It's Smelly Inside - Montana Owners Club

osofine · 03-08-2008, 04:45 AM

My unit smells like sewer gas

- anyone know why? I thought maybe it was outside, or maybe the water, but it doesn't smell outside. We have been filling the bowl after flushing lately so we can fill the blank tank up for once, but the smell is not in the WC room. We've been parked here for about 6 wks and I never noticed it before. Any ideas?

racerjoe · 03-08-2008, 05:01 AM

are the roof vents blocked? make sure all your sink traps have water in them. also,you could be getting a down draft from wind coming from a different direction,pushing odor back into vents.

osofine · 03-08-2008, 07:22 AM

DH says the vent caps are sealed on so he would have to break them off & replace them. Is there any other way to check for blockage?

racerjoe · 03-08-2008, 07:35 AM

I just meant if anything was covering them, ice,snow etc:

Jolu · 03-08-2008, 07:42 AM

On edit I don't know about that W/D drain if that could be a problem.
Another thought is sometimes the black and gray water tanks just get bad and smelly after prolonged use. Somehow that odor just gets backed up through the traps. Usually some good flushing with lots of water and some holding tank chemicals will do the trick.
I used one of those vent tops that has a wind directional hood and it worked wonders on a different rig we had. I have noticed that WalMart carries one of these hoods but I can't speak for that brand.
JB

osofine · 03-08-2008, 08:08 AM

thanks! will check that out. We only use the WC for #1 so I am stymied by the odor. I have some Camco deodorizer liquid that I will pour down the drains. DH just came inside and said we had a drain hose leak where the 2 drain hoses connect outside. could be what was smelly. but we don't leave the valve open when we aren't draining the system.

osofine · 03-08-2008, 08:15 AM

racerjoe - if snow or ice was blocking my roof openings I'd be checking out insurance for a trip farther south into Mexico.

racerjoe · 03-08-2008, 08:24 AM

Well,with all the snow that came up from Texas to New York you never know. I see your temp. now, I wish we were there instead of plowing snow.

osofine · 03-08-2008, 12:19 PM

Won't know if the problem is solved until we close up the windows tonight. Hopefully the lemon stuff I put in the kitchen drain will help. Also put it in the bathroom sink for the gray tank. Hope it works. Never thought about it being a simple case of decomposing food and gunk.

hookman · 03-08-2008, 01:10 PM

Alot of times the grey water tanks smell worse then the black water tanks.

hazmic · 03-08-2008, 01:20 PM

Under the kitchen sink is a check valve that could be bad. Have you checked it and also we have one in the garden tub. Look there also as if the valve is bad it will let sewer gas into the unit. Are you running the Fantastic fan as this creates a vacuum in the camper and could draw in sewer gas. I assume that you are on full hook-ups here and close the valves and see if that stops the smell. Keep us informed and do a search as this has been discussed before in great detail.

Waynem · 03-08-2008, 03:32 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by osofine

DH says the vent caps are sealed on so he would have to break them off & replace them. Is there any other way to check for blockage?

The vent caps should not be "sealed." There is one screw that holds the vent cap on. It is sometimes paced by the dealer with caulking compound. A screw driver will get it out. Remove the screw and the cap should come off. Now when I say should, it is snapped in place. I have only put one on and never taken one off. A slight twisting action may be necesarry to take the cap off as when putting it on it is a downward push to snap the arms on the vent.

osofine · 03-08-2008, 04:30 PM

Search never works for me. Not sure why. I'll look for the check valves

osofine · 03-08-2008, 04:32 PM

I will send him back up-top to check for screws. but not tomorrow - 40 mph winds due.

RC and Samantha · 03-08-2008, 06:05 PM

I don't now if this will help or not, but this happened to us at the first MOC Rally in Goshen and Dennis/HamRad came into our unit to investigate. He thought perhaps it was our washer and dryer p-trap and that in our travels the water had gotten slushed out of the trap and since we hadn't used the washer yet the icky smell was coming up from there. Sure enough ran the washer and the icky smell went away. Our washer is plumbed into our gray tank. It also happened once when we were camped once in very hot weather, seems like all the water in the p-trap evaporated and that icky smelled showed up again. Was extremely noticeable when we used either of the fantastic fans. Ran the washer and again it went away.

Someone mentions the gray tank can smell really bad, and boy oh boy are they right. It literally smelled like another tank and it not the galley tank I'm speaking of.

Patty

tbhd2 · 03-08-2008, 06:14 PM

We just had the same thing in our unit. Same scenerio, when we ran the fantastic fan even with the windows open we got the smell. It was the vacuum breaker next to the kitchen sink. I just capped it until we can get another one.

osofine · 03-09-2008, 07:03 AM

What if you don't have a washer/dryer hooked up? We don't have one, and we use it as a regular closet. will the fact that it has never had water in it cause it to be an open line to the stinky gray tank?

racerjoe · 03-09-2008, 08:05 AM

yes it will, if it is not sealed,the trap will dry out and then it will vent an odor

osofine · 03-09-2008, 08:41 AM

thanks, a cover is in order. We keep kitty's box and she was getting the blame for a while, but her box didn't smell - so I knew it wasn't that.

RC and Samantha · 03-09-2008, 08:51 AM

For a temporary fix you might want to pour water down that drain pipe to fill the p-trap.

Patty

You may also like: