Rotten egg smell in city fresh water

[joe direnzi]

Need some help please.Have rotten egg smell on city water.We have a 2018 3721 rl.Smell comes from both cold and hot water.Changed outside blue inline filter.No help.Any help would be appreciated.

[Mikendebbie]

Some good info at this link. Several paragraphs down they mention anode rod in an electric water heater. Does the tap water smell like sulphur in the camp bathrooms? If it does - it is not related to your RV. I recall taking a shower in sulphur water at a campground or two when I was a kid. Dad said “just wash and get out. You will be ok.”

https://www.culligan.com/blog/sulfur...s-it-come-from

[dannyrver]

Drain and flush hot water heater. Run fresh water through lines until smell disappears. May need to run Clorox through lines to purify.

[joe direnzi]

Thanks for replies.I am gettong smell from kitchen sink, shower and toilet.Dont know if toilet uses any hot water?

[mlh]

Your water lines have bacteria in them. Run some bleach water through them and let it set for a day or so the do it again until the odor is gone.
Lynwood

[joe direnzi]

Can u tell me how to add clorex to city water?

[AZ Traveler]

Joe,

Poor it in your hose and then connect the hose to a water source. You can run it directly through the system or put it in the fresh tank and run it from there.

As Mike suggested rule out that you are not getting the smell from your water source before chasing it in the rig.

[Montana Man]

You can treat your fresh water tank with bleach. Disconnect the city water connection, then run water from your tank through all lines then let set a few hours. Turn off water pump and reconnect city water and flush all lines again. Improvement should be noticible.

[Daryles]

If you do not have a washing machine installed, flush the pipes going to it. When unused, the water in those pipes goes stale contaminating the rest of your system.
In fact I would sanitize the whole freshwater system including the washer pipes.

[joe direnzi]

We do have a washing machine installed.We use the machine almost every day.Glad you mentioned machine.Could of got bad if I put clorox in water system with a load of colored clothes��*♂️

[Rondo]

If you sanitize your water system with bleach and you used the fresh water tank for your reservoir be sure to drain that tank before running more water through the system. To get that bleach smell out of your pipes and fresh water tank is not easy and a lot of water must be used to do this. A shortcut to get the smell out is take about a cup of baking soda and dissolve it in a gallon or so of water. Use the winterizing method to pump that water into your fresh water tank and then fill the tank with fresh water. Use your onboard pump to fill the lines again and let them sit for a couple of hours. The baking soda water will remove that bleach smell. They do make a sanitizing liquid but the bleach method seems to work best for us.

[joe direnzi]

Thanks to everyone.Will try Sat morn.I will let you know how I make out.

[Bstarr]

That sulfur smell is usually from water being left in your hot water tank for a length of time. Be sure to empty your hot water tank when done camping. Hope it works out

[ojo123]

if your supply line is lying in the sun during the day it will produce algae in the hose itself which will then contaminate the system as well. Be sure to sanitize the hose along with the rest of the system with bleach.

[Mikelff]

Joe, check your water source FIRST to make sure its not coming from your water source. Then, if you have a Suburban brand water heater, check your anode rod. To sanitize your system, here is the formula.

Sanitize Fresh Water Tank

1/4 cup bleach for every 15 gallons of tank capacity. Include your hot water tank capacity added to your fresh tank capacity. I add the bleach to a gallon of water and pour it into my fresh water tank through my fresh water overflow. The overflow has a removable cover with a screen. I remove both the cover and screen and use a funnel with a clear hose/tube into my tank and add it to my tank. If you cannot do it this way, you can probably add it to an empty water hose and connect to your city water intake. Fill the hose with the bleach water, Then hook up to city water and use city water to force it into your fresh tank. Empty your hot water tank first. Then fill your fresh water tank with the bleach water. Do NOT bypass your hot water heater. You want it to fill it with the bleach water. Run all your cold water faucets with your fresh water pump, so that your pump also gets sanitized, till you smell some bleach. Then do the same with your hot water faucets. Do NOT turn on the hot water heater while doing this. Let all the bleach water in your lines and tanks sit for at least 8 hours. Then drain your fresh tank and hot water and fill again with with fresh water. Run all your faucets again and flush them thoroughly using your fresh water pump, not city water. Once flushed well, you should be good to go. Any bleach left in the system will NOT hurt anyone and will flush out as you use your system. I sanitize about every 6 months depending on how much I use my system. Hope this helps. Happy Camping!

[Jon Susn]

Originally Posted by mlh

Your water lines have bacteria in them. Run some bleach water through them and let it set for a day or so the do it again until the odor is gone.
Lynwood

This is what I did to get rid of the smell in my rig. I left the Clorox in for 24 hours.

[Mosnowman]

Clorox worked for me. Be careful you don’t need much! A couple tablespoons max. I unhook my hose downstream of filter, pour a couple tablespoons in more or less, hook it back up and turn the water on. Go inside open all my filters and the smell disappears almost immediately!

[182flyer]

Great info everyone.

Daryles: never thought of that; will disconnect water and drain lines when able to completely eliminate this potential problem.

Thanks

[Helpful Dad]

Tried everything on previous rig. Was advised to replace electric heating element, that fixed it. Believe someone had winterized and not used water heater by pass, putting anti freeze on element.

[Daryles]

Originally Posted by 182flyer

Great info everyone.

Daryles: never thought of that; will disconnect water and drain lines when able to completely eliminate this potential problem.

Thanks

I installed shutoff valves to the washer pipes. We don't have one. Now I don't have to winterize those pipes.