Why do my water in hot water tank have rotten odor?

[Bill B /bus]

At the house the well exhibits the sulphur smell when the bacteria in the well overwhelms everything. Your state DEP or such can give your the proportions of bleach and procedures necessary to kill the bacteria.

On the hot water tank drain when cool. Flush with a bleach solution, maybe a quarter cup per 10 gallons. Let sit for 30mins or so. Drain and refill and drain probably three to four times to clear out the bleach smell. Should be good to go until the bacteria comes back.

Instead of bleach (chlorine) we use the Purogene product. No flushing required. Usable after a 20 min soak period.


Bill

[white-eagle]

Brian is correct.  it is bacteria in the hot water tank.  the first time it occurred, we just bought a new tank.  the 2nd time a couple years later, i researched it.  Better to use peroxide than bleach because it is not deadly to you.  i think we  put a cup into the tank by turning on a hot water faucet with the first 6 ft of fill hose with peroxide in it.  heated the tank to 180, let it set for a few hours, then flushed it and turned temp back down.  All better.

i saw you said the cold didn't smell, so no need to treat the well or the main storage tank.

[Dave5Cs]

Our water heater has an Aluminum Tank and don't have the problem.

Dave5Cs

[Don4107]

We stopped having the problem when we stopped using RV antifreeze in both the boat and bus. Now I blow out the water systems with air and save the pink stuff for the drain traps.  No more odor.  Much simpler.  No heater bypass, no flushing the pink stuff. 

Have you ever drained the pink stuff out on some grass?  Kills it better than Round Up. Cheaper too!  Not something I want to drink or bath in.

Blow it out in the fall.  Fill it and go in the spring.

[harleyman_1000]

Ok the smell maybe bad and everyone is talking about fixing the smell, but your still drinking and using the water with several inches of white goo

[Scott & Heather]

Did someone already suggest pouring a bottle of hydrogen peroxide into the tank?


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[paul102a3]

One other option to prevent the smell is to use a powered anode in place of the Aluminum or Zinc/Aluminum rod. A small electrical current is passed through the water and prevents galvanic corrosion so no rusting of the tank. Since there is no aluminum rod in the tank, there is no hydrogen sulfide created by the anaerobic bacteria so no smell. These are the best option if you are on a well and use a water softener also. The down side is they are expensive $250. The up side is no smell and the tank will never rust out.

A powered Anode and Cathode system was installed on many pleasure boats as early as the late 1960s to prevent the galvanic corrosion from damaging the propeller and all the rest of the underwater stuff so a powered anode for a water heater is not a new concept.

As I and others have stated, if you can adjust your water temp to 150 degrees or higher, that will eliminate the odor. There is the danger of scalding at that temp and yes you will use a little more electricity. One option to prevent scalding is a mixing valve that can add some cold water after the hot water leaves the tank.

There is one extreme option and that is to cut the anode rod off and go without. No smell but you will be replacing the water heater every few years. One other advantage of not having the Anode rod is there is no leaching of Aluminum into the water.

Paul