Tank Odor

[jello_jeep]

Well, as some of ya'll know I have had a problem with a tank odor inside the coach. It is also plainly noticeable from the plumbing bay.

With sage advice from my pals here on the board, we have chased down all kinds of stuff. Vacuum breakers, having the tanks pressure washed out (3 times) and all kinds of various troubleshooting.

Running out of options and time, I took it to Marathon Beaumont. The first time they nosed around and cleaned things out. They also found that there was a large opening from under the kitchen counters to the box in the bay that holds the fan & such for the mid ship cruise air, and sealed that up. It still smelled to me, so at my urging they pulled the gray tank out and checked it for leaks with no luck. They later also overfilled the black tank and looked for leaks with no success.

They did end up finding that there had been some leakage in the past from around the bung on top of the gray tank, so we all hoped that after tightening everything up it would be fine.

We checked back out and went to San Diego with the Z's and let everything air out, but alas no bueno.

Back to Marathon where it has been for a few weeks. They took all kinds of stuff apart inside and poked around. They found where a bottle of distilled H20 had leaked in a cabinet & such. I assured them that was not it, but thanked them for finding it.

I went back in person and talked with Johnny & Carlos, the two chaps that had been working on it. You could still smell the odor in the bay, and the argument was that they really didn't know where it came from. We talked about vents and traps and all kinds of everything.

My logic was that the smell was obviously coming from the bay and moving up. So no matter what, everything in the bay had to come out so we could get to the bottom of it.

We all agreed on this finally and I took off. After calling a few days later, they said they had run some chlorox through the fresh water tank and lines and they couldn't smell it any longer. I pointed out that being as there was no odor from the water gravity fill, and none from the tap water, that this was highly illogical.

They also found that my accumulator tank apparently had failed and there was black brackish water on the membrane side, so it got replaced too.

Apparently authorization from whomever was not forthcoming on pulling the tanks, as they already figured they had 40 hours in it from visit two.

I in my old age do my best to be a nice guy but was getting a little frustrated as in my mind I had paid good $$ for the experts to figure this out. So I turned up the fire ever so slightly. I ended up talking to Roger the Service Mgr and explained the situation all over again. Apparently he was not privy to the conversation I had with the guys in the shop.

On the way home I was talking to JW as we as well others had jawed this back and forth before. Jdub pointed out he thought it could be that honey had gotten into the wood down below and just be stanking everything out.

I thought that was a pregnant idea too, and called Marathon back and relayed that thought to the techs.

I also told them that when they had it all taken apart that I wanted to be notified and I intended to drive back out and inspect for myself.

They tore it all the way apart, all three tanks. The plywood below the black & grey wasn't exactly discolored, but it stunk to hi heaven as did the side plank on the passenger side.

Although the plywood is painted with silver paint, it was done after the tanks were put in, and the plywood is BARE UNTREATED PLYWOOD.

We agreed for them to fabricate a new sheet for the bottom & side of the black / gray, and to varnish it so it is sealed.

They are to also varnish the bottom plank under the fresh tank while they are at it.

I think this is problem solved!