The easiest way to deal with this mess is to simply drain the water heater between trips. No water, no bacteria, no smell. Zenfookpower's statements are particulary true for Michigan water which is heavily contaminated with iron in many parts of the state. What you are really producing is iron sulfide from the action of the anode - whether you have bacteria present or not.
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I "picked up" some BAD water in AZ a couple years ago. Anode did not help. It was on this forum that somebody told me to pull the plug the WH tank and put as much vinegar as possible in the tank, fill the rest with water, leave it in there for 24 hours.
The next day you hook up to city water, run all faucets and the potty and everything is great. I used approx 4 gallons of vinegar, cheap at Smart & Final.
In reading about this rotten egg smell I found it is due to a chemical reaction between the aluminum tank and the sulfer.
I have a Atwood with no anode rod and when ever we go to the upper peninsula of Mi on the eastern end we get rotten eggs out of it. Atwood tells how to flush it to stop it for a while. Not real hard to do! gontodadogs is on the right track!
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This string is several months old, so maybe nobody who SHOULD see this WILL see this, but there were issues I thought it important to address.
I ran across the string while doing what I call a "plagiarism search," looking for folks who have appropriated parts of my Web site. I run a site and forum devoted to water heater maintenance. I am not going to name it, in order to comply with the "noncommercial" rule for rv.net, and I signed up with a Yahoo e-address for the same reason, since my other e-addresses contain my Web site address. I've had a bellyful with idiots trying to advertise in my forum, so I'm right with you there!
ZenFookPower's second sentence was what brought me here, as it is taken verbatim from my site. It's not quite on the par of putting it into a commercial Web site, but hey, that's still naughty, mon ami.
As to what brought me back, it's this: Any water heater will develop odor problems if it sits long enough. If that is all there is to it, then a couple of pints of hydrogen peroxide poured into the tank will fix it.
If the smell is recurring, though, it usually means there are anaerobic bacteria in the water that react with the aluminum and magnesium sacrificial anode rods that come with all glass-lined steel water heaters. The solution is an aluminum/zinc anode if you don't soften your water (and I expect that's all RV owners!) and a powered anode if you do.
A couple of people suggested removing the anode, and one said the only reason it is even there is because the companies have always done it that way.
So you should know that removing an anode always voids the warranty. For good reason. I have serviced thousands of residential and commercial water heaters and if you had seen what was left of a lot of the anodes, you would not think they were there just for the heck of it.
Further, the manufacturers are extremely price-sensitive. I once tried to get a company to include a brass ball valve to enable sediment buildup to be flushed and it wouldn't do it because that would be a few dollars more that it was spending than its competitors. Since anodes cost more than a few dollars, if they could get rid of them, they would.
Anodes are there for a reason. They react with a small amount of exposed steel inside the tank and protect it and when they are consumed (or removed), the tank eventually rusts out.
Quote: Anodes are there for a reason. They react with a small amount of exposed steel inside the tank and protect it and when they are consumed (or removed), the tank eventually rusts out.
Randy is right on the money here guys..
Basically the reason that they are there is this. H20 (water w/some salts in it) + Fe (Iron) + heat = a corrosion cell (actually a battery of sorts with electrons moving from one to the other), and results in corrosion of the interior of the heater (rust).
In a water tank (same as the one in your home), one of the materials is the cathode and the other is the anode (tank wall). Without a "sacrificial" anode the tank would likely rust out in a couple of seasons or quicker even.! So taking it out is not a good thing to do.
If you take out your anode while winterizing your trailer (I do in order to drain the tank), you will notice that it starts to look corroded and that is exactly what is happening...better it than the inside of your hot water tank.
I have had my anode in since new and it will go on it's 3rd and last yr. as I will replace it next time I winterize.
rgds,
stk
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