Coconut Oil in Tanks

I've searched and cannot find the original thread where someone mentioned adding some coconut oil to the waste tanks to help with the problem of sticky valves so I'll post a new thread here.

I had sticky valves to the point where when I was finished dumping and tried to close the black or gray valve, the light would continue to blink.  I tried the coconut oil and it worked... for the first few weeks, then the problem came back and stayed back.

This week I stupidly entered a parking lot with a bad grade between the lot and the road and bottomed out my left rear corner, damaging the pipe that connects the macerator to the rest of the tank plumbing.  I called Phoenix and Kermit recommended having the macerator removed and using the regular dump system until I make it back to Elkhart with my annual honey-do list.  (Remember, for those of you who don't know, Phoenix only charges $50/hour to work on their rigs for you and no one knows their business better than they do.)

Ok.  So when my helpful fellow removed the macerator today we found clumps and glumps of oily gunk all over the place.  I am in TX and it's not terribly cold, but still the oil partially solidified.

Please don't take this as any disrespect to the original poster of the idea, but I wanted to put it out there that if you want to try using the coconut oil, proceed with great caution.  The problem may well be with me.  I tend to err on the side of "Well!  If a little bit works well, then a little bit more will work even better!"  I may have used too much (a cup or so per tank after each dump).  I don't know.

In any case, I wanted to get this posted for anyone who is considering using the oil.   

I posted that suggestion.   Coconut oil won't clump.  But grease from cooking or oils from salad dressing and so forth do clump.   But even those clumps are "soft" and won't stop the valve from closing.   Not sure what would cause hard clumps except maybe soap scum from hard water but that takes a long time to build up.   Of course, I am talking the grey water tank.   Lots of things in the black water tank can "solidify."

I only use a few ounces of coconut oil twice a year in each tank.

Thanks for the clarification, Donc13.  It was my fault for using too much.  The clumps were definitely the coco oil, though, as I am extremely careful about what goes into my tanks (wiping all dishes and pans with paper towels before washing them and well, at the risk of TMI, nothing solid goes into the toilet).  They weren't solid solid clumps.  Gelatinous would maybe be a better word.  At any rate, it was gunky and was sitting on the bottom of the exit pipes and all inside the macerator.

No damage done.  I'm flushing the tanks really good now and the macerator was doomed anyways because of the little accident that resulted in it having to be removed in the first place.  My fault for using too much!