Smell when turning on the hot water

At Ease

At Ease

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Oct 28, 2007
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I cannot get rid of the sulfur (rotten egg) smell when running the hot water. I have drained the holding tank several times, only add water that runs through a filter and I have added a product that I picked up at West Marine that is supposed to reduce any smell. The cold water has no smell at all. What should I try next? :smt100
 
At Ease said:
I cannot get rid of the sulfur (rotten egg) smell when running the hot water. I have drained the holding tank several times, only add water that runs through a filter and I have added a product that I picked up at West Marine that is supposed to reduce any smell. The cold water has no smell at all. What should I try next? :smt100
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What about running some clorine..(same as your pool) and flush it out a couple of times?
 
Mine has the same problem. Cold water is fine, hot smells terrible.
I'm afraid the hot water heater needs to be flushed with bleach. I know that works with home hot water heaters, friend on a well had the problem, but I haven't figured out the best way on the boat.
 
I was hoping that I would not have to use chlorine, but that may be the only way. The smell is unbearable.
 
Vinegar will work very well and flushes out readily.
 
Water heated to 160 degrees and up will kill the bacteria. Maybe boil water in a large pot, fill a five gallon bucket and let it cool a bit. Then pull the inlet from your water tank, put it in the bucket and let the pump run it through the heater. If it's do-able on your boat I would try that before running anything else through the system.
 
I had the same problem in an Apartment I lived in once, I don't have a solution for you because I ended up moving haver I complained to the office several times and they were not able to fix it.
 
If the sulfur smell comes from just the hot water side, then often that can be caused by magnesium anode rods built into many hot water heaters. In residential applications, switching these magnesium rods to an aluminum or zinc rod often solve the problem. You can also remove the rod completely which should solve the problem but might lessen the life of the hot water heater.

Have you noticed this problem with multiple water sources? If so, then I think it has to do with your hot water heater. If it is just at one marina, the problem may be in your water and not the hot water heater. Usually people assume that hydrogen sulfide causes rotten egg smell. Sometimes it is suffur bacteria and not hydrogen sulfide. Those sacrificial magnesium rods actually give off electrons that nourish the sulfur bacteria. One way to identify sulfur bacteria is to look for a slimy coating to areas that come in contact with this water. At home its easy. Just look in the toilet tank, run your fingers along the inside of the tank and a snotty, slimy coating will often help identify a problem with sulfur bacteria.

I'd first shock your tanks with chlorine. If you tell me your fresh water tank size, I have a chlorine calculator that I can look at to give you a good dose rate with. You can also increase the temp of the hot water heater to 160 degrees for a few hours (if possible) or use a solution equal to 2 pints of 3% hydrogen peroxide solution per 40 gallons for 2 hours.

One place to start if you think its your water and not your tank is with a water test. A simple filter from West Marine is not going to remedy sulfur for very long (if at all). Tell me where you are from and I will try and reccomend a place where you can get a free water analysis. I work for a water filtration company (Cuno, now owned by 3M) and we have distributors all over the place with water sample bottles that you can fill and return to them for an analysis.

Hope those ideas are helpful.
 
Had the problem last year when my boat was new.
Someone mentioned that the pink antifreeze might cause this if the HWH is not totally flushed.

The mention of 160 deg killing bacteria made me think that my heater is also heated by a loop from the starbord engine. The water temps on my gauges are typically about 157 - 160.

So I bet the loop in the heater never gets above 160 to kill off the bacteria totally. Maybe the "warm" water is actually a perfect breeding ground?

I don't know what the T-stat on the electric element is set for, but maybe it should be raised slightly.

Last year I eliminated the smell on my boat by flushing and flushing. My boat has a water connection so hooking up to the hose and flushing for a while was pretty easy.
Is there a hose connection on the heater drain? Maybe hook up a short hose and flush it overboard with that.

We don't drink the water on the boat so a little chlorox in the tank wouldn't hurt. I haven't found the need to do that yet.
Hope some of this helps, I replied to hopefully learn more about this too...
 
I'll bet your anode is shot. If you are getting the smell after thoroughly flushing the system with clean non-smelling water, that is the likely cause.
 
Had the same issue at home last month I changed out the anode rods and flushed the heater the smell is now gone I am not sure if the water heaters on boats have these anode rods.
 
I Had The Same Problem On My 340,i Used 1/2 Gall Of Bleach Ran It Trough The
Hot And Cold Line's And Let It Sit Overnight, After Flush The Entire System With Fresh Water-problem Solved !
 
bypass the hot water heater by crossing and interconnecting your water lines. Then drain the tank. Close the drain valve and pump in a gallon or 2 of mild water-bleach solution (or chlorine solution) through one of the intakes at the top. Let it sit for 20 minutes. Drain and flush more clean water though the top of the tank, letting it drain at the bottom. Clean-up the bilge and let the tank sit empty for a week or so with the drain valve open. Problem should be solved.
 
I just came back from the boat. Drained the water, added a cup of bleach and more water. Ran only the hot water faucets for a few minutes to drain the water again.
Refilled the tank and it smells fine now.
 
gredmer said:
I just came back from the boat. Drained the water, added a cup of bleach and more water. Ran only the hot water faucets for a few minutes to drain the water again.
Refilled the tank and it smells fine now.
Click to expand...

I had the same problem last weekend. I put a quart of "natural" bleach into the water tank, and ran the hot water faucet until it was empty. Refilled the tank, emptied it again through the hot water. Refilled once more, and the hot water has been fine ever since.

The labelling on the "natural" bleach bottle said it was envrionmentally friendly and biodegradable. I hope it was better than regular chlorine bleach, but it seems to have fixed the odour from our hot water tank. My guess is that the hot water tank hadn't been emptied since the boat was winterized last fall.
 
Thanks for all of the solutions. Sounds like chlorine bleach is the way to go.
 
Try the vinegar. It really works. It cuts scale as well. Not to mention vinegar is not unhealthy to ingest.
 
If you still taste bleach after cleaning, follow up with a vinegar rinse or hold to neturalize the solution. Since bleach in a strong base, and vinegar is an acid, neutralization will take place.

Doug
 
douglee25 said:
If you still taste bleach after cleaning, follow up with a vinegar rinse or hold to neturalize the solution. Since bleach in a strong base, and vinegar is an acid, neutralization will take place.

Doug
Click to expand...
Agree! I did this last year. It did the job!
 
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