Smelly Campers
No, I am not talking about the campers parked next to you. I am talking about odors coming from the gray water and black water tanks. In earlier posts I told how to sanitize black water and gray water tanks. However even the cleanest tanks will smell rather quickly. Most people, when at a campground, leave their gray water dump valve open. While this is an accepted practice it does allow soaps and other organic matter to collect on the bottom and sides of the tank.
As all gray water connections are protected by P-traps the only way smells from the gray water tank can get in the coach is either through a dry P-trap (found under sinks and under the shower pan) or the Foote vent becoming defective. A Foote vent is a piece of white pvc pipe with a white mesh that covers openings in the sides near the top. Inside this vent is a one way valve that allows air into the drain pipe system but will not allow air out of the pipe system. They are found under sinks where a vent stack cannot be used because of conditions in the construction of the camper. If all P-traps have water in them and the Foote valve is operating properly you might have a cracked pipe above the point where the sink drains connect. If it were below these connections you would have a water leak every time you used the sink or shower and it would be easy to find.
Gray water smell is not at all like black water smell. If you have a black water smell (you know that smell from dumping the black water tank) the toilet is probably the offender. It usually is the only thing plumbed into the black water tank. The most common part that fails on the toilet is the tank flush seal. The easiest way to see if it is still viable is to add water to the toilet ( a quart will do) and if it is still there a few hours later the seal is still good. The next area to check would be the toilet seal to the toilet floor bracket. In home toilets a wax ring is commonly used but in an RV they use a rubber seal. Because rubber will dry out and through movement there can be gaps between the seal and flange and/or toilet base this is the first thing I would replace if the tank flush seal checked out okay. I have only seen one instance where a vent pipe had separated from the tank and odors were coming into a fifth wheel this way.
I don’t sell products so I will not name any brands but there are vent stack covers you can buy from the major camping discounters that replace the flat plastic covers on the pipes currently. These new covers create a vacuum as air passes over and around them to help pull gasses out as you are traveling and will also work with a slight breeze when you are stationary. I had one camper that had a bad black water smell. We checked everything we could and it turned out wasps had built a nest in the vent for the black water tank on the roof and every time you flushed the toilet gasses would come out while the toilet valve was open. This will happen when the water drops into the tank and the air it displaces has to go somewhere. Every situation is different but this information should get you headed in the right direction. Next week I will talk about batteries….
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I have never had this kind of problem, and I know it’s not a new camper but it’s a 1971 Holiday Rambler vacationer (T.T.) 24′ . But on the other hand I have made a few modifacations to it along the way.
I replaces the toilet with an up to date and better built one. With this one I can camp out in the wilderness w/ no power hookups or water hookups and don’t need to hook up to water as long as I have filled w/ water first.
I’m not sure how it works inside but it works good. It has to be hooked up to 12 v. power sorce and it holds the solids separate form the water ( somehow).
Some people have called it a six day comode so you don’t have to leave your site in the woods to dump off. over a weakend, if it is for a weak long outing you just dump into your holding tank and refill the comode with fresh water and the blue stuff to keep it from smelling and your good to go for another 3 or 4 days.
So solving the problem was simple.
I have a 05 Montana with an island kitchen and a galley kitchen. Lately we have had an odor coming from around the sink area. I pulled off the trap and checked it out, but there was nothing in it except a small amount of yellowish, creamy substance. I then found a pipe in the area that houses the heater and the water heater. This pipe has a “Pro-vent” cap on the top that can be screwed off, so I took it off. The top of the pipe also had some of that yellowish creamy substance on it which I cleaned off. The smell still occurred occasionally, so we put some bleach down the drain. That seems to have remedied the problem for now. My question, is about the “Pro-vent”. It has two small vents on it, both about 3/8 inches wide and 1 inch long. It also has a rubber spring-loaded plunger. What does this “Pro-vent” do and what is it’s significance? Can it go bad?
We have a 29′ Cougar 5ver. A couple of years ago at an Escapees Rally in Chico CA I was told to use Pine-Sol in my wast tanks instead of expensive chemicals. Ever since I’ve used original pine scented Pine-Sol and it works great! However, still attuned to conventional wisdom about every couple of months or so I treat the black tank (once and awhile the grey tank) – I flush, refill with fresh water and flush again then put in a GOOD digester to deal with any residue. After the next dump I revert to the Pine-Sol. We are full timers and I’ve had no problems since adopting this procedure. A couple of other tips: The discharge pipe from toilet to black tank in our Cougar is not a straight drop into the tank … it has two 45degree elbows and about a four foot inclined slant to the tank. We originally had problems with the pipe clogging – now we have a couple of water filled Arizona Tea bottles next to the toilet and follow each major flush with a slug of water to flush out the pipe. That solved the problem. One more – we have a clear connector for the sewer hose which enable me to monitor the waste discharge.
Safe and pleasant journeys!
I had an order problem in my 1997 Pace Arrow for 5 years, until I had a company named All Pro Water Flow of Houston Texas (allprowaterflow.com), clean the inside of the tank with high pressure water only. The tank had insects in it along with the soap scum. The black tank was dirty, but not as bad as the gray tank. No bugs. They recommend this cleaning method at least once a year.