I am smelling sewer when toilet is flushed and the black tank is aprox. 2/3 full. The odor comes from the right front near the W/D location. I have a 2010 Landmark Augusta. The odor also can be detected outside the trailer on the right front. Anyone experience anything like this?
Sewer smell
- Thread starter motoflash
- Start date
I had a small hole on the corner of my black tank in the top 1/3 area.When the tank got 3/4 full it would seep out and if the tank was really full it sometimes sprayed onto the basement floor.I think the tank was defective but I was to late reacting and warranty expired.If you remove the bulkhead in your basement you should be able to examine the tank .If the tank is ok the smell may be entering your RV around the sewer pipe on the roof.I had to seal around all of my vent pipes to eliminate the smell from entering my attic.Use only duct seal as its removable and remains flexible.
Rickhansen
Well-known member
Not sure if you have a washer/dryer installed, or if the connection might be un-capped. This will occur from periods of non-use, or when traveling. It could be that your Washer connection P-Trap has dried out. A P-Trap uses a small amount of water to block the rest of the plumbing system from venting indoors. Your W/D drain connection wouldn't be tied to your black water tank normally, but it is tied to a grey water tank that can stink worse. If your grey water gate valves are open, it would essentially be open to the entire campground sewer system.
You might want to pour a cup of bleach and water mixture in the drains, including the washer connection, after traveling or periods of non-use. Also, your vent (exhaust) fans can pull smells in in through that path.
You might want to pour a cup of bleach and water mixture in the drains, including the washer connection, after traveling or periods of non-use. Also, your vent (exhaust) fans can pull smells in in through that path.
retired0601
Member
I had kind of the same issue but didn't relate to the black holding tank but every time I turned on the fan in the bathroom I would get a strong sewer smell. Poured bleach down the drains and lots of baking soda etc. Didn't help but finally replaced the vents under the bathroom sink and kitchen sink and that took care of the problem. They are self sealing vents with a rubber seal and I guess it dried out. Worked on my 2011 Landmark Augusta.
I purchased the new vents at Lowe's and they are pretty inexpensive. Hope this helps.
pour some water down the drain pipe of the w/d. The trap may have dried up if you have not used it.
hcriddle
Well-known member
You might want to go up on the roof and check that your vent pipe goes all the way through and is above the roof line. Mine dropped below the roof line and every time we flushed the bedroom ac would pick up the odor from the attic and blow it into the trailer. Got that fixed in Goshen and no more odor when we flush.
Pat & Leona Skanes
Member
Hello all
Well, I had the same issue a couple of weeks ago. But it wasn't only with the sewer it was with the gray holding tanks as well. I spent a lot of time tracing back the sewer lines from the roof to the tanks. I checked the WD and it had a P-trap. I checked each vent pipe by putting a sewer snake down each vent to make sure it wasn't block, it wasn't. I then cleaned each holding tank and that wasn't the issue. Changed the cheater vents under the sinks and you guessed it, it did not solve the issue. Then I put on a Cyclone Sewer Vent and that didn't work. Now what? I went on the roof again and looked at how the vent pipes come through the roof. I noticed that there is a space between the pipe and roof (I guess for clearance when installing the piping). What I figured was that the sewer gas was coming up the pipe and hitting the cap and then not all the gas could escape between the cap and the attachment used to hold the cap. (the unit used to hold the cap has space around the pipe). I filled the space with low expansion foam and put the cap back on and yes, there is space between the sewer pipe and the cap to let sewer gas escape. You guessed it, no more gas smell.
What I was thinking is that we had low wind with high humidity which caused the sewer gas to go up the pipe and instead of all the gas going out to the environment some was being sent back through the space between the pipe and the roof and entering the coach.
Hope you find this post useful.
Pat & Leona Skanes
Member Number: 1833
Region: Canada
Chapter: Ontario
2011 Landmark
Grand Canyon
2013 Ford F350 SRW, 4X4
Well, I had the same issue a couple of weeks ago. But it wasn't only with the sewer it was with the gray holding tanks as well. I spent a lot of time tracing back the sewer lines from the roof to the tanks. I checked the WD and it had a P-trap. I checked each vent pipe by putting a sewer snake down each vent to make sure it wasn't block, it wasn't. I then cleaned each holding tank and that wasn't the issue. Changed the cheater vents under the sinks and you guessed it, it did not solve the issue. Then I put on a Cyclone Sewer Vent and that didn't work. Now what? I went on the roof again and looked at how the vent pipes come through the roof. I noticed that there is a space between the pipe and roof (I guess for clearance when installing the piping). What I figured was that the sewer gas was coming up the pipe and hitting the cap and then not all the gas could escape between the cap and the attachment used to hold the cap. (the unit used to hold the cap has space around the pipe). I filled the space with low expansion foam and put the cap back on and yes, there is space between the sewer pipe and the cap to let sewer gas escape. You guessed it, no more gas smell.
What I was thinking is that we had low wind with high humidity which caused the sewer gas to go up the pipe and instead of all the gas going out to the environment some was being sent back through the space between the pipe and the roof and entering the coach.
Hope you find this post useful.
Pat & Leona Skanes
Member Number: 1833
Region: Canada
Chapter: Ontario
2011 Landmark
Grand Canyon
2013 Ford F350 SRW, 4X4
riverrat
Member
We have had a sewer smell off and on since we picked it up last year. We tried to locate the source and in doing so found other problems with the a/c system that should have been fix by dealer under warrenty but opted to fix and modify it myself now the a/c works down to at least 73* and maintains it where the wife sets it. thats in AZ when the teps were 110* before it wouldn't get below 89* when it was a just 100*. Ok back on topic I wanted this oder gone so I made a smoke attachment for the sewer system and found three problems two on the roof and the vent under the bathroom sink that was just started about a turn but not screwed in, as for the roof when checking the vent previously only removed two of the four caps and they looked good but when I removed the all of the caps the plug the vents off I found that they where cut short and it was not because they had droped one of the hats was so far off center of the pipe the hats were over laped and I still couldn't pull the pipe over to go through the hat opening even if it was long enough. after trimming the hats to fit closer and extending the pipes no more smells. Pictures show what I found one of the good ones and the two bad.
twohappycampers
Well-known member
Hi, We had the same problem of a sewer smell. It was coming in through the washer drain pipe when we used the auto rain fan in our kitchen area, so I poured enough water into the washer drain pipe to fill the drain trap which blocked any further odours coming in from that source. We also make sure a window is open a bit in the living room when using the rain fan as it will cause nasty smells from the toilet and sink vents on the roof to be drawn in through the maxi-vents in the bedroom and bathroom if they are open. Hope this helps you.
conradsteph
Member
Riverrat - great pics! We too are in AZ. One thing we learned today (still newbies) is that there is a tremendous amount of "undumped" black and grey waste after hooking up and leaving a park after dumping. Unless you have a sewer hook up at the park, you dump your tanks when you leave the park (while hooked up). On our Cyclone 3800 hooked up to our F350, it is level, but not as level as when you unhook and level. Been experiencing some sewer/grey smells of late. Dumped today after leaving Alamo Lake. Dumped till nothing else came out. Also used black flush line. Got home, unhitched, leveled, and dumped again into some 5 gallon buckets headed for house toilet. Wow. Couldn't believe how much was still in there. Poured a 3 gallons of bleach solution down each toilet. Not as bad in garage toilet but bedroom was pretty bad. Fifth trip this summer. AZ heat mixed with stagnate black water is not ideal. All the venting in the world wouldn't have fixed 8 week old semi full black tanks.
