Terrible Odor
Last fall after being on a full hookup site for months I went to a car race where there were no hookups so my gray tanks were closed in addition to the black tank. After a couple of days the "stuff" in the kitchen gray tank started to get wet and stink. The smell was amazing and after a dump by the honey wagon and a gallon of bleach added to the tank all was well. Now to last week:
I was on my home base site and mid-afternoon a horrible odor was noted. I thought it was the kitchen gray tank again even though I have been putting a little glug of bleach in it after each dump since last fall. That didn't stop the smell. I filled and the tank completely and dumped 3-4 times. I bought some specific gray tank chemical and instead the recommended 4 ounces per treatment I put all 32 ounces (the smell was that bad). The smell started setting off my CO/LP detector which I had to remove since it was hard wired. I slept at night with the windows open and both exhaust fans running. Fortunately the smell was mainly in the rear living area and not in the bedroom.
The odor got a little better this past Friday after a 250 mile tow to my summer host crampground, but was still present. Then this past Sunday it was gone. That was when it finally occurred to me what it had to be. I think a critter of some kind crawled up in my enclosed belly and died and the decomposition time was about a week. My home base site has numerous chipmunks around so I'm thinking it might have been one of them. The methane created by decomposition would set off the CO/LP detector so when the odor stopped I reinstalled the CO/LP detector and no issues with it (it is not even 2 years old at this point).
The trials of full time RV'ing.
I was on my home base site and mid-afternoon a horrible odor was noted. I thought it was the kitchen gray tank again even though I have been putting a little glug of bleach in it after each dump since last fall. That didn't stop the smell. I filled and the tank completely and dumped 3-4 times. I bought some specific gray tank chemical and instead the recommended 4 ounces per treatment I put all 32 ounces (the smell was that bad). The smell started setting off my CO/LP detector which I had to remove since it was hard wired. I slept at night with the windows open and both exhaust fans running. Fortunately the smell was mainly in the rear living area and not in the bedroom.
The odor got a little better this past Friday after a 250 mile tow to my summer host crampground, but was still present. Then this past Sunday it was gone. That was when it finally occurred to me what it had to be. I think a critter of some kind crawled up in my enclosed belly and died and the decomposition time was about a week. My home base site has numerous chipmunks around so I'm thinking it might have been one of them. The methane created by decomposition would set off the CO/LP detector so when the odor stopped I reinstalled the CO/LP detector and no issues with it (it is not even 2 years old at this point).
The trials of full time RV'ing.
