Community Forums

brobox · 07-27-2015, 08:37 AM

Putting this out to hopefully short cut the problem solving.

When we first take off in the morning and get up to highway speed, we have a strong gray tank odor coming from the laundry cabinet for the first 5 or 10 minutes. I called CS and they didn't have an answer.

Has anyone else run into this and what was the fix? I have a feeling there is another vacuum vent behind the washer. I have already replaced the ones in the bathrooms for back tank odor. But I don't feel one behind the washer.

The P trap is full the washer is used several times a week.

I think I remember seeing a post about shortening the washer drain hose, but I couldn't find it. I think I found it, plumbers putty around the drain pipe. http://www.irv2.com/forums/f278/bad-...on-166828.html

Nowabeachbum · 07-27-2015, 08:56 AM

Hi chuck,
We have had this in both our Anthems. A mid bath and rear bath. I tried the plumbers putty and shortening the washer drain hose, but nothing worked. It only happens after you drain the grey tanks after using the washer. I don't know why but we have reverted to using a turkey baster to squirt water where the washer drain goes into the motorhome drain. If you have plumbers putty there, you can use a small piece of tubing to work through it. It works, just kinda a pain! The only thing I have not tried is a directional vent cap. Several have said those work.

DoggieDaddy · 07-27-2015, 08:58 AM

Chuck, we had the same issue. The pipe where the washer drain hose goes in is wide open. I stuffed some foam in it to seal it around the drain hose. Tank slosh when you first start moving may suck the water out of the goose neck if there is one. Anyway the foam seem to help.

brobox · 07-27-2015, 09:02 AM

It's funny, after reading the other posts, their odors came when using the bath fans. Ours only happens when we are on the road.

Thanks for the suggestions. There is a Home Depot close by to get what material I need.

brianw8602 · 07-27-2015, 09:04 AM

Chuck, I'm surprised CS didn't know the fix. When our coach was at Entegra for a week, we noted the same odor. PJ went right to the W/D and said it was an easy fix and he'd take care of it. Unfortunately I don't know what he did, but when we came back w hrs later, odor was gone. We have not had the problem since.

brobox · 07-27-2015, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brianw8602

Chuck, I'm surprised CS didn't know the fix. When our coach was at Entegra for a week, we noted the same odor. PJ went right to the W/D and said it was an easy fix and he'd take care of it. Unfortunately I don't know what he did, but when we came back w hrs later, odor was gone. We have not had the problem since.

The problem with CS lately is there is a lot of new people that do not have the knowledge of PJ or Jacob. I wish I had been fortunate to had PJ answer the phone.

Nowabeachbum · 07-27-2015, 09:13 AM

We have had Entegra work on it twice and Lazydays as well. What ever they did didn't work for us and like you said Chuck it only happened to us when we are moving down the road. Wow and it's bad!! I think it has to do with the trap running dry and the odor seeps through the washer itself. You could try shortening the drain hose on the washer. Cs does say that that is a big contributor, but unfortunately not the universal fix.

spinn · 07-27-2015, 09:18 AM

Chuck there is a link trap on these washers (ours is behind the bottom facia on the right hand side. It can develop quite a horrible odor. It is easily removed and cleaned. We had this same thing happen to us and that seems to have been the source.
Steve

brobox · 07-27-2015, 09:20 AM

Thanks for that info Gray. At least I am not the only one that has experience the problem while the coach is moving. I will work on the hose today. I tried to pull it out and it is tight and hard to get out. They are due to start on the A/C in minute, so it will have to wait until they are finished.

UTExplore · 07-27-2015, 09:35 AM

If you close the slides without opening a door or window the air pressure may be significant enough to push any water out of your p traps.

hogdriver · 07-27-2015, 09:42 AM

Chuck

I had the same problem on my 13 Aspire and more recently my 14 Anthem. I think what is happening is if the washer hose sticks in too far into the trap the water in the trap gets sucked out when you dump. I did two things to fix the problem. The first thing I did was replace those cheapie roof vent caps with those 360 roof vent caps. Those helped. The biggest thing that helped was forming a ring shaped seal around the washer drain hose on the top of the washer trap.

brobox · 07-27-2015, 11:06 AM

I did pull the hose out while they are installing the A/C and that thing is way to long. I can see where it would be sucking the P trap dry. I cut 10 inches off but I think it may need more. I will measure how far down the drain pipe where the P trap starts and cut the hose to where it is above the P trap. Thank you all for the ideas.

UTExplore, good idea, but I can see daylight while the slide are coming in until they sealed closed, so I don't think I have air tight slides.

My smell doesn't start until we are up to 65 MPH and it only lasts for about 10 minutes, but it does linger in the air for a couple of hours.

hogdriver · 07-27-2015, 11:10 AM

Chuck

I incompleted my previous. Take some plumbers putty and roll it into a cigar shape then form it around the washer drain hose where it enters the top of the trap. That killed all my odor problems....except for when I eat Mexican food and DW comes into the bathroom.

Magic-carpet · 07-27-2015, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hogdriver

Chuck

I had the same problem on my 13 Aspire and more recently my 14 Anthem. I think what is happening is if the washer hose sticks in too far into the trap the water in the trap gets sucked out when you dump. I did two things to fix the problem. The first thing I did was replace those cheapie roof vent caps with those 360 roof vent caps. Those helped. The biggest thing that helped was forming a ring shaped seal around the washer drain hose on the top of the washer trap.

We had the same problems so we installed 4 of the 360 vents, 2 on the grey tank vents and 2 on the black tank vents, and haven't had an issue since. Its amazing how fresh and clean the coach smells. The original vent caps were almost sitting on top of the pipes. I can't understand how they vented anything. The odor was really bad when we would try to use the dash a/c set to bring in fresh air. Not so bad if we had it set on max air and recirculated the interior air.