Hot water odor

I have a 09 3100RL and all summer the water smelled bad.I changed the anode rod and no help.I even flushed the system with bleach water.

ddlopresto, what does your water smell like? Rotten eggs? Do you filter your water? There are a few things that will cause odors. If your source water has sulfer and or iron this will cause odors in hot water. Hope this helps.
Peace
Dave

Does cold tap water have an odor? If the unheated water has no odor, try putting cold water in a pan and heat it on the stove, check for odor. Water can aquire an odor when whatever is in it cooks.

How do you like your 3100RL...We love our....Great Floor Plan

John

Just the hot water has the odor. I am using two filters and a softner.

We had that very same problem, the cure was to use white vinegar in the hot water heater and then flush it with a water heater wand (from camping world) all is good now.

Dave

ddlopresto said:

Just the hot water has the odor. I am using two filters and a softner.

Click to expand...

We've had the same problem for years, here in the desert SW where the water is really hard. One temporary solution was to flush the hot water tank removing the build up of accumulated minerals. Have to do that 2 to 3 times during the winter. Where it's really bad, removed the rod and replaced with a plug only (available at local hardware store or used up, cut down rod). At the end of the season be sure to replace rod as this is there to save the tank. Did this in our last rig for 10 years, never had any problems with the tank or the smell after doing this. When it occurred in other parts of the country (and there are some places), flushing the hot water tank cured the problem. Hope this helps.

Dragoon and others here are correct. Most of the time it's just the water and when you heat it up, it's even worse. You should smell the well water in some parts of Montana, and N. And S. Dakota. It smell's like a natural gas leak in your home. It just has a high sulfer content. Bob

We had the same problem several years ago and, of course, we got lots of solutions and causes from lots of people. The most realistic cause was well water. We had stayed only in campgrounds with city water connections because we were new RVers so we didn't encounter the problem right away. After a week at a lake where the water was supplied with well water we then experienced the smelly water problem. It was so bad that the kid next door literally got sick. I proceeded to talk to everybody about what the cause was and what the solution could be.
I got so many opinions that I decided to do my own thing. I made an adapter so I could connect a garden hose to the water heater drain and ran fresh city water through the whole hot water system until the water was fresh smelling. I had to let a lot of water go down the gutter that day but it worked.
Now, before I put the rig in the storage building I drain the water heater. It only takes a minute and no more smelly water. It also only takes a minute to refill the water after we hook up at our destination.
I do use a water filter and I throw it away after our trip is over. BTW, we aren't full timers so this may not work for everybody but it works for us.
I once cut one of the filters open to see what it looked like inside after sitting for a week and it was really ugly, dirty nasty looking brown and yellow and reddish color.