pmaley
Sandwich MA
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Joined: 01/10/2004
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My husband has been experiencing lightheadedness, headaches and even vomiting while we have been living in our RV full time. We were in Florida and had the a/c on most of the time so the RV was closed up. After exhausting medical tests we had our RV tested by an environmentalist who found extremely high levels of methane gas coming from our kitchen sink. Has anyone else had this problem and what did you do to remedy it?
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Trailer Trash 2
Santa Fe Springs, CA
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Joined: 06/01/2004
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You might check under the sink the drain vent it could be stuck open causing the gases from the gray tank to vent into the RV.
Don & Georgia
AKA: Trailer Trash 2
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enblethen
Moses Lake, WA USA
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Joined: 01/05/2005
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The sink should have a "P" trap to prevent gases from coming back through sink drain. Check under sink for the presence of one and check all it's connections if it is there. If it doesn't have one get one installed immediately.
Bud
Suzuki XL7 pushing Pace Arrow
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rv2go
Somewhere between Knoxville, TN and the coast.
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Some RV's (mine) that have kitchen slides have a flexible hose that connect to the holding tank and the sink drain pluming. A break or crack in this line could allow sewer gas to work it's way into the RV. This would be compounded if the gray tank valve is open and the sewer hose is connected to a sewer drain.
Winnebago Journey
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1995 2dr. Hard Top Geo Tracker
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PapPappy
Wilmington, NC
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Just make sure to keep some water in the sink drain. If you don't use the sink much, it will eventually evaporate out, leaving a direct line (without water blockage) to the gray water tank. You should also check the vents from the tanks, to make sure they are clean. You might want to look into getting one of those little wind activated caps that suck the fumes out of the vents. I believe they have them at CW.
Cyclone Vent
Still, one would think that the gray water tank wouldn't have methane in it? Are you piped to the blackwater tank?
Hope you get it figured out...Good Luck
DH Bill / DW Claudia / DD Jenn / DS Chris
The Paps! Sophie, Abby, Brandy, Kahlie and Annie 
2000 Winnebago "Minnie" 31C, Ford V-10
Purchased April Fools Day, 2008 
The Pets
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fordsooperdootydieselsmoker
OrangeCountyCalifornia
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Methane is an non-toxic but flamable gas, your RV gas detector alarm would be sounding an alert if the concentrations were high enough to cause an issue. Using a bacterial type digester in your gray tank would eliminate the gasses, as the bacteria produce only harmless nitrogen gas as they digest waste. 
If methane gas concentrations cause your husdand to get lightheaded, open a window after eating those jumbo bean burritos!
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othertonka
Stockton, CA
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Joined: 11/15/2003
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Since you are living full time, I assume that you probably have the gray tank valve OPEN all the time. Am I right? That allows the sink water to run right out of the tank and into an open sewer. This allows the sewer gases to then come right back into the gray tank and back to the kitchen sink. But the P trap in the kitchen sink should block the gas from coming in. But a lot of RV sinks have a short little VENT extension that has a check valve on the end and it usualy is attached under the counter at the rear of the sink and at a level even with the top of the sink. This valve could be stuck in the open position. You need to have it checked. In ordinary plumbing, this vent is run up and through the roof and is installed so the sink will drain. In a RV, they use this short vent for the same purpose, so the sink can get some air and allow it to drain. I would suggest that you try and close the gray dump valve until the tank gets close to full and then open the valve, dump, and then close the valve again until needed.
Here is an article that describes what and how this Air valve operates. Good readding.
Air Valve
* This post was
edited 09/01/08 12:42pm by othertonka *
Othertonka
2004 Southwind 32VS
2002 CRV Toad
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pulsar
Lewisville, NC
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Moved from Forum Technical Support to Tech Issues.
2002 Adventurer 32V - Workhorse chassis
1998 CRV toad - manual transmission
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Mandolin Guy
West Central Georgia
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fordsooper........ is right. The LP detector should have activated if there was enough methane gas to cause medical problems. It would detect methane, propane and butane. If you have a detector and it didn't go off, get it checked. If you don't have one, you need one.
And, switch to meat burritos.
David
Life is too short to worry about how short life is.
Retired Cop, 31 years
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99damon
Colorado
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What othertonka said. These air admittance valves are under our sinks, and you don't know they are there unless you get on your knees with a flashlight and look for them. They do go bad. Click on his link (yours may be black rather than white).
In my case, nobody went to the hospital, but the coach didn't smell very good. And if they fail, a good p-trap won't help, because the AAV's are between the sink and the gray tank.
Cheap to replace, and I agree, tank valves should not be left open.
Wayne
Fulltimers
1999 Damon Intruder 341
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