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Old 05-25-2016, 12:54 PM   #1
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Sewer Odor in coach

Never had this to happen before, I was connected to sewer in park . NOTE: I DID NOT have my dump valve open on coach. My connection to park sewer was tight. No Odor coming from around that connection to get in coach. About the 3 day we had odor in coach . My black & grey tank was about 1/3 full . I disconnected my hose from park sewer and odor went away !!! I have never noticed any leaks from my valves when hose was off in the bay. Just wondering if any one has had that proublem .
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Old 05-25-2016, 01:00 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WV Bum View Post
Never had this to happen before, I was connected to sewer in park . NOTE: I DID NOT have my dump valve open on coach. My connection to park sewer was tight. No Odor coming from around that connection to get in coach. About the 3 day we had odor in coach . My black & grey tank was about 1/3 full . I disconnected my hose from park sewer and odor went away !!! I have never noticed any leaks from my valves when hose was off in the bay. Just wondering if any one has had that proublem .
The only time I thought that was the problem, the seal in the toliet wasn't prefect (water drained out of the bowl after a few hours). The vent pipes for your pumping should direct any sewer gas outside.

If my dump valves are shut, I know no air gets through. I've learned to make sure all the fluids are out the drain hose before shutting the dump valves because the water won't drain then (like a finger over one end of a straw.)
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Old 05-25-2016, 01:09 PM   #3
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I think you have a venting issue. If you had contents in both tanks, and the valves closed, there is no way the odor could have come up from the sewer.
Most likely cause is the check valves on one or more sinks. These are known to leak allowing grey tank smell into the coach. These can be obtained at any Lowes or Home Depot type store.
Other issue could be a blocked roof top vent not allowing the tank to vent.
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Old 05-25-2016, 01:24 PM   #4
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Did you happen to drain your gray tank just before unhooking the sewer lines. If so you may have had the odor coming from one of your sinks. We had that happen once and just used the lemon tank deodorizers you can buy at Walmart/CW. Just drop one in the sink, let it dissolve by running water over it and it instantly takes away the odors. They are cheap and we use them a couple times a year and have never had the odor come back.
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Old 05-25-2016, 01:44 PM   #5
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If you flush the toilet with the coach closed up and the vent fan on.. It will suck air down the vent pipe into your black tank and up through the toilet into the coach giving you sewer odor. Under the right circumstances, the wind blowing in the right direction and with the right windows open ..it can also happen with the fan off too ..Answer .. Close Windows, fan off and Flush fast 😊.


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Old 05-25-2016, 01:51 PM   #6
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A lot of the time when one smells sewer in the coach, it is coming from the grey tank via the vacuum breaks under a sink. It can happen if you run a slide out without opening a window, or run the exhaust fan without a window open. In both cases, they will draw air through the area of least resistance which can be the vacuum break. It can smell just as bad as the black tank. And of course, if the VB is old, it could allow odor to come into the coach at anytime.
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Old 05-25-2016, 08:07 PM   #7
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First place I would look for a problem like this in my coach would be the shower drain. I had my shower drain out (that's another problem story) and the trap under my shower isn't exactly what was expected. There isn't enough room for a standard water fill "U" shape trap so they use a rubber flap trap. A rubber bladder type thing is inside the drain with a slit cut in the rubber. The shower water pushes against the slit, opens it up and runs through, then closes up when water quits running. I can imagine after some use, hair, soap scum and whatever would start to hold the slit open and allow gray tank gases to seep back into the bathroom on whatever day the wind gets in the right direction.
With your explanation, I don't think the connection of the sewer hose had any thing to do with the odor.
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Old 05-25-2016, 08:34 PM   #8
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Sewer Odor

Quote:
Originally Posted by alank View Post
First place I would look for a problem like this in my coach would be the shower drain. I had my shower drain out (that's another problem story) and the trap under my shower isn't exactly what was expected. There isn't enough room for a standard water fill "U" shape trap so they use a rubber flap trap. A rubber bladder type thing is inside the drain with a slit cut in the rubber. The shower water pushes against the slit, opens it up and runs through, then closes up when water quits running. I can imagine after some use, hair, soap scum and whatever would start to hold the slit open and allow gray tank gases to seep back into the bathroom on whatever day the wind gets in the right direction.
With your explanation, I don't think the connection of the sewer hose had any thing to do with the odor.
That is good to know, I always thought it had a regular P Trap, I think your right if there is an issue this would be a likely source! Regards Narc
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Old 05-25-2016, 09:00 PM   #9
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Thanks Dennis 45 , How will I know if check valves are bad ? alank, Don't think I have a proublem with shower have a good trap on shower. The thing that I can't understand , is when I disconnected the my sewer line from park sewer the Oder went a way . Thanks for your help. Our MH is 2015 winnebago 27 N
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Old 05-25-2016, 09:21 PM   #10
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Had an air check valve go bad under the kitchen sink on my old coach. I think that's what it is called. It's a screw on pvc valve with a rubber flap inside. Prevents air from exiting into coach but allows air to go in so water will flow as I understand it. Bought one from Home Depot, it was different size so I added a pvc reducer then the valve and all was good. Not saying that is your exact problem but something to check anyway, they do go bad. Happened when I drained the gray tank and really smelled up the coach. I knew I had a problem when I drive home and it happened while driving too.
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Old 05-25-2016, 11:31 PM   #11
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I had a sewer smell inside my coach; however, my issue was the black vent pipe was not properly connected to the black tank. This caused the smell from the black tank to vent inside the motorhome.
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Old 05-26-2016, 04:37 AM   #12
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Recently had the problem, first time. Coach is in the driveway with power and had both ceiling vents on pulling air from inside the coach to keep heat down. Forgot to crack a window so the fans were creating a partial vacuum. Mother Nature doesn't like a vacuum and so I was getting air from the tanks via a drains. Probably the shower consider the drain configuration is about as alank described.
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Old 05-26-2016, 06:33 AM   #13
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It goes un noticed but your toilet also has a trap in it. At the top of the bowel is a small hole that is intended to prevent overflowing water from damaging the floor, if it runs dry it allows vapors inside the coach. Overfill tho stool and watch the water run into that drain, it will then have water in its trap.
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Old 05-26-2016, 08:56 PM   #14
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I had odor too. The solution was expensive! I finally discovered the black tank had a crack in the bottom, which allowed liquid to drip into the underbelly. I never noticed an odor until I used a high-pressure wand to rinse some dried-out toilet paper off the tank bottom.
$1,400 eliminated all odor and repaired the tank.
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