ElkRidge - smelly septic

Joe-N

Member
Hello, yesterday we took our Elkridge out to the campground, its a 2013 34TSRE we have it set up at our home and we were using it there no issues. After hauling it to the campground we noticed the smell it wasn't hard to miss it was powerful, wow. we tried flushing the tank this only seemed to make it worse. So we packed up again and went home. When we got home there was no smell nothing, we have not hooked up the sewer yet, can someone point me in the right direction to fix this issue thank you.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
It's possible to get sewer gas from the campground sewer if you have any of your dump valves open - grays for example. Loss of water in the p-traps, or a failed Studor Valve can contribute.

I run with our gray valves open most of the week and let the sewer hose sag as it comes out of the connection on the trailer. That creates a p-trap that prevents gas from getting into the trailer.
 
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Joe-N

Member
It's possible to get sewer gas from the campground sewer if you have any of your dump valves open - grays for example. Loss of water in the p-traps, or a failed Studor Valve can contribute.

I run with our gray valves open most of the week and let the sewer hose sag as it comes out of the connection on the trailer. That creates a p-trap that prevents gas from getting into the trailer.

Thank you that is a good idea, we will be flushing the system here at home and see if it happens again.
 
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Joe-N

Member
OK,
after some exploration, over the weekend we found that our water flush line going to the black tank was loose behind the hose connection point also causing it to leak water as we were trying to flush it. Once we tightened that up and flushed the tank no more smell. There is still something bothering me about this though. Our black tank does not smell that bad I mean that smell was enough to make your eyes water, I'm still wondering if maybe it wasn't a case of stagnant water somewhere in the flush line or in the tank itself.:confused::confused:
 

mlpeloquin

Well-known member
I don't have any problems with smell from the tanks since we have been using Happy Camper. When I need to replace a dump valve for the gray water, I put some Happy Camper in the gray water tank, let it sit for a day, and then dump it. It removes the smell from the gray water tank which is far worse that the black water tank. Yes the smell can make your eyes water. Make sure your gray water valve(s) are not leaking into your under belly. Don't laugh, and don't ask me why it could happen. But if it did, and you drove off, the gray water in the belly will slosh out and by the time you got home it could be all gone. You ask me why I know? At the time I did not, but our friends following us sure could not believe the odor and the amount of water sloshing out every time we started up from a stop! Turned out that the OEM installed gray water valve hardware had loosened up. Apparently they were not tightened up enough and vibrated loose.
 

Joe-N

Member
I don't have any problems with smell from the tanks since we have been using Happy Camper. When I need to replace a dump valve for the gray water, I put some Happy Camper in the gray water tank, let it sit for a day, and then dump it. It removes the smell from the gray water tank which is far worse that the black water tank. Yes the smell can make your eyes water. Make sure your gray water valve(s) are not leaking into your under belly. Don't laugh, and don't ask me why it could happen. But if it did, and you drove off, the gray water in the belly will slosh out and by the time you got home it could be all gone. You ask me why I know? At the time I did not, but our friends following us sure could not believe the odor and the amount of water sloshing out every time we started up from a stop! Turned out that the OEM installed gray water valve hardware had loosened up. Apparently they were not tightened up enough and vibrated loose.

Wow, interesting. Thank you I will be checking this out.
 

travelin2

Pennsylvania Chapter Leaders-retired
IMO grey water smells worse (sour) than black. You may have a venting issue that is only exposed after towing


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