Smelly water

[rich85704]

It took me a while to accurately diagnose this, but the water coming out of my hot water heater smells strongly of sulphur. I have no idea exactly when this started; the rig was stored for more than a month since my last trip. It was fine then. This persists whether the rig is on city water or the onboard tank. Just the hot side, at all locations. I drained the heater, and yep! Smelly!

Any suggestions? For the moment, I've bypassed the heater so cold comes out of all faucets, and I'm heating water on the stove.

Gee, just like camping!

Thanks,

Rich

[aruba5er]

I too had the sulfur smell and took out the anode rod and installed a ball type drain valve in it's place. That was in 2007. I haven't had the tank self destruct nor leak and I can VERY easily drain or blow off sediment. I figure this, you have an anode in your home water heater and it will never be changed, so why the RV one? Never had stinky water since I removed the rod.

[Ron_Schulz]

The sulfur odor may be caused by the reaction of iron bacteria and heat in the water heater. This is really a common occurrence. Introduce some bleach into the water tank, like you would when you sanitize it, and open a HW faucet until you smell the bleach. Let it set overnight then flush the system. Check the anode if there is one and replace as necessary...

[Clay_L]

Atwood says to add vinegar through the pressure relief valve hole. The following is from the Atwood manual.

"1. Turn off your main water supply. Drain your water
heater tank. Reinstall drain plug. Remove the
pressure-temperature relief valve. With a funnel
use 4 parts white vinegar to two parts water. (In a
6 gallon tank that would be 4 gallons vinegar to 2
gallons water).
2. Cycle the water heater, letting it run under normal
operation 4-5 times. At no time do you remove the
vinegar from the tank Once this has been
completed, remove the drain plug and drain the
water heater.
3. After thoroughly draining the tank, to remove the
sediment, flush the water heater.
If you elect to use air pressure, it may be applied
either through the inlet or outlet on the rear of the
tank or applied through the pressure-temperature
relief valve. Remove the pressure-temperature
relief valve and insert your air pressure through
the pressure-temperature relief valve coupling. In
either case, with the drain valve open, the air
pressure will force the remaining water out of the
unit.
If air pressure is unavailable, your unit can be
flushed with fresh water. Fresh water should be
pumped into the tank either with the onboard
pump or external water pressure. External
pressure may be hosed into the unit either
through the inlet or outlet found on the rear of the
tank or the pressure-temperature relief valve
coupling located on the front of the unit.
Continue this flushing process for approximately
five minutes allowing ample time for the fresh
water to agitate the stagnant water on the
bottom of the tank and forcing the deposits
through the drain opening.
4. Upon completion of the steps above, replace the
drain plug and the pressure-temperature relief
valve.
5. Refill tank with fresh water that contains no
sulphur."

[rich85704]

Thanks, folks. I drained and refilled the tank, and the smell went down 90%. I suspect another drain/refill cycle will clear it up.

I saw no way to add CLR or vinegar to the tank without putting it in the whole system. There are clean-out nozzles for later heaters; perhaps shooting some vinegar solution up inside via the drain plug?

It is, by the way, an Atwood with an aluminum lined tank and no anode rod.

I'm in business again, and I now better understand one more of the many things that can go sideways in an RV.

Rich

[spoon059]

Same thing happened to us. Draining the water heater didn't solve it for us though. Had to mix up vinegar and water and let that sit in the water heater tank for a couple hours to get rid of the smell. We didn't drain our water heater while we took a longer break from camping. The bacteria in the water eventually made a putrid smell that we just couldn't get rid of.

[stickdog]

jwmII wrote:
You probably have a porcelain lined Suburban water heater with the anode in it. You probably left it setting to long and the water soured and that along with the anode in place will give you a nasty sulphur or rotten egg smell. Just drain it and flush it out a couple of times and you'll be ready to go again.

+1

[jwmII]

You probably have a porcelain lined Suburban water heater with the anode in it. You probably left it setting to long and the water soured and that along with the anode in place will give you a nasty sulphur or rotten egg smell. Just drain it and flush it out a couple of times and you'll be ready to go again.

[fla-gypsy]

Drain the tank and refill. It will clear it in most cases

[AJBert]

guidry wrote:
I just had the same thing happen. After research on this forum i put white vinegar in it with water, fired it up, flushed, then repeated. All good now.

Agreed. Sounds like you've got a build up of hard water deposits, most likely lime from the smell of it. CLR works great but so does vinegar which is much cheaper.

[GMandJM]

How's the anode rod look and when's the last time you changed it out? Doing so may help.
(Unless you have an aluminum WH tank.)

[guidry]

I just had the same thing happen. After research on this forum i put white vinegar in it with water, fired it up, flushed, then repeated. All good now.