Terrible smell in the forward head🤢

[PeterSz]

I cleaned as much as possible. I removed all the panels and clean it behind, wiped all pipes everything. I was so happy with the results. Head smelled clean as a hospital. Two days later it smells like before the cleaning. Even the forward cabin smells bad (not as bad as the head). The another head in the salon smells ok. No problem at all. Same electric toilets with same holding tanks.
Advice please!!! This smell killing me!

Thank you in advance.

[2big2small]

Please describe the smell. If human waste, then you might have a little leak somewhere.

If it smells like decay, then that’s what’s going on, probably in the intake hose but possibly also in the drain hose even though that one has the water “plug” at the bottom of the toilet bowl to close it off and prevent smellyness.

Close intake seacock, disconnect hose from toilet end or disassemble it completely. Clean inside of hose or at least pour a generous amount of bleach in and then let it sit for 24h.

[Pete7]

You need Peggy Hall's book. She is a member of CF too. They should give these out when you buy a boat.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Get-Boat-Od.../dp/1892399156

[PeterSz]

Thank you for the quick reply. So the smell is not exactly like human waste but like a public toilet which wasn’t cleaned for ages. I removed the panel and checked the black water tank and looks good and doesn’t smell bad. I think the smell coming from the toilet even if it’s cristal clean. You might be right with the “water plug” at the bottom of the toilet bowl as (I think) the smell comes exactly from there!

[robert sailor]

There is a good chance that your holding tank vent may be compromised. Follow the vent, if the vent is plugged or if there is a break somewhere along the way you will gets lots of odor. If the vent is working ok but it vents forward and your forward hatch is opened while you operate it you may be getting some odor there.

[Vasco]

And then there's the hoses.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by PeterSz

Thank you for the quick reply. So the smell is not exactly like human waste but like a public toilet which wasn’t cleaned for ages. I removed the panel and checked the black water tank and looks good and doesn’t smell bad. I think the smell coming from the toilet even if it’s cristal clean. You might be right with the “water plug” at the bottom of the toilet bowl as (I think) the smell comes exactly from there!

The "water plug" may be a joker valve... and if it's failed it could be allowing odor back into the bowl. These are usually easily and periodically replaced.

Is your toilet freshwater or raw water flush? If the latter, you may have "sea growth" trapped in the inlet area around the rim of the bowl. Peggie can guide how to clean that.

-Chris

[boatman61]

Get a big garbage bag and take it into the head.. remove the hose's and put them in the bag.. take them ashore, remove from bag and beat them on the floor to clear the build up of crud inside.. flush well after with fresh water and refit.
If its an old boat with hose's of indeterminate age.. you may be best with new hose's..

[2big2small]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Get a big garbage bag and take it into the head.. remove the hose's and put them in the bag.. take them ashore, remove from bag and beat them on the floor to clear the build up of crud inside.. flush well after with fresh water and refit.
If its an old boat with hose's of indeterminate age.. you may be best with new hose's..

I have two sets of hoses so I can interchange them because I find the “beating on the floor” is immensely more efficient after I let the hoses dry out for a week.

With “water plug” in my first post I meant that the water at the bottom of the bowl serves as a plug to block the odor off from the draining hose. It is therefore far more likely that what you smell comes from the intake hose.

The lazy fix is to fill it with bleach, the thorough fix is to disassemble both hoses and “beat” them.

[2big2small]

I have also switched one of our two heads to fresh water flushing and that fixes pretty much everything for good.

[Tailwheel]

I’ll just chime in because, well just because. If you have the space, do consider a composting head. I used to wrestle with these issues, but since I switched, I’ve never had ANY smell. Nada.

[Davidhoy]

The smell almost certainly comes from the salt-water supply line. Any marine life in the water from when you last flushed sits in there and dies. Then, when you flush again, the "clean" water brings along with it the odor from the decaying marine life. If you're flushing that toilet very often you probably would not notice any smell, as there's not enough time for the organisms to die and decay.

Replacing the supply line may help, as would switching to fresh water flushing. But seriously, how many of us have enough fresh water tankage to use for flushing the toilet? I'm installing a composting toilet in my aft cabin head - not only does this do away with all the hoses, through-hulls, holding tank, pump-out connection, electrics, etc, but a properly vented composting toilet does not smell. My vent for the composting toilet is on the transom where any short-lived odor will simply waft away in the breeze.

I have an ElectroScan system in the forward head, and that basically requires salt water to function. That one will stay, at least for now, until the composting head experiment proves to be a good or bad decision ;-)

-David

[Wallaby]

First, skip the other head treamtents and try Zaal Noflex digestor!

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by PeterSz

I cleaned as much as possible. I removed all the panels and clean it behind, wiped all pipes everything. I was so happy with the results. Head smelled clean as a hospital. Two days later it smells like before the cleaning. Even the forward cabin smells bad (not as bad as the head). The another head in the salon smells ok. No problem at all. Same electric toilets with same holding tanks.
Advice please!!! This smell killing me!

Thank you in advance.

Tanks? Singular or pleural?

[captlloyd]

Originally Posted by Tailwheel

I’ll just chime in because, well just because. If you have the space, do consider a composting head. I used to wrestle with these issues, but since I switched, I’ve never had ANY smell. Nada.

Here we go !!