Klargester Smells

[DOIGAN]

Hi,

I have just carried out some work in our bathroom which involved me removing the sink. I noticed that we have a 4 inch soil pipe in the floor that the sink plumbing went into. When the toilet is flushed or shower run the water goes down this pipe too. All normal I presume. I went outside and open the drain cover that is in place before our Klargester unit, all the waste water from the house comes out of one opening and runs towards the Klargester. This too I presume  is normal. Only issue is the smell, when the 4 inch pipe was open it stank. I can only presume that it is smells coming back from the Klargester up the 4 inch pipes into the house.

If we run a large amount of water down any sink we get a whiff of foul smells, already stripped the pipework and cleaned etc. This actually baffles me as I thought S bends are designed to stop this sort of thing but all our sinks do it.

Our tank is working and has been emptied etc, my understanding is that there should be no smell if the tank is healthy. I am contemplating getting one of these soil pipe one way flap valves as shown below.

 

Can someone advise if these are any use or should I just get some of that sewage plant treatment additive to boost the enzymes.

 

Should the soil vent pipe from the roof feed directly into the waste receptor or is that more than likely connected to the waste pipe plumbing inside the house?

 

Long winded I know but thanks for any responses in advance.

 

Andy

[joe90]

13 minutes ago, DOIGAN said:

my understanding is that there should be no smell if the tank is healthy.

I agree, even if I open the lid on my vortex unit there is no bad smell, I slight whiff only.

[Spreadsheetman]

It’s surprisingly unstinky. We’ve got a big 3-property Klargester bio disk plant at our cottage and I help with hosing it down with water when it is pumped out with the lid up. It’s not bad at all.

[Russell griffiths]

It’s nothing to do with your tank it’s your plumbing in the house. 

Your tank could smell like Gandhi flip flop and the smell should not enter the house. 

You have a problem somewhere that as water runs out it’s breaking the air seal and letting the smell in. 

This means you need to look at the air admittance in your system, as water rushes out it needs to pull air in with it, if you have a blocked or missing or non functioning air admittance device then that’s where you need to start looking. 

You can replace the traps under sinks with one that has an anti siphon mechanism, then look at soil stack outside and make sure the end is clear so it can pull in air and work around the system from there. 

[DOIGAN]

6 hours ago, Russell griffiths said:

It’s nothing to do with your tank it’s your plumbing in the house. 

Your tank could smell like Gandhi flip flop and the smell should not enter the house. 

You have a problem somewhere that as water runs out it’s breaking the air seal and letting the smell in. 

This means you need to look at the air admittance in your system, as water rushes out it needs to pull air in with it, if you have a blocked or missing or non functioning air admittance device then that’s where you need to start looking. 

You can replace the traps under sinks with one that has an anti siphon mechanism, then look at soil stack outside and make sure the end is clear so it can pull in air and work around the system from there. 

Thanks for the response, I have changed the traps for anti syphon ones but still get a smell sometimes when water is running down the sinks, as it all the sinks I assume your may be correct as I take it you will only have one air admittance unit in a house? Presume thi sshould be on the soil pipe as it exits the roof?

 

 

[ProDave]

Just a thought, is it the local pipework under each sink has got smelly?  This happens sometimes e.g in a dual bowl kitchen sink where one does not get much use.  A little bleach down the plug hole cleans it up and stops the smell.

 

If the vent pipe goes out through the roof and finishes a little way above the roof, then you may not have an AAV as not always needed.

[DOIGAN]

Hi Dave,

 

No it is really all our sinks that do it. Just went into the loft, our soil stack pipe just comes up and goes straight out of the roof, it has a square cover on the pipe on the roof and assume that this is just a rain protection cover as it is almost flush with the roof,