Sulfur odor from my water heater?

Buffettphan wrote:
I have noticed a sulfur, or other strange odor from my hot water. Cold seems fine. Any ideas????

The water in certain parts of the country has a sulfur smell.

Florida comes to mind... many of the people have wells even in housing developments not far from orlando.

They aireate the water to get rid of the smell

In areas where "fracking" is going on you sometimes get sulfur or other chemical smells.

Water doesn't "sour" unless it has a contaminant. This makes for slime... with biological particles... that's bad.

I certainly wouldn't brush my teeth or clean my pots and pans with it.

I would drain and refill the tank with water of good quality.

Then

I would add 1/2 to one cup of chlorine bleach (chlorox or Magic, etc) to my fresh water tank. And fill it completely. Turn on your pump... make sure that you are getting the chlorine smelling water running out of every faucet. Refill the amount used.

Allow it to sit for a day or three.

Drain everything... You will have to rinse several times to flush the chlorine "dead" slime and lime deposits... smell.

The next to last rinse add some baking soda to lower the chlorine

Now, if you have time...let the water tank to sit sit empty for a day or so with the fill cap off.(but don't let dirt in.)

This should clean up the hazardious soup that you have been using.

By the way... many TC manufacturers tell you to do this. Read your manual.

Your tanks should be cleaned at least once a year.... I try to do it every 6 months... since I boondock all of the time I may get questionable water... even though I'm aware of the hazards and try hard to avoid them.

Sleepy