Need help with a smell.

jimh425 wrote:
rockhillmanor, I'm glad nothing bad happened too, but you should add an LP detector if you haven't already.

Have one and it is functioning. It is in the bedroom near the floor where it should be.

The stove is next to the sink. The propane found the 'sink' as it's lowest point. So it did not go to the floor where the propane detector would have sensed it. Coupled with the fact that I had the windows all open because of the smell and it was windy out which also added to it not setting off the detector. Had I closed those windows I think I could have been a goner!

It IS a learning curve for smells in an RV! :B

One day I kept getting whiffs of rotten eggs liken to sulfur water. I just thought it was the CG water. Turned out to be my batteries also! Converter was just cooking and cooking that darn battery.

Oh the joys of owning an RV. :C

Funny I just dealt with this same issue today on my TT. I thought that a mouse had crawled into the front storag and died, but no it was my 4D AGM battery! It's been fine for years but today it was stinking and when I opened the battery box it was warm to the touch. Disconnected it, ordered a new one and am replacing it tomorrow.

I never realized a battery could smell like that!

Not to rule out the batteries but there are other possible causes:

- Shower drain (or any drain) that has dried out and letting sewer gas back up into the camper. Add a couple cups of water to each drain.

- Fridge cooling unit died. Smells really bad!! Sometimes you will see a powder around the coil that indicates it is leaking. Replace cooling unit if this is it.

- Dead creature, find and dispose of, could even be in the bed of the truck if it is on the truck.

- Propane - already covered

- Hot water tank sulfated (not sure if that is a word), usually smells when you are running the hot water or dumping the tanks.

Good luck on finding it and be careful!

Thanks to all of you for the advice. The charger is disconnected, and I'll be taking the batteries out tomorrow for testing. Keep you posted.

I boiled a battery a couple years ago. Nasty sulfur smell permeated everything in the camper. I also thought it was a black/gray water issue and I spent two days trying to solve the problem. I discovered the boiled out battery when attempted to raise camper with the jacks. No juice. The battery compartment was vented to the outside but there was no seal around the cables to the battery. I pulled the battery and scrubbed the compartment several times to stop any corrosion. The white cable had turned brown from the corrosive fumes. I sealed the hole around the battery cables but I decided to avoid a repeat by installing a deep-cycle AGM battery. No more issues. :)

Repeat - it's your batteries. I even disconnected my sink trap to see if something died in there when it happened to me. Before that I soaped up every propane fitting.

In the end I walked by the battery compartment outside the camper and the smell wafted out the vents.

It's your batteries.

rockhillmanor, I'm glad nothing bad happened too, but you should add an LP detector if you haven't already.

Glad you're OK!

DWeikert wrote:
You are familiar with the smell of propane I hope? As rockhillmanor mentioned, propane is heavier than normal atmosphere so it'll settle into the lower areas of the camper, which just may happen to be your battery compartment. Your description of a sewer smell makes me lean more toward propane than the rotten egg smell of sulfur from batteries.

I've said this ad nasuem on the forum about my mishap but I KNOW the smell of propane, or at least I THOUGHT I did. :(

During my incident the smell inside my MH smelled like a dirty gray tank to me, NOT at all like propane. Four other people in the CG agreed it had to be the sink!

Turned out it WAS propane and I was sitting IN the MH waiting for the RV guy to get there to replace the valve on the sink. All the time the smell was from propane leaking! :S

Turns out I found out the smell they add to propane is NOT government regulated. The amount of odor added is government regulated but NOT the actual scent. Stated right on the gov site.

I have never traveled out of Wisconsin. I know the smell of propane used in my home state. That first trip out of the state with the MH I stopped in Kentucky to fill the propane tank and then drove onto Iowa.

THAT was the propane that was leaking into my MH. That particular Kentucky company does not use the same odor additive as Wisconsin. I damned near died because of it.

So my advice if you are traveling in different states don't rely on what you 'think' you know to be the smell of propane. It varies from company to company. Boy I'm here to tell you IMHO they SHOULD regulate the odor so they are all the same. :(

AnEv942 wrote:
At the risk of being chicken little First I would disconnect the battery charger before any more sniffing around.
If its the battery(s) that rotten egg smell is hydrogen gas. Hydrogen gas is explosive.

Just to add to this, do not disconnect the batter charger at the battery or anywhere it can draw an arc inside the camper. Ideally, remove the power to the charger from outside the camper. Same goes, if not more so, if you haven't verified it's not a propane leak.