tank smell

[Gerald Farris]

Adam,
There are 2 different designs for the Sealand Traveler toilet. One design is not vented and the other one is vented. With the vented design you can get tank odors into the coach if you create a negative pressure in the coach by running an exhaust fan in a closed coach. The vented toilet can be changed to a non vented one by just replacing the seal with a non vented seal.

Gerald  

[George Harwell]

My 03 Monterey had the same symptoms for about 2 years  and was repaired by a very sharp factory technician at a BAC rally. To make a long story short the washer/dryer drain has to be sealed. The technician used a very sticky pliable material to cover the entire top of the pipe going to the tank and life has been good for the past 7 years. The young man also told me that there was not a P trap in that pipe therefore no protection from the tank odors. Good luck, I still remember those days!

[Adam Hicklin]

Gerald, that makes the most sense.  My w/d unit drains direct, not to the tank so it shouldn't get any smell from there.   By seal, do you mean the seal between the base of the toilet and the 3 inch waste  pipe?

[Gerald Farris]

Adam,
The seal that I was referring to is the seal that seals the flush ball. If you have the vented model, there is a hole through the flat portion of that seal. To block the vent you just install a seal without the vent hole in it. There is also the option of just blocking the hole in the seal with something like packing tape if your flush seal is still good.

There are a few things that you need to consider before you disassemble the toilet. The first thing to check is the venting system. The next thing is the washing machine drain. The vast majority of tank odor complaints are related to washing machine drains. Even the washing machines that drain directly into the sewer outlet, and not into the tank can pick up the strongest tank odors when you are hooked-up.

Gerald  

    

[Joel Ashley]

Well, Adam, your post got me motivated to work on my Sealand Traveler, since it leaks water out of the bowl, and I had picked up a Bowl Seal Kit at CWorld last fall.  If you go to get a seal kit, be cautious.  It turns out I was sold the wrong so-called "universal" kit, and will now have to make a special trip to return it.  CWorld staff goes by the toilet/RV's model year, and the text on the outside of the kit is misleading.  

I won't go on about details, but just know there are basically two possible bowl seal repair kits, as Gerald's post made me aware, and just proffering up your model year won't be enough.  You need to know the toilet model, and hopefully whether or not it has overflow ports as discussed in this thread.  One kit says it is for toilets from the year 2000 or earlier;  but that appears to be the correct kit (because it has overflow holes in its seals) for my model 510+, built in 2006!  Go figger.

My Traveler appears to have multiple small inlet ports around the rim, and one larger apparent overflow dead center front.  So designs can differ a bit.  The seals have to have matching holes to allow overflow drainback to the tank.  Installing the kit with no drainback holes, that CWorld gave me, might have caused problems if ever there was a superfull bowl, though Gerald seems to think not;  I've left the question to Dometic/Sealand to verify.  As Gerald advises, make sure when you use the Fantastic Vent in there that a window somewhere is cracked, to mitigate air flow coming up the toilet overflow port(s), and also that the roof vent is indeed clear all the way to the tank, as discussed in other posts.

-Joel

[Adam Hicklin]

You guys are awesome!  You think of things I never consider.  Thanks so much.  I'll keep checking and if I find a definitive answer, I'll post.  Hopefully, this won't be one of those things that never gets fully solved.  I have a trip planned at the end of June and list of things to do before then.  I'm sure you'll be hearing from me.  Thanks again.  

[MarcRodstein]

Sounds good by day, but how can they work at night?

I replaced the aerodynamic style tank vent caps recently with caps that have solar powered exhaust fans. After about a month of traveling, we find them very effective.

[Joel Ashley]

Update:
Sealand confirms that models built from the year 2001 and on do not have overflow holes, because the RV industry no longer mandated them.  One could surmise from this that the industry got flack about toilets engineered in such a way as to allow tank odor to find its way upstairs, and that owners found that malady far more common and unpalatible than the rare chance of a bowl overflow.

The confusion comes from the plus (+) sign in the model number of the toilet used in our rig, Model 510+.  Some documentation I read indicated that all 500 series units had overflow holes, and after seeing one very large port under the rim of ours, I concluded it must be for overflow;  I couldn't test the operation because the coach is still in winter storage mode.  The bag that my repair kit comes in specifically states that model 510 has overflow holes.  It does.  And so do models 511, 2010, 2011, and others.  But they were all built before 2001.  The 510+ is a different animal - it does not have overflow holes, even though one would reasonably presume from its name that it was part of the "500 Series".

So the Camping World staff was correct afterall in going strictly by the date of toilet manufacture;  using model numbers to go by, though seemingly the prudent thing to do, is a mistake.  If you need a seal kit, be guided more by the date of manufacture.      And as Gerald suggests, a kit without holes in the rubber seals would effectively shut off odor venting problems in a pre-2001 model toilet that has rim overflow holes.

Joel

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

Marc,
 Not sure but know they worked and solved our problem. Suspect that odor took a bit of time to enter living compartment and lower night time temps helps.
Steve

[Adam Hicklin]

Thanks Joel.  Good info.  Looks like I'll have a busy weekend.