P U What Stinks?

WarpathEngineering · 06-20-2011, 04:57 AM

My wife and I had our 230DS out this past weekend for what is now the 5th time since we bought it new at the dealer. The first time we had it out we used the shower and quickly found out we would rather use the shower house at the parks we stay at. Since then every time we have come home from a trip my wife cleans the bathroom regardless of use and we leave the bathroom door open while it sits dormant usually with the vent open but not on. This time we ran the A/C for a little bit so the camper was closed up and when I went into the bathroom.....WOW! The smell reminded me of a used car I once bought from a very atheltic friend...BO big time! When I said something to my wife who is for some reason proud of the fact that she has a better sniffer than our two hounds said that the bathroom has always smelled like BO and thought I knew.

Anyone run into this? We are very careful to empty and flush the tanks at the end of a trip, I keep water in all the traps and use the little treatment pellets in the black tank. The smell really doesn't smell like sewer, but really bad BO, kind of like old Aunt Philis when she comes to visit in the summer time.

guybmoto · 06-20-2011, 08:57 AM

From my experience, you can get some pretty nasty smells from the gray tank as well. I think the mix of water, soap, food remnants that get washed into it from the kitchen sink, etc. is (for lack of a better phrase) sort of like making beer. Add heat and/or humidity, and it gets worse. I usually add a little bleach into each sink drain after dumping the tanks (along with maybe a gallon or two of fresh water), and that seems to help.

Megabusa · 06-20-2011, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WarpathEngineering

My wife and I had our 230DS out this past weekend for what is now the 5th time since we bought it new at the dealer. The first time we had it out we used the shower and quickly found out we would rather use the shower house at the parks we stay at. Since then every time we have come home from a trip my wife cleans the bathroom regardless of use and we leave the bathroom door open while it sits dormant usually with the vent open but not on. This time we ran the A/C for a little bit so the camper was closed up and when I went into the bathroom.....WOW! The smell reminded me of a used car I once bought from a very atheltic friend...BO big time! When I said something to my wife who is for some reason proud of the fact that she has a better sniffer than our two hounds said that the bathroom has always smelled like BO and thought I knew.

Anyone run into this? We are very careful to empty and flush the tanks at the end of a trip, I keep water in all the traps and use the little treatment pellets in the black tank. The smell really doesn't smell like sewer, but really bad BO, kind of like old Aunt Philis when she comes to visit in the summer time.

I think Aunt Philis is staying in your Camper when you are not at home

**LJAZ** · 06-21-2011, 11:13 AM

You need some tank deodorizer for both the gray and black water tanks. The smell can get bad pretty quickly. Camping World carries a lot of different ones, but some Walmarts carry them also. Probably for a lot cheaper.

webslave · 06-21-2011, 11:37 AM

Something no one else has mentioned...

Do you have mice? We live in the country and have mice...it is just part of "country life" and we're used to it. Still don't like them living in our trailer though, so, I have traps in two locations. Can always tell when I have a dead mouse...very similar to the smell you are describing.

By and large, though, if your tanks are vented properly, you shouldn't have any odors from them, particularly with the drains having water, whether you use "deodorants" or not. I've never used them (deodorants) and don't understand the need for them if you are vented/venting properly. A smell from either tank is usually "obvious"; a definite sewer type odor (methane being the primary offender) and not just a "general" BO type smell. With a BO type smell, I'd be looking for mold, mildew or some other water incursion caused source, or, a dead mouse in the walls

WarpathEngineering · 06-23-2011, 04:40 AM

I'm maintenance supervisor for a church/school. Very familiar with both the smell of sewer gas and dead mouse. It's not either one of those. This is good ol' locker room BO and before anyone says anything....it's not mine!

I'll give the deoderant/bleach thing a try. As to the whether or not the camper is vented properly, that would be up to the manufacturer and from what I've read here, I don't think I'd get anywhere with them.

We usually, when out camping, leave the small ceiling vent open and the fan running. That seems to knock it down and is probably the reason I hadn't smelled it before now. This is the first time I can recall living in the camper with it closed up. With that in mind, I don't recall smelling it after long periods of dormancy before a trip either.

webslave · 06-23-2011, 07:34 AM

Another silly question... You do leave water in the toilet bowl when in storage/not being used, right?

Grasping at straws.

Being in charge of maintenance I'll bet you're familiar with a lot of smells

If there is water in the traps and water in the toilet bowl, then the most likely cause would be water incursion somewhere setting up a mold colony. Having a vent pipe malfunction that would cause any kind of fumes to build up in your bathroom would be rare. Usually, the black tank vent runs through the bathroom area and the gray vent through the kitchen area (just because of where the tanks are located under the trailer). The most common vent problems are where the pipe intrudes too far into the tank making the tank seem smaller (pressure build up when the vent pipe end goes "under water") or tank draining (the same thing in reverse; a suction is created when the pipe won't vent from being "under water"). It is possible that the pipe could be out of the tank altogether, but, the one instance I've found that was an owner actually pulled it out of the tank trying to get a "vent fan" installed on the roof. If the pipe was out, you'd have the odor outside the trailer, too.

It would not take much of a water incursion to start a mold colony. The most likely culprit in that case would be the sink's P-trap being loose. I've run into that several times, not only on mine, but, on other's trailers also. It will look like it is "on", but, the nut loosens up from road vibration just enough to "weep" a bit.

Sorry, but, I'm out of ideas from this point on, without being any help at all...

joeeth · 08-31-2014, 07:21 PM

We have a new (Mar '14) Fun Finder F-266KIRB and have been fighting the bathroom odor and trying everything people suggested to no avail. The standard toilet is the low profile plastic Dometic so we decided to change to a higher CERAMIC Dometic 310 and once it was installed THE ODOR WENT AWAY!!! We were amazed! All this time it was apparently the toilet itself. We didn't use it for pooping very often (only my wife) so I don't think it had anything caught in it. We can only believe the toilet was defective and the odor was not like sewer but it was just BAD! I hope this helps someone else.

webslave · 09-01-2014, 10:10 AM

Aside from the possibility of a less than stellar toilet installation (probably the seal at the floor; granting that it holds water in the bowl and you leave some there), you may have lost the seal in the p-trap of the shower. You mentioned that you stopped using it...over time the water evaporates from the trap and what you have then is a "vent" directly from the tank into the shower area and that shorter vent will work better than the roof top vent (least resistance). Some RVs use Hepvo type valves in lieu of traps, but, many still have standard p-traps and if the water level falls, they become vents. Sometimes it doesn't even have to evaporate, if you go down a suitably rough road, the sloshing around will draw enough water out of the trap to allow fumes to pass. It isn't usually an issue since they (the designers) plan on those items being used pretty quickly, renewing the water level, but, if you aren't using the shower, it can become a vent rather quickly.

Two things you can do, if that is the problem. You can try to form the habit of each time you stop, that you pour a couple of cups of water down the shower drain. If you don't want to do that, you can try taking the strainer off and then plugging the pipe with a piece of foam rubber so that it forms an easily removable, air tight plug to seal the pipe. Of course, the first option leaves you with the easy choice of using the shower if needed or wanted, while the second option doesn't rely on forming a "habit", but, makes it a little more cumbersome to take a shower in the off chance that the CG's shower house is out of order...