Sewage smell in bathroom

[Supergrover]

Aside from the obvious... anyone have an odor they can't figure out where it's coming from?

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[SLIMSHADIE]

Is there water in your tub and sink traps, the grey tank can stink too.

[JimQ]

Look around for anything unusual. Are there mouse droppings anywhere? If a critter got in your coach and died, it may smell a bit.

[Dave W]

A few things to look at -

Is there a powered roof exhaust vent you leave on in the bathroom when you flush? That will suck the fumes out of the tank through the toilet. If it's set to pull air in, it may also suck in the black tank vent fumes.

Is the black tank vent close to the roof vent? That may allow fumes to drift in without a fan to help.

Is the tank vent cap jammed too tightly down on the vent line?

Does the shower or sink drain into the black tank? If so, you need a water trap somewhere in those drains.

Do you have a toilet drain pipe to tank leak?

A black tank leak?

A drain valve leak and drip to the belly cover?

A pet that left a 'present' behind the toilet?

[slow]

Some Dometic toilets have reports of leaks from the bowl into the pedestal were the waste collects.

http://www.keystonerv.org/forums/showthread.php?t=21479&highlight=dometic+toilet+leak

[Mike484]

Make sure there is always water in the toilet bowl, this is your p trap. Sometimes there is a small leak and the water drains out over time which would allow the fumes to come up into the bathroom.

[Trailsport07]

There is a vent under your bathroom sink. It looks like a black PVC cap. It has a rubber seal that goes bad. Can replace it for like 10 to 20 dollars.

[Trailsport07]

The cap just threads on. Easy to replace

[Ken / Claudia]

Above answers where all good advice. But, I have a couple of questions that may help what you look at or repair. Is this odor always been present with your rv. We do not know if you have a used or new rv or how long you used it. Have you had rvs in the past and never had this type of odor.

[Ittle Dew Too]

One night on our 30 day, 9000 mile trip we just took, we started to smell a strong sewer smell. We were Hooked to the sewer on our front and back tanks. I immediately closed all the grey valves to the sewer, the black was already closed. Still stunk.

Checked around and all 3 drain vent caps had vibrated off durring travel and needed to be screwed back in place. One under the kitchen sink, one under the bathroom sink and one in the rear pass through for the shower.

After putting all three back on, smell was gone even after re opening the grey tank valves.

[BigMac]

Intereting....but being new to TT, what are these vents caps?? If they fall off does stuff not leak everywhere ....or of they are off,,are they not venting??? I will need to go look at mine but want to understand these.


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[Ittle Dew Too]

They are basically a one way diaphragm valve that lets air in the drain line so the water flows to the tanks and not burble like when you pour a milk jug. There is one after the p-trap on all three of my sink/shower lines. It is a pvc cap looking thing that screws into the threaded pipe and they are higher up than the p-trap so as not to let water out even if they were missing. If you follow the drain from the sink, past the p-trap and before it goes down to the tank, it should be in line if you have them. They vent the lines without having to continue a vent pipe to the roof for each drain. Like in house construction, you need to let air into the drain system to make the water drain to the tanks efficiently.

[Ittle Dew Too]

Oh yeah, if they are off they are venting. But since it is after the p-trap, if you are hooked to a sewer line and have the gate valve of the tank open so as not to fill your tank, you now have raw sewer gas coming up into your tank and out your missing vent cap into your trailer.

[hankaye]

Ittle Dew Too, Howdy;

One night on our 30 day, 9000 mile trip we just took, we started to smell a strong sewer smell. We were Hooked to the sewer on our front and back tanks. I immediately closed all the grey valves to the sewer, the black was already closed. Still stunk.

Checked around and all 3 drain vent caps had vibrated off durring travel and needed to be screwed back in place. One under the kitchen sink, one under the bathroom sink and one in the rear pass through for the shower.

After putting all three back on, smell was gone even after re opening the grey tank valves.

You wouldn't happen to have a photo of one of those valves would ya?
I'm curious as to what they look like and where exactly they may be.
Thanks.

hankaye

[Ittle Dew Too]

My trailer just went to storage after a thorough cleaning after our trip, but I found the cap online.


https://www.rvupgradestore.com/Lasalle-Bristol-74PV240BB-Vent-Check-p/10-1671.htm

[JRTJH]

My trailer just went to storage after a thorough cleaning after our trip, but I found the cap online.


https://www.rvupgradestore.com/Lasalle-Bristol-74PV240BB-Vent-Check-p/10-1671.htm

I don't believe you purchased this, but rather just used the website to show a photo of the vent cap. Just to give you (and others) an example of how items with "RV" in their title are marked up, the price for the vent cap you listed is $12.80, a similar vent cap at Lowes is listed at $5.39... http://www.lowes.com/pd/Keeney-Mfg-Co-1-1-2-in-Plastic-Mechanical-Plumbing-Air-Admittance-Vent/1069119 The website you listed is a relatively inexpensive one, the same vent cap (by part number and manufacturer) is $23.27 at Amazon.com.....

Just another example of the "marine" and "RV" markup....

[Desert185]

I don't believe you purchased this, but rather just used the website to show a photo of the vent cap. Just to give you (and others) an example of how items with "RV" in their title are marked up, the price for the vent cap you listed is $12.80, a similar vent cap at Lowes is listed at $5.39... http://www.lowes.com/pd/Keeney-Mfg-Co-1-1-2-in-Plastic-Mechanical-Plumbing-Air-Admittance-Vent/1069119 The website you listed is a relatively inexpensive one, the same vent cap (by part number and manufacturer) is $23.27 at Amazon.com.....

Just another example of the "marine" and "RV" markup....

And more expensive if an "aviation" item.

[jje1960]

There is a vent under your bathroom sink. It looks like a black PVC cap. It has a rubber seal that goes bad. Can replace it for like 10 to 20 dollars.

This valve went on our SRX last year, believe its the black tank rinse one-way valve, definitely check this area out.

[Ittle Dew Too]

As I stated, my camper is in storage. No, I did not purchase it online as my camper already has three of them, I did however try my best to find a picture of what it looks like to aid in another's search to fix a problem.

I should have known to clearly state the fact that it was a photo and not a purchase so as not to confuse people.

I should have also known better than to try to help, as I knew others would question my post, the locations, the type and function of the caps, and any other thing that might not be exactly like their trailer, fifth wheel, toy hauler, hybrid tent camper, truck camper or anything else in vast sea of camper types and models that I failed to cover, to their level of satisfaction.

I do hope, however, the person who was looking for help found the picture helpful in determining if their vent caps were missing or in place.

[JimQ]

Ittle Dew Too: I thought your replies were very informative and straight forward. Thank You for them!

[hankaye]

Ittle Dew Too, Howdy;

Don't let one or a few folks get your feathers ruffled. The vast majority of
folks on here are just regular folks and probably read your previous post
about finding all of yours on the floor and solving your problem by simply
screwing them back on.
As I'm the one that asked for the photo in the first place. I did that so that
others would have a better idea of what it was you were talking about.
Sorry it lead to your being upset as a result.

hankaye

[sfsurvivor]

I have a 2014 Keystone Alpine 3600RS

After I drain my black tank, have sewer smell from the shower - 99% sure that the trap under the shower isn't a P Trap!!!!! I believe that the problem is the HepvO waterless P-trap malfunction - look it up and see what you got - it's a tube that has a rubber hose inside that opens for water to go out - - if it doesn't close correctly, sewer gas will come into the living space.

check this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGJWz6ozQ3o

[JRTJH]

sfsurvivor,

If you have "black tank smells" coming from your shower drain, it's leaking through the HEPV-O valve, but your problem is likely to be in the way you're draining your black tank. There "should" be no communication between the shower drain and the black tank. Essentially, for sewer smells to be emitted through the shower drain, they first have to migrate from the trailer sewer dump fitting (the location where the gray and black tank contents are plumbed to meet) back through the gray tank 1.5" discharge line, through the gray tank, up the shower plumbing, through the HEPV-O valve and into the shower. There "should" be no black tank gas making it that far "up the gray holding tank lines and into the tank" much less from there into the shower pan...

I'd take a look at your dumping process and try closing your gray tank valve, at least for a couple hours after dumping to see if your black tank contents/gas/smell are really backflowing through your gray hold tank system... I'd almost bet it's coming from something else, even if the HEPV-O valve is bad, you should not have any smell from the black tank getting that far backed up on the gray tank side.

ADDED: You might want to consider using a gray tank cleaner for a couple of tanks of gray waste. Sometimes the gray waste water can be "worse on the nose" than black tank waste. Typically, it's the galley that really smells bad, but the bathroom tank can get bad as well. And on many trailers, there's only one gray tank for galley and bath, so they take an extra effort to keep the smells down.

[sfsurvivor]

I have 3 tanks and the sewer gas will come up through the shower ( that is the exact reason for the traps, to stop sewer gas from coming up through the drains)after I close the black and reopen the the grey tanks is when I have the problem - the sinks have P traps do not spell, the shower doesn't have a conventional P-trap.

[Tinner12002]

My one way valve for the shower drain is in my storage compartment in a horizonal drain line according to the walkthrough guy when we bought it.

[flybouy]

As I stated, my camper is in storage. No, I did not purchase it online as my camper already has three of them, I did however try my best to find a picture of what it looks like to aid in another's search to fix a problem.

I should have known to clearly state the fact that it was a photo and not a purchase so as not to confuse people.

I should have also known better than to try to help, as I knew others would question my post, the locations, the type and function of the caps, and any other thing that might not be exactly like their trailer, fifth wheel, toy hauler, hybrid tent camper, truck camper or anything else in vast sea of camper types and models that I failed to cover, to their level of satisfaction.

I do hope, however, the person who was looking for help found the picture helpful in determining if their vent caps were missing or in place.

I read these posts several times and my take on John's comments in not thinking you bought it from that website I took as a precursor to his comments so as NOT to offend you. I'm not speaking for, nor defending just giving you my interpretation. John didn't say gee whiz you fool you paid way too much for that but rather was informing the general readership (which recently has had a huge influx of "newbies" that are experiencing their first camper) to be aware of the different price points for the same item and how not everything in an RV is RV specific. That was my interpretation, yours was obviously different.