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June 12,2025
The Fallacy of the Dog Food Test for Waste Breakdown
There are some manufacturers in the RV industry that use dog food as a waste substitute to show the breakdown capabilities of their black tank treatment products. We recently visited the Walex Innovation Lab to speak with their PhD Chemist, Bryan Spraul, to learn more about the viability of using dog food as a waste substitute.
Hey Bryan, I’ve been perusing the internet recently researching how some companies are validating the performance of their RV black tank treatment products and I’ve seen several videos of products being tested on… dog food. What’s the deal with that? Does it actually show how well a product works? Would you consider it an accurate test?
Great question—and actually, no, it doesn’t. Dog food is, well, food. It’s full of proteins, starches, and fats. And your body is designed to digest that using over a dozen different enzymes.
So, if those enzymes break down food, shouldn’t that be good for your RV’s black tank as well?
Not quite. What ends up in your RV’s black tank isn’t food—it’s human waste. Mostly fiber, which your body can’t digest, and a whole lot of gut bacteria. Those food-digesting enzymes are basically useless in that environment.
Aaaaahhh, I see! So, breaking down dog food in a demo looks cool… but doesn’t mean much in real-world black tank use?
Exactly. It’s incredibly misleading. If a holding tank treatment works on dog food, that just tells you it’s digesting what your body already broke down. Not what’s actually in your holding tank.
At Walex, we engineer treatments based on real black tank chemistry. We test on what’s actually in the tank—fiber, bacteria, cellulose and actual human waste—so our products perform where it counts.
Got it. So, Walex is all about the science—not the showmanship.
Exactly. When it comes to RV sanitation, trust the science.
Thank you so much for your time and the awesome clarification.
