The Geo Method - The Great Tank Debate: Part 1

Guest blogger Christy Rogers is a big-time believer in the Geo Method.  Find out why today!

Today, Christy Rogers shares a guest post on her thoughts about the Geo Method for keeping her tanks clean and smell free. This is part one of a two-part series. Next week, I'll share Part 2 where I share my thoughts on only using RV specific products in your tanks.

The Geo Method - The Great Tank Debate:  Part 1

By now you know that Grace (The Southern Glamper) and I have been friends for some time. We have shared a lot of information over the years about the best way to do this and that. There is one area where The Southern Glamper refuses to admit that my method is superior: the best way to keep your black tanks clean and smell-free! Grace and I have been friends long enough that she usually knows better to argue with me because I’m always right from the “get-go”, but this time she’s being especially squirrelly! 😉 So here we are: the great black tank debate of 2020.

I have a 5th wheel that is about a year and a half old now. I keep it in a permanent spot at the lake and use it almost every weekend between April and October each year. I’m very particular about how I care for it. I have a ton of company while I’m there and we take full advantage of the permanent sewer connection. As you probably know, even when a camper is stationary, you need to keep your tanks closed to prevent “piling” or “pyramiding” of waste. The liquid flows out leaving solid waste, paper, etc…in piles with no way to get them out of your tank. Because of this, I have to clean and treat my black tank after every use. Despite having a permanent sewer connection, I have just as big of an interest in keeping my black tanks clean and sanitized as someone who tows from site to site. No one wants a camper that smells like sewage and I was relentless in my quest to find the perfect solution to the smell.

Clorox is an ingredient that some fear in their RV - not Christy!

I bought my first camper, a 2013 Salem Cruise Lite, used. She was in incredible condition, but there was a tiny bit of black tank odor in the camper.  Unfortunately, the tanks had not been thoroughly cleaned. When I got the camper in her spot at the lake, the very first weekend I stayed there, the summer heat and use in full force. The smell inside the camper was almost unbearable. I started doing some research immediately and I found The Geo Method! It took only about 2-3 weekends to fully eliminate the smell. Not only did the Geo Method help me eliminate the smell in my old camper when I bought my new 5th wheel in 2018, I never considered doing anything else for ongoing black tank maintenance. Even though the tanks were pristine, I started using The Geo Method and I will never look back!

Here’s why: after doing a ton of research, I realized first and foremost that there are as many opinions about black tank maintenance as there are black tanks! One thing I loved about The Geo Method is that the creator of it, Charles Bruni, uses a common-sense approach based on general knowledge of chemistry, physics, and chemical compounds. Smarty had a party and Charles was definitely invited! The biggest fear I kept finding from people about black tank cleaning and maintenance was in regard to the use of bleach. People online were convinced it would destroy your seals and tanks. But others had used it with great success. But guess what? If you use it as described—with lots of water, in small concentrations—it will no more destroy the seals of your camper than it does your washing machine! And I use much greater quantities of bleach in my washing machine than in my black tank, I might add! So for me, The Geo Method just made a ton of sense. Also, I had tried so many of the black tank drop-in treatments to no avail. Desperation to get rid of the smell really drove me to try The Geo Method.

What I use: The Geo Method combines the use of water, water softener, detergent and chlorine bleach (exact quantities are on the website-listed below) to clean and disinfect the black tank. This eliminates odors and helps keep sensors clean and accurate, so you know how much room is left in your tank. 

Calgon is her water softener of choice.  You can find it at many retailers nationwide as well as Amazon.

How I use them: here is The Geo Method in all of its glory: https://sites.google.com/site/cbruni/. When I am closing my camper for the week, I do at LEAST 3 black tank flushes after I dump my FULL black tank (never dump your black tank if it’s less than ¾ full if you don’t have to!). The first flush is with the valve open for about 10 minutes. After that is mostly running clear, I close the valve and flush again. PLEASE NOTE: with the valve closed, you MUST keep a very close eye on your tank—do not let it overfill. My general guide is 5-7 minutes. I just want enough water to “catch” any stuff left on the floor of the tank. After I stop the water, I dump the tank again and then I do one last black tank flush with the valve open until everything is running completely clear with no paper passing through the hose. It takes me 20-25 minutes total to flush my black tank really well after a weekend of use. It’s pretty easy. Once the tank is emptied initially, I can run the black tank flushes while I do other things. After the dump and flushes are complete, I follow The Geo Method recipe and drop it in my toilet. For good measure, I will add a TST/Camco RV Toilet treatment drop-in (orange is my fave) for deodorizing.

Camco Toilet Drop-Ins are one extra layer of protection that Christy uses.

Results: No smell at all!!! As they say, the proof is in the pudding! When I had my first, older camper, it took just a few weeks to eliminate the smells from the black tank after using The Geo Method. But once they were gone, they never came back. Now that my “new” camper is pushing 2 years old, I’ve never smelled a THING. I’ve only used The Geo Method for the black tank on my 5th wheel and it is all I will ever use. You can hold the pedal of the toilet down as long as you need to and there is no smell at all.

Side note: one thing I really like about The Geo Method, besides the fact that it actually works, is the cost is so much less than the chemicals the RV stores like to push. Plus I can buy them anywhere—I don’t have to go to an RV store. For about $20 I can treat my tank EVERY weekend for a full spring, summer, and fall. That means more gas money for the boat! 

No smell, easy to find, easy to you—The Geo Method for the win! Roll Tide, my friends.

Christy Rogers has been a guest blogger on the Southern Glamper more than once. She is passionate a Jesus, life, clean black tanks and of course her alma mater the Crimson Tide. She can be found her camper on in her boat on the lake in Alabama as much as possible during warm-water months!

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