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Topic: Odor Problem with Sealand Traveler - SOLVED! (Read 635 times) previous topic - next topic

Odor Problem with Sealand Traveler - SOLVED!

Short answer: if your toilet has overflow holes in the bowl, regularly (monthly?) fill the bowl enough to allow water to flow through the overflow holes. The overflow holes have P-traps which can dry out and allow odors from the tank to invade the interior of the coach.

If your coach is likely to have freezing temperatures in the toilet, but sure to use antifreeze or get all of the water out of toilet, including water in the overflow traps.

Long explanation: Since we have owned our coach, we've had odor problems in the water closet (private toilet room). Depending on ambient temperatures, "the stinkies" from the black water tank became offensive after three to five days. Turning on the exhaust fan made the problem worse. When I dumped tanks and used grey water to back flush the black water tank, the odor got worse. I always thought fumes from the black tank had a path back into the water closet.

Last night while searching the Internet for solutions I found an explanation of the structure of the the Sealand Traveler toilet bowl with overflow holes, and the solution to the problem. The overflow holes have P-traps. If the P-traps don't contain water, there is an open path for air to flow between the black tank and the water closet. P-traps will dry out. You must occasionally fill the bowl full enough to flood the P-traps in order to provide a block to air flow through the P-traps.

I filled the bowl and "the stinkies" from the black water tank no longer filled the room. I ran the exhaust fan, and the air got fresher rather than stinkier. I dumped tanks and back flushed the black tank today without introducing bad odors into the water closet.

 b^.^d :dance: :thumbsup:

J D Stevens
1997 U295 CAI 36' Build #5085
2002 Subaru Outback
Motorcade 16869
Bellville, TX

Re: Odor Problem with Sealand Traveler - SOLVED!

Reply #1 –
               Great find J.D.  We had a similar smelly issue with our Sealand but ours turned out to be a cracked base at one of the mounting bolts. Fixed it with epoxy. Will have to look to see if we have the overflow holes too.
                      Dean
               
Dean & Deirdre

2012 Arctic Fox 22GQ
Was 2003 U270

Re: Odor Problem with Sealand Traveler - SOLVED!

Reply #2 –
Sealand has plugs for the older toilets with overflow holes.  They stopped putting overflow holes in the Traveler many years ago. We filled our toilet overflow holes with silicone and sealed plugs into the holes. But the holes do offer some overflow protection. When we 'rebuilt' our toilet base, we used the new style base and gaskets that do not have the P-trap and overflow holes. But we decided to re-use our original porcelain because new porcelain is a bit taller, which we found a little uncomfortable.

We tried using the 3rd drain valve to flow gray water into an empty black tank, because it seemed to be the thing to do. As it turns out, our black tank does not smell and our gray tank smells bad, the opposite of what we thought. After doing the gray into black flush, we found when we opened our toilet ball, we had a new bad smell, so goodbye to using our 3rd valve for regular flushing.

We also installed LSLProducts Lil Stanker roof top vent exhaust fan that keeps a slight vacuum on black tank, so when toilet ball is opened, air tends to flow from inside motorhome into tank, eliminating odors from coming out of open toilet. LSL stopped selling their stainless roof model, but still has an inside mounted unit, that may be able to be retrofitted to roof top. It just uses a continuous running muffin fan on the black tank vent pipe to keep negative pressure inside black tank.

LSL Products / LSLProducts.com - Problem-Solving Gear & Gadgets

JD recommendation to use flushing hose to fill toilet overflow holes is a great idea.