Most of us, myself included, usually tend to get whatever's cheapest off the shelf at Wal-Mart or whatever the smarmy salesman at the Dealership or Camping World can pawn off on us for a rather inflated markup.
For me, I've been using Thetford's Campa Chem Liquid (6 pack of 8oz bottles) for the past several years.Mostly I use it when my camper's docked in its stationary position, so the 30-odd gallon holding tank is doing black tank duty solely. It takes roughly a month for me to fill a 30 gallon tank using just the toilet.
30 days of fermenting black tank contents is not a pleasant smell, even less so when the toilet is mostly used as a urinal.
This is not a smell one normally wants to be trapped in the bathroom with while showering. For me, I've discovered that placing my foot on top of the toilet flexes the plastic seams just enough for the fantastic fan to draw a little taste of the black tank's bouquet into the shower while I'm washing.
In the winter, this isn't that bad, in the summer, you can't add enough campachem to the holding tank to kill that smell off.
It wasn't until I attend the Fall Colors Rally and attended Torklift Rob's product demonstration table that I found this neat little product.
Chempace "ODOR-EZE"
At the time I kind of gave it the non-committal grunt that for me usually means, "I'll believe it when I see it" and took a bottle home with me.
It wasn't until a few weeks later after the camper had been unloaded and tucked it back into its site for the winter that that wonderful holding tank bouquet revisited me and I remembered the little bottle of tank treatment I had brought back from the rally.
Figuring that I'd have about as much luck as my experiment with treating the holding tank using Pinesol (Which worked great till the urine overpowered the Pinesol and I ended up with a worse stench than before) I added the bottle to the half full tank and let it do its thing.
After the first day, I noted the tank was stinking a little less and figured that was about the extent of the chemicals abilities.
A few more days after that I noticed the tank had stopped smelling altogether. At last, blissful relief I can shower again without stinking myself out!
This product actually worked vastly better than the CampaChem, in that it actually eliminated the urine odor, something the CampaChem mostly just tried to mask.
Now, here's some other neat things I've discovered about Odor-Eze, unlike CampChem, it uses no Formaldehyde, so its good to use in California, and parks where traditional tank treatment chemicals may be banned.
So far, I've found two online RV Supply store that sells the Odor-Eze/Chempace product line, http://www.rvupgrades.com and http://www.rvingoutpost.com/ (Thanks Julie!).
Chempace ODOR-EZE
Gallon/Half Gallon Size
AdventureRV, Tweetys, and Camping World do not carry the Chempace product lines. I will update this post if and when I find new online stores that sell the Odor-Eze product line.
You can also find Odor-Eze at these fine local dealers!
R'n R RV - Spokane, WA
RV's NW - Spokane, WA
Torklift RV - Kent, WA
Coumbs RV - Olympia
Broadmoor - Richland, WA
Bretz RV - Missoula, MT
Blue Dog - Hayden, ID
Blue Crick - Airway Heights, WA
Longview RV - Longview, WA
B. Young RV - Milwaukie, OR
Wager's Trailer - Salem, OR
Johnson RV - Sandy, Or
Allied RV - Sacramento, CA
Guaranty RV - Junction City, OR
Nelson's - Boise, ID
Thunder RV - La Grand, OR
Island City - Island City, OR
Western Rec. - Prineville, OR
Jerry's RV - Bend, OR
