Smells gone! Big Orange Filter

rasbury

Up to now JC, I have not put a filter on...I am going to work on one, but concerned how the order gets into the cabin to start with- I need to look at where the vent goes....the head itself is pleasant, I use the blue stuff that you add to the water in the head. So my point was if the odor is coming thru the wall at the mid ship berth, should I also be concerned about the monoxide from the genny? I guess I need to understand better the lines that are there. I can understand picking up the order on the out side of the boat where it now vents with no filter but not inside- when it's been closed up for the week and I open it up, it's a little overwhelming and this is the first I've dealt with it in the year we have owned it...does it vent to the outside or just to the engine compartment?

JC290

vents to the outside usually next to your pump out cap is. Check the vent lines and check to make sure you don't have a leak. where is the smell the strongest in the cabin? Had a neighbor that had a very nasty shower sump under the rear berth (looked as some body might have missed the head) helped him pull the sump and cleaned it good smell was gone. I personally use norflex digester to eliminate odor and solids work great a can of it last me a season or better. 

MarkB

First, I don't think the seal between the engine compartment and cabin is 100%. But mostly the odor you smell is coming from the waste tank vent on the side of the boat and via wind pushing back under the canvas and into the boat.  There is always a chance of CO going into the cabin, but more likely through the cabin door again. That is why you should have a functional CO detector in your cabin.

rasbury

it is absolutely in the cabin...also noticed as I sniff around where the door slides into it's real strong so it seems to be coming from down below and not via the vent outside the boat and blowing back in.....maybe a mud dober has set up home in the line, guess they don't have a nose! I will get a coat hanger and run down through that vent line and see if it's plugged. This weekend was the fist time the shower was used so I don't think we have any issues there and again, when you open the door to the bathroom there is no odor there so sounds like an issue with the vent...

MarkB

Yeah, I would check that vent. If it's blocked and you pump out your tank, bye-bye tank. However, I'm not understanding you 100%. Are you saying the smell is in the head, or in the cabin but not the head. If it's in the head it could be your joker valve that is the issue. It prevents gases from going back from the waste tank into the toilet, and burping gases.

rasbury

Mark it's pretty much the cabin only- when you open the door to the head there is really no smell in there and seems to be coming in through the door to the cabin as when I open the door and sniff at where the door slides into, I can smell it....

MarkB

It is probably coming up from the engine compartment via the portholes use to carry all the wiring to the helm. From there, obviously going in via the door. It may also be going in from where the wires go to the entertainment unit (there is a channel way). Do you have a TV cabinet, or radio cabinet. Have a smell in there, and see.

rasbury

that's absolutely where thinking but, I'm just not sure what changed...if the vent was plugged for example, then that would stop a smell completely unless it is building up pressure and then coming out somewhere else...guess I have some work to do! 

Dream_Inn

Is the smell in the engine room?  If you kept your boat in a wet slip I'd say make sure you don't have any bilge water.  I'd say check the engine room to see if it's worse...then, follow your nose!  :

MarkB

It could be as simple as the vent line came off the tank, who knows. This shouldn't be a complex thing to fix, it's a hose that is clamped onto a tank. Even if you have to cut it and replace it, it'll take you 10 minutes and cost $10.

TikiHut2

My guess is dirt dauber nest in the vent line or loose vent line than might have come off. Your world will improve dramatically with a good clean carbon filter every year  in the tank vent line and some good hose clamps. I made mine for about $20, or buy the big orange for $120. Same turd polisher carbon pellets inside a PVC tube.

Also make sure each blackwater pump out is well emptied and rinsed w 10-20 gals of fresh water, and emptied again. Don't try to do it all in one long session as the tank vent can't keep up with the giant sucker pump and the plastic tank will collapse or possibly be damaged.

As for how well the bulkhead is sealed to prevent CO and stinky BO (bilge odor, etc) from getting forward, forget about it. You can't seal the enormous raceways and huge voids found on each side of the hull and cabin liner. Just keep an eye on you genset exhaust pipe and ALWAYS install redundant smoke and CO detectors in the cabin. 

I was just about to install a fire suppression unit in my engine compartment until I realized there's no way to prevent explosive fumes/flames from migrating beyond the bulkhead/fire wall and throughout the boat. It seems a little futile to extinguish one section if fire can race up both sides of the cabin unimpeded. 

If you smell fuel GET EVERYONE OFF THE BOAT! If you smell turdz, get a carbon filter on that waste tank vent. 

Glad you are using that boat. Keep up the good work. 

rasbury

10-4, WILL heed all warnings and comments! Thanks all......and I think this thread had the info on how you built yours Tiki or I'm sure I can find it. Anyone that has helped me knows I'm so cheap I squeak so I'm thinking the home made version will be my solution....

Dream_Inn

Tiki, your boat didn't have a fire suppression system?  I will never own a boat without one. Once you are on a boat and you have a vapor explosion, and you and your family are saved (let alone the boat) because of the suppression system, you'll feel the same.  I know you've heard the story, so I won't go on.

I do agree with the turdz, put a filter on.  The homemade ones are great!!  I just changed mine out a few weeks ago.

TikiHut2

I read your story and it was crazy scary. Nothing worse than a gas fire on a boat. Certainly didn't mean to imply fire suppression was useless, quite the opposite. Obviously they save lives and buy a few precious seconds when it really counts. I was just extremely discouraged by the lack of even a reasonably tight engine room firewall in a gas boat. 

In our old boat if there's the slightest hint of gas (or any engine room fumes) it'd be distributed throughout the entire boat within seconds with virtually no restriction. FS was on the mod list if we'd have kept the boat, in tandem with somehow plugging all the gaps between the hull and liner, some large enough to crawl through. 

I've misplaced my carbon vent pics but it's posted here somewhere. Simple and effective....... pretty cheap too. I just put a set screw on the end cap of the canister so I can replace the carbon pellets each season for that fresh as a daisy smell after burrito night on the boat.

Buenos nachos, Mike

Dream_Inn

My end caps screw on, instead of the set screw.  I glued the screw threading adapters that allowed the end cap to screw on.  I'm sure mine or Tiki's way will work fine.

rasbury

10-4, will go through the ;posts and get one made up- I think I have something else going on however but if I take care of both, it will be taken care of!

Thx

DazeOff

did you ever find the cause of the stink? I think we have the same issue. No smell in the bathroom at all. Strongest smell coming from the cabin sliding door, under the dash. I'm thinking it's the sanitation hose. It's about 12 years old and could be the problem.

MarkB

DazeOff, is the smell there all the time or only when you flush?

DazeOff

all the time

Michael T

With a Big "O" filter you need to change the two circular sponge filters (or at least wash them thoroughly) as well as the carbon medium or you can still get a smell. If that doesn't work I would suspect a kinked vent line or plugged vent. BTW that carbon medium must stay dry if it is installed in a location where water can get into it or waste backs up into it the filter will no longer work. A guy at our marina thought he had a blocked vent and ran water into it to flush it instead of using, for example, a blast of compressed air - end of filter medium. 

Black_Diamond

I replaced the out going vent line from the Big Orange to the thru hull and added length so it has a 'high point' after the thru hull just to keep water out.