Smelly heater

[PamJohnZephyr]

I'm getting a high pitched whistling sound and foul smell when the Suburban heater comes on. If a mouse died in there, how do I get it and the smell out? I'm covering the in and out ports when not in use.

[gricardsimplycol]

Pray

[gricardsimplycol]

More likely a nest. This would require taking things apart. Is it possible to get an opening to stick a vacume hose in

[merrykalia]

I agree.....pray!

Several years ago, we had a 17' hybrid and a mouse had got in and built a nest during the winter. When we opened it up in the spring, we had no idea that we were going to be roasting a mouse nest (no idea if the mouse was still there or not), but it sure did stink and smoke and all sorts of other nasty things.

DH ended up taking the covers off the outlet outside and I applied a vacuum to it and got lots of loose items, then he went inside and began taking the furnace completely out and as he was removing it, "stuff" kept falling out, which I vacuumed up. He put it back together and we ran it for about 45 minutes with the windows and door open to air it out. It was better, but took several times running before it had no smell.

[Skyliner]

My 5th wheel was infested with mice when we purchased it at a great price. We had dead mice in our heater and in our solid aluminum ducts.

I removed the heater, disassembled as much as I could and carefully wiped everything down first with a bleach solution, then with a product called Odoban. A squirt bottle helped. Heating ducts were cleaned by parking rv on a steep hill and running water/bleach and odoban down the front duct and using a large wet/dry back to suck up the dead mice and nests.

Mice droppings may carry the hanta virus. However, if the dropping are a week old then they should not carry the virus anymore and even less time if the droppings/urine soaked items were exposed to sunlight.

Cleaning the heater up is an easy job but will take some time.

[PamJohnZephyr]

Armed with your information and inspiration, I opened up the back of the heater. 4 dead mice and a rather impressive nest. Where do they get that stuff!? Blowing, vacuuming and cleaning I believe we're going to be ok. Running the heater to get the last of the smell out. Thanks for the help! Now we just gotta keep 'em out!

[PamJohnZephyr]

Window screen should keep 'em out of the heater. Worth trying anyway.