Air Quality Issue in Hemisphere 23RB

[DaveAlb]

My wife has an air quality issue when sleeping in our bed in the front of the camper. It sometimes gives her headaches. We use a non-formaldehyde product in our black tank and Mr. Clean in our gray tank. We crack the bathroom vent 1 inch and the kitchen window 1 inch as well. We have a fan to move the air somewhat in our bed area. Any thoughts? Thanks.

[SeaDog]

it would seem you are assuming the problem is coming form the holding tanks. Looking at the floor plan the bedroom and holding tanks are different ends of the rig. I would lean more to some product, like mattress, carpet, or wood finish gassing off under certain conditions that she is susceptible to JMHO

[youroo]

Originally Posted by DaveAlb

My wife has an air quality issue when sleeping in our bed in the front of the camper. It sometimes gives her headaches. We use a non-formaldehyde product in our black tank and Mr. Clean in our gray tank. We crack the bathroom vent 1 inch and the kitchen window 1 inch as well. We have a fan to move the air somewhat in our bed area. Any thoughts? Thanks.

If this unit is New there are Many build items that "Off Gas" time lessons these conditions! If Used age also causes issues like Mold! Hard to tell what is triggering her issues! Youroo!!

[IsleDog]

Unfortunately there are lots of products in use that have formaldehyde in them. specifically plywood. its in the glue. Our new camper needed almost the whole season of airing out to get the smell out. maybe an air purifier might help? or an ozone machine? i have used those with great success when getting smoke smells out of houses.

[rk06382]

Originally Posted by DaveAlb

My wife has an air quality issue when sleeping in our bed in the front of the camper. It sometimes gives her headaches. We use a non-formaldehyde product in our black tank and Mr. Clean in our gray tank. We crack the bathroom vent 1 inch and the kitchen window 1 inch as well. We have a fan to move the air somewhat in our bed area. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Originally Posted by IsleDog

Unfortunately there are lots of products in use that have formaldehyde in them. specifically plywood. its in the glue. Our new camper needed almost the whole season of airing out to get the smell out. maybe an air purifier might help? or an ozone machine? i have used those with great success when getting smoke smells out of houses.

First:
to the Forum from Alaska!


Air quality:
A 1 inch crack may not be enough. When we first bought our RV, we could not stand the "new car smell" or off-gassing. I installed Fan-Tastic fans with rain covers in each of our roof vents. We parked the FR3 in our driveway with the shore power & left the fans on for a couple of weeks to air out our new FR3.

I had the dealer install a Fan-Tastic 801200 Create-A-Breeze RV Roof Vent with a Fan-Tastic Vent U1500WH Ultra Breeze Vent Cover in our bathroom.

With the vent cover you can leave the vent open even in the rain. I leave the bathroom vent open all the time even when it is parked.

Again welcome to the forum & happy camping.

[DaveAlb]

Thanks all for the great ideas...things I definitely would have never thought of. I will note them for further reference.

Yesterday I noticed a 5 Weird Smells in Campers article on this website. One of the smells in the article is a hair salon smell like a person just got a perm. My wife says that's what the smell is. It says it is a gray water tank smell that can probably be taken care by flushing the tank and using a Camco gray water tank treatment. That is something that we will give a try.

We changed our gray and black vent covers to some nice Cyclone covers with fins on that move in the wind. They seemed to help some.

Thanks again for the help!

[coney]

Originally Posted by DaveAlb

We changed our gray and black vent covers to some nice Cyclone covers with fins on that move in the wind. They seemed to help some.

:

Interesting concept this vent cover

[rk06382]

Originally Posted by DaveAlb

Thanks all for the great ideas...things I definitely would have never thought of. I will note them for further reference.

Yesterday I noticed a 5 Weird Smells in Campers article on this website. One of the smells in the article is a hair salon smell like a person just got a perm. My wife says that's what the smell is. It says it is a gray water tank smell that can probably be taken care by flushing the tank and using a Camco gray water tank treatment. That is something that we will give a try.

We changed our gray and black vent covers to some nice Cyclone covers with fins on that move in the wind. They seemed to help some.

Thanks again for the help!

Look under your sinks for a black Air Admittance Valve.

These have been know to leak grew water fumes.

See thread: Sewer odor coming from bathroom sink

I installed a Studor 20346 REDI-VENT Air Admittance Valve from Amazon. It stopped the smell coming from under my kitchen sink. It is a better quality valve than the black one.

[KRedburn]

a thought,

pour some pinesol down the kitchen drain and then run lots of water to clear trap and sink.

If later ( several hours) you smell the pinesol change your air admittance valve as stated above.

[DaveAlb]

Thanks for the thoughts! Are those air admittance valves under the shower too? That seems to be where a major part of the problem is.

Also, if we do the Lysol test and wait a while, how do we know the smell isn't coming out of the roof vents and seeping back into the camper?

Thanks campers!

[rk06382]

Originally Posted by DaveAlb

Thanks for the thoughts! Are those air admittance valves under the shower too? That seems to be where a major part of the problem is.

Also, if we do the Lysol test and wait a while, how do we know the smell isn't coming out of the roof vents and seeping back into the camper?

Thanks campers!

Open the cabinet under sink & sniff to tell if the smell is stronger closer to the air admittance valve.

The nose knows.

[DaveAlb]

I've learned a ton here. Any idea what might be happening with the smell largely seeming to come from the shower. A plumbing problem there? The trap doesn't seem to do its job. My wife puts a plastic cutting board over the drain and it seems to help a lot.

[rk06382]

Originally Posted by DaveAlb

I've learned a ton here. Any idea what might be happening with the smell largely seeming to come from the shower. A plumbing problem there? The trap doesn't seem to do its job. My wife puts a plastic cutting board over the drain and it seems to help a lot.

Did you pour water down your shower drain? Problem could be the shower trap. The Hepvo self sealing waste valve could be upside down. I read on an earlier forum thread that that was the cause of grey water smells. Look for a for 4" round access hatch cover under your shower.

4" Round Access Hatch Cover

Hepvo 5717 Hygienic Self Sealing Waste Valve

[nomad297]

One of the best purchases I ever made was an ozone generator. I don’t use it often, but when I do, I feel like it paid for itself each time. I won’t explain the science of it here because it is quite complicated — you can easily research this online.

What I will say is; it actually “kills” the source of any odors. It really does work. I use it at home, in the RV, in the cars and trucks. Anywhere.

They can also be rented if you want to just try one out, but I bought one because I never know when I will want to use it.

One thing I need to mention, though, is that when you are done using it, you will notice a new, different odor. This is normal and the new odor will dissipate after a few hours of airing-out, but after this everything will smell fresh.

Many hotels use these machines to remove cigarette smoke odors from non-smoking rooms when somebody didn’t follow the no smoking rule.

Bruce

[DaveAlb]

Thanks all...some great ideas! We will move forward in the spring.

[DaveAlb]

Have found a product that has worked great the last 2 camping trips. It is called Kanberra Gel. It is pure tea tree oil. We bought a 4 oz container to set out and it really did the trick! Bought on Amazon.