Strong urine smell in bathroom
Our new to us trailer on it's first voyage has a strong urine smell beginning in the bathroom and after pumping permeates the whole trailer. It's a dometic toilet. It appears to be tight and no seal l...
Forum Discussion
It's been a long time since I've read my RV owner's manual and I don't have it handy, but I believe that indeed that's a general rule for RVs -- no bleaches down sinks or toilets. Chlorine compounds in bleach can be detrimental to elastomers (rubbers) such as seals. I forget if they're harmful to plastics as well.
I've always suspected folks are often confused about needing enzymes in tanks (enzymes are catalysts to speed up biological action and break down waste). Some blackwater treatments do go that route by introducing enzymes, and certainly may be effective. And they're often used in municipal sewage treatment.
But the opposite approach to NUKE the tank with antibacterials -- to kill off most bacterial activity -- works as well since if you kill the bacteria, you kill the odor. (Same for your breath, feet, underarms, sink drain, refrigerated foods, etc.) Easily the most common active ingredient in blackwater treatments until recently was Bronopol, a formaldehyde precursor. So the approach was to KILL bacterial activity in the tank, rather than promote it through enzymes. So it appears that two opposite approaches (promote or inhibit bacterial activity) can and do work. As for a need to break down solids via enzymes, a small amount of common detergent (sodium laurel sulfate) does that just fine. Some states have banned Bronopol since it can interfere with their sewage treatment process should they use enzymes, so you'veseen blackwater treatments change their chemical formulations in recent years to friendlier options like calcium nitrate (???) or adding a thin layer of orange oil to the wastewater surface that traps odors beneath it. A lot of details from memory there, so hopefully I didn't get something wrong.
I've always suspected folks are often confused about needing enzymes in tanks (enzymes are catalysts to speed up biological action and break down waste). Some blackwater treatments do go that route by introducing enzymes, and certainly may be effective. And they're often used in municipal sewage treatment.
But the opposite approach to NUKE the tank with antibacterials -- to kill off most bacterial activity -- works as well since if you kill the bacteria, you kill the odor. (Same for your breath, feet, underarms, sink drain, refrigerated foods, etc.) Easily the most common active ingredient in blackwater treatments until recently was Bronopol, a formaldehyde precursor. So the approach was to KILL bacterial activity in the tank, rather than promote it through enzymes. So it appears that two opposite approaches (promote or inhibit bacterial activity) can and do work. As for a need to break down solids via enzymes, a small amount of common detergent (sodium laurel sulfate) does that just fine. Some states have banned Bronopol since it can interfere with their sewage treatment process should they use enzymes, so you'veseen blackwater treatments change their chemical formulations in recent years to friendlier options like calcium nitrate (???) or adding a thin layer of orange oil to the wastewater surface that traps odors beneath it. A lot of details from memory there, so hopefully I didn't get something wrong.
