I am new to the forum and through my searches today I have found several interesting topics and advice. My wife and I bought a 2009 Forest River 356SRV Wildwood Sport a year ago and have been pretty happy with our purchase. One issue that we can't seem to solve is when we turn on the hot water from any faucet in the trailer, we get a really bad odor. Almost like rotten eggs or sulfur. An suggestions or advice what could be causing this? I assume something to do with the hot water heater. Any assistance would be great. Thanks
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Then it is most likely something to do with the Hot Water Tank. And a 2009 to boot? I bet the anode needs replacing and you probably have a lot of calcification.
Another thought as to why the bad odor is - if the water was from a well & if there is any sulfur in the water it causes what you mentioned. The chlorine in city water keeps it from doing this. As others have mentioned flush the water heater tank & sanitize using plenty of bleach.
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+1 on the well issue. If you have any iron in your well water and it's left to sit in a closed container, it can develop iron bacteria, which produces the sulphur smell (ask me how I know!) Do the bleach in the FW tank process, make sure you allow your HWH to fill completely (stand by it outside while the pump is running and release the check valve at the top of the tank to allow the air inside to purge until you smell chlorine water coming out.) Allow the bleach water to run through all your lines too (hot and cold, again until you smell chlorine coming out, don't forget toilet and outside shower.) Then let it sit for a day so the bleach has enough contact time to do its magic. After a day, drain the FW tank and HWH, then refill with fresh water and repeat the whole process to clear all the bleach water from the system.
If you still have rotten egg smell after that process, you've got some other serious issue.
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I've used that Camco stuff to keep the water fresh, but not for sanitizing the entire system. I think the OP needs to sanitize everything and go from there.
The Anode rod in the heater causes the production of Hydrogen Sulfide (rotton egg odor), the rod breaks down with the help of sulfate reducing bacteria (not harmful) the process releases electrons that keep your hot water heater from rusting (metal minus an electron is rust). Bleach kills the bacteria, that's why you get a short relief of the smell (very short) best to replace the rod but depending on the water you may need to change it on a regular basis. Your other option is to just remove the rod and put a plug in its place. This will shorten the life of the heater! how much is really hard to say.
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The Anode rod in the heater causes the production of Hydrogen Sulfide (rotton egg odor), the rod breaks down with the help of sulfate reducing bacteria (not harmful) the process releases electrons that keep your hot water heater from rusting (metal minus an electron is rust). Bleach kills the bacteria, that's why you get a short relief of the smell (very short) best to replace the rod but depending on the water you may need to change it on a regular basis. Your other option is to just remove the rod and put a plug in its place. This will shorten the life of the heater! how much is really hard to say.
Interesting "take;" will need to look into this farther as this is not my understanding of the process.
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I typically fill my water heater in the spring and leave it all season.
Once in 8 years over 3 trailers we had rotten egg smell from WH.
I drained it and flushed and refilled and we went camping.
Never happened again.
I did NOT change the anode, I didn't sanitize, I only drained flushed and
went on.
Some cases might be tougher than others and I agree it depends on
the water but this is my story....
Don't make this harder than it needs to be and don't remove your
anode- it's there for a reason.
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There is a concentrated pool chemical you can buy--Chlorinating Concentrate (Sodium Dichloro-s-Triazinetricone or Sodium Dichlor for short). Sodium Dichlor contains 62% available chlorine. Compare that to household bleach which has something close to 3%. One pound of Sodium Dichlor is equal to 8 gallons of bleach!
Bleach contains other stuff, including a lot of salt, and that salt and other stuff is what causes the bad taste and why you have to flush the fresh water tank so well.
It takes only 1 teaspoon of the concentrate per 100 gallons of water to initially sanitize the system. After that, if you are at a park that has well water, just put a 1/4 teaspoon for a 50 gallon tank into the fill tube and fill your tank. This insures the system will always be sanitized. No, you do not have to flush again!! It's the equivalent to drinking chlorinated city water.
You can find this stuff at any pool or spa store.
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Probably more information than you would ever need to know about anodes.
As you can see the anode works by galvanic action alone and does not use bacteria to operate (just being there causes the electrons to flow to protect the iron tank).
Bacteria does grow in warm stagnant water and some types can eat your anode and crap H2S gas (the rotten egg odor). A sanitizing agent like chlorine or peroxide is needed to kill them; smell gone.
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2019 Flagstaff 8529FL
The Anode rod in the heater causes the production of Hydrogen Sulfide (rotton egg odor), the rod breaks down with the help of sulfate reducing bacteria (not harmful) the process releases electrons that keep your hot water heater from rusting (metal minus an electron is rust). Bleach kills the bacteria, that's why you get a short relief of the smell (very short) best to replace the rod but depending on the water you may need to change it on a regular basis. Your other option is to just remove the rod and put a plug in its place. This will shorten the life of the heater! how much is really hard to say.
I had this exact problem in my home water heater. Bacteria from my well was attacking the anode rod producing the sulfur smell. Bleach took care of the problem for a few weeks then it started coming back. The real fix was a new anode rod made out of a different metal that the bacteria didn't like.
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