Help! Horrible smell from freshwater tank

[Grub54891]

Sometimes a neglected water heater will give off a rancid smell. Anodes shot and silt in the bottom hold bacteria.

 

[crazy charlie]

if it smells as bad as you say then it can only be something dead in there.

 

[DeepCMark58A]

Fill the tank treat it with ozone, you can buy an ozone generator with a 1/2 hour timer for around $40 online many include ceramic stones that get the ozone into the water.

 

[Gingy]

We just bought an older houseboat (73 Val Cruz) there's no fresh water tank. The water is pumped from the lake. The previous owners used the RV winterizing stuff in all the traps. We turned on the pump to flush the pipes a couple weeks ago. Now there's a rotten egg smell coming from the sinks when we use them. What can I do?

 

[Bob_VT]

If you use bleach - household bleach is not as powerful as the stuff you can get from a swimming pool supply store. If you have a store in your neighborhood stop in and consult them. Some of the "pool shock" chemicals are MUCH stronger (about 3x) then what you see at a grocery store.

WORD OF CAUTION - chemical burns are serious so please use caution and consider bottled water until this dilemma is solved.

 

[ahicks]

You can pour 1/2 cup of bleach directly into the end of the hose to sanitize the hose and much of what is down stream from it. Sometimes though, the system needs to have the livin daylights rinsed out to get that bleach taste out of the system.

Last, NEVER fill your water tank from a source you haven't tasted prior to filling. Many places use that same RV anti freeze to winterize and if that's not rinsed out well, you get to start all over again.....

 

[wahlejim]

+1 on the chlorine from a pool supply store. Big box store chlorine (all brands) come at about a 3% concentration. pool chlorine is closer to 11%. A couple of things to keep in mind.

Chlorine is corrosive so you have to be careful where it gets splashed. Use the necessary funnels and tubing to get it where it needs to go with minimal spilling.

Do not let it sit too long. It will eat rubber over time. A good overnight soak will do the trick. A week is definitely pushing it.

You can clean the dock lines by filling them with a funnel, then capping both ends and letting them sit.

It is very important to flush thoroughly with a known good source of water. If you get the chlorine at a pool supply store, they will have chlorine test kits. Pick up the cheapest one. There are also strips you can buy that will tell you simply if chlorine is present. Be careful with these though, depending on the source of water, there may be small amounts of chlorine already in the water as many municipalities treat their common systems with chlorine. Test the water you are using to flush for a baseline to get back to at the end.

For more in depth procedures, look online for how to chlorinate a well for a house and adapt as necessary for your boat. Very similar concepts and procedures.

 

[jerrybrecko]

How long to leave chlorine in holding tabk

I'm shocking the holding tank with chlorine because of horrible smells that we can't get rid of how long should I let the chlorine sit in the tank for 12 hours 24 hours?

 

[TyeeMan]

I'm guessing you are talking about a fresh water (potable) tank? If so, I'm sure your tank on the boat is no different than our fresh water tank in our travel travel trailer. 4 hours, 6 hours tops. I use a mix ratio of approx 6-8 ounces to 40 gallons.

Make sure to run your various taps as well to get that bleach solution in all your water lines. After 4-6 hours dump your tank, refill with fresh water and run that through all your taps to get the chlorine out.

As for bleach, make sure you use the regular old chlorine bleach. Only reason I say that is I've read about folks trying to sanitize their water system, it's not working, and they find out they are using diluted bleach or some such thing.

 

[jerrybrecko]

Freshwater tank as well as the dock water lines that goes through water heater

 

[jerrybrecko]

I'm using pool chlorine shock not bleach

 

[JASinIL2006]

I can't imagine it would be doing any good after 6 hours or so... certainly twelve would be plenty.

 

[MTboatguy]

No reason to use pool shock chlorine, that is too strong in a RV/Boat fresh water system, if that is all you got, then use 1 teaspoon to 15 gallons of water, we had to replace the complete fresh water system in an RV that a guy used pool shock in because it permeated the lines and the tank due to the extra strength in that stuff to kill swimming pool bacteria. Simple old dollar store bleach works fine

 

[TyeeMan]

Just re-iterating what our previous and current travel trailer manual states, 4-6 hours.

That actual function of bleach goes away in rather short period of time, then it basically becomes "inert".

 

[tpenfield]

8.6 hours, but that is just a guess.

are you going to purge the tank through the rest of the plumbing?

 

[ahicks]

He is if he's planning on drinking any water coming from it afterward! You have to rinse the daylights out of it to get rid of the smell and the taste.

 

[Lowlysubaruguy]

Another thing to do is dump a bunch of ice in it and drive it around over some rough waves or speed bumps and corners if its on a trailer. You need to do this before it melts. The ice will help loosen and scrub things more than just a water flush. Its an old RV trick when there sludged up in corners etc.

 

[JimS123]

I'm using pool chlorine shock not bleach

Pool chlorine IS bleach. Its chemically the same thing, though higher concentration. As such, its cheaper per pound and you don't need to use as much.

Use 1/4 cup per 23 gal of water. Fill the tank full. Bypass the hot water tank if you have one (don't want bleach in the heater). Run all faucets till you smell bleach. Let sit 12 hours. Then run all faucets till the tank is empty.

Refill the tank with clean water. Run all faucets till no more bleach smell. If needed fill the tank with fresh water again and run till no smell.

When finished use 1 oz of bleach per 15 gal of water and the tank will not smell any more but will stay fresh all Summer. If you drink it you won't notice the difference.

 

[Grub54891]

I always wondered why you would bypass the water heater when sanitizing. It is part of the water system, therefore should be sanitized also. Just make sure it's not on, and let it clean out also. Flush out and done. Now don't get me wrong, I also bypass and drain the water heater for winterizing, as there is no need to winterize an empty bucket.

 

[MTboatguy]

If you do use Pool Shock, make sure and read the MSDS on the particular product you have on hand. Although it is indeed highly concentrated chlorine, most of the pool shock products contain between 60-65% chlorine, the products on the market also contain other substances that can be harmful. There is also certain disposal regulations associated with these products especially concerning discharge after using it.

There is also special precautions for use because of the corrosive nature to skin, eyes and nasal passages.