Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Any experience with Sulfur smell in hot water

huh?

To keep it hot.

yank the rod. aluminum may help or not,

If the homeowner squawks even the slightest,

Get a breaker bar with 1 and 1/16" socket, pull the rod. Saw off just below the threads and thread just the head back on.

When the rod is out, 1/2 cup of bleach wouldn't be a bad idea.

Done.

Electric Wh?
they tend to have this problem more often,
as mentioned replace the anode rod.Some water htr manufacturers will send you one @ no cost if it's faily new,others will not,but they are not expensive,and a realitive easy repair if you have the head space.

I have replaced them, but didn't cure the stink. Take it out and plug the hole, no more stink. And by the way, the heater I have now has more than 10 years with no anode rod, and it hasn't leaked yet.

Wrong rong.

Gas/Propane heater, I don't think it's the well as the water tastes fine and we only smell it via hot water. We noticed it in the shower first, but I checked the faucets. No smell in cold water, in fact no smell in hot before the hot actually gets there.

There's a holding tank, but its between the heater and the well.

The heater is actually on a platform, so very little space above it, about 24 inches, I will probably reach out to a plumber, since short of cutting the existing one as it comes out, I don't see a way to get it out.

thanks again for all the options/info, this is new to me, so learning and will be reaching out to the rental manager to pass along to the landlord.

Thanks again! any other advice, keep it coming!

You can also try "shocking" the well, which means pouring in bleach and letting it circulate through all the plumbing to kill the bacteria.
It's cheap and relatively easy to do.

Sometimes just running more water through the heater will solve it.

As has been stated before, unscrew the plug, cut the rod off and reinstall the plug. A large socket, hacksaw and some pipe dope are all that is needed to fix this problem. 20 min tops. 1/2 cup of bleach might be a bit of overkill unless you need to flash the system but a couple spoonfulls won't hurt anything. Let it sit for a bit then run the water until you cant smell chlorine at the faucets. The chemicals in your water are reacting with the rod. I don't install a water heater in this area without first cutting out the rod.
This has been done 1000's of times.

I'm not sure how yours is made but they used to have a high magnesium content in the rod and make a great sparkler once lit. Stay way back and be sure there is nothing within 100'+ that can burn.

Sounds like your "holding tank" is probably your pressure tank, and wouldn't be aerated. Generally, well systems go from well, to pressure tank to house supply. A holding tank supplied system generally goes from well to a poly holding tank, which by default is aerated, then a second pump moves water from the holding tank to the pressure tank. I don't know if this would help in your case, but works in mine. Sounds like removing the anode would be the easiest first step according the guys here that have obviously run this rodeo a time or two.

I'm just gonna leave that one alone.

especially since farting in the bathtub came into the conversation...

If you yank the rod, then can you still blame the hot water heater ???????

You and I must have dated some of the same girls.

Unfortunately that is the same enviroment Legionella likes to grow in. Iron rich warm water. I'd super chlorinate with 12 cups of household bleach in a 40 gallon tank. Let that set for 12 hours then flush it through the taps. The heater has to be off for that. You have to blow off the sediment first.

The water heater may incubate the odor and intensify it, but I doubt that the substance or odor are caused by the water heater. The only times we have experienced such odor is when first using a well that has been idle - not pumped - for a period of time, and the odor usually disappears after a few uses of the water system from the well. Definitely a Sulphur odor for a while, then gone. I think someone has said more about this earlier in the thread.

Well was not used for about a year. We've been here, using it, since March 8th. We've only noticed the smell in the last week or 2.

It's only noticed in hot water, via shower most noticeably, but also with sinks when the water gets hot. Also, if you take a cold shower it's not noticed. If you take a less than hot shower, the smell gets less noticeable as the water gets colder.

If it were coming from the well, wouldn't we smell it in the toilets?

Reaching out to the property manager/landlord this weekend as we've gathered more info and options.

I would guess a sulfur content in the water and a sulfur reducing bacteria. That can can be in the well which you have little control of. But, as you state the facts, it seems to be in the hot water system. I'm back to dumping the contents enough to clear the sediment then hyper chlorinating.


Hyper chlorinating is basically like shocking a swimming pool.

Too many internet retards here giving bad advice. One more time then I'm out. Cut off the rod, add a "splash" of chlorine, then reinstall the plug and enjoy non-stinky water. Reinvent the wheel or ruin your septic with 12 cups of bleach if you choose to. You know what to do. Good luck.

Damn, you're right, I forgot about the septic. You'd have to purge so it doesn't go into the septic. My experience with this is super chlorination a larger system that had Legionnaires disease in it.