Sewer Smell in Bighorn! Any ideas?

[cdonmartin]

We have a 2009 Bighorn 3600RE. we have sewer smells right inside the entrance door after we dump the sewer. Yuck! Happens everytime. What is causing this and how can it be repaired?

 

[goldenbetty]

Same here.

I noticed it during the summer. What we are thinking that when the A/C is on, it must suck in some of the odors coming out the vent on the roof from the toilet. Just my 2 cents. I would like to have an answer on this as well.

 

[jbeletti]

cdonmartin,

Sorry to hear about the unpleasantness you are experiences. Glad this is not smell-o-forum

Larryheadhunter has the same thing and sounds like Golden Betty does too.

Actually, smelling sewer gases and RVing, in my short experience, seem to go hand in hand. That said, I am not suggesting you or anyone should be choked out of your RV from gasses coming from your RV.

I am moving this thread from the ATF (ask the factory) to the Bighorn Plumbing forum. The reason is that two-fold.

First, root cause for you could be one of many things as there are many variables. Second, the thousands of RV owners on this forum are your best source of information on this matter and I want those discussions to occur outside of the ATF.

So, let's allow our expert owners to weigh in with questions and ideas for you here.

And, I want to invite you to make a toll-free call on Monday to our Customer Service Department. Phone them at 877-262-8032. Please have your VIN ready as they will need it to begin the call.

With that, below, I want to list a few things that come to mind. One or more of which could be contributors or maybe none of these. Just too hard to be sure until you have someone tear into it.

1. Use chemical deodorizer in black water holding tank
2. Use of large amounts of water in holding black water holding tank before dumping it
3. Flushing of the black tank, many times after dumping black water holding tank
4. Closed off vent cap for black water holding tank on the roof (cap pressed down too far)
5. Vent pipe for black tank pushed down too far into tank
6. Vent pipe for either gray tank pushed down too far into tank
7. Failed vacuum breaker in gray tank vent pipe for kitchen sink (located under the sink)
8. Failed seal of vent pipe at any of your 3 holding tanks
9. Failed seal and leaking of gate valves at any of your 3 holding tanks
10. Cracked holding tanks

 

[SmokeyBare]

When your hooked up to the Sewer system in a Campground... if you leave the gray tank valves open and draining... the sewer line your connected to will be able to vent sewer gas through your open gray tank valve and through the tank vent to the roof. The gas within the sewer lines your connected to will also be albe to vent through the open valve. Each time a neighbor dumps his tanks... you could get a blast of sewer gas.

If your vent is open... the sewer gas could drift in the RV... If one vent is open... and the kitchen fan is running... the fan would pull air inside the RV... if the vent is open... and windows are open... and a breeze is blowing... yes there might be a chance that sewer gas could come into the RV.

If you are running the A/C... the air should be recirculating inside the RV... and not pulling air from outside.

Others will probably offer some suggestions... if you do a search on the forum you will find others who the same problems.

Hope this helps...

Good Luck !!

 

[spankyandbrandysniffer]

What Smokey said is exactly what we've found to be true. Now that we leave our gray tank closed and just empty it every few days, we have had no problems with any bad smells. We'd tried everything else but that is what really worked for us.

 

[cookie]

cdonmartin, I guess I have to add my two cents here. I agree with what everybody else is saying. There are many causes for sewer odors. What Jim said about rv's and odors going together is pretty accurate, some odors just happen. I do know that the grey waste water from the kitchen is the worst smelling of all. Well, that's just my first hand experienced opinion. You would think the black is, but with the chemicals we should be using it's not. That beings said, going with one of Jims suggestions, the first thing that I would do is replace the vacuum breaker under the kitchen sink. I don't know of a good way to test it. It may not work today, but tomorrow it will be doing what it is supposed to do. That is to open and allow air into the drain line (to prevent a vacuum) when you empty the sink. Then it should close again to prevent sewer gasses form entering your living area. It would be an easy and inexpensive way to start eliminating the source of your problem. Just my thoughts.
Peace
Dave

 

[kakampers]

We found that replacing the roof vent cap with one that rotates with the wind solved our problem. It apparent uses the wind, even a slight breeze, to siphon the fumes out of the tank instead of them backing up into the coach.

For us the smell was actually coming from the kitchen grey tank...not the black...actually smelled worse than the black.

Stopped the problem instantly and have never had another issue...we are even able to leave the grey tanks open when parked.

 

[scott b]

The best thing out there for eleminating tank odors is called Xtreme vents , they are easy to install and work great. We installed one on our grey and black tank and that was the end of any problems for odor. You can get them from www.coilnwrap.com , they are a great company to deal with and as Jim has mentioned before they have many helpfull RV related products. Thanks .......Scott

 

[WRIGHT ll]

I noticed years ago with other 5ers that when we left the gray water drain valves open we seemed to get some sewer odors inside the coach when cleaning and flushing the black water tank. We stopped that method and haven't had any further experiences like that. In our previous rigs the grey water had to be drained after only one shower but the BH can hold two showers worth of water, more convenient now. Another thing that I was told is that if you try to put too much water in the black tank when flushing it will happen then too.

 

[timk]

You might try a high fiber diet.None
The vent thing on the roof did it for us.

 

[Pulltab]

Here is a quick test. Do you close the other tank valves before dumping? I have experienced this same thing. The rush of black tank is so great it will push air right thru the p-trap, close the greys and see if it still happens. Bet it gets fixed!