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Black water odor in the coach.

Posted 02-27-2020 at 05:49 PM by HiBanky
Updated 06-05-2023 at 05:46 AM by HiBanky (Addressing the other cause for odor)

2005 Journey
I have a unique situation that to my knowledge has never been address at least not in this forum. In certain weather conditions my black water tank emitted the foulest odor imaginable. There are dozens of reasons for bad odors from your holding tanks to enter your RV. There dozens more solutions posted in forums such as this one. After months of disappointment none of the solutions offered in any forum made a bit of difference. Out of desperation I pulled the control panel to access the vent pipe, convinced it must have been disconnected from the tank. What I found was that it had been cut apart and rejoined with a coupling. Looking closer I could see light from the outside shining around the pipe. Someone , for reasons unknown, had shortened the pipe to where it was not reaching the outside allowing the gasses to vent directly into the space behind the control panel. This was also evident by the witness marks around the top of the pipe indicating it was once two and a half inches longer. Who could be so dumb. It was an easy fix. I just cut the top section off and replaced it with one long enough to extended past the flange in the vent cap joining them with a new coupling and some ABS cement. Finally, problem solved.

Correction, problem not solved. A few days after the short pipe fix. The bad odor returned but not from the within the wall. This time it came from the toilet. Once the tank became 2/3s full the odor came up as bad as ever. I pulled the control panel again to check the vent pipe. This time I gave it a very hard pull upward and sure enough it came up but not loose. I could tell that the top of the tank had sunk down blocking the gasses with the liquid when the tank was partially full. I did a quick fix by lifting the pipe up, wrapping a wire around the pipe and fasting the wire to the inter wall with a screw. This should hold the top of the tank up two inches further from the bottom. In a few days I will know if this helps. A more permanent fix would be to wedge a segment of pipe in the tank between the top and the bottom. That of course would require the removal of the toilet and reaching down into the tank with the pipe segment. Today I will go under the coach and see if there is some thing that can be done from there.

update 8/8/2021
Any attempt to raise the top of the black water holding tank would require a good deal of time and expense. My work around for the past two years has been to limit the level to 2/3 and go no longer and 5 days between dumps.

Update 6/6/23
In addition to the short pipe problem, The previous owners were not diligent when it came to keeping the black tank clean and probably not using the right chemicals either. As evident by the date of the update it has taken a very long time to rectify this dirty tank problem. I also have to admit my role in prolonging this issue by using ordinary bowl cleaner instead of bio-friendly stuff. After many vigorous flushings that include putting a garden wand down through the bowl opening, cleaning the porcelain with the right stuff, and using a good tank deodorizer after each dump, the air in the coach is now always fresh. Even during flushing.
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