Our hot water has developed a strong odor.
History:
Cane back from a week of vacation and the hot water had an odor to it, sort
of metallic smelling. I wrote it off to the water standing for 7 days
without use. The odor got stronger as the week went on. I checked the
water softener and found it to be low on salt. Replenished that, manually
ran the softener and the smell seemed to get better, not completely go away,
but it was less intense. Now the smell is getting stronger again and we are
only half-way to a new softener cycle. Is this a cumulative effect?
Because it was low on salt, I need to manually recharge the softener several
times so it catches up? Or??
Private well
Copper plumbing
Water heater 1 year old
Cold water has no odor, both the softened taps and the kitchen unsoftened.

Any thoughts?

wrote in message
ups.com...

JJ wrote:
Our hot water has developed a strong odor.

snip

Because it was low on salt, I need to manually recharge the softener
several
times so it catches up? Or??
Private well
Copper plumbing
Water heater 1 year old
Cold water has no odor, both the softened taps and the kitchen
unsoftened.

Any thoughts?


I think if you do a google search, you will find a lot of info on this.
Water heaters have been known to do this, and as I recall, it's caused
by a non harmful type of bacteria. There are various solutions.



Yep, it's the bacteria. Had that problem with the cabin just a couple of
months ago. You will need to get some chlorine into the tank. The easiest
way, as well as best in order to sanitize the plumbing, is to shock the
well.

**** Turn off the power to the water heater and drain the tank. If
possible, turn off the incoming water to the tank****

1). Mix a quart of bleach into 4 or 5 gallons of water and pour it into the
well head.
2). Hook a hose to an exterior spigot and turn on until you smell the
chlorine. Then, put the running end into the well head and let it circulate
for a few minutes (I did 3).
3). Now, turn on an interior faucet closest to the water heater. Let run
until you smell chlorine. Shut off and open the water heater inlet valve.
You will likely run out of chlorine by the time this is done and will have
to repeat #1. My tank has no valve on the incoming line so I opened the
drain line until I smelled chlorine.
4). Start at the most distant faucets and repeat at each faucet in and
outside the house. If, at any point you no longer smell chlorine you must
repeat step one and then return to the faucet where you no longer smelled
the bleach.
5). Let stand for 6 to 8 hours and then flush each leg.

It worked for me. Time will tell. Sometimes you can get a bacteria bloom
at the well head and have to repeat this task. I previously had well water
at our residence for 15 years and never had to but others in the
neighborhood did. Go figure.

Sometimes smell problems in hot water can be fixed by replacing the
magnesium anode rod with an aluminum anode rod in the water heater.
Your plumber can special order one as not many suppliers stock them.

Stretch