I have an odor that I can't seem to get rid of. I have your book and have cleaned everywhere that I can reach and used the products you have recommended. The odor does not smell like sewage but I can't really describe what it does smell like. Anyway, I tested an area of the sanitation hose as you explain and didn't really smell much on the rag from that area (under the rear sleeping compartment). The odor is very strong outside in the lazarette where the fuel and holding tanks are located. I am not small enough or enough of a contortionist to get behind the holding tank for much cleaning or hose testing but when/if I figure out a way to get there, I think I should just go ahead and replace the sanitation hose (the boat is a 1996). Do you recommend any particular type of hose for ease of bending and good service?
sanitation hose
- Thread starter Bill C320 Papillon
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Good hose and ease of bending are contradictions
'Cuz the softer the hose, the more water absorbant it is...and the more water absorbent a hose is, the easier it permeates with odor. The only hose I recommend is AVS96 "Odor Free"--which, until this year, was exclusively sold in the US by SeaLand as their "OdorSafe" hose. The mfr is now selling it here under their own brand name. It's stiff as an ironing board...which means that instead of bending it, inline radius fittings are needed. But it's also 16x more resistant to odor permeation than any other hose. As for identifying your odor: if it's a sharp sweet/sour/not-quite-but-almost-sewer odor, that's definitely permeated sanitation hose. If it's more of a soft swampy/sewer odor, that's a dirty bilge or sump...if you've cleaned the bilge and can't rid of it, you have trapped water somewhere. However, since yours is strongest around the tank, I'm betting that it IS your hoses...that it's strongest there because it's an enclosed area.
'Cuz the softer the hose, the more water absorbant it is...and the more water absorbent a hose is, the easier it permeates with odor. The only hose I recommend is AVS96 "Odor Free"--which, until this year, was exclusively sold in the US by SeaLand as their "OdorSafe" hose. The mfr is now selling it here under their own brand name. It's stiff as an ironing board...which means that instead of bending it, inline radius fittings are needed. But it's also 16x more resistant to odor permeation than any other hose. As for identifying your odor: if it's a sharp sweet/sour/not-quite-but-almost-sewer odor, that's definitely permeated sanitation hose. If it's more of a soft swampy/sewer odor, that's a dirty bilge or sump...if you've cleaned the bilge and can't rid of it, you have trapped water somewhere. However, since yours is strongest around the tank, I'm betting that it IS your hoses...that it's strongest there because it's an enclosed area.
Tank replacemrnt?
Peggy, thanks for your help. In reading other posts I've seen folks who plan to replace the holding tank. Do they (plastic tanks, not the people) get permeated and cause odors? If not, what, other than leaking or changing storeage capacity, would be the criteria that would let you know you should repalce one?
Peggy, thanks for your help. In reading other posts I've seen folks who plan to replace the holding tank. Do they (plastic tanks, not the people) get permeated and cause odors? If not, what, other than leaking or changing storeage capacity, would be the criteria that would let you know you should repalce one?
I've yet to see a permeated plastic tank
Cheap thin-walled tanks do flex a lot, which can cause 'em to crack though. So a can blocked vent that pressurizes the tank to the breaking point or causes a strong pumpout to pull enough of a vacuum against it to crack it. The only other thing that can damage a tank is over-tightening the threaded fittings. A good quality thick-walled plastic tank (which is what Ronco builds and why I recommend 'em) should last as long as the hull...my own was 21 years old when I bought the boat--the only part of the sanitation system I didn't replace.
Cheap thin-walled tanks do flex a lot, which can cause 'em to crack though. So a can blocked vent that pressurizes the tank to the breaking point or causes a strong pumpout to pull enough of a vacuum against it to crack it. The only other thing that can damage a tank is over-tightening the threaded fittings. A good quality thick-walled plastic tank (which is what Ronco builds and why I recommend 'em) should last as long as the hull...my own was 21 years old when I bought the boat--the only part of the sanitation system I didn't replace.
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