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Smelly toilet help please


Northcountrygirl

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What do people do to keep their pump-out toilet tank smelling sweet?

 

Our boat is just over a year old and although the toilet was fine to begin with, from about March onwards we have had an increasingly bad odour from the breather pipe. To begin with it was only when we flushed but it is there all the time now - not nice for passers by on the towpath or us if we have a window open on that side. We use Odourlos as prescribed on the bottle but it doesn't seem to be working. What are we doing wrong?

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Oooo you've opened a can of worms now.

All the toilet tanks haters are going to love this.

 

I would be interested in this mine too has a bit off a whiff every now and then from the vent when we flush and from the toilet. I've tried that green stuff that's supposed to work but it don't we get a gone off beer smell from the toilet at times.

Edited by rustydiver
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I doubt that you are doing anything wrong although I suspect your tank breather is too small with one missing.

 

I suspect Odourlos had been reformulated because the last bottle I bought was nothing like as effective as it once was. You may also not be using enough of it

 

Make sure whatever you buy says it contains microbes and on no account let anyone put ordinary blue down it. Also be careful about toilet cleaning/sanitising products. If they contain bleach or similar they will kill the no-smelly microbes in the tank and allow the smelly ones to breed.

 

In high summer I pump out once every week to 10 days to avoid smells.

 

Over the last two years I have been using the biological toilet fluid from The New Blue LOO Company and it seems the best so far.

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Assuming you haven't used anything other than a biological treatment and it is a dump through type of toilet, it might just need a very thorough pump out and rinse. It is a good idea to put a hockey stick shaped piece of wood down the toilet and agitate the inevitable "poo mountain" that is there whilst running a good flow of rinse water down the bowl. If you can keep the pumpout running at the same time better still.

 

Tony

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1. On your next pumpout thoroughly rinse - and that means almost filling up the tank with clean water, put a stick down the 'hole' and stir it about. Repeat if time allows.

2. Don't use Blue or Odorlos (it isn't any more). I doubted it but I am now using some bio clothes washing liquid as recommended in another thread. WORKS for ME Another thread suggested a granular oxy-powder from Tesco. Can't recall the name, but we'll try that later.

 

We used to use Odorlos and bakers' yeast, but neither were effective for very long.

 

Found it -

 

IDShot_225x225.jpg

Tesco Oxi Powder Whites 500G

£2.20(£4.40/kg)

Add to basket Quantity

Product information
Description

Tesco Whites Oxy Power Stain Remover powder detergent 500g

Designed to remove dried on/ stubborn stains, at 30 degrees, in one wash.
- Suitable for stains like: red wine, coffee, chilli, grass
- Does not contain chlorine bleach

Information
Ingredients:

Oxygen based bleaching agents, non-ionic surfactants, anionic surfactants, enzymes, optical brighteners Tesco whites oxy power stain remover powder detergent contains amongst other ingredients: 15-30% of Oxygen based bleaching agents <5% of Non- Ionic Surfactants, Anionic Surfactants 100g contains: 0.33g Peracetic Acid (From 25g Sodium Percarbonate & 0.5g TAED Also contains Enzymes and Optical brighteners., For an Ingredients Datasheet visit www.dpi.uk.net, Product and ingredients are not tested on animals by or for Tesco

Storage:
  • Store upright in a cool dry place and ensure you replace lid after use.
Produced In:

the U.K.

Dosage:

1 scoop = 30g.

Pre-Soak
Wearing suitable gloves add:
1 Scoop/5L water along with your standard detergent
Temperature 40-50°C
Soak 1h max.
(Wash as usual or rinse thoroughly)

Use in washing machine:
1 x scoop to every wash
2 x scoops for heavily soiled garments
Add your detergent as normal

Care Instructions:

- Always follow washing instructions on garment or fabric care label
- For the majority of garments this product is safe to use for the removal of
stains.
- Check for colour fastness by testing a hidden area of the fabric. Rinse and
allow to dry.
- Do not use on coloured fabrics
- Do not use on delicate fabrics, wool/silk/leather/upholstery or dry clean
only garments.
- Do not use on finished or coated surfaces, for example wood, metal finishes
etc.
- Do not soak fabrics with metal fasteners or flame-resistant finishes
- Do not expose pre treated or soaked fabrics to direct sunlight prior to
washing.
- Do not use on garments that carry the phrase do not bleach or equivalent care
symbol

Net Contents:

500g

Name and Address:

Tesco Stores Ltd.,
Welwyn Garden City AL7 1GA,
U.K.

Product Warning:
Edited by OldGoat
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Do you have a charcoal filter fitted on your breather vent? . We have . On the odd occasion the tank has been extremely full and backed up into the vent thus making the filter wet and useless we may get a smell until we replace the damaged filter . You may need to get a new filter , if you have one fitted . We only use brewers yeast tablets for our tank , no blue/green or any other colours . Bunny

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We don't use any chemicals in our holding tank. We find that they make the smells worse.

 

Just leave the tank to settle down of it's own accord. Flush it through on a regular basis and let it find it's own happy level of bacteria and the smell will disappear.

 

ETA: Be careful what you clean the toilet with as this will also have an effect on the bacteria in the tank.


If you have any flexible pipe from the toilet tank you would be wise to replace it. After some time the smells leach through.

After 1 year?

 

Ours is the original pipe now from 2003 and no smell.

 

Unless the builder used really poor quality pipework I would say it shouldn't need replacing.

Edited by Naughty Cal
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I think our rinsing technique may be the problem. We may not have been rinsing enough. It's difficult when the pump is on a timer and you have to stop pumping to put in fresh water.

 

Last night I got so frustrated with the smell that I poured the remainder of the green stuff down the loo (about three quarters of a bottle!) and today the smell has gone. So it works, but only in large quantities it seems but for how long? Talk about throwing money down the toilet!

 

Bizzard, that sounds like a plan. I'll send you the results in about 4 or 5 days! ;-))

Edited by Northcountrygirl
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Keeping it aerobic is the answer. We took out our tank [1] in favour of a portapotti a while ago but while we had it, there were two breather pipes, both 25 mm diameter, spaced as far apart as feasible to encourage air flow. Never use loo blue (or anything else). Never had any smells from it.

 

Allegedly the pipe can get porous to smells over time, but ours seemed good after ten years.

 

Martin/

 

[1] 200 l holding tank available to collector. 600 x 900 x 400 h mm. PM if interested.

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Odourlos has an additive that is meant to stop the bacteria going into an anaerobic state but if you do not put enough in then may stop working. Thorough rinses are important especially if you have a straight dump through type rather than a macerator, although after a while even with these type you can have a problem. We have been using Septclean for some time which has been rebranded and is now known as Muck Munchers. This is sold for septic tank treatment and can also be used in boats using a single disolvable satchet after each pumpout.

 

They also sell a product called Oxy-Tonic which basically boosts the oxygen content of the tank contents which then helps to kick start the good aerobic state which lets the microbes digest the waste. We use this if we think the reaction needs a boost and will remove the hyrogen sulphide rotten egg smells very quickly.

 

Very important though is not to use any bleach products in the toilet as this will kill the helpful bacteria and give you the bad smell.

 

Just found out they still sell the old product which appears cheaper at travena.co.uk in their septic tank range.

Edited by PeterG
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I think our rinsing technique may be the problem. We may not have been rinsing enough. It's difficult when the pump is on a timer and you have to stop pumping to put in fresh water.

 

 

When we had a dump through loo on the shared boat we filled a couple of pails with canal water before the pump, out started then tipped them down the loo which the tank was nearly empty. If you are quick enough, you can get another couple of pailfuls down before the time is up. Also, as the pump out was being done, we rocked the boat from side to side and this with the flushing water helped stir up the contents lying on the bottom of the tank. We seldom had a smell from the loo.

haggis

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We use Odorlos as well. I was a bit underwhelmed by it as it worked fine after a pump out and then if the boat was left for a couple of weeks the vent would stink on first flush

 

The bottle seems to imply one dose will do the job until next pump out.

 

After much searching I figured out that the Odorlos gets used up and if I keep topping adding a dose to the tank every few days it works well enough

The claimed self generation of good bacteria doesn't really work on narrowboat holding tanks, probably as it doesn't get agitated like a sailing boat would and there's less air flowing down the vent line.

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Having looked at these debates for years and years, I think the best solution is to have two vents on your tank. One low down (as low as is allowed) going out the side of your boat and one at the other end of the tank going out via the roof. These should be 1 2/2 inch or so.

 

This is what was suggested when I researched it before we had a boat built, so we gave it a go and it worked 99% of the time. No additional chemicals needed.

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I lived on a boat for many years that had a vacuflush loo and a 2ft square by about 5ft high tank. It had a breather pipe with a carbon filter in it.

Despite our strong doubts we took the advice of the builder and what we added to the tank was- nothing at all. We were convinced that this would be a disaster but it certainly was not. We NEVER got a bad smell from the tank either inside the boat or outside. I changed the carbon filter regularly but actually I think that even this was not really necessary.

The only time we did get a smelly tank was on one occasion when the operator of a marina pump out put blue in the tank before I managed to stop him. We immediately filled the tank completely with water and pumped it out again but the tank did start to whiff a bit a couple of days later. It took two more pump outs before we got back to the "balanced" smell free state that we had before.

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Biomagic is the only stuff that we found worked.

 

We used biomagic for a number of years and always found it worked well. The only problem is that it is bulky (we bought the concentrate which you dilute 50:50) and requires a couple of 5 litre bottles once diluted. This year we tried Silky RX which seems to work just as well but is a granular form in a tiny easily stored bottle.

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I believe that pump-out tank owners go 'nose-blind' after a while.

 

You can walk past boats in our marina and tell which ones are pump-out and which are not, you can also get to know when they are ready for the pump-out as the volume of 'perfume' increase tremendously.

 

I am not suggesting that cassettes do not smell I am just suggesting that when you live with a smell every day, it gets so that you don't notice it.

 

Think when you visit a friend's house and it reeks of 'dog', or cigarette smoke / dirty ashtrays.

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system 4-50, on 13 Sept 2016 - 5:05 PM, said:

If I rigged up a small pump to pump air into my poo tank below the liquid level, what would the result be?

Would it stink more or less? Would it froth & overflow?

I'm underemployed at the moment, can you tell?

I did precisely that some years ago.

Attached an air bed 12V pump to the flush pipe in the roof and let it run as we proceeded on our journey in the countryside.

The loos are forward of the helm so we were subjected to very strong wafts of unpleasantness as we drove along. Even after an hour of bubbling the smell did not abate and the loos were just as smelly.

 

Back to the drawing board.

 

A while ago Odorlos ceased being imported and the allowed (H&S or whatever) mixture is pretty ineffective - whatever amount is put in. A shame as I have a couple of large bottles to hand.

 

Hence my interest in the topic.

 

We have a large septic tank at home and that never stinks. Something to do with the dilution volume ??

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This year our tank seems to have been stinky, not been much of a problem before. I had already added an air pump and I think it does help but we only run it occasionally. Anyway it was particularly bad on our recent trip so I thought I'd try some bakers yeast granules (the proper yeast stuff, not the stuff you put in a bread machine). I put a teaspoonful of it in a cup of warm slightly sugary water, left for 15 mins to froth and then tipped it down the loo. This was just before we went to bed. We woke up the next morning and there was no stink. Amazing! By the time we left the boat several days later it had started to reappear a bit but that teaspoonful gave us several days stink-free. OK so maybe there were other factors but next time I'll try it again and if I get the same result I'll be sure it really was effective - and cheap.

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