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Open Roads Forum  >  Tech Issues

 > Gray Tank Smell (Seriously annoying)

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2112

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Posted: 07/14/22 07:59am Link  |  Quote  |  Print  |  Notify Moderator

Wulrich wrote:

2oldman wrote:

Is you kitchen in a slide?


It is not in a slide, it’s in the center
I'm thinking the AC is above the sink and the AC is sucking the water smell into the ductwork


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2oldman

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Posted: 07/14/22 08:38am Link  |  Quote  |  Print  |  Notify Moderator

Wulrich wrote:

2oldman wrote:

Is you kitchen in a slide?
It is not in a slide, it’s in the center
Okay, mine is, and what happened to me is after 20 years of sliding, the flexible tubing carrying sink water came loose and allowed water to drain inside. I only found it when water was dripping onto the ground through the frame.

MitchF150

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Posted: 07/14/22 09:01am Link  |  Quote  |  Print  |  Notify Moderator

Have your tried running the sink faucets into a tub only? This would eliminate the holding tank in the equation. Then, if you smell the same thing, then it's your water source.. If you don't smell anything, then it's the holding tank.

Not sure what the solution would be for either issue, but at least it might help narrow down the guessing?

Good luck! Mitch


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valhalla360

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Posted: 07/14/22 09:05am Link  |  Quote  |  Print  |  Notify Moderator

The air/con doesn't pull air from outside to inside and should have no other connection to the plumbing system, so the rooftop vent is unlikely to be a factor.

The air/con circulates air being picked up from the main panel in the ceiling pumping it thru the vents. Best guess is the odor is being released from the sink area right below the air/con unit and it is pulling that smelly air into the system to distribute it.

The air/con is most likely a symptom but not a cause.

Try using the faucet to put water into a bowl without any going down the drain. Is there a smell?
- If yes, it's likely in the fresh water supply system.

If not, dump the bowl down the sink. If that causes the smell, it's likely in the drain system.


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agesilaus

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Posted: 07/14/22 09:22am Link  |  Quote  |  Print  |  Notify Moderator

Our fix: one small quart bottle of chlorine bleach in the tank. Pour some down every drain. Leave in the tank plus some water, a quarter of more full, overnight. Drain. Good for a couple of months anyway.
I suspect bacterial film forms on the walls and that film is very tough to remove.
We have one of those directional vane caps that is supposed to turn the vent top away from the wind, did not seem to be effective. Noticed the smell increased when ac on, suspected ac inlet is ingesting air from the tank vent. But as pointed out above that is not the case.


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Lwiddis

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Posted: 07/14/22 09:35am Link  |  Quote  |  Print  |  Notify Moderator

"Sanitize your whole water system with bleach. It may be microbes in your water lines."

Bleach is your friend. Use it liberally, let it sit in the fresh water system, run it into the waste tanks, let it sit and then rinse the fresh water system.


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Posted: 07/14/22 10:32am Link  |  Quote  |  Print  |  Notify Moderator

agesilaus wrote:

Our fix: one small quart bottle of chlorine bleach in the tank.

x 2


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Posted: 07/14/22 10:43am Link  |  Quote  |  Print  |  Notify Moderator

If your black or grey roof vent pipes coming from the holding tanks aren't tall enough to protrude through the roof into the vent covers you might be getting some smell in between the roof and ceiling.

I had a stink occasionally and couldn't figure it out like you till I finally pulled the vents covers off, grey pipe was 1" shorter than the roof line. I added an adapter on problem solved.


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Posted: 07/14/22 11:56am Link  |  Quote  |  Print  |  Notify Moderator

You mentioned that you get the smell with the AC running, do you get the same smell from the sink area Without the AC on?


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Posted: 07/14/22 12:32pm Link  |  Quote  |  Print  |  Notify Moderator

This product worked for me when we encountered grey tank odor issues. Of course if your problem isn't tank related this wouldn't help.

https://www.amazon.com/Camco-40597-Black-Cyclone-Plumbing/dp/B00SQ1K19A?th=1

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