Our 5er is less than a year old. First 7 months, we camped a half dozen long weekends, but have been living in it full time for the past 3 months. A month ago, I started noticing a foul oder when I opened the cabinet door on the island, next to the kitchen sink to discard trash in a bin/can. At first, I thought the trash was causing the oder, wrong!.......odor continued, so, a week later, thought it might be a leak in plumbing, so I explored the plumbing all the way down through the floor penetration. Absolutely No leaks, odor continued...... Over a week ago, I flushed all holding tanks and did the Geo Method (filled tanks half way with fresh water, desolved 2 cups of water softner, 1 cup of laundry detergent, and half gallon of bleach. That stayed in tanks for 10 days. Yesterday, it still stunk under the sink. So I went back under the sink and found the plumbing vent cap was not tight, so I tightened it. Then cleared everthing out from under the sink again and did another full inspection. Found no water leaks or previous water damage. But as my nose got closer to the floor penetration where the sink drains down to the holding tank, I detected a very strong oder wiffing up beneath the floor. I shinned a light down through the 4" diameter hole and everything looks brand new, no sign of leaks, residue, water build-up, nothing. The oder smells like musty sewer gas (not black water, but more like soured grey water). Now I'm at a fork in the road.
A) ask for help in determining what could be causing this. Has anyone been under there before? Do any of the holding tanks vent directly into the subfloor area? I doubt seriously that they would, but who knows?
B) start taking down the plastic underbelly covering and come up from the bottom exploring.
Note: i've been looking for signs of leakage under the 5er, maybe some drips leaking past the plastic under-cover, but nothing.
Sorry to be so long winded, but I tried to answer all the anticipated questions I thought I'd get in advance.
A) ask for help in determining what could be causing this. Has anyone been under there before? Do any of the holding tanks vent directly into the subfloor area? I doubt seriously that they would, but who knows?
B) start taking down the plastic underbelly covering and come up from the bottom exploring.
Note: i've been looking for signs of leakage under the 5er, maybe some drips leaking past the plastic under-cover, but nothing.
Sorry to be so long winded, but I tried to answer all the anticipated questions I thought I'd get in advance.