Hot water stinks

[SS MAYFLOAT]

In my work shop, we installed a new water heater. The water smells real bad. Almost like the sewage treatment plant that is about a quarter mile away. The cold has no odor at all. I seem to remember a post long ago about the anode in the water heater that will cause an odor. Can anyone confirm this? Thanks.........SS

 

[Failproof]

Re: Hot water stinks

Not sure on the annode, but if the temp is not in the proper range you could be growing bacteria in the tank? Sewage treatment plant smell is pretty strong. How old is this heater? Weeks days or hours?

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: Hot water stinks

Sewer smell .... or rotten eggs?

 

[Fishing Dude too]

Re: Hot water stinks

Sounds like sulfur water city or well?

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: Hot water stinks

Not sure it is the "sulphur" smell...OP hasn't answered yet.
But if it is and if the cold has no problem that pretty much points to the HWT as the source.
If there is an anode try replacing it.
Cheap and quick fix (if you are lucky) is to turn off HWT, drain completely and refill, and then run all hot taps for 10-15 minutes.

Otherwise you may need to add some bleach to the tank to kill the bacteria that are causing the problem.

 

[bigdee]

Re: Hot water stinks

Could be hydrogen sulfide gas.....read the owners manual,there should be some info and warning about it.

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: Hot water stinks

Tank was installed in May. New out of the box from Home Depot. It is a well that we use. Then in July I installed a water softner. The water was leaving heavy rust stains in the toilet until the softner was installed.

It is weird as when I'm bench testing coffee brewers, the hot water that comes out is 195 to 200 *F and has no odor. Of course it is cold water that is hooked to the brewer.

When we first moved into the shop, there was a small heater of about 10 gallon. The hot water did not have any odor from it. The smell is stronger on some days and some days it isn't near as bad. As for what it smells like, rotten eggs and sewer together

 

[PiratePast40]

Re: Hot water stinks

http://www.miamicountyhealth.net/EH/documents/WaterSafety/news/My%20Water%20Smells%20Like%20Rotten%20Eggs!.pdf

The link above helps to explain about sulfer dioxide gas, hot water tanks, the time it takes for the reaction to take place, and an alternative to the magnesium anode. I've heard of an aluminum anode used in place of magnesium.

A more expensive alternative is a whole house system for chlorination and allowing the sulfer and iron to fall out as a precipitate. I'm a little surprised that the water softener people didn't recommend the correct solution for your iron and sulfer problem. They get paid to know how to interpret the samples, analyze for a correct solution, and recommend that to the customer.

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: Hot water stinks

Sewer smell .... or rotten eggs?

????

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: Hot water stinks

????

I think it is more of a rotten egg smell. After reading the link PiratePast posted it makes since. Water from the coffee brewers heat the water to an excess killing the bacteria.

I have 3 things I can do:

1. Call the manufacture and see which anode to use

2. Turn the t-stat up which I have been wanting to do to aid in cleaning greasy kitchen equipment components

3. Install a chlorniator pump. We have 3 spares of these pumps sitting on the shelf. Just need to get the ok from the boss to get one of them plumbed into the water feed system.

Something else I have noticed. The water bib faucet close to the well room has excellent pressure. Then where the water heater is located (in a restroom just off of my shop) is about 100 feet away, the water pressure has dropped considerable to the fauct by the well room. (It is a deep well) It is a half inch copper line that brings the cold water over from the well room. I did notice that there was another line that was abandoned. Apparently there was a hot and cold at one time. I think over time the hot water line ended up either creating a leak or clogged completely up. I know that it is going to be a matter of time that the only line left is going to need replaced. This is going to be a bad situation as the lines are under the slab. To run the line ovehead is going to be a problem as about 60' of the run is in a non-heated area. I guess the other alternative is to either plow or trench a line from the well room to the restroom outside around the building. However that is hopefully in the distant future. Now I just need to get rid of the smell.

Thanks again..it is appreciated........SS

 

[PiratePast40]

Re: Hot water stinks

I have 3 things I can do: .......

3. Install a chlorniator pump. We have 3 spares of these pumps sitting on the shelf. Just need to get the ok from the boss to get one of them plumbed into the water feed system.
SS

I don't remember the specifics but do recall that the chlorine addition was just one step in the process. There was also a precipitate (holding) tank involved and possibly a "green sand filter" as well as potasium permanganate for regen of that filter (resin column?). I'd be careful about just injecting chlorine and do some research about it's role in the system.

 

[bigdee]

Re: Hot water stinks

HYDROGEN GAS IS EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE! ...Hydrogen sulfide is a gas that has the odor of rotten eggs. At high concentrations in the air
hydrogen sulfide is toxic, but it is usually just at nuisance levels in well water.
Hydrogen sulfide is extremely corrosive to metals. It will quickly corrode even stain-
less steel. If your building is plumbed with copper pipes they will have a shortened lifetime.

 

[Fishing Dude too]

Re: Hot water stinks

Have you sanatized the well in recent months?

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: Hot water stinks

Have you sanatized the well in recent months?

Nope, My boss is going to call the company that takes care of our wells at our businesses and let them suggest what to do.

I did turn the heater up from 120 to 150 today. It is too soon to tell anything yet, but it seems like the smell is not near as bad. I've got lots of equipment to clean and repair. I'm sure by next week I should know if the increase in temp will help.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Hot water stinks

Just pull out the anode rod and replace it with a pipe plug. Your well guy won't know squat and I doubt the increased temperature will have much effect except to increase electricity consumption. You will get most of the smell in the a.m. after the heater has sat idle all night. Then during the day when water is drawn constantly, the symptoms will be lower.

What you have been dealing with is a simple reaction of certain elements in the water with the magnesium anode rod. No rod, no reaction. For water that will do this, there is no way to pre treat to stop it, short of an RO or DI system. Then the aggressive water will just dissolve all the plumbing. Problem solved again. :facepalm:

I have actually seen this problem exsaserbated when water chemistry is changed by softening it. Seems the water softener pulls out elements that keep the others from reacting with the anode rod. I've also seen brand new heaters do this when the old one that was replaced did not. I have also seen old heaters, near the end of their life, do this when it never did it before. Go figure. Every case is different.

Just don't ask me what removing the rod will do to the life of the hot water heater. I do not know and neither do any of the manufacturers.

 

[rbh]

Re: Hot water stinks

We try and shock the well at least once a year, this is just dumping a gallon of bleach down the 80 foot well and running the taps till you smell the bleach coming out the taps.
Let it sit for a weekend.

We have high iron content and this certainly gets rid of the iron bacteria that forms.
(we run the outside tap till the "gunk" runs free and we see clear water, then do the inside taps)

 

[MrBigStuff]

Re: Hot water stinks

Happened in the first house I owned. Had high dissolved iron content and the new water heater (installed as part of purchase agreement) anode was reacting to it. Whatever you do, don't just removed the rod. It's called a sacrificial anode for a reason. It degrades so the tank won't. Buy the alternative rod, it's cheap. I seem to recall the less reactive type was magnesium for mine. Sears heater, called their service line, had a new anode in two days. BTW- the old tank had failed after only 4 years. The anode was the size of a toothpick. Later I installed all the right conditioning equipment and had decent water- almost too soft...

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Hot water stinks

......and had decent water- almost too soft...

Mr Big, no such thing as 'too soft'. Soft water is nothing more than water that has NO dissolved limestone in it. You can only remove dissolved limestone (hardness) down to zero. It is not as if you are adding something to the water to make it 'soft'. If that were the case then you could add too much and make it 'too soft'.

Rain water and most river or reservoir waters, that have not been down in the ground, have no 'hardness in them. As such, they could not be considered 'too soft'. The slippery feeling of 'soft water' when soaps are supplied are dependant on the pH of the water. The higher the pH (in the absence of hardness) the slicker the water. Most rainwaters and surface water sources tend to be of lower pH, hence less slippery. If you bathed in most bottled drinking waters, you would get that same slippery feeling. They tend to be of lower pH.

Additionally, iron has no part in forming Hydrogen Sulphide gas inside a water heater. It is caused by a reaction between sulphides in the water and the magnesium anode rod. Various sulphides, in and of themselves will not give you sulphurous water. They need something to react to.

Waters that do have sulpher in them, right out of the well, are usually due to the presence of the gas that comes from decomposed organic matter in and around the well cavity. Sulphides usually come from the geological strata.

 

[kahuna123]

Re: Hot water stinks

The smell of rotten eggs is Desulfovibrio bacteria. It thrives in warm water in the presence of magnesium. Chlorinate the tank to kill it then replace the rod with an aluminum one.

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: Hot water stinks

Mr Big, no such thing as 'too soft'.

If he thinks it is "almost too soft", and that is a personal observation, I am not sure why you would try to correct him.

Soft water is nothing more than water that has NO dissolved limestone in it. You can only remove dissolved limestone (hardness) down to zero. It is not as if you are adding something to the water to make it 'soft'. If that were the case then you could add too much and make it 'too soft'.

Hardness comes from many sources other than limestone...and you are not exactly removing any of the ions as much as substituting something else.
This is a delicate balance as you change the characteristics of the water and sometimes solve one objectionable symptom, but introduce a new one...or two. Sometimes there is a definite limit to how far to go.
So "too soft" is a perfectly reasonable comment.