Rotten Egg Smell

richie t · 08-20-2018, 09:57 AM

When I turn on hot water it smells like rotten eggs. Any suggestions?

Cubfan · 08-20-2018, 10:23 AM

This happened to me a few years ago, I drained the hot water tank and rinsed it out. That solved my problem. Good luck.

richie t · 08-20-2018, 10:37 AM

Thanks. Just remove cap? Anything else? What about relief valve?

stateboy · 08-20-2018, 10:49 AM

Here's a thread that touches on the topic.

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url...8&share_type=t

WinnieView · 08-20-2018, 10:50 AM

When presented with this issue; We have drained the tank, removed the relief valve and added a cup of vinegar, refilled the tank, let it cycle a time or two over several hours between hot and cold, then drained the tank one more time.

TxLoser · 08-20-2018, 11:11 AM

Just dealt with this. On a late July trip each time someone showered I'd get that and run around crazy trying to figure it out. I thought it was the bath room fan sucking up the yuck from somewhere.

I had one of those gravity tank fill tubes that screws on the end of a hose. Put a little bleach in there and put it in through the open drain hole on the hwh. Flushed it out till it came back through the pressure relief. All is good now.

Did that procedure two or three times and then also filled it and drained a couple times.

klassic · 08-20-2018, 09:08 PM

I just had the problem in July as well.
https://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f...ink-58750.html

Used the vinager method and then ran lots of water through it through the relief valve port.
Good now.

Chrisb-24 · 08-22-2018, 07:26 AM

Put 1 cup of bleach in your fresh water tank then fill. Turn your water pump on and open all faucets until you get the bleach smell in the water. Let it stand for 24 hours, this will kill the bug growing in your fresh water system. I do this every year to my 5er. Good luck in your bleaching process.
Chris

Redslider · 08-22-2018, 08:12 AM

When I worked for a municipal water agency we would get complaints from home owners that their water smelled like rotten eggs. 99% of the time the smell was coming from the standing water in the p trap. Turning on the faucet would cause the septic p trap water to release hydrogen sulfide gas into the surrounding air. Hydrogen sulfide can only be produced by bacteria metabolizing organic material in the complete absence of oxygen. While it is possible, it is still unlikely that the conditions necessary to produce hydrogen sulfide exist in your fresh water system. Most likely the reason adding vinegar or bleach to your fresh water system gets rid of the smell is because you ultimately end up flushing the solution down the offending drains. The next time you experience this problem try simply pouring a dilute mixture of bleach directly down the drain and see if that solves it. I would be suspect of any water supply that contains enough sulfur bearing material to cause your fresh water system to turn septic.

klassic · 08-22-2018, 08:44 AM

I think the last two posters have it wrong.
This isn’t a problem with the fresh water. It’s a problem in the aluminum tank of the Atwood hot water heater.

Use 2parts vinager to 1 part water

(Around 4 gallons for a 6gallon tank 4.5-5 gallons on a 10gallon tank)

Fill through the relief valve port. Let the heater run though a few heating cycles.
Then rinse the crap out of the tank after.

I have read not to put bleach in the Atwood tank.

oldmanAZ · 08-22-2018, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by klassic

I think ...snip... It’s a problem in the aluminum tank of the Atwood hot water heater.
... snip

I've smelled the 'rotten egg' (sulfur) from some campground water systems.

I've never had a water odor problem with my Atwood water heater, but I ALWAYS use a carbon water filter.

bdreinv · 08-22-2018, 10:20 AM

Have always dumped a little bleach in the hose before filling fresh water tank.Never really noticed any odd smells.Except when we dump to much bleach in the fresh water hose and fill . Thanks

klassic · 08-22-2018, 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldmanAZ

I've smelled the 'rotten egg' (sulfur) from some campground water systems.

I've never had a water odor problem with my Atwood water heater, but I ALWAYS use a carbon water filter.

I would LOVE to know why some people get the smell and some never get it.
I never had the problem until this past July.

Cannon · 08-22-2018, 08:14 PM

I been on 6 trips this year. 5 had well water and 1 had city water. The city water was 3rd trip and I had that same smell after that trip. have not had it again.

prm99v6 · 08-22-2018, 09:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by klassic

I would LOVE to know why some people get the smell and some never get it.

I never had the problem until this past July.

I never had a problem in my old TT for five years with an Atwood 6 gallon water heater. 3 weeks of the water from my home in my 10 gallon Atwood in my 2019 North Point and I had the smell when we got to our first campground. It flushed out and we were fine the rest of the trip. I now have the water heater drained. We’ll see how it goes on iur next trip.

Fly YX · 08-23-2018, 04:00 AM

If your water heater has a anode rod try replacing it on the RVs I had it was the plug in the middle of the water heater on the bottom.

damammel · 08-23-2018, 05:26 AM

While staying at a KOA this past summer we ran into this with our hot water. In the manual for the Atwood water heater there is the process for eliminating the odor with vinegar. One of the seasonal campers also let use borrow a spray wand that easily flushes the crud that builds up at the bottom of the tank. I removed the pressure relief valve from the top of the tank to really flush the tank. Odor was gone and did not have any other issues.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002XL2IBS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_NLPFBbTWM9C3P

klassic · 08-23-2018, 05:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by damammel

While staying at a KOA this past summer we ran into this with our hot water. In the manual for the Atwood water heater there is the process for eliminating the odor with vinegar. One of the seasonal campers also let use borrow a spray wand that easily flushes the crud that builds up at the bottom of the tank. I removed the pressure relief valve from the top of the tank to really flush the tank. Odor was gone and did not have any other issues.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002XL2IBS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_NLPFBbTWM9C3P

I used a scope camera and could see it.

Marine71-76 · 08-23-2018, 08:17 AM

We never had this issue with any of our previous units & they all had Suburban water heaters. We even have a water softener which we picked up in 2012 & never had an issue in the previous 5vr.

We purchased the Jayco in 2016 and didn't have any issues the 1st year. Last year was another story & part of the problem was the lack of camping we did. Yes we opened & drained the hot water tank & no we have never used the fresh water tank.

We didn't have any issues the first 2 campouts but the last one it was coming out of the cold water & not the hot water. We can't bring the trailer home & the storage area has well water so we paid for 2 nights at a local campground and filled the fresh tank, running bleach water through everything. The next day we drained the fresh tank, ran water through everything and refilled it, letting it sit overnight. Drained it again & put about 1/3 tank adding fresh water additive. We brought the water softener home & drained it to re-energize it. Brown water came out - which is something new for us. We are going out very soon & hoping there is no sulfur smell.

We are also using 2 water filters - the one that came with the unit & another one that is supposed to catch the sulfur. We will be putting in new filters as well when we go out.

JesseS · 08-29-2018, 12:17 PM

Every spring I remove the fresh water filter element and add 1/2 cup bleach to the housing, re-cap and fill the tank, run all facets until I smell bleach, let sit for 24 hours, then drain and flush a couple of times until no more bleach smell. I have never had any issue with the cold or hot water smelling in 10 years, and all Atwood systems.

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