Odors in 21C

[mresseguie]

The space under the bed in our 21C has an unpleasant odor. It’s not a black tank odor as far as I can tell, but it is unpleasant. I don’t see any leaks or evidence of past leaks. Once we get home, I’ll give the entire space a thorough cleaning and sanitizing to see if that fixes it.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Michael

[Rockhead]

Possible slight propane leak but then to detector would go off. Even though it’s a 2022 have you tested the detector to see if it’s working.

[Ron in BC]

The under bed space in a 21C isn't the area that's been mentioned much or ever as having an unpleasant odor. If I had one the black tank is the first place that I'd be looking, but you've already done that.

Any chance a little rodent could have gotten in and died there?

Ron

[mresseguie]

Thanks, guys.

I haven’t completely ruled out the black tank or its pipes, but it’s not that strong (or nasty) a smell. I considered the possibility that it’s an old dried out black tank drip (just conjecture). If so, a good cleaning will fix that.

If it’s a dead animal, it would (in my opinion) have to sit for a long long time before diminishing to ‘unpleasant’ instead of ‘godawful’.

We’re spending three nights at Belknap Hot Springs for my wife’s birthday. We’ll be home tomorrow afternoon, and I’ll start poking around the space.

[fudge_brownie]

Keep us posted. Some smell issues, more black or gray tank smells, have been attributed to the roof vents. The routing of those stacks has changed but it would be worthwhile to pop the cap off the one or two stacks that you have and be sure that the coiled hose coming from the tank(s) extends far enough into the cap and is sealed around the fiberglass opening.

[Donna D.]

Paul talked about an odor in a 21C here: https://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f...ell-21335.html


And Catherine mentioned it here: https://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f...ent-10606.html

[mresseguie]

Once again, thank you for all the ideas. My wife and I are reading through people's posts on the matter.

This afternoon, I climbed <more like slithered> into the space beneath the bed of our 21C to clean the space around the black water tank, and to inspect it for leaks and the source of the unpleasant odor. Except for dust and sawdust, there was zero evidence of a past or present leak in the black water tank or hose. My nose was inches from the black water tank and there were no unpleasant odors emenating from the tank, hose, or the space behind the toilet.

Before I slithered into that space, we removed the mattress and the spongy/airy mattress pad from the supporting plywood box. The plywood itself is clean with no mold or mildew.

Clearly, the odor that we smell is not coming from the black water tank, the hose that feeds into it nor the opening behind the toilet.

We wonder if perhaps the odor is coming from the gap at the front of the toilet where the flush handle is located, or somehow gases are wafting down from the outside black water tank vent pipe? Another possibility (?) is we may not be maintaining enough water in the bowl of the toilet resulting in gases escaping from the toilet.

Thoughts? Ideas?

Michael

[John in Santa Cruz]

actually, my 2014 e21c also smells subtley funky under the bed if its been closed up for a few weeks. its not sewage and I don't think its propane.

[WillyB]

Nobody has mentioned the hot water tank area. Just throwing out ideas.

We keep our dry dog food under the bed in a ziplock bag and my wife spilled some around the hot water tank. Took a bit to get all of those little pieces.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by mresseguie

The plywood itself is clean with no mold or mildew.

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

actually, my 2014 e21c also smells subtley funky under the bed if its been closed up for a few weeks. its not sewage and I don't think its propane.

If you haven't put your mattress back in place consider painting the platform. It makes it much more resistant to mold or mildew forming if it is inadvertently exposed to high humidity. I'm not a fan of unpainted plywood.

It is an enclosed space and the contents could contribute to an odor. Maybe take a closer look at what you have stored in there and see if any of them have any kind of odor.

Ron

[elongest]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

actually, my 2014 e21c also smells subtley funky under the bed if its been closed up for a few weeks. its not sewage and I don't think its propane.

The earlier 21's had the bath floor drain and sink combined P trap installed just before the drain line went into the tank. About 3 ft of pipe before the trap would hold grey water and begin to stink. The vent for the bath drains is an open pipe under the bath sink and the odor would get back into cabin from the vent. The solution was to move the trap closer to the drains under the bath. I removed the trap at the tank and installed a HEPVO drain trap under the bath. Escape had issues with the HEPVO traps, they indicated they were going to install the traps under the bath. This odor usually showed up after the trailer sat and was closed up for a while.

[fudge_brownie]

Eddie,
That sounds like another possible cause. I do know that after driving we have a sewer smell and I have made it a practice to pour some water down the shower drain. I always attributed it to the water in the p-trap sloshing out. The pouring did help but I would have to say it did not completely solve the problem.

My question to all would be what is involved in installing that HEPVO trap on the bathroom sink and shower drain. I have installed one under the kitchen sink, quite easy access at that location. No sure what that bathroom plumbing access is like?

[mresseguie]

Has anyone tried this product in your trailer, RV, or home?

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by mresseguie

Has anyone tried this product in your trailer, RV, or home?

I have used them at home. They seem to work well to freshen things up a bit. My laundry drain stack was the worst culprit.

[Chamberman]

Originally Posted by fudge_brownie

Eddie,
That sounds like another possible cause. I do know that after driving we have a sewer smell and I have made it a practice to pour some water down the shower drain. I always attributed it to the water in the p-trap sloshing out. The pouring did help but I would have to say it did not completely solve the problem.

My question to all would be what is involved in installing that HEPVO trap on the bathroom sink and shower drain. I have installed one under the kitchen sink, quite easy access at that location. No sure what that bathroom plumbing access is like?

Try shocking your gray tank with about 1/2 cup of bleach. Start with the gray tank completely drained. I would add the 1/2 cup of bleach to a gal of water and then pour half down the kitchen sink and the other half down the bath sink/shower drains. Let that sit with the bleach mixture in the p-trap for 10 - 15 min to fully kill anything growing in there, then fill the gray tank with fresh water through both the bath sink and kitchen sink. Once the tank is full hitch up the trailer and take it for a short drive to slosh the mixture around real good. Bring the trailer back and park it over night and then drain the bleach water mixture. If you're putting it into your home drain and you have a septic tank then you may want to sit the drained water out in the sun in buckets to allow any excess chlorine to burn off, but a lot of the free chlorine will be consumed by the nastiness growing in the gray tank.

Once you shock the gray tank you'll not have any nasty odors coming out of there. If you're still smelling something then its coming from the black tank or somewhere else.

I shocked my gray tank this past spring while on a trip due to a horrible odor that we couldn't get rid of. Because we were at the campsite we just shocked the 1/4 full tank but couldn't drain the tank for several days, however the foul odor was gone in less than 30min. Funny how quickly bacteria shuts down when it comes into contact with free chlorine. So we knew right away that the gray tank or associated plumbing was our culprit. It turned out that we had several cracked pipe fittings on our gray tank that have since been repaired. However, IMO the gray tank shouldn't make you wretch when you get a whiff of it. If it does, then maybe a chemical treatment is in order.