [Chad] Ah, okay. (upbeat music) I saw some stuff already kind of coming. - Yeah, we're in the tank. So I need to get some good water in there and break some stuff off. (upbeat music) Just light struvite buildup
in there, but not many chunks. (upbeat music) (indistinct) the struvite coming out. - [Chad] Here's some stuff, yeah. (upbeat music) Do you just basically keep go going until it's mostly clear? - Yeah, and because you
were having sensor issues, and we didn't get a lot of the sludge, I am assuming that there's
struvite stuck on the wall, which is blocking your sensor reading. So that's what I'm
trying to break off now. (upbeat music) Let that sit for a minute. Can you close black? Very impressed. - [Chad] Okay, so what was that you were just saying about our tanks? - Yeah, I was saying I was very impressed with your black tanks, yes.
(Chad laughs) - [Tara] You got impressive skills, babe. - Yeah.
- I'm impressed. (upbeat music) - Open kitchen. - [Chad] Ooh, (indistinct) smells. And gray smells worse
than black (indistinct). - [Wendy] Nice. (upbeat music) That is crazy mold.
- Black mold. - Oh.
- Mhm. - [Chad] And that's in our kitchen gray. - Yes.
- Ick, that stinks. (upbeat music) Oh wow, those black chunks are just mold? - [Wendy] Yes, yep. - [Chad] Look at all that stuff. - We sometimes get
people that request only to have the black cleaned,
and we do it if they want, but I always say the gray is dirtier. Let me just take a peek. This is normally where the
smells are coming from. I was telling Joe it's
a double edged sword. I wanted your tanks to
be really, really clean, 'cause I know how much you work on them, but I also wanted to see
something come out of your tanks. - [Chad] Well, that gray was nasty, and then we did get a
lot of the black stuff out of there too. (upbeat music) - [Wendy] So some normal buildup, but it definitely doesn't smell as bad. - [Chad] Yeah, this kitchen back there doesn't get a lot use. - That water and those full tank flushes definitely make a difference,
and you can see it. Yeah, it's not a gate valve. It's too big. Did you replace your toilet at all? - [Chad] No, not back there. Huh.
- Interesting. - [Chad] That was just
up there in the tank or in the line somewhere? - Yep, just hanging out for a while. - [Chad] Huh. Yeah, 'cause you wouldn't be
able to pull a seal using this. So it was up in there. - Yep. - Huh
- We've found gloves, rags.
- Oh, really? (laughs) - Toy cars.
- Oh really? Oh I guess toy cars, 'cause
kids flushing their toy cars. - Silverware.
- Oh yeah, oh yeah. Well we've had that, 'cause we'll sometimes dump our wash tub. If we're boon docking, we'll dump our wash
tub in the back toilet. - Have you gotten silverware?
- I've like, oh, I almost dumped our silverware. (laughs) So where are we at here? We're at the final stages, right? - We are at the final stages. We fill it about 90%
full and then we flush it to make sure all the little bits come out. We had filled it with the
Pine-Sol solution, let it soak. This is our fourth fill. - [Chad] Okay, now is
this is gray or black. This is your kitchen gallon. - [Chad] Kitchen, yeah. And that was a stinky one. - Yes, so if you wanna
give that a pull, Joe. - [Joe] So fourth time pull,
and we're still getting... - [Chad] Yeah, still getting
stuff after four times. - [Joe] Yeah, and that's what's sticking to the side of the walls. - [Chad] Yeah. - [Tara] Ew. - [Chad] All kinds of little
chunks of mold or something or? - [Joe] Exactly. And that's where your odor is coming from. And like I said, this is
the fourth time filling and dumping, and you see it gets a little bit better each time, but the last one was really bad. So I think we were able to get
quite a bit off the last one. - I feel clean. - I feel the same as
I did before, (laughs) but I do feel like our
tanks are cleaner, for sure. We saw a lot of good
stuff come out of there, meaning bad stuff. - Well, I think that we
should just ask the experts how they think we did or have been doing. Be honest. - Yeah, honestly, I think
you do a really good job with your black tanks. I think you fill them completely. You dump. You get those clear, huge flushes to help bring everything out. The gray tank could use a little work. - We did that one time
clean on our gray tank, and it got some nasty stuff out of there. We probably should have followed that up with a couple of more cleans and maybe do that more
often during our travels. I think we're gonna get into that too. You guys are gonna tell us what
you recommend going forward. - Yeah, if you're not
gonna use an additive that breaks things down
and creates that sludge, a simple mix of Calgon,
Pine-Sol and water. Calgon is going to break
the surface tension of water to keep it slick. Pine-Sol is a disinfectant and deodorizer, especially in the grays where we tend to get a
lot of mold buildup odors. - Yes, and the gray
tank that was the worst is the one for the kitchen sink. - Oh yeah.
- And even though we have a strainer covering the drain, stuff still gets in there all the time. - [Chad] Yeah, you're washing
off bowls, got sauces, and stuff like that. - [Tara] Yeah, so I'm
not surprised about that. - [Wendy] Nine outta 10 campers have that. So it's nothing unusual. We see it all the time. - So you guys recommend
doing the Calgon beads and the Pine-Sol. What kind of mixture? How much to how much? - So for a 32 ounce bottle that's easy to keep under your sink, it's two ounces of Calgon,
10 ounces of Pine-Sol, the rest water. Keep that in a bottle, mix it up, and put a cup in each tank with three gallons of water
to sort of prime your tanks. - [Chad] Oh, okay, so
you keep that mixture. - [Tara] Then as they fill up, then it- - So you don't have to worry about mixing it every
time before a travel day. You have it there. You put a cup in with
three gallons of water. I like that. - It's not as good as getting
it professionally cleaned like what they do, but in
between cleanings and stuff, I think that's good. - We have a repeat customer at this rally who had it done last year,
used that exclusively, and all three of his tanks were - Perfect.
- Great. - Wow.
- Oh, wow. - Yeah, I mean, there was definitely a noticeable difference.
- Very cool. - That's great.
- So that was neat to see. - Did you talk about the Happy Camper? - Oh, I was just gonna do that. So these guys do recommend
not using happy camper. We've had pretty good luck with it, but they're saying they think maybe, because I do a good job flushing. - Water is the key, yeah. - And we're gonna share a video with you that they shared with
us of what can happen if you just use happy camper and you don't maintain your flushing. And I don't know if it
might have something to do with how it's being applied too, because we've had people reach out to us and tell us that, "Oh, I didn't know "you were supposed to sprinkle it in." I mean, it's at the directions, but they didn't know you were
supposed to sprinkle it in. They just dump it in and flush it. And that's not what you want do. You wanna let that bowl as
it's filling up sprinkle it in there, let it mix into
that gallon of water, and then flush it, and then
put two more gallons in there. Water is your friend in the black tank. Lots and lots of water, especially when you're
doing number two. (laughs) - [Tara] And you could see the difference. - [Wendy] Yeah, definitely. - So do you have like a grading scale like A, B, C, D, and F? - Oh, we do.
(both laugh) - She doesn't like to do that part. - It's okay, it's okay. We're kind of prepared. - We know we didn't take care
of our gray tank as much, but now it's nice and
clean for the next owner. - Yep, so you're black, I would say you did B plus. (bell dings) - B plus is good.
- It was very good, because there was still stuff in there, but that's from using it. So your kitchen, - D plus, D minus?
- We're gonna go down to D minus.
- A D minus. (buzzer beeps) - All right, we're still passing. (laughs) - Because we had to
flush quite a few times. - About seven times, right? - Yeah. - Yeah, that gray tank
was nasty, I can imagine. But we're gonna try to
maintain that going forward. We're gonna use your tip, and I like that idea
of having it all ready and mixed together. - If you are interested in getting your tanks
professionally cleaned, we will have all their contact info in the description below. Your schedule is going to be posted online where you'll be in different
rallies and stuff like that. - Yep. - Do you guys have your own
website for your services and stuff like that with your schedule? - It's on the main one,
kleentank.com/michigan. And then there's also the other dealers. The end of this year, we'll
have 13 across the country. So if we are not in the area, they might find another
dealer who is closer to them. - [Chad] Is there like a locator on there? - Yeah.
- Okay, perfect. - [Tara] We wanna thank you
guys for cleaning five years of stuck on tank stuff. - I am gonna check our sensors, 'cause we were talking about that. We get asked about that, how
do you fix those sensors? And the answer is you don't. They suck. They'll never work. Don't even bother with 'em. (laughs) - They've never worked. They've never worked. - I mean, we were gonna check 'em now, but even if they work right now, they're not gonna work next week. So those sensors just are what they are. We may do a video in the future with some like sea level sensors. We hear those are really good. Thanks so much, guys.
- Thank you, guys. - This was awesome.
- All right, thank you. - I'm gonna give you a hug, 'cause you cleaned out tank.
(both laugh) - Well see you guys next time. - Bye. - So there are some solids going by. I just saw some paper, some toilet paper. Oh great, now my leaky
thing is spraying my mat down here that I lean on, awesome. So. (laughs) - It's so funny how we got
the blue, blue, red, red. Yeah, America! - Red, red, and blue,
white and white and white. - Maybe we need to change our diet. - (laughs) I don't know what it is. Come on, you can do it. (upbeat music) You can do it. - [Voice Assistant] 10
Minutes counting down. - There we go. So these guys highly recommend
against Holly Camper. - Holly, holly. - I gotta say that all over. - Holly Camper.
- Yes, you do. - Holly Camper. - If your sink doesn't drain
when you're doing dishes, it's full. Empty it.
(train whistle blows) - There's that train right on cue. (upbeat music)
