I had a problem with the water filtration/iron removal/softener system on our water well. Applying time and money, the system was brought back into factory spec. Water at the main house and barn is perfect now. That’s the good news. Unfortunately, the gas water heater at our little guest cottage (aka The Bunkhouse) still has sulphur stinking water. I have flushed the heater a few times, but haven’t fixed the problem, which has to be in the water heater itself. Other than replace the water heater, which I don’t want to do, I’ve run out of ideas. I’ll do a few more flushes and hope it’ll help.

Any of you guys have experience with this, and maybe a solution?

Could you run some chlorine through the heater?

Sure do. I also have a guest cottage at home and had the same problem. The best thing to do is turn the water heater off and drain it when no one is going to be staying there. Mine was plugged up and wouldn't drain, so I drug it outside and drained it with 3 1/2" mag 00 buckshot.

........And plug it with JB Weld

How does your system remove the iron? If it uses food grade hydrogen peroxide like ours does you just have to increase the amount of HP and shock the system. Other than that I can't be of much help.

To be honest Skinner is probably right. it is too far gone and needs replacement.

You can lead them to water but you can't make them drink.

My friend's place outside of Kerrville has the same problem with the stinky, sulfur water. Unplug and drain when we leave seems to lessen the smell.

Instead of buckshot, we used a few lbs. of Tannerite on the old water heater:

Mine has done this since day one, but only my bathroom sink. Just don’t breathe for the first 5 seconds, you’ll be fine.

I had same problem. I put bleach into hot water heater or if possible put bleach into main water line, run each faucet until you smell bleach. Let sit for a while then run faucets till bleach smell is gone. The first time I did this the water was black then clear. Did this twice and smell never came back

I have 2 storage tanks. The water from the well comes into a 300 gallon tank then out of it from the top into a 750 gallon tank. I also have sch. 80 PVC pipe in the well. I had tried everything before to semi cure the iron and sulfur in the water but this has helped the most and is the less trouble and costly.

If it is on your hot side only, then it isn't your water heater...but the ANODE rod in said water heater. They make anode rods specifically for smelly water applications. The sulfides in the water are reacting with the magnesium in the anode making the water smell terrible. Pull the anode, flush with bleach and replace with an anode rod that has ZINC in it. Some heaters will have the anode on the hot water nipple, others will have an extra hole in the top for a hex head rod.

If your heater is over 6 years years old, and it will not tear anything up if it begins to leak, you can also simply remove the rod. This will shorten the life of the heater, but will alleviate the smell. I would only do this if the unit is already out of warranty.

A buddy of mine had the same problem at the camp house on his property. He fixed it by simply increasing the temperature on the HW heater. I think he set it above 125. A sign warning the occupants needs to be posted.

I’m now smarter than I was. Thanks for the valuable suggestions.

I would think that a vinegar soak would loosen the scale and thus the odor from the tank.
Should be easy enough to do by shutting off supply And draining the tank, then add a few gallons of vinegar to let soak for a while.
Hook everything back up and flush the scale out.

The info you guys supplied, plus some search engine time, suggests strongly that I need to replace the anode. I should be able to do that, and to use the ‘stinky water’ anode, but now I’m stuck on the anode issue. Do I need one specifically for the AO Smith water heater I have, or is it a one screw size fits all water heaters?

You know what it will come down to. Just go ahead and change the water heater.

Same size....should be 3/4" IPS.

I used to pull out the heating elements and take to Ace Hardware to find suitable replacements. While you have those out, makes for a good time to also flush calcium build up out of the tank. Ours used to be so bad, it would clog up a water hose used to drain the tank ... and I had to fish chunks out thru the hole where the lower heating element goes. a good stiff coat hanger with a loop bent on the end was the trick for ours to clean out the tank.

I ordered a new segmented zinc/aluminum anode rod for the water heater. I’ll install that, flush the tank, and see if it fixes the odor problem. If it does, I’ll wait till the water heater dies before I replace it. The replacement will likely be a tanked electric, since I’ve had long life and no problems with the electric in the barn. Having the electric wiring run is gonna cost me, but it’s a one time expense. That sounds like a plan that’ll work.

Bouncing ideas off you guys is helpful. I appreciate it.

We just bought a house that had been vacant for 8-10 months.

Hot water smelled like sulfur really bad.

We just ran the hot water and after a few days it was gone...