Get rid of Boat Odors

[Bill lowe]

I recently purchased a copy of Ms. Halls book and think it provides very useful information.As suggested in the book, I used both KO and CP to try and rid my boat of some mold/mildew odors. After a thourough cleaning, I sprayed them pretty liberally in all the lockers and hidden recesses on the boat. I think they helped but now I have a pungent sweet smell that I attribute to the scents in these two products. My question is: has anyone elses had this experience and if so how long should those odors last?

 

[Peggie Hall/HeadMistress]

K.O. and C.P. fragrances die fairly quickly

However, neither one has a "pungent" scent...and if it's any different from what they smell like in the bottle, that's not what you're smelling. I suspect permeated sanitation hoses, especially if they're white hose. The interaction of waste with the chemical make-up of white hose produces a sickly pungent sweet/sour/not-quite-sewer odor...it's unmistakeable once you've ever smelled it. To be sure, test 'em using the method described in the book.

 

[Bill lowe]

Thanks Peggy. My sanitation hose is very heavy black rubber. I was hoping that it wouldn't need replacing because I suspect that it will not be easy to work it around curves etc. The boat is a 1995 and if I remember correctly you said that permeation could happen within that timeframe.I'll try the test if the odor persists.

 

[Steve]

Peggy are you saying...

I will be reworking my pump out this spring (adding a deck pump-out port). Are you saying NOT to use the white sanitation line that looks so pretty? Black hose works better? And exactly which brand or type works best? I don't want to have to replace hose again for a long time.ThanksSteve

 

[Peggie Hall/HeadMistress]

Not saying that at all

Except for SeaLand "OdorSafe" brand, white hose is more susceptible to odor permeation...but both black and white sanitation hoses can and do permeate. Each has its own distinctive odor (at least, they do to my nose). Permeated white sanitation hose gives off a more "sickly sweet/sour" odor than black hose. However, permeated black hose also gives off a pungent odor...it's just a bit different from the one that white hose gives off. And both are different from the odors generated by any other source on a boat.

 

[Steve]

To prevent it...

Route hoses so that no wastewater sits in the hoses, but rather flows back into holding tank?Steve