On Jan 1, 12:27*am, "Ed Pawlowski" wrote:
?"TimR" wrote in message

...



On Dec 31, 4:01 pm, Jdog wrote:

I had the same problem. It started about a year after the tanks was
installed. I called the 800 number on the tank. They sold me a new
anode rod that was made out of a material.

Before you blame the anode rod, check for an easier to solve problem.

I've run into the sulfur problem several times at work, and they've
always blamed the hot water.

But it's never actually been the hot water, in the cases I've seen.

There is a kind of iron fixing bacteria that can grow, usually in a
drain, that produces the smell.

When you run the hot water into the sink, and then into the drain, the
smell comes up. *You think it's the hot water, but it might not be.
(Run some hot water into a glass, take it outside, smell it later.)

At any rate, in the cases I personally investigated, pouring a cup of
bleach down the drain slowly took care of the problem. *Every time so
far.

I don't know how an anode rod could cause the problem. *That doesn't
make sense to me.

Chemical reaction to the chemicals in the water. *Read the article at the
link that was posted and you'll understand. *The bleach down the drain gets
rid of the residue odor that started in the water heater and now resides in
the trap.

Well, that's crap.

The problem is the anerobic (iron fixing) bacteria.

They don't care about the anode.

And they CAN live in the hot water heater, if the temperature is low
enough, but in my experience (1500 apartments) they are quite a bit
more common in the drain.

It has NOTHING to do with chemical reactions.