Do Toss-In Pouches Dissolve?

[Airstream Dad]

Dear Plumbing Forum,

I've been using a macerator pump to empty my tanks in my back yard (into a sewer clean-out), but have been having problems with what appear to be small plastic bags wrapping around the macerator shaft and fouling it. Don't get me started on what it takes to clean the mess up. Let's just say I'm a big gloves and Pyrell customer now.

Anyway, I think the problem might be that these are Aqua Kem pouches. The toss-ins allow the chemicals to dissolve, but do the pouches themselves completely dissolve? Are these the odd small plastic bags I'm finding?

If they don't dissolve, this isn't a problem for a gravity flush into a regular dump station, but I wonder if this is causing my macerator problem. Should I switch to pour-in liquid chemical?

And while I'm at it, should I switch to an EcoSmart type nontoxic black tank chemical, just for safety reasons (aforementioned fouled pump and clean-up).

Cheers,

Airstream Dad

[Frank's Trailer Works]

I have never examined the contents to tell if the bag dissolves but switching to liquid would be a good way to see if there is a difference. You rent that trailer don't you? Sure they are plastic bags? Airstreams are romantic places...

[Lily&Me]

Hmmm.

Well, there's that.

Then, there's do you know who owned your Airstream before you and what else they might have been doing with small plastic bags? If you rent your trailer out.......

There are many illegal substances dispersed in clear plastic baggies.

Are the bags clear or otherwise?

And, before some wisea-- asks, I don't' use nor sell illegal substances. In another life, I worked with folks who did.


Maggie

[Gene]

Are they about 6" long and made like tubes? Do they roll up?

If they are what I'm thinking of, they will not dissolve.

Gene

[Lily&Me]

Originally Posted by Gene

Are they about 6" long and made like tubes? Do they roll up?

If they are what I'm thinking of, they will not dissolve.

Gene

Ummm, surely he would recognize these for what they are or were.


Maggie

[eljay]

So throw a bag into a disposable container and check?

[joqin]

I worked with custodial chemicals for 26 yrs. the plastic capsule will dissolve in hot water, not so much in cold water. ***** engineers never do real world testing if they might have to touch poo!!
joe the janitor/ 65 caravel cleaner

[Airstream Dad]

Originally Posted by joqin

I worked with custodial chemicals for 26 yrs. the plastic capsule will dissolve in hot water, not so much in cold water. ***** engineers never do real world testing if they might have to touch poo!!
joe the janitor/ 65 caravel cleaner

Aha! Yes, the black tank has definitely been cold for the past few months, both throughout the Fall rental season, then winterized, and the past few weeks. And it hasn't had a good gravity flush since October. I wonder if they accumulated AquaKem packets (probably a dozen or so) I've put in there between macerator pump-outs just never dissolved during the late Fall and winter.

This is never an issue in the summer as I'm taking Cylon (name of my trailer) out on the road every other week or so and using dump stations.

I also think my macerator needs a going-over. I'm going to take it apart tomorrow and clean out everything. I wonder if the pumping and macerating action has just weakened since last summer with accumulated hair and other gunk.

Airstream Dad

[idroba]

The macerator pump rubber impeller gets old and tired and is a replaceable item on the one I have worked on.

I had a friend and his GF living in my 310 motorhome in my carport after an arsonist burned them out of their home. They fought all the time. She would do things to get his goat like smoking cigarellos (not in the rig though). Time came to pump the black water tank out into the sewer with the macerator. I showed him how to do it and watched. The pump came to a grinding (no pun intended) stop. It was his job to take it off and find the problem, not mine. What a mess, what language he used when he found the problem. A plastic cigarillo tip had been put down the toilet and jammed that pump up solid. They fought even more. Such language! They split finally, but not immediately. Ah, the human condition, and relationships.