Warning- air admittance vent valve issues

[cvin]

taking the time to post this in the middle of the mess i am in with my 2015 outback in the hopes it will help someone else avoid this problem

camper sits a week or 2 at a time and then gets moved
last time i moved it i had been staying in the camper for 4-5 days and no issues, move it to a friends to leave it empty for the week and there was a bad sewer smell but in the middle of the camper, did not know what to think- was in a hurry and had to head back home

put a couple of the packets in the black tank and hoped that would solve it

got back 3-4 days ago, stayed in the camper for these 4 days and no issues, no smell at all

move the camper to an rv park and it smells terrible again

do some research
offshoot here- verizon in flagstaff, az is AWFUL
my weboost helps in the camper but driving the car around town it is super slow



anyway figured out it must be the air admittance valve under the kitchen sink


go to the only 3 rv parts places i can find in flagstaff and no one has one in any form or shape
home depot has 3 but none fit my rv and no adapters to make them fit

search amazon etc and cannot find one
mine is an ayrlett threaded female type and it just screws onto the pipe, it stands a little over 2 inches tall
the home depot ones are male and if you use an adapter at all MUCH taller

not enough room under the sink to do 1-2 adapters to try and make it work

so i am sitting here with no solution at all and cannot even find one to overnight on amazon


i will carry at least 2 EXTRAS of this part from now on

my suggestion is everyone look at your valves and get at least one back up, make sure you get the correct one

i dont know if my camper is weird or what, amazed i cannot even find a pic of mine online, much less order one

hope no one else has to go through this, huge hassle

[chuckster57]

It's possible that when you move the trailer the water in the P trap drains out and allows the tank to "vent".

[Garyl53]

I have learned to close the drain strainers tight and then put an inch of water in each sink. This keeps the fumes out when moving the trailer and keeps the water from sloshing out of the traps. I thought I had a bad air admittance vent but it was the drains all along.

[cvin]

well i found that in searches for this issue and i put a decent amount of water down the drains last night, may have helped some but did not seem to solve the problem completely

if i pour a bottle of bleach or pine sol or something down the drains would this knock it out for right now?
it is not near as bad as it was but still smells some
since the one in the bathroom does not smell at all, seems like it is the valve???

update on my part search
it seems this one is discontinued and maybe was only put on a few campers...
not sure what to think, the ones i find that look like this are glue on , not screw on like mine
may have found it at trekwood but i am mostly deaf and the relay service seems to be down, so cannot call them right now

and even if they have it i am looking at 2-3 days to get it i am sure

this has been a ****ty day

basically i need to replumb all this stuff under the sink so it takes a NORMAL valve
this is ridiculous on a 2015 camper that has been used now maybe 10-12 times

i realize all these campers are junk anymore but i am very much regretting buying a newer camper
should have bought older since i am going to be working on it all the time anyway
the auto propane valve seems to be screwing up also, that is my project for tomorrow

what i should have done was build a toy hauler the way i wanted, too much wasted space in these campers for me and at least i would know the electrical/plumbing etc


aggravating day

[cvin]

ordered one of those cyclone things for the roof vent, problem is the camper is parked for 3-4 more days here so that is not much help

[JRTJH]

IF (and I don't believe it is) that the cheater vent is bad, you can completely "bypass" it by simply taping a zip lock sandwich bag over the vent, completely sealing it. The drain will "gurgle" a bit, but otherwise, you'll have eliminated the cheater vent from the equation. If, the next time you move, you still have the odor, you'll know it's the traps allowing the gray tank smell back into the trailer. If you don't have the odor, then you'll have narrowed the problem to the cheater vent. But, my guess is that if the cheater vent is bad, it would "vent the odors" all the time, not just when moving the trailer.

So, if it is the traps emptying, the only "solution" is to eliminate the odor in the gray tanks before travel. You might find the "venture vent" for your roof helps, but I'd guess a good cleaning of your gray tanks would work best. LOTS OF HOT WATER, DAWN and let it sit overnight.... This is another of those situations where "the solution to pollution is dilution"....

It's a matter of flushing the tank enough to remove the odors so they won't "vent to the sink drains" if it's the traps that are allowing the odor back into the trailer.

As for not being able to find a vent that will screw onto the threads under your sink, it's either a 1.5" or a 2" PVC pipe, so a hack saw, a quick fitting for a threaded end that will fit the available cheater vents and you've solved the problem "permanently". Of course, back to the first sentence, I don't think it's your cheater vent that's the problem. The baggie will tell you for sure.

[cvin]

ok thanks for the input everyone

will order 2 vents just to be safe, but will work on really cleaning and deodorizing the grey tank and the sink pipes..
have not been putting any kind of treatment in it but before this happened had ordered some stuff online anyway , it is supposed to be here in a couple of hours


just ran some dawn and hot water in it

since the bathroom did not smell at all and it seemed all the smell was coming from under the kitchen sink i just guessed it was the valve from what i found on google

[SummitPond]

When we had our home kitchen remodeled some 15 years ago, we had a Studor vent (what you're calling a cheater vent) installed and have had zero issues with it. When I was poking around the trailer looking for a place to install the EMS I noticed there was a Studor vent (or what looked like that brand) coming from the tub in the area where the shore power cable is stored. Perhaps you can find a plumbing wholesaler that can fix you up with something that will fit.

[cvin]

I tried a plumbing wholesaler today and they did not have one that would fit

Looks like it would all have to be cut out and redone to fit any of the others

Hoping trekwood gets back with me in the morning and the one they have is the right one....

Did major cleaning on the tanks, smell is better/not gone but the rv is parked and will be for another few days, will have to see what happens when i move it

[JRTJH]

If you can't find a cheater vent before your next move, just put a sandwich bag over the vent, tape it to the stand-off pipe (so there's no chance of it venting into the cabinet) and after you tow, see if it smells. If it does, then you'll know the cheater vent is not the problem. My guess is that you'll still have the smell and can eliminate replacing the vent as the source of odor. It's more likely to be the traps spilling their water and gasses coming up that route. Maybe just putting in the drain plugs will stop the odor ??? then again, maybe not ??????

[Tbos]

I have a similar occasional issue when we are not moving. When we dump, rinse and shake the valves the smell will go away.


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[cvin]

Updating this

Flushed both tanks a lot before leaving the campground, so both empty and hopefully clean...

No smell moving it from there 7-8 miles to my friends, will see how it does after boondocking in it a couple of days and it sitting for a week..

Will update this after that next move