Great news. The dump valves are no longer stuck with crud and now they both
seal completely. The previous owners were parked in Melbourne at Port O
Call airstream park from November till February.
They kept the dump valves open to the sewer instead of filling the tanks
and then dumping them.
The contents in the black water tank dried and the valve was stuck in the
open position.
We closed the sewer end with the cap, and put in 1 cup of dishwasher
granules, added enough water to fill the pipe to a level above the dump
valve, approximately 3 gallons and let it sit for about 3 days. We had
already tried only water for several days, but after we drained that, (yucky
job, Conrad did that part) only the gray water valve loosened.
There is a lot of dried waste just under the commode, and we have added a
"level gauge cleaner" to a half filled tank, which promises to break down
the yucky stuff . If that doesn't work we'll just have to take James
Weston's advice and pour in the ice cubes each morning before we head down
the road till it all gets loose enough to flow into the sewer.
Early on in our fulltiming, some years ago, we were cautioned by some
old-timers who were cleaning out a holding tank filled with dried waste,
never to sit with our dump valves open, now we really understand why.

Tricia & Conrad Holsomback
mailto:triconholsomback@greenwood.net