Heads inlet pipe smell

[laika]

A stupid question I should (a) know and (b) could easily enough find out for myself but to focus my experimentation perhaps someone could lend me their experience.

Which bit of the inlet pipe do the bacteria which cause the nasty sulphur smell like to hang about in? The seacock->pump bit, the pump->loop bit or the loop->pump return? Or all three?

Has anyone had any success with disconnecting hoses, draining whatever can be drained, and pouring bleach down and leaving for a few hours?

 

[ChattingLil]

I don't know the answer I'm afraid, but I found that this smell very quickly dissipates as soon as you pump through 'fresh' sea water. When I had guests on board I used to nip below before letting them in and pump through clean water to get rid of the smell before they came down. Worked every time. Seems like a lot of work to disconnect pipes. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the problem, apologies if so!
Now we live aboard, we dont' have any smell because the pipes are being flushed through very regularly.

 

[Tranona]

Could be anywhere. You can try pumping dilute bleach through followed by clean water, but if your hose is original it is probably porous by now and might need replacing with butyl sanitary grade hose.

 

[Rivers & creeks]

It comes from contamination via faecal matter from the discharge hose either through the always leaky internals of the pump or effluent being sucked back up the inlet pipe. Once you've got it you cannot get rid of it. The only solution is to install a sanitising dispenser just inside the seacock and that disinfects the water coming in. Or do like Lil does

 

[Martin_J]

If you are talking about the smell (from the inlet water) when you first flush after a long time away then I would first look at the large plunger o-ring.

If that o-ring isn't working well then dirty water that is supposed to stay below the o-ring can get above into where the clean water is supposed to be.

You then have dirty water getting smelly whilst you are not at the boat which is then the first flush through the loo..

(Worth a try - and an easy/cheap first step in your diagnosis). Good luck although I guess it's going to take a long time between tests!

 

[Bobc]

Chuck some white vinegar down it.

 

[ex-Gladys]

Errr. I have to disagree with the comments here. Outlet pipes can be treated, but the cause of pongs is almost always the inlet. This gets calcified over the years, and bugs get in there from the supply of clean fresh sea water that gets pumped in, they embed themselves in the limescale and in the week, they run out of dissolved oxygen, die and start to decompose which leads to the H2S smell... When it gets to that stage, you should think about changing the inlet hose. I replaced Gladys heads and hoses in winter 2005, and it's only this season that I'm thinking, hmm should've changed the hose this winter.

 

[laika]

Hmm...I should clarify a few things. I too am a liveaboard. No faecal matter or anything solid has been put down the toilet since the boat was last outside a marina which was..errr...some time ago (yes yes I'll complete the job list Real Soon Now and we'll be on the way west). The smell is now happening if I haven't flushed the thing for a day and it's pretty strong. I replaced all the hoses 5 years years ago: The outlet is fancy vetus stuff but the inlet is just your standard toilet inlet hose. There's no smell coming *through* the pipes i.e. this is only when flushing after not having been flushed for a day not stinkiness which pervades the place because of nasty pipes (which I had when I first bought the boat). I suspect some of the residents of my marina aren't as fastidious about respecting what is put into the water as I am but as this is a "first flush" thing I don't think it's just how the water smells. OTOH if the water is as nasty as I think it is that might explain why the smell happens after not flushing for 24 hours rather than the week+ where we used to be.

 

[typhoonNige]

Errr. I have to disagree with the comments here. Outlet pipes can be treated, but the cause of pongs is almost always the inlet. This gets calcified over the years, and bugs get in there from the supply of clean fresh sea water that gets pumped in, they embed themselves in the limescale and in the week, they run out of dissolved oxygen, die and start to decompose which leads to the H2S smell... When it gets to that stage, you should think about changing the inlet hose. I replaced Gladys heads and hoses in winter 2005, and it's only this season that I'm thinking, hmm should've changed the hose this winter.

Completely agree. No faecal matter is required for the hydrogen sulphide to form. Any organic matter will do . Once the oxygen in the seawater is depleted by aerobic decomposition of the organic material the sulphate reducing bacteria will get to work on the sulphate in the seawater and produce the smelly hydrogen sulphide. Unless your inlet pipe and the water you are flushing in are very clean the smell will form after a few days of stagnation.

 

[l'escargot]

It is organic matter anywhere in the inlet hose between seacock and bowl. As said, just pump it through and ventilate. The only cure is freshwater flush.

 

[michael_w]

Fit a Lavac. The vaccum sucks the pong overboard.

 

[FulmarJeddo]

I solved it on my boat after the pump went very stiff. I stripped and cleaned the pump. It is a single piston with waste water one side and clean the other, with a rubbed seal. I greased everything with silicone grease, available from a plumbers shop. Re-assembled it and it pumped freely and I have had no smell since (about 2 years now). In my mind this confirms a theory I read on one of the previous post that is cross contamination between the 2 chambers of the pump.

 

[Tranona]

Have a look at www.leesan.com at treatment systems for incoming water.

 

[ianat182]

I no longer have this problem aboard since I use domestic"BlueDuck" after flushing out till cleared from the basin.I then leave the loo with neat liquid in. No smell at all then.
ianat182

 

[pyrojames]

Someone here recommended putting urinal tabs or cistern blocks in the inlet system a month or two back. I fitted a jasco strainer, pulled out the gauze and stuck in a blue tablet for a cistern. Loo hasn't smelt since and it has cleaned out the lime scale. Highly recommended.

 

[ex-Gladys]

One other point about the stuff you put down the heads, beware of using domestic cleaners, household loos don't have rubber comments on the waste side, and can be damaged

 

[Momac]

Pee only is our policy too.
Smells when pumping in marina water can be evident - as described a smell is expected on the first flush after leaving the boat unused during the week.
A flush with fresh water is our more usual practice. We use the shower hose to flush but perhaps that's not an option for you.

 

[maby]

Following suggestions that it is due to cross contamination between the outlet and inlet sides of the circuit, I ran tests several weeks running putting a good slug of Dettol down the loo just before we left the boat and giving a couple of strokes on the pump to make sure that the outlet side is well dosed. I was sceptical, but I must say that it does seem to improve matters the following week.

 

[RichardS]

Someone here recommended putting urinal tabs or cistern blocks in the inlet system a month or two back. I fitted a jasco strainer, pulled out the gauze and stuck in a blue tablet for a cistern. Loo hasn't smelt since and it has cleaned out the lime scale. Highly recommended.

Yep. That was me. I've been doing it for a year now and it's 100% effective and virtually cost free if you already have a sea-water strainer as the yellow or blue commercial urinal tablets I bought on eBay were something like £5 for 100 and a couple of tablets last the whole season. The concentration of the flush water coming through is so faint that no colour is visible. However you can leave it between flushes for as long as you like - 6 months in my case - as all bugs are killed stone dead!

Richard

 

[ChattingLil]

I'm going to do this. It will make sure we avoid the rather unpleasant experirence we had earlier this year when our toilet stopped working and we found... a fish in there! Poor thing. Horrible way to go. Our water inlet is about 6 metres from the toilet.