BAC Forum
General Boards => Technical Support => Topic started by: Larry Fisk on February 12, 2016, 02:11:16 AM
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Hello friends, I had a leak of boiler antifreeze from the heat register under the refrigerator on our 2005 Thunder. The antifreeze ran down a seam and got into the storage bays and then dripped on the ground. The heat register is now replaced and I've soaked up as much of the antifreeze as possible. I now have a fan going on the floor under the fridge to try and dry it up some more. Any suggestions on getting as complete a cleaning as possible is appreciated. I'm hoping it hasn't damaged the wood and the smell will deminish. By the way it was a failed coil in the register that created this problem. It looks like it had been going on for a while but I never saw any sign of it until I looked under the coach yesterday.
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Several years ago I faced something similar after a sink drain hose leak made its way unseen under the floor and into the house vacuum cleaner module. The dirt in the filter molded and created quite a mess. I left bay doors wide open for as long as possible, with a portable heater/fan circulating air. The floors and such eventually dried out, but the smell didn't dissipate. I found a bottle of Febreze with as little a fragrance as possible in it, but all it did after spraying around the apparently worst offending areas was exchange one smell for another.
It took many days if not weeks to air out, but with bays fully opened as long as possible it ultimately did. This isn't the best time of year to have your bays constantly open, at least up North, but that's about all you can do, whether now or later. If you use Febreze, do so sparingly; it'd probably be worse than antifreeze.
Joel
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Larry,
Vinegar worked very well in removing the burned wood smell from a bedroom ceiling panel when I almost sent one of my coaches up in flames. It took about 4 applications, applying the vinegar directly to the wood of the burned area. Not sure how it would work on antifreeze but may be worth a try. Checking on the web I found a couple of posts that also seemed to indicate that vinegar would be effective.
Steve
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Home Depot sells a container with charcoal, it removes quite a bit of moisture and has the ability to eliminate some odors.
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Thank you! I am in Indio, California right now so leaving the bay's open isn't a problem. It's in the 80's here. Thank you for the responses. Hopefully the wood isn't damaged.
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Home Depot sells a container with charcoal, it removes quite a bit of moisture and has the ability to eliminate some odors.
I believe this is called "Dries z Air". It is a plastic tray suspended over a plastic tub about 6 inches tall and 6 in diameter. Most RV stores have it.
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IMHO
I would use a carpet steam cleaner. I have never gotten antifreeze our any other way. Allowing it to dry and evaporate the odor has only brought it back with any ambient moisture like a damp day.