sulfur/egg smell coming from taps

[hoppy]

this is a 2003 twister horse trailer with sleeping quarters.
this past weekend at a show i noticed a foul sulfur like smell coming from the taps when running water. happens in the sink at cooking area and sink in bathroom. we generally use bottled water for cooking and drinking so i cant honestly say how it taisted. it used for brushing teeth(i didnt notice any wired taste) and toilet, washing dishes etc.

what causes this sulfur/egg smell and how can i get rid of it? do i need to put something in the holding tank? or can i flush the system with something to get rid of it? it stinks!!!!
thanks for any help. anyone else experience this?

 

[Guest]

RE: sulfur/egg smell coming from taps

well hoppy ,, welcome to the forums ,,,
is this the first time u noticed this smell ???
I would sanitize the water lines ,, use a 1/4 cup of bleach for every 15 gals of water tank capacity ,, and run all the taps till u smell bleach ,, and let it set for 12 hrs or more ,, then drain the main tank ,, and fill with fresh water ,, and run the taps agian till u Do NOT smell bleach ,, then run another cycle of water thru the lines
hope this helps :approve:

 

[Darlin]

Re: sulfur/egg smell coming from taps

Where did you get your water? Here in Fla most well water has that sulpher smell. But most campgrounds have city water that has chlorine in it. yuck.

Darlin

 

[saintanne]

RE: sulfur/egg smell coming from taps

Does your unit have a water heater? If so, it's what we used to call the "stink plug" where I grew up. Technically, it's an anode rod that helps keep the water from eating out the insides of your water heater. Not sure what model you might have, but if you DO have a water heater, 10 to 1, this is the problem. When they get old and used up, they smell bad. Find it, cut it off, drain the water from the water heater, refill, and try again. Might take a little while to get the smell completely out of the pipes, but you should notice immediate improvement.

Best of luck!

 

[TexasClodhopper]

Re: sulfur/egg smell coming from taps



If the smell is in your COLD water, it could be caused by hydrogen sulfide gas in the water from the well. This gas is very corrosive and will react with iron to form a black sludge of iron sulfide. Most sulfur waters contain from 1 to 5 ppm of hydrogen sulfide. This had to be water from a local well where you filled up your tank.

Here's some further info related to what Mike just said about the anode rod in the water heater.

If you ran upon a site supplying 'softened' water, you could get this smelly water from your hot water heater. It is the result of the reaction of the anode rod with the 'salt' added to the water to soften it. Here's a site with more info on how to use hydrogen peroxide to 'clean' the tank.


The most common cause of smelly water is anaerobic bacteria that exist in some water and react with the magnesium and aluminum sacrificial anodes that come with most water heaters to produce hydrogen sulfide gas, making the classic rotten egg odor. The problem is most common in well systems, either private or municipal.

Softening can make smelly water much worse.

 

[hoppy]

Re: sulfur/egg smell coming from taps

thanks guys! yes it does have an onboard water heater. not sure the model i will have to check.
is this anode strip inside the tank and how do i get to it??!! it seems to smell with both cold and hot water. if your run it....it smells.
the tank was filled here at the farm where i live. not sure if water out at the barn is well or city. i think well.
i had to refill at horse show and believe that was city and still had the smell so i dont belive its the water.

can anyone explain to me where i can find this anode? i have a small 10 gallon? heater sitting on top of the holding tank.
the water heater is surrounded by styrafoam...........any ideas?

 

[C Nash]

Re: sulfur/egg smell coming from taps

Hoppy, the anode rod is screwed into the drain pluh hole. Should be located in the lower part of the tank behind the hot water heater door on the outside of the trailer. Might be different on yours.

 

[hoppy]

Re: sulfur/egg smell coming from taps

thanks alot! i love that i get an answer in ten minutes or less!

update..............was telling the girl about the anode thing and how that could be a possability. she then tells me "oh yah when i was emptying the crap shoot there was this metal rod thing stuck in there so i poked it with a stick and it came out with a bunch more crap"....................................... :bleh:

so........could that be the bad/ broken anode rod and would it have made it to the shoot if it did indeed brake off?

i have to be honest..............im sorta knew to the trailer/camper thing. it came with the girlfriend
i am however pretty handy and fix wheelchair lifts, and accesable vans for aliving so im good with tools and diagnosis.
just dont know whats involved with the water heater and tank setup just yet. so thanks for the help.

 

[C Nash]

Re: sulfur/egg smell coming from taps

Hoppy, I see no way the rod could get out of the hot water tank into the holding tanks.

 

[C Nash]

Re: sulfur/egg smell coming from taps

Hoppy just slow thinking here but did I understand that a girl was dumping the sewage and poked a stick up the shoot to unclog. You do know yu are supposed to dump in a proper place :laugh: and by all means dont be poking up the drain to unclog wow Know I am miss reading something here :laugh: If you got a girl that will dump for you be sure to give her gloves even if it is your own poop. :laugh: All kinds of things come to mind that I wont mention about a long funny smelling thing in the drain but if it was like iron maybe someone need more oatmeal in their diet. Hope you know we kid a lot here :laugh:

 

[hoppy]

Re: sulfur/egg smell coming from taps

:laugh: to funny. this girl of mine can also tows a three horse camper trailer with her Ford F350 dually lariat!!!!
she is a keeper!!!!!

thanks for the advise. i will look into things abit more this weekend. this rod she said she found is now swimming in the porta-potty out by the barn. :bleh:

 

[C Nash]

Re: sulfur/egg smell coming from taps

Sounds like a keeper to me :approve: I am not to familar with the type camper you have Hoppy but all the hot water heater are pretty much alike. What brand hot water heater is it. I would follow the instructions above for sanatizing the watersystems as it probably needs it anyway especially if the water is from an untreated well source.

 

[saintanne]

Re: sulfur/egg smell coming from taps

HA! I love this forum! You guys are so much fun!

The water heater is completely independent from your black or grey tank sewage. Well, sort of anyway, but the water DOES need to go through an appliance or drain to get there first. Your metal in the crap shoot was NOT the anode. By the way, you're supposed to REMOVE the mallow from the rod before you eat the s'more!

Anyway, I digress. Often, the heater is tucked away under a seat or under a closet or somewhere like that, BUT the good news is that you will be looking for the OUTSIDE access point. Find it. Remove the access panel. Look for a drain plug. Unscrew it. On the back side of the plug, you'll likely find attached what looks like a rusted, flakey (or possibly mushy, if wet) mass of metal-looking stuff -- THE ANODE. You're likely to find some sludge, also, and if this is really corroded, the anode portion might actually be broken loose, somewhere behind the drain plug. Pull this plug out, cut off the anode garbage from the back of it if still attached, drain and flush the entire system like a man gone mad, replace the plug, and use as normal. I would personally suggest, from experience, that you run about 50 gallons or more of fresh water through all your faucets. The sulfur smell kinda sticks to the plastic pipes and leeches into the fresh water for a while. The more you flush through it the better. You should notice immediate improvement!

If you are concerned about corroding your water heater, find a dealer and purchase a new anode to replace it.

SA

 

[WandaLust]

RE: sulfur/egg smell coming from taps

We were getting a sulfa stink from our hot water tap after the TT sat for two weeks. After flushing the system with chlorine bleach water and running the faucets until we could smell the chlorine - the odor was gone. Yes, we left the bleach water sit in the lines for several hours. We flushed the system, refilled the FW tank and so far so good. Out HW only runs on propane but our TT is old.