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fikkellin's avatar
fikkellin
Explorer
Oct 06, 2013

sulfur smell in hot water

noticed a sulfur smell in hot water ...filled with city water....and the electricode in hot water tank appears to be ok....draining tank and going to treat it with water conditioner.....any idea what the cause could be
  • The smell is caused by the water.
    You will have to fill the tank with water you know and trust and drain about three times and then the smell will go away.
    That same thing happened to us this spring and we used the water from a RV Park we were staying in. The smell was terrible and that is what I did to get rid of it.
  • Don't know what 'water conditioner' you speak off but a good draining/flushing should clean up W/H tank.

    If by 'electicode' you mean 'anode rod'..they can cause a sulfur smell (magnesium type rod-----aluminum type rods don't react with microbes in water)

    If draining/flushing doesn't clean it up then you may need to do a vinegar soak to remove build up in tank..........but that is for tanks that haven't been routinely drained/flushed.
  • We had that happen a few months ago. Dumping the tank and refilling, plus running the hot water heater cleared everything up.

    Pretty much just flushing everything a lot did the job for me.

    http://www.justanswer.com/rv-motorhome/2idt8-cause-water-rv-rotten-egg-smell.html
  • Try flushing heater with a mixture of water and bleach. Let in tank for a few hours and then flush. Worked for me. ( i sucked the bleach and water up thru the winterizing hose into the hot water heater and water lines.) 1 cup bleach 5 gallons of water.
  • talk to your city water people and find out how much sulfur is in the city water and then ask what they are doing to remove the sulfur. water from ground wells seem to have a lot of sulfur in it in some regions of the world. here in my town we have a lot of sulfur and the city builds towers with open slots on the side of the towers on top of the city water storage tanks and when they fill the tanks with water , the water shoots up inside the tower and hits the top of the tower and the air moving through the open slots in the tower dissipates the sulfur out of the water, simple but effective way of getting rid of the sulfur.