Odour when moving

[Brian Buchanan]

Question on a 1998 Patriot 425 Thunder this a washer/dryer.
We get an unpleasant odour when moving, I suspect grey tank odour, would like to start by changing the dry vents, have changed the one under the kitchen sink (grey tank), and the one under the bathroom sink (black tank), so my question is this are there vents for the the shower and the washer/ dryer as well?
The washer appears to have two metal brackets holding it in place, doesn’t the bottom of the cabinet above the washer come up or do I need a 36” long Robinson screw driver?

[David T. Richelderfer]

Our coach is a 2004 and we have a Splendide washer/dryer.  If we have not used the washer/dryer for a few weeks, then we will smell odors.  We simply run the washer on a rinse cycle to introduce water into the trap in the washer drain and the odor is gone.  The drain water in the trap evaporates away and allows the gray tank smell to pass up and into the washer/dryer and into the coach.

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

Brian,
In addition to David's advice, suggest you get some "Tank Tech" and use as directed in both grey and black tanks. Only need to treat grey tank about every 3rd dump or so. Also may want to consider changing your tank roof vents to a different style. Best I've found are the "tees" that have are open front and back. They were OEM on the 07-08 models.
Steve

[Bill Sprague]

We tried all sorts of stuff.  I was convinced it was the shower.  Then we discovered the same thing as David said.

[Rick Daniels]

Brian, the back 1/3 of the floor in the cabinet above the washer/dryer lifts out in my 99 Marquis.  It even has a finger hole for easy removal. Gives access to hookups for washer/dryer including drain.  Before traveling, I always pour water or tank treatment down the drain and also in the shower drain.  No smell.

[Fred Cook]

 Here is what I did. I threaded an ice maker hose down into the drain pipe of the washer and rigged a small funnel on the top of the hose for easy access. Now all I do is periodically pour a cup of water in the funnel to fill up the P-trap so the washer will not stink. We sometimes don’t use the washer for several weeks at a time and we used to get the terrible smell. And...  it’s just not practical for us to run a rinse cycle when the coach is being stored for a few weeks between trips. It works great for us and just something you might think about.

[David T. Richelderfer]

Or dump a quart or two of water in the washer and put it on spin.

[Fred Cook]

Or dump a quart or two of water in the washer and put it on spin.

Yep, that should work too.

[Bill Sprague]

The reason our washer p trap went dry in our '04 Monterey was that the washer hose was somehow too long and it would siphon it dry.  I forget what I did exactly, but once I did it, it never stunk again.

[Adam Hicklin]

On my 98 Marquis, and I’m assuming on all models with washer/dryer, the drain is not connected to the gray or black tank thus it’s impossible to get tank smell in to the coach.  The W/D drain directly to the sewer dump exit and in to the sewer hose.  However, if the W/D trap is dry, and you have the sewer hose in the park sewer hole, you are getting the sewer gas directly from the sewer, not your tanks (unless you have your gate valves open) Because of this, I only insert the sewer hose in the hole while dumping.  While traveling, the smell must be coming from some other source. 

[Joel Ashley]

There is a vent for the shower on ours, beyond the trap under the shower floor, but because the subfloor is obviously too shallow for a riser the vent itself is behind the adjoining galley area cabinetry.  It took me a few years to run across it.  That said, if a vent fails or sticks, when you dump your grey tank the suction that action creates can empty the associated fixture trap.  Then residual tank odor can back up into the coach via that drain as it has occasionally with our shower.  It took me awhile to zero in on that as the source, but simply adding a cup or two of water in the drain refilled the trap and stopped the odor path into the coach. 

Some have found their roof vents improperly working, such that traveling creates a vacuum inside the coach and drawing the smell in that way.  As others have noted, when the washer is not regularly used and it’s trap is empty, that’s a common source of tank odor;  and if the gray water roof vent is somehow compromised and a coach window or roof fan/vent happens to be open while driving... well, there you are.  Several cups of water in the washer drum and one spin cycle should refill a dry trap, as David suggests.  That’s how we add winterizing antifreeze to the washer trap.

Others here with that past experience will have to provide their tank roof vent fixes.

Joel