Will baking soda bust odors in an RV holding tank? Baking soda has been used as a common household odor remedy for many years. You probably know someone with an open box of it in their refrigerator to get rid of bad smells; it might even be you! How did this practice get started? In the early days of refrigerators, they were far less dependable than our modern versions. Coupling that unreliability with the fact that milk used to be unpasteurized and therefore spoiled much quicker than today, odors in refrigerators were quite common.

How Baking Soda Works

Baking soda does have the ability to neutralize both acids and bases by capturing them and turning them into salt, but it is twenty times more effective on acids than on alkaline substances. As milk spoils, the butterfat breaks down into fatty acids. So because baking soda can neutralize this type of acid, the mythic legend of baking soda as an odor eliminator was born.

Drawbacks of Baking Soda

However, in order to be most effective, baking soda should be spread out in a thin layer across as large of a surface as possible (as pictured below).

Baking soda spread out in a thin layer in the bottom of an RV freezer
Baking soda spread out in a thin layer in the bottom of a freezer

Unfortunately, just tearing open the top of a box does not allow it much of an opportunity to do its thing, and neither will opening the sides of the refrigerator-specific version (as pictured below). And as you can imagine, dumping baking soda in an RV holding tank to eliminate odors will not work to eliminate odors.

Refrigerator specific baking soda in an RV refrigerator
Refrigerator specific baking soda

The soda will not only be ineffective at keeping odors at bay, it also is not able to break down waste and paper. Myth busted.

The Takeaway

Instead, we recommend using a high quality odor eliminating tank treatment and plenty of water in order to effectively keep odors away. Word to the wise: many holding tank treatments “control” odor simply by covering up stinky smells with strong fragrances. This is just putting smell over smell. To effectively eliminate odors, a high quality treatment is required. It is also critical that you use your holding tanks correctly. Following The Unique Method will help you ensure you enjoy odor-free tanks!

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