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allen8106's avatar
allen8106
Explorer
Sep 07, 2014

Terrible Sewer Gas Smell Solved Thanks to RV.Net

So the Monday before Labor Day I move the 5ver up next to the house and hook it to power to start cooling down the refrigerator so we could go to the lake for the weekend. I started noticing a faint smell of sewer gas some time during the week. I thought no big deal it's probably coming from the roof vent and I just need to get some water in the tanks. Well this smell persisted through most of the my four days at the lake until finally on Sunday night it got really bad. I noticed it really bad when I opened the cabinet door under the kitchen sink. I thought great the sewer vent under the sink is messed up or something. I got on to RV.net on my iPhone and did a few searches for sewer gas smells and found that it might be my on-board battery creating the smell due to boiling the battery dry. I really didn't think so but thought I would check it out just in case. I opened the battery compartment, which just happens to be next to the kitchen sink cabinet, and wow is all I can say. The sewer gas smell was horrible and kind of burnt my nose when I smelled it. I touched the battery and it was so hot I couldn't touch it for more then a second or two. I immediately got my tool box out and disconnected the battery. Within an hour the sewer smell inside the 5ver was gone and i haven't smelled it since. The next day when I opened the battery top caps two cells were completely dry and a third was nearly dry.

Now I just have to figure out if the battery is salvageable. My local battery dealer informs me it is likely toast but told me to bring it in and he would check it out.

Lesson here........check your battery water level a little more frequently.

Thank you to the contributors of RV.Net

13 Replies

  • I would agree with the battery man. The batteries are probably toast. Many times when they are allowed to go completely down, that will ruin the battery. Probably a combination of constant charge and battery is probably just worn out. I have filled cells and got by with it, but in my RV I would just change them out. I just don't want problems while I'm gone.
  • RoyB wrote:
    You're lucky they didn't explode on you.. Still happens...

    This is usually caused by the older single mode converter/chargers that put a constant 13.6VDC which is right on the edge of boiling out battery fluids over an extended time.

    When I was using one of those converters I always checked my battery fluids on a regular basis. After I changed the converter/charger out for the multi-stage smart mode charging type I still check my batteries out of habit but never find them low on fluids anymore.

    Roy Ken


    What converter are you using now?
  • RoyB's avatar
    RoyB
    Explorer II
    You're lucky they didn't explode on you.. Still happens...

    This is usually caused by the older single mode converter/chargers that put a constant 13.6VDC which is right on the edge of boiling out battery fluids over an extended time.

    When I was using one of those converters I always checked my battery fluids on a regular basis. After I changed the converter/charger out for the multi-stage smart mode charging type I still check my batteries out of habit but never find them low on fluids anymore.

    Roy Ken