Need advice on "rotten egg" smell in hot water

After being away from Penasco for several months, we came in for the holiday, Las Margaritas (behind walmart) to find our hot water having a sulfer type smell. Apparently our friends that had borrowed it a few months ago forgot to flip the hot water tank breaker like i normally do.
We drained it and refilled it a few times, only to find the smell won't go away.
We have a normal full size hot water tank in the garage, fed by an inground holding tank, supplied by city water via a toilet float type on/off switch.
The cold water was just fine, only having issues with hot water running through the hot water tank.
I did google it a bit, but kept getting many varying answers.
Has anyone had and fixed this issue? Or know someone I can get to come take a look? Cold showers are no fun in the winter :(

ADR,

I might suggest putting baking soda in your holding tank, along with a pool chlorine tab (broken into pieces).

Not sure how many gallons your holding tank is, I'm at Encanto, with an underground water vault.

I usually put two pounds of baking soda in my tank, and one chlorine tab - tank is around 3000 gallons.

The baking soda will nutralize the acid in your water heater and the chlorine should kill the non-aerobic algea.

Hope that helps; p.s. please ignore any typo's - can't seem to make the spell check work.

I will give that a shot, it can't hurt, thats for sure.
I guess it would get into the hot water heater and kill anything living in there causing bacteria if that is the cause.
Holding tank i would guess is about 500 gallons? Its under the garage and fairly small compared to the huge ones you all have out that way.
How often do you re-add the baking soda and chlorine? Our tank is almost never empty, at least the last few years, since the city water shutoffs seem to have stopped or been cut way back.
Thanks for the advice.

Have the same problem in only one of my tanks,
fed from the same water tank and the newer of the two hot water heaters.

In Playa Lopez, they use pool chlorine, as Encanto said, or even clorox bleach to get rid of the smell after the tanks sit unused all summer.

ADR,

Once the smell is eleminated, I would suggest putting in a cup of baking soda every week when you are in town, and probably more that that when you are leaving for extended periods of time. As far as the Chlorine goes, maybe a quater of a tab per week. As Mr. Lagrimas suggests, Clorox is a good idea for a quick shot of Chlorine when you have been gone for an extended period of time.

After the initial Clorox treatment, try to use Chlorine Pool Tabs; the Clorox bleach will make your skin itchy.

I always tell the kids the water is Swimming Pool quality, good enough for everything except drinking.

One last quick thought: crank-up the temp on your water heater all the way for a day - seems to facilitate the removal of the hydrogen sulfide producing slime.

Good Luck,

Max

try cranking up the water heater to high heat for a while.....

Great, thanks for all of your advice, I will crank up the heat and drop a pool tab or 2 in it, and report back in 2 weeks after I go back down.
Thanks again.

Very simple to fix, just replace the magnesium anode rod with an aluminum tube.

Another solution
http://www.waterheaterrescue.com/pages/WHRpages/English/Troubleshooting/peroxide-fix.html

Great link playaperro, thank you. And thanks shilo, I will try to find a new tube and replace that as well.

Ok, I give up. I cannot get rid of the smell.
Anyone know someone that can come take a look at it tomorrow, Sat Mar 3rd? Maybe a plumber or experienced handyman?
I need it either fixed or just replaced with a new one. Having that smell makes the water basically unusuable..

I ran into the same problem with a rental house I bought and contacted the water heater manufacture. Drain the water heater, add 4 gallons (40 gallon tank) of vinegar and fill the tank back up and turn the power back on. Leave the heater on over night and drain and flush. Worked for me.

Crank the heat all the way up too

AZ Miguel said:

I ran into the same problem with a rental house I bought and contacted the water heater manufacture. Drain the water heater, add 4 gallons (40 gallon tank) of vinegar and fill the tank back up and turn the power back on. Leave the heater on over night and drain and flush. Worked for me.

Ok I'll give that a try. What hose do I remove to add the vinegar to pour it into the tank, or do I remove that plug on the top of tank?

AZ Miguel said:

I ran into the same problem with a rental house I bought and contacted the water heater manufacture. Drain the water heater, add 4 gallons (40 gallon tank) of vinegar and fill the tank back up and turn the power back on. Leave the heater on over night and drain and flush. Worked for me.

shilo said:

Very simple to fix, just replace the magnesium anode rod with an aluminum tube.

This is the permanent fix, the others are temporary. Try it you will like it.

ADR said:

Ok I'll give that a try. What hose do I remove to add the vinegar to pour it into the tank, or do I remove that plug on the top of tank?

the easiest and fastest will be to remove the cool water "IN" pipe, hopefully they install a valve right by the water heater, otherwise you will need to close the main water, make sure you use 2 wrenches, one for the union, if existing, and the other for the pipe, hopefully copper or galvanised, as most houses are built with PVC pipe and break easy.

This will explain what needs to be done and something else to try too. The Simplest, Cheapest Solution to Stinky Water In Water Heaters

Seemed to have worked, I put about 2 dozen of the largest vinager bottles in. ( they were pretty small).
Waited like you suggested, flushed about 3 times, doing a full full and drain, and although I had to leave early Sunday morning, I believe the smell is gone, just a bit of a vinager smell.
I will flush again Friday but I believe this is resolved.. Finally.
Thanks for everyones help. Looking forward to a hot shower next week :)