intermittent black tank odor

[DonHelenL]

Some time ago I posted about odor coming from under the island kitchen sink in my 2013 BH 3010RE. Everyone advised replacing the studor valve . Well....this hasn't done much to correct the issue and now there is a strong black tank odor that occurs ( in the trailer)occasionally when the kitchen sink is drained after doing the dishes. Sometimes the tank(grey water tank two(Kitchen)) is getting full sometimes it is relatively empty. Any more suggestions?

 

[TravelTiger]

Are you sure it's black tank smell? We were having an odor when we ran the shower. It was pretty bad, I thought it was black tank. Turns out the grey tank's vent pipe (exiting the roof near the front cap) had broken at an elbow behind the drawers in the bedroom.

Maybe locate your vent pipe to see if a joint has cracked or come apart? Or maybe it is clogged?


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[Flbirds]

Very good comment, the grey water can smell really nasty

 

[danemayer]

Is the odor localized? When the venting doesn't work properly, draining water can create suction that pulls the water out of the p-traps. Once the p-trap is empty, odor from the tank is free to rise into the living area.

 

[MTPockets]

We had that elusive odor for a while when we first moved in. I sealed the gaps where the vent pipes go thru the roof ( remove the vent caps) and the gap where the vent pipe for the washer drain goes thru the ceiling. Have had no odors since sealing those gaps over a year ago.

 

[DonHelenL]

Thanks for the tip MT....Sealing the gaps did the trick. Who would have thought!!!!!! I hope Heartland is aware of this and completes this task before putting n he caps.

 

[wdk450]

Glad to hear you found the problem, but just a safety note to everyone. Early on we had a smell in the kitchen area, which I thought was a propane leak in the stove area. The Propane alarm didn't go off, and the service "professional" from our dealer said it was "sewer gas" when he came to the rig (minus his propane guages). We were persuaded to believe that. I finally put a propane tank capacity gauge on the system before the regulator and did a leak down test - We had a propane leak!!! Several hours of troubleshooting by a competent RV repair shop found a crack in a metal elbow connection.

Subsequent posts on this forum agree that leaking propane can be perceived as sewer gas.