Can I put a little baking soda in my TT toilet?

[TnCamperMama]

Please don't laugh , but my toilet in our new to us 06 Hornet stinks to holy hell! We can't hook it up to water to flush it out until we take our first trip in a few weeks. I was wondering if I could sprinkle a little baking soda just around the rim of the toilet or a little in the tank. IDK what the previous owners used to help with the smell, but I got a good reccomendation on the pod things from an older camper pro at my local Walmart. I'll be buying them for this summer. If I can't put baking soda in it, can I put some plain white vinegar? I'm new to ownership, so please don't laugh. I just want the funk smell gone. I know to expect some, but its kinda bad! Thanks.

[RoadXYZ]

Last Summer we took care of the toilet odor by getting an RV Repairman to install a new vent atop the roof .. we had fought the smell for several weeks, then went to Amazon and ordered one of the twirly-type tank vents .. voila - smell gone ! The repairman we use doesn't mind us providing the parts ...

[TnCamperMama]

My daddy was USMC {ret} and MS Nat. Guard Ret. before he passed in 2010. We are a VERY patriotic family!
Thank you very much on your compliments. We are sooooo excited!

[LBL_1206]

read your blog and looked at the pixs of your camper.
good looking unit. have fun and enjoy.

saw a few references to military in your blog. retired army here! Hooah!

[TnCamperMama]

THANKS! :)I prefer more natural cleaners. I make my own with white vinegar and a few drops of soap. You can use it on any surface too. Cleaned my whole camper with it.

[enblethen]

Careful which CampaChem you get. Read the label. Some contain Formaldehyde. It is not as much as before. The purple labeled does not.

[TnCamperMama]

rockhillmanor wrote:
First of all just so you know, there should NEVER be ANY smell coming from the tanks.

Did the people you bought this trailer from have it parked permanently in a park?

If so, some leave the black tank valve open all the time and there is not enough water to move the sewage out and it creates what we all call "a mountain of poop" in your black tank.
I hope for you that this is not the case.

For the quick fix until you can get out to a CG is fill up several gallon water jugs and schlep them out to your RV and pour them down into your black tank and add this:
Be sure to read the label and that it says powerful odor control. There are 2 kinds on the shelf and look alike but the one marked natural doesn't do squat. Find at any Walmart.
I'd put 2 bottles of it in. This stuff actually 'Break down Waste' others do not. I use this stuff regularly.


For the gray tank put a gallon of water and any quart size liquid lemon cleaner from the grocery store.

Pour water down all sinks and the shower AND.....put water in the bowl of toilet when done. P-traps Need to be filled and toilet with water to create a seal just like in you home.

THAT should get you to the CG without you and the DW gagging!
Good luck. Once you get over this oops you should be fine.

Don't forget the

That's what the older road dawg at Walmart suggested I buy as well. Thanks!

Your replies have been confusing at times, but I KNOW come from a good place of trying to help this newbie to tt ownership. It's a whole new ball game going from borrowing my inlaws older hi-low {they traded for a 2014 Salem Ultralite} to actually owning and outfitting our own rig.
I started a blog about buying on a budget and hope to fill it with wonderful adventures and maybe not too many misadventures. 🙂
Once my DH gets back from Germany and gets a chance to look at it, I'll report back.
Thanks again y'all. This forum has been so helpful. I've lurked for months!

P.S. LBL, our power came back on while I was at my inlaws. I did have a large limb too close for comfort to the powerline connecting the main hwy line to us and my 2 neighbors houses. A friend and his Daddy helped move it yesterday. Several other limbs are down too. The boat took a hit, but no major damage. The pine trees can loose limbs all day long b/c they are away from the house, and tt.
Here's a link to my new blog.

http://thefrugalhappycampers.blogspot.com/

[DutchmenSport]

Just a thought ... back in "the day" (1960's), at that private camp ground my parents went to year after year, the only toilet on the entire campground was an old fashioned "out-house" ... today called a "pit toilet" for all you young'ins out there!

Now that little house stank! Especially in the middle of July and August when the temperatures got near 100 at night! The owner of the campground used raw lye (power) and just powered the dickens out of every square inch of that old outhouse and then just kept dumping it down the "hole". Well, the lye power definitely killed the smell, but the lye on your southern end when you sat down caused for a quick swim in the adjoining river (if you get my drift there).

I suppose if you could get a bag of lye you could "powder" your RV bathroom until this country get's out of the "deep freeze!" I wouldn't walk barefoot in there though, or you'll probably find you have no need for foot callous remover any more ... actually, you may not even need shoes any more!

[spike99]

.

In the old days..... After flushing my RV's toilet, I used to smell "stank" from our toilet as well. Not all the time but once in a while. To eliminate this smell, I simply created / installed a 12V computer fan "power vent" system using ABS Piping on the RV's roof top stink vent pipe. Something that looks like: - click here -

Since installing low cost 12V computer fan power vent 35+ CFMs, NO more "stank" smells within our RV's bathroom.

For this mod, we simply turn the 12V fan on before going to the washroom, flush the toilet, wash hands and turn the fan back off. When fan is on and toilet valve is open, the "bad smell" is sucked down - into the holding tank, then sucked up the holding tank's vent pipe. Thus, no more smells coming "up" the open toilet valve (when one flushes).

If into a store bought product, simply buy their new 12V power vent system and install within bathroom's inner wall cavity (and using an access door). Or, install in the RV's roof cavity area. re: - click here -

If wondering, my new RV will have this 12V power vent product as well. IMO, this product (or something like it) should be mandatory factory build. That's how great it works...

And best of all, NO more chemicals down the toilet valve opening either. Money saved from no more chemicals paid for this 12V fan product many times over. And, we all love saving dollars on maintenance tasks...

Hope this helps.

[LBL_1206]

TnCamperMama wrote:
I'm just North of Memphis. We've camped at LBL before at Energy Lake. It was nice, but if we go back, we will camp at the bigger cg's.
Our power went out at 8 last night and still not back on. I brought the kids over to my inlaws b/c they have electronics,lol. I'd be fine with no power, but my heatherns are a different story,lol

we have the fireplace going in order to conserve propane.
we camp at LBL all the time. our preferred cg is Piney. plus it's only 16 miles from our house...
hope all works out for ya....stay safe, stay warm.

[balloonpilot]

I just bought a used TT in September and had the same issue.
Had water in the bowl to keep a good seal, put in chemicals into tank with some water. Cleaned all over bathroom... still had smell.
Got a flashlight out to look for the poo mound and instead, found a piece of poo below the seal and above the tank in the bottom half of the toilet that was stuck on the "wall" of the funnel into the tank.
A toilet brush and a little scrubbing and no more smell!!!

good luck and congratz on the new trailer!

[TnCamperMama]

I'm just North of Memphis. We've camped at LBL before at Energy Lake. It was nice, but if we go back, we will camp at the bigger cg's.
Our power went out at 8 last night and still not back on. I brought the kids over to my inlaws b/c they have electronics,lol. I'd be fine with no power, but my heatherns are a different story,lol

[LBL_1206]

"And whoever said it doesn't get that cold in Tn, I'm sorry, but you're wrong. Ice on trees and school being cancelled b/c of it is plenty cold for this thin blooded Southern girl. :)"

Same here at Land Between the Lakes....Burrrrrr cold!!!! 🙂

[TnCamperMama]

Thank you for your help. I honestly AM a bit confused now. The temps are freezing here right now, and I don't even have power at home b/c of ice.
I will check the vents. We JUST purchased this 06 Hornet BH a week ago. the only thing I've done to it is Lysol all the surfaces and move stuff in. IDK about the previous owners usage, where it was stored, or anything like that. I just know it looks barely used.
When we got it home and parked there was water in the bathroom floor, I just soaked it up with paper towels. HOW they winterized it, IDK. We purchased from a dealership, b/c the previous owners were getting a brand new 5'er. It was a super fast deal, so we honestly didn't get under it with flash lights and such. I can probably get the service records from the dealership b/c it was originally purchased there and been serviced from time to time there.
I did notice a sewer odor underneath in the back storage area.I put a container of baking soda in there to help absorb odors. My husband and FIL are the camper experts, and I'm sure whatever issue is causing the smell, they can fix. That being said, my DH is in Germany working right now and will be the rest of the week. The issue will simply have to wait to be fixed until he gets home.
I appreciate the helpfulness of these replies.
Thanks,
Sarah

And whoever said it doesn't get that cold in Tn, I'm sorry, but you're wrong. Ice on trees and school being cancelled b/c of it is plenty cold for this thin blooded Southern girl. 🙂 IDK how to navigate the forum well enough to ad a signature of exactly what we have.

[LarryJM]

TnCamperMama wrote:
Please don't laugh , but my toilet in our new to us 06 Hornet stinks to holy hell! We can't hook it up to water to flush it out until we take our first trip in a few weeks. I was wondering if I could sprinkle a little baking soda just around the rim of the toilet or a little in the tank. IDK what the previous owners used to help with the smell, but I got a good reccomendation on the pod things from an older camper pro at my local Walmart. I'll be buying them for this summer. If I can't put baking soda in it, can I put some plain white vinegar? I'm new to ownership, so please don't laugh. I just want the funk smell gone. I know to expect some, but its kinda bad! Thanks.

If it stinks as bad as you say I HIGHLY DOUBT just baking soda is going to help ... it's just not strong enough. IMO there can be two main causes of the odor from especially the black tank ... One is not enough water to keep things submerged and diluted and two having solids STICK to the walls if you have towed with contents in the black tank. Both these potential sources can be mitigated by using enough water for flushes and using the geo method that helps keep thing "SLICK AND CLEAN" for lack of better words. I use the liquid CALGON and using the measuring top from the CALGON put a cap full of it and a cap full of the cheapest liquid dish soap I can find in the black tank after each dumping.

Larry