Almost bought a california
When I bought my van (T6.1 california, 2 years old) I had an issue with the waste not draining. The tank was dry and not too dirty but what muck there was on the walls of the tank had dried and flaked off and so I cleaned the tank, unblocked the drain and have been very careful not to drop lumps or solids down the sink, I also drain the tank after use before adding a dishwasher tablet in a litre of boiling water which I leave in to swoosh around and clean the tank.
This has worked well for 2 years - or so I thought! It hasn't and so I hope my experience may help others here - and if you know better please feel free to share!
So I first needed to drain the tank enough to remove the access hatch - I chose to syphon the water from the sink inlet as the drain was well and truely blocked;
Drawer removed and the tool I knocked up last time to remove the access cover.
You can check the level with a torch, I removed the rest of the water with a big ass syringe which removed a lot of the dirt but the tank was was still pretty filthy,
is is the tool I made up the first time - I printer a much nicer tool and have included the STL files if anyone's interested - this cover was only hand tightened last time but I still needed the tool to remove it!
OK so the tank is nice and clean now but still blocked and you can see from the photo in the tank that the outlet is not accessible from here and the drain valve and waste connection are not easy to remove, it is possible to blow up the drain pipe from outside but first you have to remove the tank vent connected to the top of the tank and bung the tee to prevent the drain from flooding the van!
This photo shows the vent pipe disconnected and the tee bunged up with the blue pipe (the blue pipe has a bung in it and is just capping the outlet of the tee).
Vent hose back place - open up the drain and blow up the drain from outside - I'm lucky enough to have an airline and just used a rag to seal the drain so as to not over pressurise anything and cause more issues.
and Voila - the thank drains a bucket of hot soapy water faster than I can refill the bucket!
The new tool works a treat - printed with 3 walls and 10% infill.
I hope this might help and its worth noting that if your tank refuses to drain whilst you away its probably not the end of the world as the tank will drain via the vent / overflow - not ideal but it'll do until you get home.
I have also decided to change my waste tank procedure and I am going to try flushing 2 full bucket of hot soapy water through the tank after each trip and giving it an annual clean and check. I am going to continue leaving a litre or so of clean water to slosh around but I am going to try toilet additive instead of a dishwasher tablet as this will hopefully control any bugs and keep the muck in suspension.
If anyone has any proven, long term solution to this I would love to hear.
This has worked well for 2 years - or so I thought! It hasn't and so I hope my experience may help others here - and if you know better please feel free to share!
So I first needed to drain the tank enough to remove the access hatch - I chose to syphon the water from the sink inlet as the drain was well and truely blocked;
Drawer removed and the tool I knocked up last time to remove the access cover.
You can check the level with a torch, I removed the rest of the water with a big ass syringe which removed a lot of the dirt but the tank was was still pretty filthy,
is is the tool I made up the first time - I printer a much nicer tool and have included the STL files if anyone's interested - this cover was only hand tightened last time but I still needed the tool to remove it!
OK so the tank is nice and clean now but still blocked and you can see from the photo in the tank that the outlet is not accessible from here and the drain valve and waste connection are not easy to remove, it is possible to blow up the drain pipe from outside but first you have to remove the tank vent connected to the top of the tank and bung the tee to prevent the drain from flooding the van!
This photo shows the vent pipe disconnected and the tee bunged up with the blue pipe (the blue pipe has a bung in it and is just capping the outlet of the tee).
Vent hose back place - open up the drain and blow up the drain from outside - I'm lucky enough to have an airline and just used a rag to seal the drain so as to not over pressurise anything and cause more issues.
and Voila - the thank drains a bucket of hot soapy water faster than I can refill the bucket!
The new tool works a treat - printed with 3 walls and 10% infill.
I hope this might help and its worth noting that if your tank refuses to drain whilst you away its probably not the end of the world as the tank will drain via the vent / overflow - not ideal but it'll do until you get home.
I have also decided to change my waste tank procedure and I am going to try flushing 2 full bucket of hot soapy water through the tank after each trip and giving it an annual clean and check. I am going to continue leaving a litre or so of clean water to slosh around but I am going to try toilet additive instead of a dishwasher tablet as this will hopefully control any bugs and keep the muck in suspension.
If anyone has any proven, long term solution to this I would love to hear.
