Clogged Holding Tank Vent Hose

[Gabrielle37]

Any suggestions on how to clear a holding tank vent hose. Unfortuantely my tank is in the keel of the boat and not accessable so I cannot pull the vent hose to clear.

I am leary of putting chemical treaments in the hose because it's made of rubber. It's a 1/2" hose.

I have tried vinigar and baking soda to no avail.

Any advice would be much appreciated to my stinking problem.

Jeff
'Gabrielle'
Tayana 37

[cabo_sailor]

If you can get access to the hose at the vent, you might try putting a hose barb on a garden hose. Use that to connect to the vent hose and reverse flush it. Careful, you don't want to flush more water into your holding tank than it can hold. I've used the method with the vent hose to my water tank and to clear through hull hoses.

Rich

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF,Gabrielle37.

Backflush, with higher pressure water, from the vent fitting.

Check out one of our earlier conversations on this subject
➥ http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ent-42099.html

[Therapy]

1 empty the holding tank.
2 leave the cap off the tank suction line/deck fitting.
3 use a hose to blow water into the tank through the vent line.

This is what I did to make sure my vent line was not clogged.

PS. If you have a filter of some sort in the line this will probably not work. The filter would probably be the clog.

PPS. This thread may help.
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ent-57011.html

[peghall]

The most common location for a tank vent blockage, especially in the spring when the mud daubers are building nests in any cavity they can find, is the vent thru-hull. So before you backflush the vent, use a screwdriver blade or whatever you have handy that'll work to scrape out the thru-hull. If there's a screen in it, knock it out...screens cause more problems than they prevent.

The second most common location on a sailboat is the connection to the tank--both that end of the vent line and the tank vent fitting--'cuz waste spills into the vent when the boat heels and builds up to a clog. From what you're saying about access, cleaning that out could be a problem.

A vent line filter is another possibility. If it ever gets wet, it'll block your vent line...which a big reason--along with their exhorbitant cost and short (only about a year) lifespan even if they don't get wet--why vent line filters are an even worse choice for a sailboat than they are for a powerboat. If you have one, it'll have to come out to flush out the line...up to you whether to replace it. I wouldn't.

It might be necessary--and a good idea even if it's not--to replace the vent thru-hull with an open bulkhead or "mushroom" thru-hull fitting. That makes backflushing it SOOO much easier!!

Once you get it clear, you want to keep it clear...backflushing it every time you wash the boat and/or pump out is the way to do that.

Meanwhile, do not use the toilet again or attemp to pump out till you've cleared the vent.

[Cormorant]

We keep a little piece of window screen glued over our vent through-hull to prevent mud daubers and other bugs from taking up residence.

Good luck with clearing the line. Back flushing should work, but if it doesn't, you could always try snaking a piece of weed whacker line down in there.

[SV Sunset]

My holding tank on a Pacific Seacraft 31 significantly lost capacity following a cruise where I believe we overfilled the tank. After a number of pumpouts and overboard dumps using my macerator pump, it still did not appear to fully empty. This thread was most helpful and today I had great success cleaning the vent line using a hose attachment I made from a 3/8 inch hose bib and a valve fitting from my local hardware store. Picture attached. I added some rubber tap to the bib for a good seal and the fitting fit the overboard discharge hole perfectly. I then back flushed the vent line and victory over poop.

What I feared would be a very messy job, turned out to be a 10 minute task.

[Terra Nova]

Originally Posted by Gabrielle37

Any suggestions on how to clear a holding tank vent hose. Unfortuantely my tank is in the keel of the boat and not accessable so I cannot pull the vent hose to clear...

It is past time to replace this hose. Create access if necessary.

[CaptainBW]

I second the option of looking at the vent thru-hull. Ours got caked up from years of venting the tank. We removed the vent hose at the thru-hull, cleaned it out with pipe cleaners and used a garden hose to push the rest out the vent (screen removed first). The vents are easily clogged, more easily than the hose itself.

[ranger58sb]

OP's post is old, but in the interest of the archives... this is an application where compressed air might be viable too... and without adding to the contents of the holding tank itself.

-Chris

[Terra Nova]

Compressed air could make for an interesting cleanup.

[ranger58sb]

Yep, might not be for the faint of heart.

That said, a tank already just pumped out (to the extent a clogged vent might allow)... approached with a tight-fitting nozzle for introducing a few short puffs... could conceivably work with relatively little effort.

-Chris