2016 Solitude Unbearable Sewer Smell

[alkbch]

Thank you for your response. The tank valves are closed. We have not cleaned the tanks, however we'll do so immediately. we're trying to figure out why this smell is ONLY coming from the control panel cabinet and the cabinets above and below it. There is NO smell from either sink or toilet.

I had a similar issue with the smell coming from that area, and not from the sink or toilet. My guess is the smell comes from the basement storage, can you verify that? I'd recommend you clean the holding tanks. You can clean the grey with Dawn dish detergent, and the black with something like Happy Campers or Walex. Fill them up and let them clean overnight. Rinse them and see if the smell persists.

[Second Chance]

[QUOTE=OshawaDave;440442]What are AAV's?/QUOTE]

AAV = Air Admittance Valve. There is one next to the P-trap on each sink. They are to admit air into the drain system so that not all of the water is siphoned out of the P-trap when water is drained from the sink. A malfunctioning AAV can allow gasses from the waste tanks to vent back up the drain pipes.

Rob

[OshawaDave]

[QUOTE=Second Chance;440462]

What are AAV's?/QUOTE]

AAV = Air Admittance Valve. There is one next to the P-trap on each sink. They are to admit air into the drain system so that not all of the water is siphoned out of the P-trap when water is drained from the sink. A malfunctioning AAV can allow gasses from the waste tanks to vent back up the drain pipes.

Rob

Thanks Rob. Good to know.

[nickgbp]

The back of control panel is basically open to the basement. All the wiring comes up thru a couple of holes that have kinda been gouged out. So , if you had a tank issue, the smell could funnel straight up. I do know on our 310 , the galley tank sits pretty much directly below that area.
Charlie

I had this issue this spring with our 26RL, I had both basement doors open and a nice breeze blowing thru and caught a wiff of the black tank, then went inside and opened our (Junk) drawer just above the electrical distribution box and the breeze and smell came up thru that drawer opening, knocked me back on my heels.
What fixed our issue was resealing the porcelain toilet both the Ball valve seal and the seal that is between the toilet and the floor.
Basement is odor free along with the junk drawer.

[Chris G]

I had a recent source of sewer odor coming from the rooftop stand pipe into my attic then into my bathroom via the shower skylight Assembly. It took a while to diagnose, it was my new more powerful Maxxair fan creating negative pressure in the attic, space between indoor ceiling and rooftop. The standpipe wasn’t sealed where it passed through the attic. My solution was to jam some insulation into Space around the Stand pipe where it passed through the attic. Of course I took off the top cap to gain access.

[Nogrey]

I saw another person mention this, and I had the issue as well. Thought it was sewer until I checked my batteries. One was dry and emitting sulphuric smell (smells like rotten eggs). The batteries from the dealership were basically crap and the convertor was overcharging them. The were terribly underpowered for the slides and leveling system (Different RV than yours, lots of hydraulics with high power demands). Anyway I replaced the 2 80ah marine batteries (which were wrong for the application to begin with) with a 170ah LiOn battery and charger. That was 2 years ago. All smell and power issues solved. Definitely worth looking into.

[fez111]

I had a recent source of sewer odor coming from the rooftop stand pipe into my attic then into my bathroom via the shower skylight Assembly. It took a while to diagnose, it was my new more powerful Maxxair fan creating negative pressure in the attic, space between indoor ceiling and rooftop. The standpipe wasn’t sealed where it passed through the attic. My solution was to jam some insulation into Space around the Stand pipe where it passed through the attic. Of course I took off the top cap to gain access.

We had this exact same issue with our 2016 Solitude 379FL. There is a wall between our bathroom and the rear bedroom. For the last year or so we realized that when the toilet was flushed there was a sudden flush of sewer gas in the bedroom, not the bathroom, even of the bathroom door was closed. There is no "AAV" for the toilet.

The only way I could figure that sewer gas can be in the bedroom [immediately] after flushing was that it must be coming through the AC vents from the tank vent (both AC blowers were on when this happened). The the black tank vent is in that same wall between the bedroom and bathroom. I went on the roof with a garden hose expecting the black tank vent to be blocked because we fill our pretty full on a 15 day vacations in state parks (We've heard all of the jokes...). Alas, there was no blockage.

Some time ago out vent cap got broken by a tree branch so we bought one of those "venturi-type" sewer vent topper, hoping for better ventilation. So when the pipe was not plugged I took took the topper off and found that the flexible plastic pipe was laying loose within a larger hole in the roof, and the roof insulation could be seen below the pipe. The roof hole was not in line with the pipe and would not allow the pipe to protrude through the roof. In other words, the sewer gas was going mostly into the into the attic space. I had to elongate the hole and add a pipe coupling for spacing along with a lot of silicone to seal the connection force the sewer gas outside the of the roof.

It finally hit me. Ironically, the sewer smell has always been there to some extent, especially when it was hot outside. The difference now was that in 2021 we added "RV-Airflow" inserts into both AC units. With the inserts better sealing of the units (whose vents are connected in a raceway configuration in the roof) and gaining better airflow I realized that there must be leaks in the air-return ducts that were sucking the sewer gas from the attic when the vent hose was not out the roof.

The next time we went on vacation we noticed that the sudden gust of sewer gas was no longer present. Whew!

Now we all know that when there is a smell of sewer gas in an RV that maybe the vent pipe(s)s are not positioned correctly where they pass through the roof!

P.S. We sincerely recommend the RV Airflow units. We can really feel an increase in flow, but mostly we have lost about 1/3 of the noise from the AC's!

[Timmer]

Lots of good advice here, but I'll add another quick tip in case it's just gray tank smell. We don't camp for more than 3-5 days at a time. On the first morning of our stay, we put the used coffee grounds down the kitchen sink. It's amazing how coffee overpowers other smells.

[Rabbit]

Lots of good advice here, but I'll add another quick tip in case it's just gray tank smell. We don't camp for more than 3-5 days at a time. On the first morning of our stay, we put the used coffee grounds down the kitchen sink. It's amazing how coffee overpowers other smells.

Caution, coffee grounds are one of the worst things you can dump down a drain as they can create a clog (or mass) that is very hard to clear. Virtually nothing will dissolve or break it up.

One other comment about this thread in general, not all units have even one AAV. Our 3100RD only has roof vents that also incorporate check valves that function like AAVs.

[Timmer]

Caution, coffee grounds are one of the worst things you can dump down a drain as they can create a clog (or mass) that is very hard to clear. Virtually nothing will dissolve or break it up.
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Interesting. We've been doing it for over 10 years!