Community Forums

AttilaKara72 · 08-29-2014, 04:34 PM

I'm getting a sewer smell from my washer/dryer. It has never been used. How can I stop it?

**CLIFFTALL** · 08-29-2014, 04:36 PM

There's a p trap that has gone dry . You need to put water in it to prevent gray tank fumes from entering the RV.

AttilaKara72 · 08-29-2014, 05:24 PM

How do you get to the trap? Do I have to remove the machine?

**CLIFFTALL** · 08-29-2014, 05:28 PM

I didn't have a washer as I took it out as soon as I bought my MH so I'll let others answer that. However I would think it's where the washer drains to the gray tank.

RickO · 08-29-2014, 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AttilaKara72

How do you get to the trap? Do I have to remove the machine?

Can't you begin to run a cycle and then advance it to spin to remove the water from the machine. Was the unit recently added or is it really 15 years old and never been used?

Rick

**CLIFFTALL** · 08-29-2014, 05:34 PM

Looking over previous posts it appears that it was purchased a little over a year ago.

brobox · 08-29-2014, 05:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AttilaKara72

How do you get to the trap? Do I have to remove the machine?

Run a rinse cycle or do a load of laundry.

Dr4Film · 08-29-2014, 05:44 PM

We seldom use ours except for spin drying some hand washables and we use the dryer ocassionaly.

Simply start the wash or rinse cycle to get a gallon of water into the drum and then advance to the final spin cycle to remove the water.

That will fill the trap.

Dr4Film ----- Richard

Bob&AnnaMari · 08-31-2014, 10:03 PM

And if that does not remove the smell you can do what we did when ours started to really stink on our last trip in some very warm weather. (Because we did put a lot of water down the drain tube in the back which should have restored the block in the p-trap, but the smell continued.)

I ran a quick rinse cycle and then shut things off. Then I put some Clorox in the bleach container in the washer and did a short wash followed by a short rinse. I did let it spin for about five minutes just to make sure as much of the water was out as possible.

This totally eliminated all smell from the unit. And the rest of our trip was smell free despite the heat.

AttilaKara72 · 09-01-2014, 08:28 AM

I think I will have to pull it out and fill or cap the drain pipe. I am trying to avoid putting water down it because I have never used the machine and I don't want to have to winterize it after. It seems it would be a pain to winterize.

Sky_Boss · 09-01-2014, 08:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob&AnnaMari

...
I ran a quick rinse cycle and then shut things off. Then I put some Clorox in the bleach container in the washer and did a short wash followed by a short rinse. I did let it spin for about five minutes just to make sure as much of the water was out as possible.

This totally eliminated all smell from the unit. And the rest of our trip was smell free despite the heat.

We do something similar on about a monthly basis. Seems to keep it well under control. To be honest, this fixed odder from the INSIDE of the washer. Front loaders tend to get smelly even in the S&B models. We did the same at our home when we had one too so this isn't something new to us.

That is in addition to making sure water is in the Ptrap. Since we use ours all the time that isn't a problem.

Sky_Boss · 09-01-2014, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AttilaKara72

I think I will have to pull it out and fill or cap the drain pipe. I am trying to avoid putting water down it because I have never used the machine and I don't want to have to winterize it after. It seems it would be a pain to winterize.

That works.

Bob&AnnaMari · 09-01-2014, 10:24 AM

Unless you absolutely have to, you really don't want to pull out the washer. I did that when I had to replace the water pump on ours. It turns out to be quite a task. (Back then my wife thought she wanted to use the washer.)

If you just want to cap the pipe(s), you should be able to access all you need from the back of the washer. You should have a removable panel in the back of whatever "top" you have on the washer. From here you have access to the drain pipe and, if your is like ours, a vacuum break. To close things off you will need to simply find a cap for the drain pipe. And you probably want to put a screw cap on the vacuum break pipe. (I'm not sure of the wisdom of capping the vacuum break pipe, but the choice is yours.)

But, this may still not solve your problem. Your smell may be coming from the washer itself and the only way to eliminate that is to run the process I mentioned. We very seldom use ours and it should have been dry when the odor occurred. I guess, however, water and stuff that grows bacteria can still be in an unused washer.