Black tank odor

[rooney77]

So I bought a new to me Minnie Winnie DL 29WU yesterday (it's an upgrade from our slide in Lance)and the drive home was horrible. The previous owner apparently didn't use any chemicals to help with odor and seems like every slosh of the tank (yes the gray and black tanks still are over half full :M)filled the whole thing with terrible smells.

I plan to dump the tanks today but is this a problem typical to motorhomes? I never noticed any odors in the truck camper.


Sorry if it's a noob question but the Lance is my only RV experience.

Also, when I filled it with fuel the next few miles the whole interior reeked of gasoline and I couldn't find any visible leaks. I don't know if there's a valve or something I was supposed to shut of on the genset or something. Any ideas where to begin diagnosing that issue?

[rooney77]

Well I found on air admittance valve in the nightstand on the other side of the wall from the toilet. But the smell is coming from the bathroom for sure. I drained the tanks and filled with water and simple green and will drive it to the nearest dump station tomorrow to drain them again. I ran water in all the sinks and everything. Then I called it a night.

But I couldn't leave well enough alone and had to go check to see if it still smelled a few hours later. It did. But I noticed I've got some discoloration on the ceiling above the shower and around the vent fan. I can't say for certain if it was wet from leaking or because I had it open today and it rained. But I think the ceiling padding may be mildew and that's the smell. What can I spray up there to kill the mildew and how do I make sure it's not a leak?

I'm assuming the framing is aluminum and not wood, am I wrong?

Again it's 1997 Minnie Winnie.

Edit: FYI, I have to able to #2 in it, with crohns, the toilet has been the biggest selling point and most commonly used room for me. 😄

[garyhaupt]

rooney77

ron.dittmer wrote:
We don't do #2 in our toilet so we don't deal with solids.W

As you will now see...some people are quite restrictive in their usage of the plumbing and others, like myself, use it for most anything. I treat my sinks and toilet like I use them at home. Coffee grounds, weird stuff from the fridge. I had a 12 hour bout of food poisoning once while on the road..now THAT was pleasant..I could go on and on, but...won't. It's a very personal thing, but lots of fresh water will take care of it all.


Gary Haupt

[TyroneandGladys]

Had that experience myself and turned out all I had to do was run water in every sink and the tub. Water dries out in the P traps and lets odors come in. Have had several other complain about odors in there RVs and the same think stopped odors in everyone of them. Also make sure there is a small amount of water in the toilet.

[nomad_289]

IAMACHIBAD wrote:
I would check and replace the air admittance valves.

Changed mine out and the smell was gone!

X2

Best $5 and 5 minutes I've spent.

loiskathy wrote:
Make sure you have water in the sink and tub/shower drains.

These two recommendations should take care of it. I always (now) dump prior to storing for more than one week, and flush thoroughly as advised above.

When using head... Recently taken to running Fantastic Fan on high speed "IN" to pressurize the RV---prevents sewer gas from being drawn in when john is flushed (which may occur when using only bathroom fan/vent).

[ron_dittmer]

rooney77,

Your sewage odor inside the rig is most likely caused by a lack of water in the traps. Pour water down all sinks and shower pan.

Because we park our rig indoors under our master bedroom as seen HERE, soil stack odor is a very serious matter. At the end of our RV season, I treat the tanks with a bleach solution which when done right, will not damage any valves and kills all odor for us. You may want to do this at a dump station, but this is how I do it at home.

I start with empty well rinsed tanks, then pour 1/2 bottle of bleach down the toilet and 1/2 bottle down the kitchen gray tank sink. Then I fill the black water tank through the toilet, rinsing the solution down. Do the same for the sink. Both tanks should fill to the tippy-top for maximum bleach contact. I watch the shower pan for our gray tank and the toilet for our black tank. Let sit for one hour and then open the floodgates. Rinse both tanks, again to the tippy-top and let sit overnight. Then open the floodgates a second time and I am done. I am careful to put the sewer cap back on to prevent rodents from getting in during the winter.

We don't do #2 in our toilet so we don't deal with solids. Our pre-rinsed tanks have only "residual" urine waste before I start bleaching. The bleach perfectly neutralizes anything left so I can safety let it out in a swale along side our driveway with no concern of health risk. People's pets leave much worse on their lawns.

When done, our rig smells like brand new.

[rooney77]

garyhaupt wrote:
Oh, well. if you are not using it, no...just put some water in and walk away. (the water will enure nothing gets dried onto anything) I might have mis-read your note and interpreted it to suggest you were going to be using the unit.

To recap..no, if it not being used...no need need to dump. But when you do...be generous with your time and water.



Gary Haupt

Ok good. Scared me.

[garyhaupt]

Oh, well. if you are not using it, no...just put some water in and walk away. (the water will enure nothing gets dried onto anything) I might have mis-read your note and interpreted it to suggest you were going to be using the unit.

To recap..no, if it not being used...no need need to dump. But when you do...be generous with your time and water.



Gary Haupt

[rooney77]

old guy wrote:
dumping once a week? is it necessary? I think so. isn't it obvious to you now since you had such a terrible smell in the MH already? when it comes to the tanks, black or grey, take care of them or you will be so sorry. I forgot to close the valve on the black tank once in Yuma, had to do the dance to get it flowing again. Oh yes, and buy some deodorant for the MH, it will probably smell like black tank for a while.

The reason I ask about the once a week is we won't be in it near that often. In the Lance we dumped the tanks when leaving the campground, through in a pouch of toilet powder (forget the brand name) and forgot about it until the next outing. It's been 100% trouble free. So if we aren't using it, what needs to be dumped?

[old_guy]

dumping once a week? is it necessary? I think so. isn't it obvious to you now since you had such a terrible smell in the MH already? when it comes to the tanks, black or grey, take care of them or you will be so sorry. I forgot to close the valve on the black tank once in Yuma, had to do the dance to get it flowing again. Oh yes, and buy some deodorant for the MH, it will probably smell like black tank for a while.

[rooney77]

garyhaupt wrote:
When you are dumping today....dump and rinse 3 or 4 times. If you have a rinse inlet, cool..if you don't you may have to drag a hose inside and poke it down the toilet. Don't be worried overly about the sensor. They are all crap, anyway. You just to make sure that you have gotten any build-up out. Sure..some Simple Green now, before you go to the dump place. Let is slosh around some.

After dumping till you figure you have it...put in a bunch of water...5 or 6 gallons. Throw in your Simple Green and let it be.

The vacuum created by open windows will draw smell into the cab. You won't get any smell till after a week. So...every 5 days, dump.


Gary Haupt

I plan on dumping in my cleanout for the house. There's nowhere nearby that I can dump so it's the option I have. But the benefit is, no rushing and can flush as much as needed.

Do I really need to dump that often? I never did in the Lance. We aren't full timing by any means. Most we will do (I say that now) is weekend trips to state parks/off-road parks.

[garyhaupt]

When you are dumping today....dump and rinse 3 or 4 times. If you have a rinse inlet, cool..if you don't you may have to drag a hose inside and poke it down the toilet. Don't be worried overly about the sensor. They are all crap, anyway. You just to make sure that you have gotten any build-up out. Sure..some Simple Green now, before you go to the dump place. Let is slosh around some.

After dumping till you figure you have it...put in a bunch of water...5 or 6 gallons. Throw in your Simple Green and let it be.

The vacuum created by open windows will draw smell into the cab. You won't get any smell till after a week. So...every 5 days, dump.


Gary Haupt

[rooney77]

IAMICHABOD wrote:
The smell may not be coming from your Black tank,it may be the gray tank.


I would check and replace the air admittance valves
located near your sinks,they are cheap and can be found at most big box stores like Home Depot and Lowes as well as smaller hardware stores.

If they fail they will let the smell from the grey tanks in and believe me they can smell just as bad as the black tank if not worse.


Changed mine out and the smell was gone!

Anyway to tell if they're bad? I'm hoping that's it. I don't have a very strong stomach when it comes to odors.

Since there is no telling how long those tanks have had fluid in them I'm hoping it just needs a good flushing. This afternoon I plan on dumping the tanks and throwing some simple green in there for a little bit. I'll also bust out my spinny black tank cleaner thingy just to be sure the sensors and all are cleaned off.

Someone said that leaving the vents open while driving can make the small worse, what's the reason for that? I had the fart fan going and the vent open to try and alleviate the smell.

[2oldman]

If the MH's been sitting for weeks/months with waste water in it, especially in heat, I would expect horrible smells.

[garyhaupt]

Lots of varied and opposing views will come from this question. I used lots of different chemicals as I did the learning curve. What I found was...pour in whatever chemical I was using, in a week..oh my God...don't use any chemicals, make sure I have 5-7 gallons of water in the tank after flushing...in a week..oh My God.

Bottom line is...if you are moving the rig, after a week, it's going to smell. You will get the gases as the Rv goes down the road, windows open, etc...draws the gases/smell into the cab. And yes, if you are using the RV plumbing you will have water in the P traps anyway. Don't wait till the tanks are full..just do a dump and clean once a week. Takes care of all of that.



Gary Haupt

[louiskathy]

If you have the ceiling vents open and vent fan going as you drive down the road... whatever problems you have with smells coming up from empty P traps or tank vents are going to be compounded.

Make sure you have water in the sink and tub/shower drains. While you dump, water can be sucked out of those P traps... so run some water in them.

5 weeks ago I switched to a product I found at Ace hardware... DRAINBO (Marine and RV treatment and cleaner).I'm really happy with it. Up to then I had tried RvDigestIt for about a year. And before that I was using TST Orange Tank Cleaner from Camping World.

We have a truck camper but we full time in a Class A. The Class A stays in one spot for very long periods of time. The last time we rolled these wheels was in October 2011. (The truck camper is used as a guest house and it's our "travel vehicle".)