Can we use detergent in our BIGHORN tanks?

happykraut

Well-known member
Not sure what to think of his video. Maybe his poop is different than mine. Many years ago before we came home from a camping trip I cleaned my tank to where the water came out clear. I dumped in a twenty pound bag of ice and drove home, although not recklessly, about 85 miles. Then I dumped again and the waste water coming out of the tank was nasty. Draw your own conclusion. But in all honesty I have never done it again
 

Gary521

Well-known member
The guy in the ice video has put out several videos as he tries different things. His videos dispel a few myths and prove some products useful or not useful. I don't see one of his videos yet on the evil Dawn detergent yet. If Dawn attacks HDPE, just think what it does to your hands.
 

Silverado23

Iowa Chapter Leaders
Dawn and other alcohols, soaps, surfactants, or others could breakdown plastic but if designed properly, should not be a problem.


I did find an article regarding testing the breakdown of HDPE and PE plastics


Here is a quick summary from the article.

https://www.ineos.com/globalassets/...ironmental-stress-crack-resistance-of-pe1.pdf

Environmental Stress Crack Resistance Of Polyethylene



What is Environmental Stress Cracking and ESCR? The definition of stress cracking according to ASTM D883 is “an external or internal crack in a plastic caused by tensile stresses less than its short-term mechanical strength.” This type of cracking typically involves brittle cracking, with little or no ductile drawing of the polymeric material from its adjacent failure surfaces. Slow crack growth is another term commonly used to describe stress cracking.

The best known type of slow crack growth is “environmental stress cracking” or ESC. These are instances involving cracking of stressed samples, generally in the presence of surface active wetting agents such as alcohols, soaps, surfactants, or others. The surface-active agents do not chemically attack the polymer nor produce any effect other than microscopically brittle-appearing fractures. In the absence of the surface-active environment, these fractures would not occur in any reasonable period of time under the same stress conditions. These cracks are generally thought to initiate at microscopic imperfections and propagate through the crystalline regions of the polymer structure. The ability of a polymer to resist slow crack growth or environmental stress cracking is known as ESCR. Different polymers exhibit varying degrees of ESCR. Some grades of HDPE have very good resistance against ESC, while some have marginal resilience.
 
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