Do Not Go In There

[indy roadrunner]

Same line from the movie, but I de-winterized Monty the first part of May and have not had the opportunity to take it out and I filled the Hot Water tank and forgot to drain it. Went out there a couple of days ago hooked everything up - turned on the hot water heater and later went inside to wash down the sink and wow - do not go in there. That was the worse rotten egg smell I have experienced. So I unhooked the water hose and poured a half cup of bleach in the hose the hooked back up and let hot water run just a little to get the bleach in there and let it sit for a day and it still had some smell but cleared out. Lesson learned - drain hot water tank if not going to be used in near future.

[Exnavydiver]

Phil, after you drain the bleach water out and rinse a bit you can get rid of the rest of the bleach odor with a cup or two of white vinegar in the water supply. This works for the fresh water tank as well... Dave

[Clemson1881]

I've never had a problem leaving the hot water tank full for a couple of months. Are you sure you didn't get some dirty water somewhere?

[indy roadrunner]

Greg I am on a well here at the house and that is the water in the tank.

[indy roadrunner]

You know Greg you got me to thinking and asking the question why? I know I have left water in the Hot Water tank before longer than a month so why this time? It is from the same well. I had it drained over the winter and left the anode rod out as I reinstalled it in May when I drained the pink stuff. But man it was rotten the other day. It stunk that whole camper up.
But good news is with ventilation and bleach the stink is gone.

[Sky]

I had the same problem with my old RV. I would drain the hot water tank (and all other fresh water tanks) but would still get that rotten egg smell when I filled it up for our first trip of the season. After that I would fill the fresh water tank and add bleach.The next day I would run the bleached water through the whole
system including the hot water tank and then let it sit for a couple of days and then drain all tanks and refill with fresh water..After running some water through the system again I was ready to go with no rotten egg smell for rest of the season.

[rames14]

I am curious. Do you have the washer/dryer prep? If so, did you drain that when de-winterizing? We had a similar problem until we found out about it on the forum. It didn't start until about the third season. The water gets trapped in there and stagnates. Once we de-winterized that line, all was fine.

[indy roadrunner]

Ron I do have the w/d prep but when I winterize I open faucets into a bucket to run pink stuff through the lines. Then when I de-winterize and go to all faucets and run water till pink goes away.

[Clemson1881]

I wish I had an answer for you. I've never had that happen in my 14 years of owning campers.