You shouldn't run a water heater without and anode rod. It's there so it can
corrode faster than the tank. When it's totally depleted or removed, the
exposed metal parts of the tank corrode much faster. Water heaters usually
come with a magnesium anode rod and sulfur in the water sometimes causes an
offensive odor. You need a rod made of a less active metal like aluminum or
zinc. If you tried one and still had the smell, then try the other one.



"dicko" wrote in message
...
Is the smell from both hot and cold taps or just from the hot tap?

If from the hot tap only, it could be sulfate reducing bacteria
interacting with the anode rod in the hot water tank. The only cure I
know of is to remove the anode rod. There are low smell anode rodes on
the market but they didnt work with my heater.

Otherwise, do what another poster suggested. Get that water softener
working. It does reduce iron levels. There's iron bacteria in my water
and I have a softener. I've never experienced any smells coming from
the cold water tap.

dickm


On Wed, 18 Jan 2006 18:59:58 -0700, "James \"Cubby\" Culbertson"
wrote:

Hiya,
I'm on well water and every 6 months or so, I get odors coming from the
water. I believe it's Iron bacteria (or something to that effect).
Anyway, I usually do a treatment by pouring a measured amount of chlorox
down the well to shock the system. Unfortunately, this ends up with
clorine odors in the house for weeks (I don't purge the system after
adding
the chlorox.....we're in severe drought here and I don't want to waste
the
water....unfortunately, the side affect is a stopped septic system).
Are
there any systems available such as RODI etc... that I could install to
eliminate this? I've got a water softener that I've never used (came
with
the house) but don't think that would help much. Thanks for any
advice.
Cheers,
cc