Trojan Boat Forum

As part of the restoration of our F-26, we replaced the bladder type holding tank for the head with a 30 gal plastic tank, new vent hose with filter, new transfer hose from the head to the tank & transfer hose from the tank to the pump out fitting. This was back in 2001 but now I'm finding that there is a bit of a smell in the bathroom that seems to be coming from the transfer hose. There are no leaks and the hose is white reinforced plastic made for this application. The smell seems to come right thru the plastic.

Is this common or is there a better choice of hose type that could be used for this job?

No matter what type of hose you use unless it is metal, it will smell after a while. You could have a leak in a spot where there is no clamp like where the hose passes through a bulkhead, etc.. After time it could have rubbed through the hose. if there are low spots where sewage can sit for some time it will permeate through any hose after time. Some hoses just last longer but all will smell unless they are metallic which is not even a possibility on most watercraft.

It also hass a plastic holding tank and is vented very well. I think it's
impossible to get rid of. Sorry, I smell you pain.

Have you checked th e vent lines? We bought our boat over last winter. Put it in the water in April. By July, we could not stand to be in the head or either of the sleeping quarters. On Sat AM I took everthing apart. Cupboards, floors, cabinets. I found that the vent line didn't really go to the through hull fitting. It looked like it had never been connected. Over 34 years of use, the occasional over-filled holding tank would dump into the bildge, getting caught behind stringers, not really making it to the bottom of the boat. The deposts dried in layers over the years. When it got wet, it would smell just like the day it was made (know what I mean).

Anyway, I filled a gallon bucket twice with chips of stuff. With the help of a gallon of bleach, a dust mask, and my wife occasionaly giving me a mercy shot of air freshner, I finally scraped it all away. Some Interlux 202 cleaner, and then a fresh coat of bildge paint the next weekend sealed it away. I also replaced the vent line, being careful to route it continuously uphill from the tank to the external vent and we've not had a foul odor sense.

You might not have this exact problem, but look around for deposits below all your waste line fittings. Its not fun to clean, but cleaned up is better than the smell.

I had a similar problem with my F28. I was told If you ever used toilet cleaner not specificly designed for holding tanks it could remove the odor resistant coating on the inside of the hose. We had replaced the hoses 1 yr prior to this problem but had used a household cleaner and had the smell coming out the hose (you can test this by rubbing a clean rag on the hose and then smelling the rag, it it stinks your hose is bad, if not look elsewhere. I replaced the hoses on my 10 meter 5 yrs ago and only use the correct cleaners, no problems so far.

Good Luck,
Todd Pote
"Double Pote-N-Sea"
1987 10 meter mid cabin

Thanks for the replies.

Replaced transfer hoses. Smell is gone.