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Poop smell when flushing toilet
Ah yes… our favorite topic. It seems like some of us are cursed with chasing the wonderful aroma’s of RVing for a better part of our lives.
So in my continuing quest to chase down the elusive poop smell, I have discovered something I thought worth sharing (luckily it’s not the smell)
Our marathon has the typical Roof air conditioners. It’s summertime and we don’t have a bus garage so we keep the ac’s running to not let the bus get too hot. On occasion we let guests stay in there as a guest bedroom. Of course – we clean it up beforehand… and flush the toilet. I did this recently and “like a slap in the face…” the smell hit me – and it seemed to just be OOZing out of the AC vents – like the AC was sucking up the smell somehow. I looked at all the plumbing vents (even though I flushed the toilet) and even tried to follow the black vent to the roof (can’t – its DEEP in there) and finally I had a thought…. I wonder if it’s sucking the smell in from the outside?!?!
Notice the vent is RIGHT next to the AC?
Well… a sick of incense and a little detective work up on the roof and…. now it smells like poop and incense… so it sure seems like it is sucking it from the outside. I could even seem spots where the AC sucked the smoke into the system.
So I did what we’d all do – I gooped up everywhere that looked like a crack in the system. And… it’s better… but still not solved.
So now what? Next I’m going try to connect some light white pipe to the vent and run it all the way to the back of the bus – hoping that at least it’s harder for the AC to suck in the smell… but that’s a bigger job.
So I figured I’d add and ask at the same time…
Anyone else have anything to add? Has anyone else had their AC suck in smell? And figured it out??
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9 Replies
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Most if not all A/C units circulate the air that is within the coach. They do not create a vacuum or pressurize the coach. They are not the problem. unless they have a provision for pulling in fresh air. If they do pull in fresh air, and they are on the roof, near the plumbing vent they could be the source. I would bet against that possibility.
When the odor of the holding tank is in the coach it is almost always a dry water trap. Every sink, the shower, the washing machine, and any other fixtures that drain into the holding tank have to have a trap filled with water to block odors.
However, not all fixtures are vented to the plumbing vent system for a variety of reasons and the converters use an air admittance valve as a substitute to the connection to the vent system and if the admittance valve has failed open it can provide a possible source of odors.
To determine the source just involves some detective work, with insuring all traps are filled with water as the first step.
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Correct amundo on what A1 is telling you Walt.
Marathon only has the roof vent for the black tank and all the sinks have the air admittance valves and if it’s not that or P Traps it could be the dreaded Microphor direct drop toilet.
Have you upgraded to a Tecma?
Later
bv
2000 Featherlite H3-45
2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Leesburg, FL -
I replaced several Air Admittance devices on 2 of my Marathons due to the grey water stink. Also run a cycle with the washer, may have a dry p-trap.
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Also you may switch to “HAPPY CAMPER” treatment for your black tank. I never get any smell when treated with that. Amazon Prime has it for sale. The BEST treatment I have ever used…….
Safe travels
Dave
1999 XLV X-6872, liberty #440 -
Another vote for Happy Camper. Do not wash out your black tank as you need a healthy bacteria colony to keep the smells in check. One or two scoops of Happy Camper right after you dump and drive will do the trick all by itself. It may take two or three treatments without rinsing out the black tank to get the bacteria colony built up properly.
No, I am not a Happy Camper dealer nor do I get free stuff from them nor do I get compensated in any way………I have been using this stuff in all kinds of RVs for as long as it has been around because it works for me.
Jerry
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I second Jons reply. During my service years we had this complaint a lot. Our first question was always – “How often do you use your Washer?” A dry Washer/Dryer P-tap was the culprit 90% of the time.
On a rare occasion we would find cracked pluming lines in the bay. Sometimes the ABS drain lines would crack at a fitting allowing a bit of water to seep out causing an smell to creep into the coach when ever a vaccum was applied, such as opening a window when driving or turning on the ceiling vent. However this also causes the bay to smell but most never gave it a second thought thinking it was normal. You can usually spot a leaky ABS drain line, the water trail leaves a whit-ish residue on the pipe. looks something like corrosion on aluminum. I doubt this is your issue.
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Hi All,
That Microphor was a smell blowing machine alright… And yes, we have done the upgrade to the Tecma toilet – at Marathon in Dallas. All the AC’s are somewhat new too – we had them replaced in Oregon a few years ago. And – we ran the washer just after we parked it and haven’t driven so I believe it has water in it. Just a few weeks ago.
As for the grey tank in our bus, there is a seperate vent for the gray tank on the roof – it’s on the other side and a little more aft. The grey vent you can see heading to the roof through the louvers above the washing machine/dryer. The black vent that goes to the roof you can’t see and it seems like it’s burried in the wall between the bath and the closet/bunks pretty good.
As for the grey water drains (washer, sinks, etc..) yes, they have the air admittance valves (those nice ones I replaced them a bit ago) – and they used to be a problem, but I don’t think it’s them this time.
In this case, when the rear AC’s are turned off you can flush with no smells – if you turn them on, then you get smell which seems to blow right out of the AC vents. With the bath AC on the smell is very strong, with just the bedroom ac on it’s smells but a little bit less so.
This is why I got up on the roof with the incense stick while the AC’s were running, I could see the bath AC taking in the smoke in the front area where the air return box is – there is a foam gasket there that seems like it’s supposed to be sealing the return to the metal base…but I guess it isn’t doing it’s job. I went back down into the bus after doing this with the incense and could smell the incense in the bus now – so it had to be taking in the smell from the outside and transfering it into the bus.
I know by design it isn’t supposed to take in outside air… but, we all know how that goes!
I’d also noticed the problem is sort of random. I now think this has a lot to do with the direction the wind is blowing – even if it’s a light wind… I figure that if it blows away from the AC units there isn’t any smell, but if it’s blowing towards them…
After gooping it up – it still smells but less. I think I will try to check the rear AC and goop it up next.
I will also try this happy camper stuff – and if it can reduce the smell then that will help the overall problem too.
Hopefully this whole experience will help someone in the future!
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Walt,
Do you have your SMX pads set on I or C for the roof airs?
If it’s C continuous that could bring in a problem with fans running.
You should be set on I so the AC’s shut off when reaching temp.
I got nothing else.
Later
bv
Clint & Tammy Summers
2000 XL 45 Country Coach (rivets)
1977 FC31 Bluebird Wanderlodge (more rivets)
Vonore TN -
While Happy Camper is a great product and reduce your black and grey tank smell to zero, it’s still not the final answer. Good luck and let us know how to fix the issue long term. Happy Camper will fix your short term problem right away!
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