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Friday, September 2, 2011

Who Cut the Cheese???


One indisputable fact of RV living is there will be odors.  Some pleasant, like an apple pie baking in the oven, others quite onerous, such as the dreaded black tank smells.  In between, you can even get some sour whiffs from the grey tank.

Every once in a while, we would get some smells in the Journey that we tracked down emitting from the grey tank due to the water in the sink P-traps evaporating from the summer heat.

The other day I picked up the Journey from the storage lot and once again my eyes began to tear up, not because I was happy to be driving it (I was) but something really stunk.  I did the usual, let some water run in the sink to refill the P-traps, but this time it didn't work.  Now I had to "nose" around.

First thought was Zoe, the Wonder Dog.  Ruled that out, she went to Doggie Heaven a while ago. 


Next I cast my eye on our new passenger, Tag.


Upon closer inspection, I realized that Tag isn't vented that way.


So, I had to cast my eyes on another potential suspect:


Knowing what is good for me, I decided any accusations of a lady would be detrimental to my health.

I knew I was not the cause, I've laid off those bean burritos in anticipation of my upcoming second attempt at a colonoscopy.

So, what was going on?

In another of my rare moments of brilliance, I turned to the place where all knowledge resides:


In mere moments, I discovered all about this strange contraption under the Journey's kitchen sink:


It is an internal vent pipe, from the grey tank.  There is one in the kitchen and one in the bathroom.  On top of the pipe, which is located under the sink all the way in the back is a vent, which has a little rubber diaphragm that acts like a one-way check valve.  It screws on and off by hand.  The rubber can dry out, become brittle and stick open.


I went to (guess where?), ignored all the cheers from the employees and bought two, for the kitchen and the bathroom.  They were about $4 each.  I figured I might as well replace the one in the bathroom, too, because strange odors have been know to radiate from there.

With a few quick turns by hand, the new vents were in place and the air in the Journey started to clear and smell minty fresh.

Now if strange odors reoccur in the Journey, I'll have to look elsewhere for the guilty party.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.


17 comments:

  1. Pretty brave with your insinuations, remember you had to turn in your weapon.

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  2. JB - I think you are pretty smart! Perhaps I will turn to bean burritos just to get him even!! Little does he realize he is the most obvious culprit of those particular odors.... HA! now I'm even! ~Marti

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  3. You were very wise not to pass the blame along to others before you discovered the real source. Smart man you are, without a doubt.

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  4. I just checked and we have those too. Another good thing to know. Thanks

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  5. So glad you found the culprit! Back in our mousecapades days, we had a malodorous RV and luckily, we were able to find the ROTTING MOUSE CARCASS in the electric trap. The light indicating a catch was broken, so we didn't know one was in there. Talk about disgusting!!!

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  6. Good judgement on not making any accusations:)

    I did know about the vents, but amazingly we have not had any serious odor problems-so far.

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  7. Thanks for the info. We've had no problems with this but now we know what to do when/if we do. Glad no dead bodies were involved. Say......about your time in the Coast Guard.......

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  8. I can't believe you were going to try and blame Zoe. Glad you found the culprit and were able to "fix" the problem. Isn't Google just great.

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  9. Your post is too funny, as I was telling Sheryl thats something we should look at and see about replacing.

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  10. Thanks for the heads-up, just lately we've been having trouble smelling the gray tank. I love your blogs.

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  11. You sure have a knack for turning an ordinary read into a fun one. What did we do before Google to find answers?

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  12. I'm telling you, Paul, you need to write a book :) It would be a best seller.
    Thanks for teaching us one more thing. So far, running water in the sinks/shower has always cleared the problem but one of these days... :)

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  13. Nice that you had a reason to frequent your favorite merchant. They must miss you!

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  14. Did you really Google it? That's amazing. I mentioned this to Ron and he said he has replaced this too. I guess I should know these things. Good job as always making it entertaining.

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  15. Great post & Great information...
    Have fun & Travel safe
    Donna

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  16. Hi Paul and Marti, Good detective work with that odor! We've had one that is now dimenishing that we never could find the source of. (We suspected a mouse nest underneath the water heater in an area that we could not easily access.) Glad to know all is going well. I've missed you guys the past month. By the way, thanks for dropping by A Camp Host's Meanderings and leaving comments. Fondly, Levonne

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  17. Thanks for the tip about this vent. We've had an occasional odor under our bathroom sink so Gin contorted her body and found that there was one of those things up under there. After a trip to Lowe's, she replaced it, and no more odor. :)
    Syl

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