My Tap Water Still Smells Funny, why is this?

[OCTravis]

I had gotten advice from this website and appreciate you timely replys back. When I first moved into this condo about 6 months ago (property was built in ’06 so its not that old) and when the hot water was turned on that putrid smell of sulfur would come out and smell throughout the house. The maintenance guys looked at the water heater and took it off vaction mode and put it on #1. That seemed to flush out the water heater system and then all that black sludge came out for about an hour or two, which seemed like a horror movie. After that the hot water didn’t smell as bad but it was still there in some degree with the hot and cold water. I heard a couple of things from different people. The crew from the condo’s said you just need to run the water regurlarly and you will be fine. Now that I do but I have now lived here for 6 months and it is still there. I spoke to the Irvine CA Water District and they said they check for water quality everyday so it is fine coming from them. Now there is bathroom near the community pool and not that many people use it and the water smell just like normal water. I went to my brothers condo down the street and his water smells perfect and the same with another friend who use the same water district in Irvine.

So about 4 months I told my landlord that something needed to be done to fix this so they ended up replacing the water heater cause that was the only place storing water. Some so called experts said this would take care of this situation of the smelly water. Well it didn’t really do much at all now that I look at it. I am just getting a bit worried about my health and if this is effecting me at all. Do you think it may just be bad piping? cause if my neighbors aren’t saying that and my other friends who use the same water district aren’t either. I mean what else could it be? I ended up getting a water filter for the bathroom sink and shower which gave me a little piece of mind. Please tell me what you think

Could this affect my health? Cause the first week I felt terrible when that water was coming out with that really strong sulfur smell?

Thank you,

Travis

[Larry Weingarten]

Hello: Not a lot of research has been done on this smelly bacteria and health, but I haven’t heard of anything that links this odor and health risk. Still, it can be really unpleasant and should be fixed. Since replacing the heater didn’t work, I’m wondering if there could be a venting problem with the sewer lines. Or might the replacement have worked for only a short time? If replacement had any effect, there is a connection and messing with the heater could be useful. More info will help us pinpoint the problem.

Yours, Larry

[MHARMON]

I’ve read through a lot of the material you posted on the website about sufer smelling water.
http://www.waterheaterrescue.com/pages/WHRpages/English/Troubleshooting/stinky-water-in-hot-water-heaters.html

I implemented a version of the peroxide valve system you suggested here
http://www.waterheaterrescue.com/pages/WHRpages/English/Troubleshooting/peroxide-fix.html
and added a quart of peroxide. Wonderful fix!

I’ve attached a photo of what mine looks like.
I drain water from the bottom of the tank as I fill the peroxide into the hot water side of the tank.

After this fix the hot water was cured but I still had issues with the cold water!
Then I remembered the inline water filter for my house water.
Looks like this link
http://www.kleenwater.com/good-45-x-10-water-filter-p-60.html
Usually this can go about 8 months. For some reason it needed it sooner. I cleaned out the filter system with chlorine and put in a new filter and viola! Our water is now back to where it was 2 weeks ago.

The sulfur smell is gone.

Thank you for your helpful information and this forum to share with others,
mike

Attached files

[Larry Weingarten]

Hello: The plumbing looks good 😉 One thing I might do is put some sort of cap/plug on the filler when it’s not in use, to keep bugs etc. from getting into the system. Glad things are working out!

Yours, Larry

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