I have been living with a periodic sewer smell in the bathroom. At one point when the black tank got full there was spillage coming out from the plastic belly pan. I was beginning to think I had a cracked black tank which would be a major project to fix in addition to the expense. Dealers and Tech's rightfully charge extra and rightfully so to subject themselves to the mess and smell plus difficulty working under the RV.
I turned the water off, stepped on the toilet pedal to fully open the ball valve and saw "something" protruding from the side of the pipe below the toilet. Hmmmmm, what the heck is that I thought. So I decided to pull up the toilet which is a simple operation and had the AH HA moment!
Another unsatisfactory quality issue discovered. There are two holes the manufacturer has to drill when installing the toilet to the black tank. One is in the top of the plastic black tank to accept the toilet pipe from above, the second hole in the bathroom floor and the two holes SHOULD line up but in my case did not. There is a rubber gasket around the pipe that should seal between black tank and floor.
So when they installed the toilet the gasket was compressed in such a way as to protrude into the pipe area thereby causing a partial obstruction but also a gap where sewer gases would escape and if the tank is too full, ******** happened,,,,, yuck.
There was no excuse for this Grand Design.
I solved the problem by enlarging the hole under the toilet enough so I could properly line of the pipe and gasket with the tank below.
Problem solved.
So for those of you trouble shooting sewer smells this is a possibility to check on before someone tells you that your tank is bad. Easily a $1000 repair or more!
Dan

I turned the water off, stepped on the toilet pedal to fully open the ball valve and saw "something" protruding from the side of the pipe below the toilet. Hmmmmm, what the heck is that I thought. So I decided to pull up the toilet which is a simple operation and had the AH HA moment!
Another unsatisfactory quality issue discovered. There are two holes the manufacturer has to drill when installing the toilet to the black tank. One is in the top of the plastic black tank to accept the toilet pipe from above, the second hole in the bathroom floor and the two holes SHOULD line up but in my case did not. There is a rubber gasket around the pipe that should seal between black tank and floor.
So when they installed the toilet the gasket was compressed in such a way as to protrude into the pipe area thereby causing a partial obstruction but also a gap where sewer gases would escape and if the tank is too full, ******** happened,,,,, yuck.
There was no excuse for this Grand Design.
I solved the problem by enlarging the hole under the toilet enough so I could properly line of the pipe and gasket with the tank below.
Problem solved.
So for those of you trouble shooting sewer smells this is a possibility to check on before someone tells you that your tank is bad. Easily a $1000 repair or more!
Dan


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