Grey-Water leak in the underbelly!

[Senexon]

I’m in need of some help and general direction.

My GD is a 2017 297RSTS, and we are full timing it, current location is Central Texas.

About a month ago we started having kitchen sink draining issues, and really bad smell when you use the kitchen sink or open up the coffee bar drawers.

I googled the symptoms and found out that the Air Admittance Valve (AAV) goes bad often, so it got replaced by a better valve from HomeDepot. It fixed draining issue but not the smell.

I normally have grey water open, black tank closed and drained once a week. Decided to have them all closed and fill them up to sort of flush it out in case there are food particles that are causing the smell. Once the kitchen grey tank got full the smell got worse even after emptying it, especially bad when the heater runs.

Today I looked underneath and my underbelly is sagging, pushed up on it and heard water. Yikes!

Drilled a couple holes in the coroplast and let it drain out, nasty smell as you can imagine and many gallons of water. Definitely grey water. Removed a few screws from the underbelly and shined a light, trickle of water seems to be coming from the top right If looking from the drain valve side. Nothing is visible from inside, under kitchen island or coffee bar with an endoscope camera. It’s all dry there.

Someone else posted here before with bad vent pipe glueup, wondering if its similar but in a less accessible place. Any more (hidden) AAVs besides kitchen and bathroom sinks?

[WhittleBurner]

Welcome to the group!

Ours started doing the same thing this past year. Far as we can tell it is coming from the top and without dropping the tank we won't know if it is a crack or the piping. I have a fairly sensitive nose and can smell even the faintest amount we know it's time to drain the tank. While parked we are leaving the gray open , closing it for a day or 2 to follow the black. If we plan onm backflushing we don't bother.. This issue makes dry or non full HU camping difficult for longer stays.

We're trying to find time to drop the belly and try to get a closer look, maybe a long lined scope will be able to tell us if it is a split tank or the piping. This only happens when the tank gets near top capacity.

Sorry this is no help, but atleast you know you're not the only one with this issue

[Senexon]

Thank you for sharing! Unfortunately that’s the conclusion I’m arriving at also. I started removing the underbelly self tapping screws and already broke off 2 of them with an impact driver.

Good luck with getting yours repaired, sewer gases leaking into the living quarters is a big problem.

[WhittleBurner]

we haven't had any continual odors, just when the gray is full. If you are getting continual odors even with the tank empty is possibly the new aav you bought us defective.

We have narrowed it to the kitchen gray just from observation. Also we have always taken the coroplast down by hand with no power tools and have not had any breakage.

If you drop the belly be sure to seal any little openings even if you plan on taking it off again in a short time..little opportunistic critters will take advantage

[Mobile Mesa]

Howdy:

Last spring (2021) we had the same issue with our 2017 Imagine 2950RL. Horrible smell, sagging belly underneath, grey water-oriented, etc.

It turned out that the PVC drainpipe/trap that was connected immediately beneath the shower had
popped loose from the shower drain. During manufacturing, the pipe/trap was apparently slightly misaligned with the shower connection, and the tension on the PVC ended up snapping the pipe right at the threads. Thus, water was leaking into the underbelly of the rig, and sat there stagnating (causing the smell). In the end, it was a relatively simple repair/replacement of the pipe/trap (with proper alignment to the shower drain).

Point being, check your plumbing connections throughout the rig, particularly internally/underneath at all drains, etc.
If that turns out to be your problem (leakage), then it’s good for all to know that even moderate underneath plumbing leakage can result in the above described stagnant water getting trapped in the “belly of the beast.”

[Mobile Mesa]

Not the greatest photos, but the good news is that you can check your shower drain through the small access panel at the base of the shower. Two screw removal. Hope this gives you some insight. Safe travels!��

[Dadeo6472]

We had a leak under the shower while we were out on our long trip last year. I discovered it when I found water dripping from the seams in the underbelly. Seems that the shower drain was leaking. Because we were a long, long, way from home and the weather was near freezing, I drilled small holes in the coroplast and allowed it to drain. We limited shower use to above freezing days until we got back home. It seems like whenever we return from our long trips west we have issues that need to be addressed. Because I am clumsy, disorganized, and have "anger management issues" with mechanical things that force me to crawl, I have a long term service contract with my dealer, who was able to fix the drain and other issues within a couple of weeks.