Starting to get a real funky smell from our water (rotten eggs)
We don't drink it anyway but still starting to smell bad out of all taps. We fill it up from the house tap which is good, but right away when it goes through the RV tank/lines it smells bad from all faucets/shower.
Probably the water heater.
Does the cold water have the same smell?
If it is the water heater, drain it and flush water through the open drain.
I try not to leave water in the heater, I drain in and leave it theat way till I get ready to use it again.
2000 Sea Breeze F53 V10 - CR-V Toad
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With water tank about 1/4 - 1/2 full, add about 2 tablespoons of unscented bleach to the fresh water fill hose. Then continue filling until it is about 3/4 full. Take a drive (unless it is a trailer, just fill to the top) This will mix up the bleach mixture, and kill about 90% of the bacteria in the tank. Pump some of this strong bleach mixture into the water lines.
Drain the water heater, and put the plug back in fairly loose, as you will be removing it a couple more times. Fill the water heater and fresh hot water lines with the strong bleach solution. Let it sit a hour, then replace all the water again, let it sit overnight. The first solution going through will kill 80% of the bacteria, and weaken the bleach solution by about 50%, the second rinse will strengthen the bleach water again, and letting it sit overnight will kill everything!
When a new street is opened, and new houses constructed and built, then connected to the new city water lines, they have to go through a similar bleach solution to pass, and make the water lines "Drinking Water". After the bleach water solution sits in the pipes, if the water comes out with more than 10 PPM free chlorine, then it is considered safe to use those water lines for drinking water, it is bacteria free.
Yet the water itself is 10 times stronger chlorine than a swimming pool that smells of strong chlorine smell, so the water itself is not safe to drink until it is flushed out, and new drinking water is introduced.
So drain the drinking water tank, put in new water, pump it through all the lines, then drain that water heater again. Then you will be pumping through drinking water to the hot water lines, and everything should work normally again.
It really does not take much chlorine. The side of the bottle explains how much is needed, and really it is a tiny amount, only 1 tablespoon will give several PPM of chlorine in a 100 gallon tank. 2 tablespoons will dose a larger tank, or your smaller tank to a fairly high level.
When I read "How to get rid of water tank smell" I was guessing that someone had put 1/4 cup of bleach into a 30 gallon tank, and now has to step outside when the faucet is turned on. Yes some people do that or worse, add 1/2 gallon and then eat up the pump seals and toilet tank will not hold water anymore.
Thanks did you mean to say BLEACH at the top of the response and then CHLORINE at the bottom (maybe i read that wrong)? Which should I be using 2tbsp of? Thanks much
batesrt wrote: Thanks did you mean to say BLEACH at the top of the response and then CHLORINE at the bottom (maybe i read that wrong)? Which should I be using 2tbsp of? Thanks much
Buy Unscented Clorox Bleach, it has the free chlorine in it.
Clorox is made from 5% chlorine with the rest being water. This is further diluted to have a final solution nearly 999,985 parts water and 15 parts chlorine.
I buy the Clorox at my local supermarket, in the soap isle. If you have scented bleach already at home, don't use that! But if you have unscented bleach, it is the right stuff. I only use the name brand Clorox when I treat my water, I have no idea the quality control of the other brands that I might find at the 99 cent store, fine to clean clothes, not my water tank. Clorox is only $5 for a fairly large bottle that will last a lifetime!
Your water heater has water high in sulphates in it. It happens. Drain the water heater and flush out the lines and you will be good to go again. Some water supplies are naturally high in sulphates. Make note of where you last hooked up and next time drain your system when you are done. You really don't need to sanitize.
After thoroughly rinsing the bleach/water sanitizer from the system, you can counter-act the chlorine smell/taste by adding about 1/4 cup of baking soda to a fresh-water tank, filling and flushing as before. I add the baking soda through a funnel on the filler hose-bib, then flushing the mix through hose and all. The baking soda neutralizes any lingering residue of the chlorine. Check your owners manual for similar directions and mix ratios, mine gave the volumes of both the chlorine and baking soda for each 15 gallons of fresh water in the holding tank.
Wil, Tara, Nakeeta (Alaskan husky 6 yr.-old), and Keeko (Jack Russel/Chihuahua mix 3 yr.-old)
(Joey our 6-yr. old Jack Russel mix, passed over the Rainbow Bridge 12/19/09.)
2008 Jay Flight 24RKS; 2006 Chevy Suburban 1500 4X4 Z71
Cool Canuck wrote: Your water heater has water high in sulphates in it. It happens. Drain the water heater and flush out the lines and you will be good to go again. Some water supplies are naturally high in sulphates. Make note of where you last hooked up and next time drain your system when you are done. You really don't need to sanitize.
We usually just take short weekend trips and so we don't even use the hot water heater (just take quick "navy showers", which feels good since it's often like 90deg out anyway!). I just have it set to bypass the water heater so wouldn't think that would be the issue, in this case that is
Cool Canuck wrote: Your water heater has water high in sulphates in it. It happens. Drain the water heater and flush out the lines and you will be good to go again. Some water supplies are naturally high in sulphates. Make note of where you last hooked up and next time drain your system when you are done. You really don't need to sanitize.
We usually just take short weekend trips and so we don't even use the hot water heater (just take quick "navy showers", which feels good since it's often like 90deg out anyway!). I just have it set to bypass the water heater so wouldn't think that would be the issue, in this case that is
I'll be darned. It usually happens with water heaters for a variety of reasons. Household and RV.
Then, are you using the freshwater tank rather than hookups?
Bleach is great for sanitizing. Baking soda works good for getting rid of odors. You should be able to flush everything out with city water and eliminate the odor. If it is coming from the freshwater tank, you might want to sanitize anyway. It must have been sitting for awhile.
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