Rotten Egg, Tried Everything, What Next?

Aug 08, 2005 4 Replies

Group,



I bought a five year old condo for college kids. It has the original electric water heater, with rotten egg smelling water.



The unit does not appear to have an anode.



I've tried:


- 4 cups of bleach (twice) dumped into hot water supply side, works for a few days.


- ran max temp for several hours, did't work at all.


- flushed unit completely until water came out of the shower head cold, worked for two days, smell is back.



The neighbors with identical units don't have the problem. What else should I try?



Tom


Replace the water heater, obviously.

Try getting an aluminum anode rod. It works better for rotten egg than standard magnesium anode rod.

On some older water heaters, the anode rod was in the hot outlet tapping. It had the rod suspended below the tapping so water could come out. Contact the water heater manufacturer to see if they can help you.

Stretch

Your problem is that you don't have an anode.

Get a new WH that has an anode....

Does it smell EVERYWHERE hot water is used, or just certain locations? If the latter, WHICH locations?

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