Mystery Head Odor

[Dean Strong]

Peggy,We bought a 1990 Hunter 30 in March thatwas really dirty, and have been cleaning, cleaning, cleaning ever since...Just about finished, but have this lingering odor in the head. It is a sweet smell, like room deodorizer or something.I have read all of your articles and have cleaned all of the mildew (was lots of it) on the inner liner of the hull, pulled the cabinet facings clear off, cleaned there too...In fact just sprayed everything with a 10 percent bleach solution. Have been using KO and CP, so head and tank smell fresh and clean. Head lines run under rear transverse double berth, so we removed structure, and cleaned down to the hull, around holding tank, hoses, is sparkling clean.Bilge is sparkling clean too. Have a dripless system, so there is never any water in the bilge, and you could eat out of it. Don't know where else to look for where this odor is coming from, except under the pan. For instance, I'm not sure where the shower drains to.. eventually the bilge, but is it in the space between the fiberglass pans under each of the floor boards (I have removed all of those too, cleaned, and and replaced wood screw plugs)?There is a solar vent in the head, that runs a fan all of the time. When the head door is left open, the odor is not noticeable. But when the door is left closed (even for just 30 minutes or so), the odor is pretty strong.Any ideas?

 

[Peggie Hall/Head Mistress]

From your description of the odor...

it sounds like the sanitation hoses have permeated with odor. The combination of waste and the chemical make-up of the hose material produces a sickly sweet/sour/sharp odor.

 

[Dean Strong]

Hose problems...

So Peggy, I think I've read that you suggest wrapping the hoses in plastic wrap...to see if it cuts down on the odor? I've cleaned them, and tried rubbing them hard with a clean towel to see if any odor is detectable in the towel, and it is not. Anything you can suggest before I replace all of the hoses?Also, what is the life expectancy of a holding tank...before odor starts to permiate it too?Thanks

 

[Peggie Hall/Head Mistress]

Rarely if ever do tanks permeate

It CAN happen, but 99.999% of the time there's a leak in the tank. From your reply, it appears I may be wrong about the hoses...but to be 100% certain, wet a rag in HOT water--as hot as you can handle. Wring it out and wrap it around a low spot in each hose. Leave it there till it cools, then remove the rag and smell it. If you still can't smell anything on the rag, it's not the hoses. Test every hose, and use a clean rag each time. If I'm wrong and it's not the hoses, there's no need to replace them or wrap them in Saran...they're not the culprit, so we need to keep looking. If it's not the hoses, water may be trapped somewhere....trapped water can smell like a sewer if it's left to stagnate in the summer heat. The shower may be a good bet...you don't know where it drains to, or whether there's a pan (that can be leaking)...possibly a sump that's leaking--although it's doubtful you have a sump if you haven't found a switch for a sump pump but the shower drains with no problem. If it drains into the bilge, you may have trapped water there...if it drains overboard above the waterline, you could just have a drain that needs cleaning. Find out where it goes, and try putting some C.P. down the shower drain when it can stay there at least overnight. The enzymes in C.P. destroy odor on contact, so if the drain is the culprit, the odor will go away at least temporarily. Worst case, you may have a leaking shower pan, creating trapped water under it. The bad news is, it's summer and hot weather, which is when odors are worst...but that's also the good news, because it makes the sources of odors a lot easier to find. It may take a while to find it, but if we keep looking and eliminating possibilities, we WILL find it. Just don't start blindly replacing things till we do...that can get very expensive--not to mention a lot of wasted time and effort--without curing the problem.