sour smell inside


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truetamara

New Member
Hi All,

We have a 1998 diesel pusher that we just bought.

There is a sour smell inside the RV that hasn't gotten worse or better over the past couple of weeks. We installed a new fan thing on the black tank vent on the roof. (It looks like something from the Jetsons and it's supposed to whisk away all smells from that tank.)

That didn't make any difference at all. The smell doesn't seem like sewage, it's just sour and unpleasant. We empty our tanks regularly and we have started using an enzyme pack in the black tank. Is there something that I can try and put down the kitchen sink or something to see if that would help? Should we put another thing on the other roof vents?

Any ideas?
 
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Steve H

Senior Member
RE: sour smell inside



DIfficult to be of much help without a little more information e.g. is the smell located near a sink? Have you checked to make sure nothing is leaking in the basement (storage). Are there any wet areas of carpet? Gray tank water can smell just as bad as sewer tank waste! I would recommend that you let the waste tanks get full before you dump them. Then maybe try a Flush Kingto back flush the tanks and clean any residual waste left behind. We once had a bad odor coming from the kitchen cabinets...found a bad air admittance valve. Sometimes the vent pipe that is on the roof gets plugged or perhaps full of bees or whatever. We even had one of these vent pipespull apart in the wall of a previous rig. Took a while to trace it down but after opening an inspection cover in the wall there was no doubt that is where the odor was coming from. Don't know if it really makes any difference but I got in the habit of putting a couple of cap fulls of Calgon Liquid water softener down every drain in the rig. Stays in the p-trap and helps keep unwanted gases in the tanks. Hope you can trace it down!

Best Wishes!
 
V

vanole

Senior Member
Re: sour smell inside

truetamara,

You might want to look around the washer dryer combo if you have it. Previous owner might not have used it in a while and you might have some stagnant water their.

If its not sewage, sink(s) or washer dryer related drains you might want try a dehumidifier or some damprid to maybe get some moisture out of the M/H which will help dry things up and eliminate some odors.

Jeff
 
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finernfrogfur

Member
RE: sour smell inside

Those are some good tips and places to check (i.e. black tank, sinks, etc). Something that hasn't been suggested yet is... Could it be a rodent that snuck in and died? If that's a possibility here's a tip I got from my friends who had that happen to them. They used an ionizer to neutralize the air until that lil' varmint’s odor was gone. Perfumes will mask the odor, but an ionizer will clean the air removing the odor. And of course you'd remove the body..."if" you can find it. Then you can use a pet stain remover that the "enzymes" will eat the bodily fluid stain removing all signs of that varmint. Good luck!!
 
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LEN

Senior Member
Re: sour smell inside

The washer dryer trap will smell in our as it dries out, solution run a smallload of clothes now and then. There are also two or three vacume breakers one at each sink that if no opening and closing correctly will allow grey water smell back into coach as well as dry traps for the sinks shower.

LEN
 
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Guest

Guest
RE: sour smell inside

or could it be a leaking pipe from the fresh water or maybe a leak from th outside that is now producing mold ,, just a thought to go along with the rest :) :) :)
 
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finernfrogfur

Member
Re: sour smell inside

P.S. Sorry I didn't think to mention this the other day when I posted a reply to your odor issue. Please read my reply to the post after yours (Beginning RVing > storage/mice). To prevent issues with rodents and roaches I swear by the PEST OFFENSE!! Plug it into your home AND your RV!!
 
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