sewer smell

[travelin' texans]

On your 2012 RW if you haven't drained/flushed the water heater you definitely need to do so if for no other reason but to check the anode rod, mine is a '13 & the first rod only lasted about 8-9 months.

[homeguy]

ours is a 12 and we haven't changed the rod yet. We do use a water softener though

[Elliott & Vicky]

Re-opening this thread: We are getting a bad sewer odor through the return vent under the coat closet in the kitchen. Went into the basement and opened the door in the wall to the back of the service area and the smell was awful. No leaks or even moisture was visible in side. Any hints?

Also, if we overfill the gray tank, water does not not back up into the shower but into the sink. I guess the trap or whatever is under the shower works very well.

[Dave&Ginny]

http://www.lslproducts.net/IL-DSPage.html

The vent system on the RVs seem a little problematic. I'm going to be putting one of these little units in my Redwood this spring. I just put a larger unit on my house for an ejection system I have in our basement and it works great.

[poormarky]

I had the sewer smell this summer on our 36FL. We have a plumber friend check out the smell and found the vent under the sink was bad. I screwed off the vent went to the hardware store and bought 2..one for back up. He looked at the old one and said there should be a spring in it and ours didn't. Ours just had a rubber flapper that didn't close so it allowed the bad order to come in the trailer. He said all RVs and mobile homes use the same system.

[atom ant]

Originally Posted by Dave&Ginny

http://www.lslproducts.net/IL-DSPage.html

The vent system on the RVs seem a little problematic. I'm going to be putting one of these little units in my Redwood this spring. I just put a larger unit on my house for an ejection system I have in our basement and it works great.

Dave,

Let us know where you end up installing it. Would be a nice plan B when the environment becomes a little odiferous

[spindrift]

How about this?

http://360productsinc.com/site/more-info

[ichabod123]

I can't stand it anymore. I've tried everything. I have even wrapped the vent cap with duct tape and plugged the cap with paper towels and I'm still getting a smell. REALLY bad smell. It wakes me up at night.
I haven't replaced it yet but do you all think that a replacement is in order after I tapped and plugged it and still get an odor?
By the way, plugging the vent didn't effect the drainage of the sink one little bit.

Dave, did your solution work?

[ichabod123]

Oh, and I have dumped gallons of bleach, lysol, pinesole and tank chemical in there.

Twice I have filled the tank until it came out of the shower drain, dumped a gallon of bleach in there and left it over a weekend.
That gave me two days of relief.

I know it's coming from the vent under the sink because I put my C-PAP mask on and did sniff tests every where (no comments about that visual lol)

But how is it getting through the duct tape and paper plug?

[Radio_Flyer]

Under my sink is my black flush valve. I had issues with smell from it along with it coming apart and flooding my bathroom. I ended up put brass connectors on it, no more opening and use a back flow preventer on my black rinse hose. That might be the only other thing that would release any odor.

[r time soon]

The Auto-Vent can be easily replaced. It is just threaded on. Most home improvement stores carry those for less than $10. I would either put vaseline or teflon thread tape on it when you install it. Don't over tighten it, just snug it real good so that it won't wiggle loose from driving on the earthquake shaking road conditions.

But this might not be your problem either. There have been other rv brands with similar problems that were caused by trim pin nails or staples into the vent pipes. Some others were accidentally drilled into by installing the door strike plate. When drilling the 3/4" hole for the strike they actually traveled too far and have hit a vent pipe. Not all brands or models will have the vent pipes near the strike plates for the doors. Worth looking to see if that might be the case.

Good luck finding the source of the smell and fixing it.

Chris

[r time soon]

The other item that was brought up earlier is the atmospheric vacuum breaker for the black tank flush. By code these are installed above the highest flood level in the coach. These usually don't allow air to escape. If they break or get stuck they will typically spray water out of them making a mess. You will definitely know if it fails.

Chris

[Shane Wood]

I had the sewer smell in mine and replaced the screw on vents under the kitchen and bathroom sink, no more smell. Picked them up at home depot

[travelin' texans]

Neither of your sinks vent through the roof, both have vents under the sinks. I would suspect the black flush line or vacuum breaker, I had a odor from that at first & just added a hose shut off valve to the flush port in the convenience center, no more odor. Now when we get a sewer smell I know it's time to drain the galley tank, the bath grey I leave open til a day or two before draining the black.

[travelin' texans]

One other item, if you don't have the washing machine be sure that drain is plugged, if it's not plugged the water will drain out of the P trap & you'll have a open line into the grey tank.

[RCAircraft]

I have noticed a sewer like odor from the hot water and it is strong. I checked at the hot water heater and that was the source. I introduced about 1/4 cup of bleach into the hot water tank then individually opened each hot water valve until I could smell the bleach. That cleared up the odor and now have the fresh smell of city/state park water. Our unit is in storage for long periods so could be the lack of use.

[RW Cal]

Could the vent under the sink be there for the dishwasher? I have one at home but it is above the sink.

[travelin' texans]

The dishwasher is tied into tbe kitchen sink drain & there is a vent on that drain, mine is behind the spice cabinet & the drawers next to it.

[slideone]

I had the same issue on my 2013 Landmark. I found that my vent pipes had been cut short on two of the vents which allowed the sewer gas to go right back into the attic space. It was an easy fix once I found it, I just filled around the pipe with silicone caulk which sealed the gases off from the attic area. Take a quick look with your vent caps off and you may find this same situation.

[5th_Time]

Danny, do you really have 1800 posts??? Wow!